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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40407 ***
+
+                        MARY SEAHAM,
+                          A NOVEL.
+
+                        BY MRS. GREY,
+
+           AUTHOR OF "THE GAMBLER'S WIFE," &c. &c.
+
+
+    IN THREE VOLUMES.
+    VOL. III.
+
+    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.
+
+    Thou hast not rebuked, nor reproached me,
+      But sadly and silently wept,
+    And each wound that to try thee I sent thee,
+      Thou took'st to thy heart to be kept.
+
+    C. CAMPBELL.
+
+
+Six months from the point at which we left our story, a party of
+gentlemen, who on their way to the Highland Moors, had stopped in
+Edinburgh for the night, strolled together in the public gardens of the
+place.
+
+They found little company there besides children and nurse-maids at that
+time, so that a young lady of quiet, but distinguished appearance, who
+came towards them and turned down one of the shady walks, with a group
+of little companions followed by their attendant, more particularly
+attracted the attention of the strangers.
+
+"What a remarkably pretty, lady-like looking girl, that is; how well she
+walks," said one.
+
+"So Trevor seems to think," said another, for their friend had lingered
+behind, and now stood apparently half irresolute, looking in the
+direction where the young lady had disappeared.
+
+"Come on, don't let us be in his way," and then laughing, they pursued
+their walk.
+
+Trevor seemed not disinclined to profit by their consideration--he
+hesitated no longer, but disappeared at once within the shaded path.
+
+Need we say, whose footsteps he followed--or whose the startled
+countenance, which turned towards him, when having reached the spot
+where the object of his pursuit had arrived, he in a low tone pronounced
+the name of "Mary," or how in an opposite direction to that taken by
+the nurse and children, they were soon walking on slowly, side by side,
+together.
+
+"But Eugene, is not this wrong?" Mary said, after the first tearful joy
+of this most unexpected meeting had a little subsided, and her heart
+rather sunk, to find by her lover's hasty explanation, that no new turn
+of events, touching favourably on their mutual happiness, had brought
+him to her side. "Is not this wrong after the agreement we had made?"
+
+"What Mary!" with tender reproach, "are you so little glad to see me as
+thus to speak? However, as you are so much more scrupulous than
+affectionate, I am not afraid to tell you that I had not counted upon
+this pleasure, though I did not think myself bound quite to avoid the
+place which contained you; but when, by mere accident, I saw you a few
+yards distant, I think not the most punctilious of your friends, would
+expect it to be in the nature of man, to look after you and turn coolly
+the other way."
+
+Mary smiled upon him, as if she needed no other excuse.
+
+"How well you look, Mary!" Eugene continued, gazing on the countenance
+of his companion, lit up, as it was, by the glow of animated pleasure,
+"happier, better, than when I saw you last--too well, I am almost
+tempted to think, and too happy, considering the circumstances of our
+case. I--you must allow, look far less so."
+
+Mary gazed with tender anxiety into her lover's face. Was she then
+really to suppose that the change she remarked upon his handsome
+countenance, since the happy Silverton days, was caused by his love for
+her?
+
+The haggard cheek--the restless, unhealthful fire which burnt in those
+dark eyes! A thrill of womanly pleasure was mixed with the tender pain
+the idea inspired.
+
+"You certainly do not look as well as when at Silverton," she answered
+with a gentle sigh, as the many associations those words conjured up,
+rose before her; "but your expedition to the Moors will do you so much
+good. If you have been in London all this time, I do not wonder at your
+feeling ill. As for my looks," she added, "no doubt at this moment they
+are bright and happy--you must not judge of them in general from their
+appearance now, not that I mean to say I am not happier, and perhaps
+therefore looking better than when you saw me last--for then--all was
+doubt, and dread, and uncertainty, and I was very miserable--but now
+since all that was removed, I have been happy--yes, truly happy in
+comparison; though at times I fear I am inclined to be sad and
+impatient-hearted. I was spoilt at first by too much unalloyed
+happiness, and it is hard to resign oneself to the long and unbroken
+separation, I had thought ours must be, but there is the happy prospect
+at the end--and this year, long and weary as it may seem--must pass away
+like any other."
+
+"This year--yes!" murmured Eugene abstractedly, gazing on the sweet
+earnest countenance of the good and gentle speaker--"yes, this year," he
+repeated with an impatient flash suddenly lighting up his eyes; "but
+you should have been my wife now, Mary," and lowering his voice, "you
+_would_ have been, if you had loved me, as I thought you did, and had
+not cut so short what I proposed doing during that drive in London."
+
+Mary looked startled and surprised.
+
+"Eugene!" she said, "I know you do not mean what you say--you never, but
+in the madness and misery of the moment, could have suggested such an
+alternative."
+
+"Why not, dear Mary?"
+
+"Why?" with gentle reproach. "Why--for every reason, Eugene."
+
+"Every one is not so scrupulous as yourself, Mary. Olivia thought it a
+great pity we did not avail ourselves of that expedient; she would have
+assisted us in every way."
+
+"What, Eugene--you really went so far as to consult with a third person,
+on such a subject."
+
+"Oh! Olivia and I, you know, are sworn allies; besides, I believe it was
+she who suggested the idea. Ladies are always the first to originate
+mischievous designs in our unlucky brains."
+
+Mary shook her head.
+
+"Olivia was very wrong," she said; "she must have known that _I_ should
+never have consented to such an alternative."
+
+"She only knew, or thought at least, that you loved me; and therefore,
+as with all her faults, she has a warm heart; she could not probably
+conceive such coldness in your love, Mary."
+
+The tears rose to Mary's eyes.
+
+"Coldness!" she repeated. "Oh, Eugene! how can you apply such a term to
+my affection?--coldness in rejecting an expedient which I should think
+the most extreme, and peculiar circumstances alone could justify."
+
+"To what kind of circumstances do you allude, Mary?" Eugene inquired
+anxiously, and with recovered tenderness of tone, and manner.
+
+"Nothing fortunately, dear Eugene, which can in any manner apply to our
+case; we who have only need of a little patience for our path to be
+clear and plain before us. This year over, and if all goes right, you
+will not, I think, accuse me any more of having acted coldly in this
+respect."
+
+"No, Mary, as you say--_if_ all goes right, it will be as well; but
+supposing that at the end of this year--for, remember that time was
+specified quite at random, and because I had no heart to name a longer
+period--supposing that the existing obstacle was unremoved, and that
+another, and another, and another year were to pass before it were
+possible we could be openly united--"
+
+"Oh, Eugene!" interposed poor Mary, turning very pale; "and is this
+really likely to be the case?"
+
+"I did not say it was likely--but it is possible--and suppose it so to
+be?"
+
+He paused for her reply, and still she answered faintly:
+
+"Oh, then, Eugene, the trial would be great, yet we must still trust in
+God, and abide patiently his good time and pleasure."
+
+"Mary," interrupted Eugene, almost passionately, "your patience indeed
+exceeds all bounds," and he turned petulantly away.
+
+Poor Mary was cut to the heart by this first manifestation of anything,
+but the most tender approval on Trevor's part; she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, Eugene! what would you have me to do?" and the tempter was
+determined not to throw away the advantage he had thus far gained.
+
+His present object, as may be supposed, was not to have any immediate
+recourse to the expedient he was advancing, but rather to smooth the
+way, in case of further exigency. For again with Mary--once more looking
+on her sweet face--listening to her gentle voice, and feeling the magic
+charm her guileless excellency never failed to exercise over him, he was
+as much in love as ever, and determined, whatever might happen, never to
+be foiled in his endeavours to possess a treasure, whose price he felt,
+would indeed be "far above rubies."
+
+Nay, he even began to think that he had perhaps been too easily turned
+from his original design, and was almost ready to accuse himself of
+weakness and cowardice; therefore to Mary's question, he replied still
+somewhat coldly.
+
+"I would have you show that you really loved me, by consenting to a step
+which might, under certain circumstances, be the only means of securing
+our final happiness. _My_ happiness--that is to say--and your's," he
+added softly. "I had hoped, dearest Mary, you would also have considered
+it."
+
+"My happiness, indeed, Eugene; but still deceit of any kind to me is so
+very repugnant, even in idea, that I scarcely know how I should ever be
+able to _enact_ it--deceit too of such a grave and responsible
+character--enacted against those dearest to me. What a return for their
+affectionate and anxious regard for my welfare!"
+
+"Yes," answered Eugene, somewhat hurriedly, "that tormenting point about
+money matters, and a few more directly touching myself. But I am unwise,
+perhaps, in so committing myself," he added again coldly. "Your love of
+_truth_, which do not fancy I cannot thoroughly appreciate, may also
+force you to communicate all that has now passed between us to your
+friends and relations."
+
+"Eugene, you are unkind," poor Mary murmured, in accents of wounded
+affection.
+
+He took her hand, pressing it to his lips in a manner which expressed
+the tenderest, humblest sorrow--and the ready tearful smile told him he
+was too easily forgiven.
+
+"What sort of a man is this brother-in-law of yours, Mary?" Eugene then
+asked.
+
+"A very kind good man," Mary answered. "I am sure, _I_ ought to say so."
+
+"And your sister?"
+
+"She is my sister, and therefore when I tell you that she is in my eyes
+perfection, you will indeed think me partial."
+
+"And you are then altogether perfectly happy," with renewed pique.
+
+This time she only answered him with a glance, her heart too full for
+words.
+
+"Forgive me, dearest, if I am jealous," Eugene exclaimed, again
+appeased, "of every one, even your own sister; but I shall be thankful
+indeed to have no further excuse for the indulgence of that feeling. Oh!
+Mary, I have often cruel misgivings respecting you."
+
+"Respecting _me_, Eugene?"
+
+"Yes, lest by any means you should during our separation be induced to
+love, nay, even the idea that you should be _loved_ by any one save
+myself, is almost to me as repugnant."
+
+"What can you mean, Eugene?" turning her eyes upon him, with doubting
+surprise; "_I_ love any one, you cannot be in earnest--as to any one
+loving me."
+
+"Well, do you think that so very much out of the question--Mr. Temple
+for instance?"
+
+These last words were spoken in a faltering, agitated voice, the
+speaker's countenance undergoing a strange, a most unpleasing change,
+whilst an ashy paleness spread over it, his eyes, in which glared a
+sinister expression, fixed upon the clear open countenance of Mary, who
+that moment was pensively looking down, or indeed she might well have
+been startled at the new light which shone from her lover's face.
+
+"Mr. Temple!" she repeated slowly, and sadly "ah, yes!" with a
+thoughtful sigh, "but surely, Eugene, I satisfied you fully on that
+point, when I told you I refused him."
+
+"Yes, I know," but in a quick suspicious tone, "why did you sigh when
+you repeated that man's name?"
+
+"Did I sigh?"
+
+"To be sure, you did; Mary, pray do not let me imagine that you
+repent--that for a moment you have ever regretted you refused that--man,
+the idea would distract me."
+
+"Eugene, Eugene! you are very strange to-day," replied the astonished
+girl, "how is it possible that I could have regretted it, when so soon
+after I met you--and now--"
+
+Her soft glance finished the sentence, and seemed to express that now
+such an idea would indeed be madness. Eugene pressed her arm grateful
+for this soothing assurance, but still seemed not perfectly satisfied.
+
+"And supposing even that you had _not_ met with me so soon after," he
+persisted, "you never _would_ have regretted this act of yours? Mary,
+you do not answer. Is it possible," turning almost fiercely towards her,
+"that on second thoughts, on mature consideration, you ever could have
+consented to marry that man?"
+
+Mary's spirit, like that of many persons of her gentle disposition,
+could be roused by any such unjust or unreasonable display of temper,
+and she answered calmly:
+
+"Most people would have wondered how it were possible, I refrained from
+loving that excellent, that delightful man, who for four long years I
+had daily seen in the exercise of every good and beneficial work, and of
+whose amiable and exalted character, I had such full opportunity of
+judging. It must indeed have been one of the inscrutable ways of
+Providence, which preserved my heart all whole and entire for you,
+Eugene."
+
+But the affectionate glance she lifted up towards her lover, was met by
+one so dark and sinister in its expression, that she started and shrank,
+as at the same moment, with an impetuous, almost violent movement, her
+arm was released by her companion.
+
+"This is too much," he muttered angrily, "if I am to stay here only to
+have rang in my ear the praises of this Temple, as he calls himself, I
+think it is time that I should be off."
+
+Poor Mary, after one moment's astounded silence, placed her gentle hand
+tremulously on his arm.
+
+"Eugene!" she faltered, "do not I entreat you look or speak like that,
+you distress, you terrify me, and really this anger on your part is so
+unaccountable, so uncalled for, I cannot understand it."
+
+"Not understand it, Mary? Not understand why I should hate to hear you
+eulogize and wonder at your not having been inclined to marry that
+detested man? Why I shall next be hearing you wondering what ever made
+you love me."
+
+Incautious suggestion--why indeed had she loved him? What if Mary, in
+after hours, when thinking over this scene, should recall that question
+for cooler discussion, and diving into the recesses of her reasonable
+soul for its solution, bring forth no more definite response than the
+reiteration of the question. Why indeed?
+
+Why are we ever inclined to choose the evil and reject the good? Why do
+we ever love darkness better than light? Why are our eyes blinded, our
+imagination diseased, our taste perverted, and our heart deceived?
+
+But not now did Mary meditate upon this mystery, she only meekly and
+tearfully exclaimed against any such imputation.
+
+"Why I love you, Eugene? alas! I begin almost to think you never loved
+me, or you would not surely distress me by such words and expressions.
+Mr. Temple--"
+
+"Mary, do not speak that hated name again."
+
+"I will not; too gladly will I avoid a subject which makes you so unlike
+yourself, but remember, Eugene, it was you who first began it, for it is
+one I should never have resumed. Mr. Temple," she repeated more firmly,
+"however I may honour his memory, is as one henceforth dead to me; he
+has for some time left the country, and it is not probable that I shall
+ever see him again in this world."
+
+"So be it!" again murmured Eugene through his closed teeth, but added,
+perceiving probably as his heated spirit cooled, that his violence on
+this subject was making too much impression on his companion.
+
+"I have indeed perhaps been exciting myself to an unreasonable extent,
+but I do not know how it is, there was always something from the first,
+that from what you told me of this Mr. Temple gave me a disagreeable
+impression, something about him which seemed mysterious, underhand and
+suspicious."
+
+Mary's voice was about to be raised in indignant refutation of a charge
+so unfounded, but cautious prudence checked the ebullition which might
+only have led to fresh irritation on Eugene's part, but, as bright as
+noontide, open as the day, there flashed before her memory those clear
+dark eyes, the glance, the countenance of that aspersed one, it must
+have been a dangerous crisis, for him who had spoken the injurious idea,
+with such sidelong glance and downcast averted countenance.
+
+Mary's forbearance seemed nevertheless to have restored her companion's
+equanimity. He was in a moment all affectionate contrition, and Mary all
+forgiving kindness--still more gratifying Eugene's _exigence_ by
+comparing the unbroken monotony of her present existence with his own
+exciting career; and telling him how much more there was, therefore, on
+her side to call forth misgivings on his account, yet how her perfect
+trust, her entire faith sustained her.
+
+"I am as happy indeed," she continued calmly, "as I can be under present
+circumstances. I might have preferred perhaps being with my dear
+brother, but my friends thought that would not quite do at present."
+
+Eugene's brow darkened. He had no great fancy just now for that "dear
+brother."
+
+"Yes--yes," he said somewhat hastily, "I quite agree with them, you are
+certainly better where you are, just now; he is too young, and your
+sister no doubt is, as you say, a delightful person."
+
+"She is indeed," Mary answered with alacrity, "I wish you could know her
+Eugene. Is it not possible?" Then remembering the circumstances of their
+meeting she hesitated, and paused dejectedly.
+
+"It seems so strange and unnatural to me," she added, "that none of
+those I love so well should have ever seen or known you--none but
+Arthur," she added in a low tone.
+
+There was nothing very agreeable associated in Eugene Trevor's mind at
+this moment, with the later circumstances of that acquaintance, though
+he hastened to express slightly his own corresponding regret; however
+the truth was, as may be imagined, that he felt little inclination at
+this juncture for an encounter with any of his betrothed's belongings,
+more especially the dry Scotch lawyer--imagination pictured to him.
+
+If, indeed, it had not been for the nurse and children, he would
+probably have suggested that Mary should keep silence on the subject of
+their interview; but as it was, he could only resign the affair into her
+hands, and rely upon her representation of the circumstance.
+
+He must now think of beating a retreat; but first of all he asked her
+how long she was to remain in her present abode.
+
+She scarcely knew--probably all the winter.
+
+"And am I never to hear from you, or of you, all this time?" he
+demanded.
+
+She shook her head sadly.
+
+"I do not know Eugene how--your agreement was you remember, that we
+should not meet, or even write, to one another."
+
+"Do you and Olivia correspond?" Eugene then asked.
+
+"Seldom: Olivia lately has been a very bad correspondent."
+
+"No wonder; she has had other things to think of lately. She has been
+going on at a fine rate this season in London, nearly driven Louis mad.
+At last he took the children down to Silverton, and left her behind."
+
+"Poor dear Louis!" murmured Mary, with sorrowful concern.
+
+"Yes, Mary, you and I would have been very different."
+
+At those words, into which were thrown a most thrilling amount of
+tenderness, both of look and accent, Eugene paused.
+
+They had hitherto been pacing slowly up and down a certain part of the
+retired grounds, but now pressing his companion's arm close to his
+heart, he said in an agitated voice.
+
+"And now, Mary, how shall I ever make up my mind to leave you; and how
+shall I exist without you?"
+
+Mary had just lifted up her pale face with a look of piteous sorrow, at
+words which she felt at once were preliminaries to the bitter parting,
+when their attention was attracted by the voices of her sister's
+children, announcing them to have advanced in closer proximity than the
+discreet tact of their attendant had previously permitted. But on
+glancing in that direction, Eugene was not a little disconcerted to
+behold slowly advancing amongst the young group, a lady whom it needed
+not Mary's murmured explanation to denote to him at once as her sister.
+
+There was nothing to do but for them to advance and meet one another.
+Mary's former pallor had been speedily chased by a deep blush, and with
+nervous embarrassment she murmured an introduction.
+
+Eugene's manner too was consciously confused.
+
+Mrs. Gillespie, whatever might have been the surprise and interest she
+felt on finding her sister so accompanied, was all calm and quiet
+civility, such as that with which she might have received any strange
+acquaintance of Mary's.
+
+And Eugene--ominous as this cool reception might appear of the feeling
+generally entertained by the family of Mary towards him--could not but
+hail it as a relief to the embarrassment of his present situation, and
+consider the course of conduct she thus pursued, that of a lady-like and
+sensible person such, as he could at once perceive in their short
+interview, his sister-in-law elect to be.
+
+So they walked down the shady walk together: Mary anxious and silent,
+Mrs. Gillespie and Eugene exchanging common place observations
+respecting Edinburgh, and his intended expedition to the Moors.
+
+Then the lady paused, as if intending to show that she purposed
+proceeding in a different direction to that of her new companion. And,
+understanding the hint, Eugene Trevor turned, and taking Mary's hand
+pressed it as fondly, and gazed into her pale face as significantly as
+he dared, murmured a few incoherent syllables of parting, then bowed to
+the sister, and departed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+    Tell us, maiden, hast thou found him
+      Thus delicious, thus divine?
+    Doth such witchery breathe around him?
+      Is his spirit so benign?
+    Doth he shed o'er heart and brain
+    More of pleasure or of pain?
+
+    MOULTRIE.
+
+
+Mary suffered Mrs. Gillespie to draw her arm affectionately within her
+own, and the sisters then walked on a little way, in silence, which
+Alice was the first to break.
+
+"And that then was Eugene Trevor, Mary?" she said half interrogatively,
+half in soliloquy.
+
+"Yes, that was Eugene," was the answer, accompanied by a deep-drawn
+sigh.
+
+But there had been something in Mrs. Gillespie's tone which caused her
+at the same moment to turn her eyes anxiously upon her face, as if to
+discover what impression the "Eugene Trevor," thus significantly
+emphasized, had made upon the speaker.
+
+"Is he like what you expected?" she then timidly inquired.
+
+"Yes--no--that is to say, not exactly," was the sister's rather
+hesitating reply.
+
+"He is looking ill now," Mary continued; "and you did not see him to
+advantage. It was of course rather an embarrassing meeting for him,
+under existing circumstances, he not knowing exactly how you might be
+inclined to approve of our interview, just at present; but I should
+think from it having been so perfectly accidental, no one could blame
+him, or object to its having occurred."
+
+"Not in the least, dear Mary, I am sure--if it was a meeting calculated
+to raise and strengthen your spirits. And it _has_ made you happier, I
+hope," looking rather doubtfully into Mary's pale and anxious
+countenance, on which too the traces of tears were plainly visible.
+
+"Oh, yes, Alice!" Mary faintly replied. "Seeing Eugene was, indeed, a
+pleasure most welcome and unexpected; but then you know the parting
+again for so long a time--and--and--" turning her head away with a sigh,
+"altogether it might be called rather a painful pleasure."
+
+"But then, Mary, six months will so soon pass away."
+
+"Yes, certainly," hesitated Mary; but there was no very cheerful
+security in her tone.
+
+Mrs. Gillespie did not press her sister further on the subject just
+then, for she plainly perceived that altogether it was one in which
+truly as much of pain as pleasure was commingled. Of course she informed
+her husband of the occurrence; and Mary too spoke of it as openly as was
+possible, though the reserve she was forced in a great measure to
+maintain respecting the substance of the interview, the more confirmed
+her relations in their suspicions, as to its having been one of no very
+satisfactory nature.
+
+"And what, as far as you were able to judge, in so short a time, did
+you think of your intended brother-in-law, my dear Alice?" the husband
+inquired of his wife the evening after the meeting; "for I know you
+consider yourself a first rate physiognomist."
+
+"What do I think of him Robert?"--with a sigh--"poor Mary."
+
+"Why, poor Mary, do you not like his appearance?"
+
+"I should not much _like_ to trust my happiness, or that of any one I
+loved, to his keeping."
+
+"Indeed! he is very good-looking at any rate."
+
+"Yes, handsome certainly--eyes, such as you perhaps have seldom, if ever
+seen, and which, if they would only look you full in the face, are
+certainly calculated to do a great deal of execution. But he did not
+look so into mine; and there was something about his countenance
+altogether which I cannot explain--something which, though I can fancy
+it well calculated to make an impression--of some sort or another, over
+one's mind--I confess on mine--to have been one, which is far from
+_canny_. His looks too bespeak him, I am afraid, to be suffering rather
+from the jading effects of London dissipation, than the gentler pains
+and anxieties attendant on his situation, as a lover separated from the
+object of his affection."
+
+Mr. Gillespie looked concerned at this report, feeling a great interest
+in his amiable young sister-in-law. And though he generally expressed
+mistrust, with respect to his wife's too hasty reliance on her first
+impressions, still he was often in the end forced to acknowledge their
+frequent accuracy.
+
+Yet at the same time, as the countenance of the lover did not in any way
+alter the case with regard to Mary's position or circumstances, there
+was nothing to be said or done by her friends whilst awaiting the issue
+of affairs, but to observe with regret that though with the same meek
+"patience, abnegation of self, and devotion to others," their sister
+pursued the even tenor of her way, the cheerful serenity which before
+had continued to shine forth in her countenance, and characterize her
+bearing, had departed. Her mind had been evidently unsettled by the
+_rencontre_ with Eugene Trevor--her heart's calm rest disturbed.
+
+How was it indeed with Mary? Had the hints conveyed by Eugene during
+their interview depressed her hopes, and re-awakened her misgivings as
+to the happy issue of the year's probation? Or more bitter still--had
+anything in that same interview occurred to give that first
+disenchanting touch, which by degrees detracts from the perfect charm
+which has hitherto robed our idol, and we see the image of goodness and
+beauty, whose idol shape we worshipped, melting from our sight, and
+though still it binds the fatal spell, and still it draws us on, the
+spirit of our love is changed--a shadow has fallen upon it. We feel it
+to be "of the earth earthy."
+
+Had Mary received any startling impression, her feelings any
+_boulversement_, by beholding Eugene Trevor for the first time so unlike
+the Eugene she had hitherto loved--under the irritating disturbing
+influences of opposition and reverse.
+
+But from whatever cause they might proceed, certainly "the gloom and the
+shadow" spread broader and deeper on her brow; and when on his return
+from the Moors, Eugene Trevor, probably for the chance of another
+interview, revisited the Scotch metropolis, he learnt, by particular
+inquiry of a maid-servant he found standing by the door of Mr.
+Gillespie's closed house, that the family had left Edinburgh, and gone
+to the sea-side.
+
+"Were they all well?" he inquired.
+
+"All well, only the young lady, Mrs. Gillespie's sister, a little pale,
+and pining for country air. So the young Maister Arthur had come, and
+persuaded them to put up their gear, and take the bairns and all to the
+sea; but the maister was expected home the morrow, if the gentleman
+liked to step up and see him."
+
+We may imagine that Trevor had no inclination to tarry for this purpose,
+and that same day left Scotland _en route_ for Montrevor.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+    He glowed with a spirit pure and high,
+      They called the feeling madness,
+    And he wept for woe with a melting eye,
+      'Twas weak and moody sadness.
+
+    PERCIVAL.
+
+
+It was Epsom week. London was all astir with the influx of company
+returning from the races.
+
+A pale girl sat alone in one of the apartments of an hotel in Brook
+Street, listening long and anxiously to the coming sounds of the
+carriage-wheels, as they whirled along in that direction.
+
+At length a carriage stopped before the door, and in a few moments a
+lady entered the room, whose showy costume and flushed excited
+countenance, (forming so strong a contrast to the appearance of the
+other, whom she warmly greeted,) plainly evinced her to have but just
+returned from that gay resort, the Stand at Epsom.
+
+"You are come then, dear Mary. I hope you have not been very long
+waiting."
+
+"No, not so very long," and the eyes of the speaker wandered anxiously
+towards the door, as if she seemed to expect the appearance of a second
+person.
+
+Mrs. de Burgh understood that glance too well--she shook her head
+compassionately.
+
+"Alas!--no, dear Mary; you must not expect to see him just now; he has
+been unfortunately prevented--that was the reason which made me so late;
+but I will tell you all about it presently, only let me have a glass of
+wine first, for I am nearly exhausted."
+
+And during the interval of suspense, whilst Mrs. de Burgh refreshed
+herself after the fatiguing pleasures of the day, let us remind our
+readers, that the momentous year had some little time ago drawn to a
+close. Its expiration had not, however, brought with it, any immediate
+results.
+
+Nothing had been seen or heard of Eugene Trevor by any of the family for
+the first month or two. He had been in London only at intervals, and he
+had not opened any communication with his _fiancée_, till she--on coming
+to London at the urgent solicitation of her sister Lady Morgan, who was
+not well--had a few days after her arrival, been surprised by a note
+from Mrs. de Burgh, whom she was not aware was even in town, begging her
+to come to her--naming a particular day--at the hotel where she was
+staying--as Eugene Trevor wished particularly to see her. She added that
+he would be obliged by her not mentioning the object of this visit to
+her relations, lest by any chance they might interfere with the
+interview, and it was very necessary that it should occur, before any
+more general communication took place.
+
+"Still mystery and concealment!" was poor Mary's disappointed soliloquy.
+"Why not come here openly and see and speak to me? But I will go this
+once, as Eugene wishes it, and I cannot refuse perhaps without
+occasioning trouble and confusion."
+
+And so she went; for still alas! the attractive chain too powerfully
+bound her, and her heart could not but spring forward with yearning hope
+to this meeting once again, with her intended. It may be imagined,
+therefore, how her heart had sunk within her, at Mrs. de Burgh's
+disappointing communication.
+
+"Prevented coming," after having had her hopes and expectations strained
+to such a pitch--and she awaited with painful solicitude the promised
+explanation.
+
+She had not seen her cousin since her last unhappy time in London, and
+though, even then, to a certain degree, a kind of estrangement had risen
+up between them; and all that she had since heard by report of the gay
+wife's conduct and proceedings, had not greatly raised the beautiful
+Olivia in her esteem, yet Mary could not but retain a grateful
+remembrance of the warm-hearted kindness she had received whilst under
+her roof--and a still more pleasing and vivid impression of the too
+tenderly cherished associations, with which she was so intimately
+connected.
+
+But at this moment, the dearest friend on earth would have only been
+appreciated by Mary, as the being on whose lips she hung for information
+on the subject, and which she alone at this moment had the power to
+communicate; and "why had not Eugene come?" was all that spoke in her
+anxious countenance, or in the faltering tone in which she attempted,
+with some show of cousinly interest, to make a few inquiries after Louis
+and the children.
+
+Mrs. de Burgh came at last to her relief--if relief it could be
+called--for the first thing she heard was, that Eugene instead of coming
+to see her, intended setting off for Montrevor that very evening.
+
+"And why?" Mary with quivering lips interrupted.
+
+"Having lost a large sum of money on the Derby, he was obliged to have
+immediate recourse to his father for the necessary cash to cover this
+unfortunate transaction. He has therefore commissioned me to break to
+you this intelligence. I cannot tell you, my dear Mary, the state of
+mind poor Eugene was in when we parted--not only on account of the
+immediate disappointment this occasioned him; but because this enormous
+loss must again retard the possibility of his marriage taking place at
+present. My dear Mary, you are doomed to the trial of hope deferred--the
+strength and constancy of your attachment has indeed been sorely taxed."
+
+Mary did not immediately reply. She sat very pale, her eyes fixed upon
+the ground, something more than common disappointment expressed in her
+thoughtful countenance.
+
+At length she looked up, and said in a grave and anxious tone:
+
+"Does Eugene always lose like this at races?"
+
+"Oh no, dear! fortunately," laughed Mrs. de Burgh, "not often; he is
+very lucky in general," but checking herself, as she saw Mary's shocked
+countenance, "I mean," and she hesitated, "that after all he has not so
+very decided a taste for this sort of thing," and Mrs. de Burgh laughed
+again, saying: "but, my dear girl, do not look so very serious upon the
+subject, what is there so very shocking in it after all."
+
+Mary thought it was a subject, to her at least, of most serious
+importance and concern. A new and uncomfortable misgiving began to arise
+in her mind.
+
+Was it in any way relating to this propensity in Eugene Trevor, against
+which Louis de Burgh originally warned her--and did it in reality--more
+than the reason which Eugene had brought forth to her brother, tend to
+interfere in any way with her happiness? So strongly did this idea
+suddenly possess her, that she could not refrain from asking Mrs. de
+Burgh whether she thought this was the case. Her cousin's evasive answer
+did not tend much to the removal of her suspicions.
+
+Eugene certainly did play--did bet a little on the turf. She thought
+Mary had always been aware of that--men must have some pursuit, some
+excitement. If it were not one thing it was another--equally--perhaps
+one might call it--"not quite right;" however, all the best men in
+London were on the turf. Eugene was only like the rest, but with married
+men, it was quite different.
+
+"Indeed, Mary," the fair lady continued, "Eugene always assures me, he
+means to give up everything of the sort when he marries, and I am quite
+sure he will do so. I only wish you were married, dear."
+
+Mary only sighed.
+
+"You are not getting weary of your engagement, Mary?" Mrs. de Burgh
+inquired.
+
+"Weary!--oh, no, Olivia. I was sighing for Eugene's sake."
+
+"You may well do so, for he is, I assure you, very unhappy at all this
+delay."
+
+Mary shook her head, and her lip curled a little disdainfully. The
+gesture seemed to say, "Whose fault is it now?"
+
+Mrs. de Burgh seemed to understand it as such, for she said--
+
+"It is all that miserly old father's fault. He could set everything
+right at once, if he chose."
+
+"But," said Mary, in a low tone, "I see no end of all this."
+
+"No," hesitated Mrs. de Burgh, "not I suppose till the brother turns up;
+unless, indeed--" she murmured.
+
+"What?" inquired Mary, anxiously.
+
+"You had better come and stay with me at Silverton," was Mrs. de Burgh's
+indirect reply.
+
+Mary smiled dejectedly.
+
+"That would never do," she replied, "they would not consent to my doing
+so, under present circumstances."
+
+"They--who are they? I am sure, Mary, I should not allow any brother or
+sister to interfere with my proceedings. You are of age, and quite at
+liberty, I should imagine, to act as you please on any subject."
+
+Mary shook her head. She did not feel quite so independent-spirited as
+all that--and besides, she did not herself see that such a step would be
+quite expedient at present.
+
+She did not, however, say this aloud, and Mrs. de Burgh attributed her
+silence to yielding consent.
+
+"Eugene wishes it very much I can assure you."
+
+Mary looked up as if the tempter himself had murmured the insinuating
+observation in her ear, for there was something significant in the way
+Mrs. de Burgh had spoken, which she could not but understand, and still
+more in the words which followed.
+
+"If you were only married to Eugene, Mary, you might rely on his giving
+up all objectionable and hurtful things."
+
+"But as that cannot be," sighed Mary, despondingly.
+
+"It could," hesitated Mrs. de Burgh; "it is only your friends'
+opposition which would stand in the way, until Eugene is able to settle
+something satisfactory as to his future prospects. Were I you, Mary, if
+it were only for Eugene's sake, I should not be so scrupulous about
+securing each other's happiness and his welfare, as he tells me you
+are."
+
+But Mary turned away almost indignantly. If the proposal had even
+revolted her spirit when coming from Eugene's own lips, much more so,
+did it grate upon her feelings, when thus insinuated by those of
+another.
+
+But whatever might here have ensued, was interrupted by the entrance of
+Mr. de Burgh. It seemed that he had only arrived in London that day,
+unexpectedly to Mrs. de Burgh, who otherwise would not have planned the
+meeting of Mary and Eugene.
+
+He came evidently in one of his London humours, as his wife called it;
+and though he greeted Mary kindly, she fancied there was a certain
+alteration in his manner towards her, which she instinctively felt to
+originate in his disapprovement of the present circumstances of her
+engagement; she remembered that he never was friendly to the affair,
+though the direct subject was now avoided by each of the party.
+
+He sat and made captious and cutting allusions to the races, and every
+one concerned therein, which, whether really intended at Eugene, Mary
+interpreted as such--and they touched the poor girl to the quick.
+
+Probably she was not far wrong in her supposition as to the pointedness
+of his remarks, for suddenly glancing on his listener's downcast anxious
+countenance he exclaimed, addressing his wife:
+
+"Bye the bye, Olivia, I mean to be off abroad in a day or two."
+
+"Good Heavens, Louis! what new fancy is this?"
+
+"Why, I have heard something to-day which has really put me quite into a
+fever."
+
+"Well, what is it? Some nonsense, I dare say."
+
+"_I_ at least do not think it so. Dawson, who I saw to-day, declares
+that Trevor, Eustace Trevor I mean, was seen by some one not long ago in
+Switzerland. Yes," he continued, encouraged by Mary's glance of intense
+and startled interest, "he was seen with another person--the _keeper_ I
+suppose they talk about--somewhere on the Alps."
+
+"The Alps!--poor fellow! gone there to cool his brain, I suppose," said
+Mrs. de Burgh, whose countenance nevertheless had bespoke her not a
+little moved by this communication.
+
+"Cool his brain!--nonsense! cool enough by this time, depend upon it."
+
+"But does Eugene know of this?" faltered Mary.
+
+"I suppose so," replied Mr. de Burgh, coldly.
+
+"Impossible, Louis!" Mary exclaimed with eagerness.
+
+"Well, perhaps so. I don't know at all," Mr. de Burgh continued. "I
+shouldn't be so much surprised if he did; there are a great many things
+which surprise me more than that, Mary; for instance you yourself--yes,
+you, Mary," as she lifted up her eyes to her cousin's handsome face,
+with quiet surprise, "that you should see things in a light so different
+to what I should have expected from you."
+
+"Ridiculous!" interposed Mrs. de Burgh--"that is to say that you should
+have expected her to have seen everything with your own jaundiced,
+prejudiced perception; but about Eustace Trevor."
+
+"Yes, about Eustace Trevor; he is a subject certainly worth a little of
+your interest and inquiry. Mary, you should have known _him_," exclaimed
+Mr. de Burgh, with rising enthusiasm.
+
+"You were very much attached to him then?" demanded Mary, with deep
+interest.
+
+"Attached to him!--yes, indeed I was; that _was_ a man whom one might
+well glory in calling friend; or," he murmured to himself, "a woman
+might be proud to worship as a lover."
+
+"Yes," interposed Mrs. de Burgh, "I suppose he was a very superior,
+delightful person; but I own he always appeared to me, even as a boy, a
+little _tête monté_, so that it did not surprise me so very much when I
+heard of the calamity which had befallen him. He was just the sort of
+person upon whose mind any strong excitement, or sudden shock would have
+had the like effect."
+
+"Olivia, you are talking nonsense," Mr. de Burgh petulantly exclaimed.
+
+"It was his mother's death, I think, I heard which brought on this
+dreadful crisis?" Mary inquired.
+
+"Exactly so," answered Mrs. de Burgh.
+
+"How _do_ you know?" exclaimed her husband. "What does any one know
+about the matter?"
+
+"We can only judge from what one has heard from the best authority,"
+again persisted his wife.
+
+"Best authority! well, I can only say that far from being of your
+opinion, I should have said that Eustace Trevor had been as far from
+madness as earth from heaven."
+
+"Really, Louis!" exclaimed Mrs. de Burgh, perceiving Mary's look of
+anxious interest and surprise, "one would fancy from the way you talk
+that you suspected him never really to have been mad."
+
+    "'And this the world called frenzy; but the wise
+    Have a far deeper madness, and the glance
+    Of melancholy is a fearful gift.
+    What is it but the telescope of truth,
+    Which brings life near in utter nakedness,
+    Making the cold reality more cold,'"
+
+quoted Mr. de Burgh for all reply.
+
+"What _is_ all this to do with the point in question?" said Mrs. de
+Burgh impatiently. "Really, Louis, Mary will think _you_ also decidedly
+have gone mad."
+
+"Mary likes poetry," he answered quietly; "she will not think it is
+madness what I have uttered."
+
+"But, Louis, what do you really mean about Eugene's brother?--tell me
+something about him. I have heard so very little," demanded Mary,
+earnestly.
+
+"Why do you not make Eugene tell you himself? I can only say:
+
+    'He was a man, take him for all in all,
+    I shall not look upon his like again!'"
+
+"He was very handsome--very clever," said Mrs. de Burgh, taking up the
+theme more prosaically, "and very amiable I believe, though rather
+impetuous and hot-tempered; always at daggers drawn with his father,
+because he spent the old man's money a little faster than he liked, it
+is said."
+
+"Good heavens, Olivia!" burst forth Mr. de Burgh, passionately, "how can
+you sit there, and distort the truth in that shameful manner? you know
+as well as I do the true version of this part of the story. Mary,"
+turning to his cousin with flashing eyes, "Eustace Trevor had a mother;
+an excellent charming creature, whose existence, through the combined
+influence of her husband and a most baneful, pernicious wretch of a
+woman, that Marryott, of whom no doubt you have heard, was rendered one
+long tissue of wretchedness and wrong, the extent of which I believe is
+hardly known. Eustace, who adored his mother, keenly felt and manfully
+espoused her cause; therefore, you may see at once this was the reason
+of his father's hatred of him, and the old man's treatment of this son,
+was one shameful system of injustice and tyranny--enough, I confess, to
+drive any man into a state of mental irritation, possessed of Eustace's
+sensitive temperament."
+
+Mary's wandering, startled gaze turned inquiringly on Mrs. de Burgh, as
+if to ask whether this new and melancholy representation of the case
+could be really true. Mrs. de Burgh looked a little disconcerted, but
+replied carelessly:
+
+"Yes, poor Aunt Trevor! she had certainly a sad time of it; but then it
+was partly her own fault. She was a weak-spirited creature. What other
+woman would have endured what she did in that tame and passive manner?"
+
+"Yes, these poor weak-spirited creatures have often, however, strength
+to bear a great deal for the sake of others," replied Mr. de Burgh,
+sarcastically. "It would have been more high and noble-spirited, I dare
+say, to have blazed abroad her domestic grievances; but she had no doubt
+a little consideration for her children, and the honour and
+respectability of their house and name."
+
+"Oh, nonsense! that was all very well when they were children to
+consider them; but when they were men, it signified very little," said
+Mrs. de Burgh.
+
+"But _then_," suggested Mary, with trembling earnestness, "then she must
+have had great comfort in their affection and support."
+
+"Yes," answered Mr. de Burgh, "in Eustace she had, I know, unfailing
+comfort and support."
+
+"And Eugene?" anxiously demanded Mary. "Surely he too--"
+
+"Of course," Mrs. de Burgh hastened to exclaim, "no one could be fonder
+or kinder to his mother though, because"--looking angrily at her
+husband--"he had the sense and the discretion not to quarrel with his
+father, and strength of mind not to _go mad_--Louis, I suppose, wishes
+to make you believe that Eugene was not kind to his mother."
+
+"Nothing would make me believe that Eugene was not kind to his mother,"
+added Mary with an earnest energy, which showed with what indignation
+she would repel this distracting idea.
+
+And Mr. de Burgh replied with great moderation:
+
+"Nor did I say anything of the sort. _I_ am not at all in the custom of
+asserting grave charges against a person, without certain proof. I only
+saw as much into 'the secrets of the prison-house' at Montrevor as would
+make me very sorry to have had anything further to do with its
+interior."
+
+Poor Mary! She asked no more questions, she had heard quite enough to
+give new and dark impressions to her mind. She saw everything in a
+still more bewildering and uncertain light--yet felt a vague, indefinite
+dread of further revelation.
+
+Her sister's carriage being speedily announced, she bade adieu to her
+cousins, who were leaving London the next day, and
+
+    "Went like one that hath been stunned,
+    And is of sense forlorn,"
+
+bearing in her secret soul restless doubts and blind misgivings, she
+shrank even from confiding to her most beloved Arthur.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+    I knew that in thy bosom dwelt
+    A silent grief, a hidden fear,
+    A sting which could be only felt
+    By spirits to their God most dear,
+    Which yet thou felt'st from year to year,
+    Unsoftened, nay, embitter'd still;
+    And many a secret sigh and tear
+    Heaved thy sad heart, thine eyes did fill,
+    And anxious thoughts thou hadst presaging direst ill.
+
+    MOULTRIE.
+
+
+The sequel only brought forth for our heroine further disturbance and
+discomfort.
+
+The newly-risen impediment to the marriage was of necessity the subject
+of correspondence. He again threw the blame upon his father, urging his
+increasing infirmities of mind and body as the excuse.
+
+But the plea appeared to Mary's friends evasive and ambiguous, and
+greatly indeed was the strength and stability of her affection tried by
+the urgent solicitations of those so dear to her, that she would consent
+to break off entirely this ill-starred--and as they the more and more
+considered it--objectionable engagement.
+
+But no, there was yet one still more dear to her; and to him, through
+good and evil report, her spirit yet must cling--
+
+    "And stand as stands a lonely tree,
+      That still unbroke, though gently bent,
+    Still waves with fond fidelity
+      Its boughs above a monument."
+
+By letter too--for there was one crisis of affairs during which the
+lovers corresponded on the anxious subject, Eugene failed not to urge
+the maintenance of an engagement which on his part he declared he would
+never consent to be the first to relinquish.
+
+Then, how could Mary cast aside an attachment, a hope which had become
+so linked with the happiness of her existence, that to contemplate its
+extinction, was to see before her extended
+
+    "Dreary and vast and silent the desert of life."
+
+No, rather was she content in doubt, darkness and uncertainty to wait
+and wander, her hope still fixed upon the distant light in the hazy
+future.
+
+A position, such as that in which Mary found herself placed--an
+ill-defined and ambiguous matrimonial engagement--is to a young woman
+ever, more or less, a misfortune and a trial: something there is in her
+life
+
+    "Incomplete, imperfect, and unfinished,"
+
+comprising also as it must do, much of uncertainty and restless doubt.
+
+The circumstances of Mary's case, rendered hers more peculiarly a
+subject for such influences. Removed from the sphere in which her lover
+moved, even their correspondence, after the time just mentioned,
+entirely ceased; and she heard of him only at intervals--by chance and
+vague report.
+
+She had longed to have those doubts and repellant ideas, Mr. de Burgh's
+conversation had insinuated into her mind, cleared away, as she believed
+they might, by Eugene's own word of mouth. But this had been denied her.
+She had indeed alluded to the report respecting his brother, which Mr.
+de Burgh had heard; but Eugene had merely said in reply, that he was
+taking every measure to ascertain its accuracy; and she heard nothing
+further on that point.
+
+From Mrs. de Burgh she also ascertained that her cousin Louis had never
+carried out his proposed expedition, in search of the friend for whom he
+had professed such warm admiration and interest.
+
+Mary was not so much surprised at this, it being only accordant with her
+cousin's ineffectual character--warm and affectionate in heart and
+feeling, but unstable in action and resolve; without self-devotedness or
+energy in any duty or pursuit, which turned not on the immediate fancy
+or interest of the moment--something else had probably put the
+intention out of his head. It did seem to Mary strange and unnatural,
+that the disappearance of a man such as Eustace Trevor had been
+represented to her lively and susceptible fancy, should have been so
+tamely endured by his friends in general, to say nothing of his own
+brother; but to think on that point was now to raise such a dark and
+bewildering cloud of ill-defined misgivings, that Mary put it from her
+mind as much as possible.
+
+There was another point too, on which she indirectly sought
+enlightenment and assurance. Eugene's mother. Alas! there indeed she had
+heard enough to make her shudder at the idea connected with much within
+that house, which she had visited with such pleasure in her unconscious
+innocence--but more especially with that sinful old man, who, in the
+garb of venerable old age, had been by her so ignorantly revered; yes,
+she shuddered to think how appearances may deceive, and shrunk at the
+thoughts of ever entering again the scene of such wickedness, as long at
+least as Eugene's father continued there to exist.
+
+That Eugene had in the remotest degree even countenanced that
+wickedness, was another point she would not allow herself to
+question--or rather, she put it away, like every other deteriorating
+rumour, hearsay, or inarticulate whisper, which in the course of time
+come with its airy hand to point out her lover as unworthy of the
+devotedness of a heart and affections such as hers; put it away in the
+utmost recesses of her heart, as we do those things we fear to see or
+hear substantiated--when even a breath, a word would suffice to destroy
+the illusion now become so closely interwoven with the happiness of
+one's existence.
+
+In the meantime, Mary lived chiefly with the Gillespies though her
+heart's true home was with that dear brother, upon whose progress and
+success in his profession the chief interest of her life, independent of
+her one great hope, was centred; and who, on his part, unselfishly
+devoted every interval between the course of study he so energetically
+pursued, to her society, endeavouring in every way to promote her
+happiness or amusement; and chafing inwardly as he did, over the
+position in which she stood; for her sake preserved outward patience and
+equanimity, on a point which nevertheless touched him to the quick. Much
+he heard, too, which made him devoutly wish the engagement with Eugene
+Trevor to be broken off, without his having courage to take the bandage
+from his sister's eyes. Much of the private history of these, Eugene
+Trevor's days--we call them--of probation--nay, the profligate course
+his love for Mary could not even restrain within bounds. Episodes in his
+daily walk, with which it is not our intention to sully our pages, but
+calculated to make the brother's blood boil with indignation at the idea
+of his pure, spotless sister, becoming the wife of such a man.
+
+But how difficult the task to force on her unsuspecting mind convictions
+which might go nigh to break her trembling innocent heart--or at least
+blight the happiness of her life. He must patiently allow fate to work
+out its course, fervently praying that all might end well.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+About a year and a half went by--another six months and Arthur Seaham's
+term of law study would have terminated; and he declared that to prepare
+himself for his last important term, it was necessary that he should
+have some more than ordinary relaxation of mind. He had a fancy to go to
+Italy, and that Mary should accompany him. She smiled at first
+incredulously, thinking he was in jest. She thought the idea too
+delightful to be realised.
+
+He was in earnest, he declared.
+
+But the journey would be so long; and the expense--could they manage it?
+
+What were such considerations to the affectionate brother, when he
+remarked the glow which had mantled his sister's pale cheeks, or the
+animation which lit up her languid eye, as in imagination the warm
+breezes of Italy already fanned her brow--her feet trode lightly on its
+classic grounds. Their friends had a few prudent objections to the
+plan--Italy was so far; Germany--the Rhine, were suggested. But no;
+Arthur saw that Mary's countenance fell when the mark fell short of
+Italy, therefore he stood firm.
+
+And thither then the brother and sister went, with an old attached
+maid-servant of the family, who still followed the fortunes of the
+unmarried daughter; and by the Rhine and Switzerland they proceeded into
+Italy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+    We came to Italy. I felt
+      A yearning for its sunny sky;
+    My very spirit seem'd to melt
+      As swept its first warm breezes by.
+
+    WILLIS.
+
+
+An early morning in Italy! Who that from experience has not enjoyed--can
+realise the conception, much less describe, the luxurious delight of the
+first hours of a summer morning in that radiant climate.
+
+"It was the morn of such a day, as must have risen on Eden first," that
+Mary Seaham went forth from the little inn near Tivoli, to join her
+brother who had preceded her some little time to make arrangements
+respecting their intended excursion of the day.
+
+She waited--but when he did not come, could no longer resist the
+tempting aspect of the scenery without, to stroll onwards from the house
+towards the merry waters which danced on their musical way not far
+distant from the spot; and as she proceeded through the fragrant
+air--beneath the transparent sky, the sigh she heaved could have been
+caused but by the burden of enjoyment now weighing upon her senses; for
+all human care--all sadness, all unrest, all passionate yearnings or
+pensive remembrances--in short, all unconnected with "the mere and
+breathing charm of life," seemed in that thrilling hour, annihilated and
+forgotten.
+
+But something glittering on the ground, near a flower she had stooped to
+pick, suddenly attracted her attention. She took it up and examined it
+more closely. It was a massive signet ring. What was Mary's astonishment
+to see engraved upon the seal, the initials "E. T." with the Trevor coat
+of arms.
+
+Her first thought was of Eugene--could it be that he by some strange
+coincidence was near? or that he had purposely followed her to Italy?
+and her heart beat fast, and her cheek glowed at the suggestion. Yet she
+had never remembered observing such a ring on Eugene's finger, and
+then--another indefinite recollection of having somewhere before seen
+that same impression on some letter, certainly not _from_ her lover,
+occurred to her.
+
+Yes--and suddenly the breakfast-table at Silverton, and that letter--the
+letter to Eugene which she had ever since suspected must have been the
+turning-point of her previous perfect felicity, but which she had always
+supposed must have been from Eugene's father. That large red seal the
+little Louisa had displayed before her eyes. All was now before her. But
+how then came it lying here upon this foreign soil?
+
+Was it forbidden her to lose, even for a moment, the thrilling
+consciousness of the fate which bound her, that there should be now
+thrown across her very path, this startling reminder?
+
+Standing fixed to the spot--turning the signet over and over in her
+hand, an uncertain, half-bewildered expression on her sweet face--a
+sudden idea which crimsoned it to the very temples, then leaving it
+paler than before--suddenly lit up her countenance.
+
+How, indeed, came it lying there? "E. T." Surely from the old man's
+finger it had not dropped; and if not from Eugene's, might it, could it
+have been from that of the lost, unhappy, wandering brother, Eustace's?
+
+With what object, what intent, she scarcely knew herself--but impulse
+moved her, with beating heart and trembling step, to pursue the path
+which she had taken, only remembering the while, that last night, after
+she was in bed, there had been an arrival at the inn. Two gentlemen from
+Rome, the _cameriera_ who called her in the morning told her, had roused
+the house up at a very late hour; and that one of these belated
+travellers had nevertheless already pressed the dewy turf before
+her--that it might be him who was the loser, was perhaps, the paramount
+idea which now possessed her as she hurried on over this fair Italian
+ground as light in limb--alas! less light at heart as when bounding
+over the breezy wilds of her native land.
+
+She had not been wrong in her conjecture. A sudden turn in the lovely
+vale she had entered presented to her view, at no great distance from
+the spot she had attained, a broken fountain, the silvery sound of whose
+ringing waters faintly reached her ear; and near this, half concealed by
+the branches of a leaning tree, she discerned the figure of a man,
+standing watching its light and sparkling play.
+
+A few half irresolute steps brought her nearer and nearer still--a few
+more, and she stood attracted as if by an irresistible spell almost
+close behind the object of her search. His face had been turned away,
+but the light rustling of her garments when she drew so near, attracted
+his attention.
+
+He looked round, and there stood Mary with parted lips and crimsoned
+brow--that look of strange, deep, and eager scrutiny directed towards
+him.
+
+Never did the face of mortal man undergo such immediate change, as did
+the calm, noble countenance which at the same time revealed itself to
+the intruder; never were two simple words uttered with such thrilling
+fervency of tone, as was the ejaculation which broke from the stranger's
+lips.
+
+"Miss Seaham," he exclaimed; and in accents scarce less earnest in its
+emotion, Mary's trembling lips faltered Mr. Temple's name.
+
+Yes, it was indeed Edward Temple, upon whom she gazed with ill-defined
+ideas--and feelings of bewilderment and perplexity--her high-wrought
+expectations unable all at once to sink themselves to the level of
+natural composure--pale, agitated, and trembling, without further
+greeting or explanation,
+
+    "She showed the ring."
+
+"I found it," she said with almost hysterical incoherency, "and thought
+perhaps--but your's it cannot be--and yet it is strange--the initials
+are the same--but--can it really be, that your crest--your arms also are
+similar?"
+
+For all reply he gently took the ring from her outstretched hand, and in
+silence seemed to examine it. Then without looking up, and in a low,
+calm voice he said:
+
+"You expected I conclude, to find the owner had been Eugene Trevor?"
+
+"No, not Eugene," Mary quietly replied, restored to greater
+self-possession, "but perhaps, I thought--it was a random idea--that
+perhaps it might have been his brother Eustace."
+
+The ring dropped suddenly from her listener's fingers, as she uttered
+these last words.
+
+"And what," he murmured, having stooped to raise it from the ground,
+"and what interest can Miss Seaham take in that ill-starred, that
+unhappy man; that outcast, alien brother, that her mistake should cause
+disappointment, such as I so plainly perceive it to have occasioned
+her?"
+
+Mary probably attributed to wounded feeling the trembling pathos of the
+speaker's voice, for with all the simple earnestness of her kindly
+nature, she hastened in gentle soothing accents to reply:
+
+"Mr. Temple--if disappointment was the first impulse of my
+feelings--believe me, when I say, there is scarcely any one else," with
+a weary sigh, the tears gathering in her eyes, "with whom a meeting so
+unexpected, could just now have afforded me such unmixed pleasure."
+
+For one short moment her hand was retained by the so-called Mr. Temple
+in a trembling pressure, which appeared to speak all his heart's
+grateful acknowledgement, whilst those dark eyes fixed themselves upon
+her face with mournful earnestness of expression.
+
+But the next moment, with a low-breathed sigh, which might have seemed
+the echo of her own, he released her hand, and turned away his head.
+
+"You are kind to say this," he murmured, "for myself, I can only declare
+this meeting to be a happiness such as I had hardly expected ever to
+taste again in this world. But," he anxiously inquired, "will you again
+permit me to inquire the reason of the more than common--nay even,
+taking into consideration his relationship--more than natural interest,
+it would appear you feel in the unfortunate Eustace Trevor."
+
+The earnest melancholy of his tone thrilled on Mary's heart.
+
+"Mr. Temple," she said eagerly, "you speak with feeling on this subject,
+can it, oh! can it be possible that you have ever seen, ever known
+Eugene Trevor's brother? Oh, tell me if this is really the case, for you
+say true--in more than common degree--quite independently of selfish
+motives, connected with my own happiness--has my interest been excited
+in his discovery. It has been most strongly awakened in the fate, and
+history of one who has lately been brought before me in a light so
+charming yet so sad. Oh! Mr. Temple, you do not deny the fact. Then,
+tell me, only tell me where he can be found?"
+
+Eustace Trevor had turned upon her the full light of his radiant
+countenance, radiant with a new and strange delight, the nature of which
+she could not comprehend; but as, with clasped hands and beseeching
+countenance, she uttered this latter inquiry, it was answered by a
+gesture, seeming to imply by her listener ignorance in the required
+information.
+
+"You, then, did not know him?" she resumed, with renewed disappointment
+in her tone.
+
+"I did know him--ah, too well!" was the murmured reply, his eyes, with a
+strange and mysterious expression, fixed upon the ground.
+
+Very pale suddenly grew Mary's cheek as she looked upon him thus. Her
+lips parted, and her heart beat fast as from the shock of a strange and
+sudden idea, which flashed across her senses. But she put by the
+suggestion as the wild improbable coinage of her own high wrought
+imagination. She remembered too what had struck her often vaguely
+before, and also her brother's remark on a former occasion, with
+reference to the same resemblance. But when she looked again, the
+glowing illusion had faded, her companion was again calmly regarding
+her, again asking--in what she esteemed a cold and careless tone of
+voice--from whom it was, she had received the impression respecting
+Eustace Trevor, to which she had just alluded.
+
+"It was his friend, and my cousin--Louis de Burgh, who first spoke of
+him to me in such warm and glowing terms; but he chiefly raised my
+interest by the beautiful but melancholy picture he drew of his devoted
+affection for his mother--that mother," she added in a low, sad tone,
+"with whose unhappy history, I then for the first time was made
+acquainted--indeed it caused his very affliction to become almost holy
+in my eyes--by showing it to have been but the crisis of his high and
+sacred grief. Mr. Temple," she continued with enthusiasm; "there seems
+to me something, if I may so speak, almost God-like in the pure and
+devoted love of a strong proud-hearted man towards his mother; and it
+_is_ God-like, for was not the last earthly thought--the last earthly
+care of Him who hung upon the cross, even in his mortal agony--for his
+mother!"
+
+The speaker's glistening eyes were raised above or she might have seen
+tears indeed,
+
+    "Such as would not stain an angel's cheek,"
+
+also irradiating the eyes of that "strong proud-hearted man," as she so
+expressed herself--who was standing by her side.
+
+But she could not have heard--for it was not breathed for mortal ear,
+the deep and fervent cry: "My Mother!" which her innocent words, like
+thrilling music by the winds, struck from the secret chords of that
+manly tender heart.
+
+But this was a theme Eustace Trevor's melting soul could not trust
+itself to pursue; not indeed, without it were first allowed him to cast
+away all subterfuge and disguise, and at the feet of that good, kind,
+and gentle girl, open his whole bruised and desolate heart, to receive
+that Heavenly balsam of pity and consolation, she had ready stored
+within her breast for the faithful son of that wronged and sainted
+mother!
+
+And could this be done? Had he not for the sake of this same gentle
+being, in some sort pledged himself to such an extent, that yielding to
+the impulse would be baseness and dishonour.
+
+Alas! as in all divergement from the direct and natural paths of human
+action, in whatsoever spirit they may have been entered upon, the time
+must come--circumstances must arise--when the line of duty becomes
+bewilderingly shadowy and indistinct, even to the most conscientious and
+true-hearted.
+
+How few can steer their way unwavering through the straightened pathway
+of a false position. It is not there, that like a stately ship he can
+vigorously part the waves of circumstance or temptation,
+
+    "And bear his course aright.
+    Nor ought for tempest doth from it depart,
+    Nor ought for fairer weather's false delight."
+
+Therefore, with an effort over his feelings which might have made him
+appear unaffected by the sentiments his companion had so touchingly
+expressed, he was forced merely to reply: "Yes, Louis de Burgh was his
+friend; and it would be very gratifying to Eustace Trevor to know that
+one friend at least in that world he has abandoned, retains him in such
+affectionate remembrance. And his brother"--he added, with more
+hesitating restraint in his tone, "did you never receive anything of the
+same impression from him?"
+
+"Eugene," Mary answered with some slight embarrassment, "rarely ever
+enlarged upon a theme which of course had become connected in his mind
+with painful feelings."
+
+"_Painful indeed!_" was the other's significant rejoinder.
+
+"Never but once," Mary continued, "did I venture to question him upon
+the subject with any minuteness, and then he manifested such strong and
+painful emotion that I never afterwards approached it willingly. But at
+that time," she added with a sigh, "I had certainly heard very little of
+his brother, but the dark and terrible malady with which he was
+afflicted. Mr. Temple," she continued anxiously, "is not his complete
+disappearance most mysterious and inexplicable? and does it not appear
+to you almost impossible, that all the means which have been taken for
+his recovery could have been so completely unattended by success,
+supposing he were still alive?"
+
+"But have any such means been taken?" her companion asked with some
+marked curiosity.
+
+"Oh yes!" she hastened to reply "on Eugene's part at least."
+
+A peculiar smile played on her companion's lips. It did not fail to
+strike Mary, and the incredulity it seemed to imply caused her feelings
+now so peculiarly sensitive upon that point, to be immediately up in
+arms.
+
+"Mr. Temple, can you for a moment doubt this fact, he is Eugene's own
+brother, and--" she added in a low voice, the crimson blood at the same
+time mantling her cheeks, as the remembrance that she was addressing a
+rejected lover, pressed more consciously upon her, "he had interests of
+a different nature, closely connected with the assurance of his lost
+brother's fate?"
+
+Mr. Temple started with sudden excitement.
+
+"Indeed!" he exclaimed, then averting his head, he added, as if the
+utterance of each syllable was a separate pang. "Do you mean to say that
+there is still a question of this marriage?"
+
+"There is," she replied; "though of a very remote and undefined nature,
+our engagement still subsists."
+
+Having said this with no little embarrassment of manner, the same
+feeling probably caused her to raise her arm from the fountain, over
+which she had been unconsciously leaning, and by tacit consent they
+turned away from the spot, silently beginning to retrace their steps.
+They had not proceeded thus many yards, when Arthur Seaham appeared in
+sight, accompanied by a second person, who Mary, with an exclamation of
+delighted surprise, recognized as Mr. Wynne, concerning whom in the
+absorbing interest of the last hour she had no time to seek information.
+
+The good clergyman on his part, who had fallen in with her brother at
+the hotel, was charmed beyond expression by this fortunate and
+unexpected meeting with his own dear children, (so he called Mary and
+Arthur;) and peculiar was the glance of interest which beamed from his
+kindly eyes, as having gazed anxiously into Mary's face, he turned then
+towards her companion, who nevertheless with his fine countenance only a
+little paler than usual, was exchanging kind and cordial greetings with
+young Seaham.
+
+"Oh! Mary, Mary!" the good clergyman whispered, as he drew his fair
+friend's arm within his own and walked on, the others following together
+behind, "I have heard sad stories of you, little quiet one, since I saw
+you last;--trampling noble flowers under your feet, and grasping at
+thorns, which something in that sweet face of your's tells me have not
+failed to do their wounding work. This comes of reading all that dreamy
+poetry I used to warn you against. A good and pleasant thing it is in
+its degree, but too much of it dazzles and deludes the senses, till at
+length they come to be unable to discern darkness from light, good from
+evil. Well! well!" he added, as Mary pretty well accustomed by this time
+to indirect attacks of this nature, attempted no defence, but with a
+faint melancholy smile, only drooped her head in silence and
+resignation. "Ah! well, even now who knows! The Almighty never will
+permit his little ones to walk on long in darkness, but in the end ever
+leads them by secret ways into safe and quiet pastures."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+                          The stern
+    Have deeper thoughts than your dull eyes discern,
+    And when they love, your smilers guess not how
+    Beats the strong heart, though less their lips avow.
+
+    BYRON.
+
+
+                   The victory is most sure
+    For him, who, seeking faith by virtue, strives
+    To yield entire submission to the law
+    Of conscience.
+
+    WORDSWORTH.
+
+
+"Arthur, this can scarcely be possible," Mary exclaimed with almost
+trembling solicitude, when alone with her brother, he informed her of
+the proposal Mr. Wynne had made--and he had unhesitatingly
+accepted--that he and his friend Mr. Temple should join their party
+during the succeeding week's tour.
+
+"Not if it is disagreeable to you, Mary, certainly," was the brother's
+reply; "otherwise I must say I can see no objection to the plan; nor
+does Mr. Wynne either it seems, as he made the proposal, being of course
+aware by this time of the past circumstances respecting you and Temple.
+All that of course is an affair over and forgotten, particularly when
+made aware how matters stand with regard to your engagement with Trevor;
+so on your part, you will have nothing to fear. It only rests with him,
+I should think, to determine whether he is equal to the ordeal of your
+society, though to judge by his countenance just now, firm and calm as a
+statue, after a meeting which must have put his feelings rather to the
+test, I should say there was not much doubt upon the matter.
+
+    "'Nay, if she loves me not, I care not for her.
+    Shall I look pale because the maiden blooms,
+    Or sigh because she smiles--or sighs for others.'
+
+No--no, Miss Mary, that is not our way, however it may be with you
+ladies in cases of the kind.
+
+    "'Great or good, or kind, or fair,
+    I will ne'er the more despair;
+    If she love me, this believe,
+    I will die e'er she shall grieve,
+
+    "'Be she with that goodness blest,
+    Which may merit name of best.
+    If she be not such to me--
+    What care I how good she be.'"
+
+Thus the brother playfully sung and quoted, though whether the
+philosophical doctrine the old poet implied in his song had the effect
+of easing his listener's mind upon the point in question, her faint and
+absent smile was not exactly calculated to declare; though perhaps could
+he have read aright the secret history of that anxious countenance, he
+might have seen how far less any such considerations were agitating his
+sister's mind than the remembrance of Eugene's strange and angry
+excitement in the Edinburgh gardens, on the subject of this same Edward
+Temple; and the question now chiefly agitating her breast to be, whether
+she could without treason to her lover, place herself in the position
+and circumstances now under discussion--yet what was she to do? She knew
+that Arthur could not enter into her feelings on this point; besides,
+was there not some unconfessed leaning in her secret heart in favour of
+the arrangement. For that interview of the morning, and the
+circumstances from which it took its rise; had it not aroused ideas of
+perplexity, interest, and anxiety in her mind? was there not still much
+left unaccounted for and unexplained?
+
+She mentioned the ring to her brother. He was surprised, and thought it
+a strange coincidence, though certainly it did often happen that
+families of different names, bore the same crests, sometimes the same
+arms.
+
+Mary's recognition of the impression showed at least there to be, some
+connection between Eugene Trevor and Mr. Temple. Arthur could easily
+gain explanation from Mr. Wynne on the subject. He also was often
+puzzled to know to what family of Temple his friend belonged.
+
+But, before time or explanation was given for any such inquiry, the
+little party yielding themselves passively as it were to the
+irresistible force of circumstances which had so singularly united them,
+were pursuing their way over the enchanted ground Arthur had previously
+marked out for their excursion, most of which the two more experienced
+travellers had already explored, but gladly retrode for the benefit of
+their young companions.
+
+    "By sweet Val d'Arno's tinted hills,
+    In Vallambrosa's convent gloom,
+    Mid Terni's vale of singing rills,
+    By deathless lairs in solemn Rome.
+
+    Ruin, and fane, and waterfall."
+
+They wandered delightedly, and never did Mr. Wynne and Arthur cease to
+congratulate themselves and one another; the latter, on the valuable
+acquisition he and his sister had gained in such able cicerones as
+himself and his companion; whilst Mary and Mr. Temple, by their silence
+only, gave testimony to the same effect.
+
+Yes, it were well for the good Mr. Wynne and the young and
+hopeful-hearted Arthur
+
+    "Cheerful old age, and youth serene,"
+
+to yield themselves to the charm of sunny skies and classic ground, and
+to feel almost as if earth wanted no more to make it Heaven.
+
+    "A calm and lovely paradise
+    Is Italy for hearts at ease."
+
+But for the other two, as may be supposed, there wanted something more,
+or rather something less, to render their enjoyment as full and
+unalloyed.
+
+For in spite of all Arthur had urged to the contrary, it was too plainly
+evident that something there was--a restraint--a consciousness,
+influencing their secret feelings, and imparting themselves to their
+outward demeanour, in common intercourse one with another; which no
+exciting or absorbing diversities of scene or circumstance could
+entirely dissipate or dispel.
+
+Sometimes indeed, Mary, carried away by the delight of the moment, would
+forget whose eye had fixed itself for a brief moment, with such earnest
+interest, on her countenance; or even meet unshrinkingly the glance, the
+smile of sympathy, which her murmurings of enraptured admiration at
+times drew forth.
+
+Sometimes unconsciously, as if it had been only as a portion of the
+magic spell which hung on all around her, she found herself listening to
+that voice, whose few, calm, graphic words had power to throw desired
+light on some old haunt or story--or touch with a bright glow the scene
+before them, or oftener turn away with a startled look of anxious
+thought as if some sudden association or remembrance recalled her to
+consciousness, and broke the spell.
+
+"Too happy to be your guide and guardian, through scenes and beauty
+which even your lively imagination is incompetent to conceive!"
+
+Did the words, which had once proceeded from those same lips, thrill
+upon her recollection? or was it only the jealous disapproval of her
+lover Eugene which would start up to trouble her on such occasions?
+
+Whilst Eustace--it would be vain to tell what caused the quick
+transition of that glance or smile into the cold and rigidly averted
+brow, or caused to die away upon his lips words whose inspiration sprang
+from a source which could not be worthily encouraged.
+
+Thus, day after day went on, and brought but diminished opportunity of
+touching on those points of interest so near her heart, and concerning
+which she more and more became possessed with the vague and restless
+fancy, that Mr. Temple possessed more power than any one imagined of
+enlightenment; for she avoided, as much as possible, finding herself
+alone with him, and if at times, as inevitably it occurred, they were
+thrown together apart from the other two, Mary's haunting vision of
+Eugene's jealous disapproval of her intimacy with Mr. Temple would cast
+a restraint over her feelings, and made her shrink from availing herself
+of the favourable opportunity thus afforded.
+
+Of course Mr. Wynne--and through him Eustace Trevor had soon learnt from
+Arthur every particular relating to his sister's situation with regard
+to Eugene, and the effect produced upon the latter by the circumstances
+which transpired, was evidenced only by the calm, rigid expression which
+settled on his interesting countenance--only subdued into soft and
+gentle melancholy, when at times, unobserved by herself, his eyes could
+fix themselves on Mary; and as for meeting her half-way, in any renewal
+of the subject, so particularly discussed near the fountain that first
+morning of their meeting, he, with almost equal pointedness, might have
+seemed to avoid any occasion which could tend to its revival.
+
+On the other hand, from Mr. Wynne the more unconscious and unsuspecting
+Arthur could gain little satisfactorily information on the topic on
+which he had promised to make inquiries. He always fought off any cross
+questioning on any particular subject connected with his friend Temple.
+
+Indeed this was easy enough to do; for heart and soul absorbed in the
+exciting enjoyment of scenes and circumstances in which he entered with
+such enthusiastic delight, Arthur was not very capable of pressing hard
+just now upon any serious point, not immediately connected with the
+interest of the day or the hour.
+
+But when Mary, with whom the old man had hitherto as skilfully warded
+off any timid attempts on her part to draw him forth on the subject on
+which he was vowed to secresy--when she, one sultry afternoon, had been
+conversing for some time so delightfully with her dear old friend,
+concerning days gone by, in the cool marble _sala_ of an old _palazzo_
+near Genoa, where they had found temporary accommodation--without any
+preparation, fixed her earnest eyes upon her companion's face, and said
+beseechingly:
+
+"Mr. Wynne, will you answer me one question? you are acquainted I know,
+with everything concerning Mr. Temple; but I only wish to ascertain one
+point; was he ever acquainted with Eugene Trevor?"
+
+The good man was taken by surprise, and displayed by his countenance
+considerable signs of embarrassment, succeeded, however, by equal
+symptoms of relief, when looking up he beheld Mr. Temple, who had joined
+them unobserved, and must inevitably have overheard Mary's words, and
+witnessed the perplexity they had occasioned her friend.
+
+Mary's cheek also flushed deeply; yet when the next moment Mr. Wynne,
+with some careless excuse for leaving them, had walked away, and she
+found herself alone with him who best could answer to the question which
+had scarcely died upon her lips, she took courage, and with her
+eyelashes sweeping her varying cheek, in a low, yet steady voice, said:
+
+"Mr. Temple, I was asking Mr. Wynne a question, to which for some reason
+he did not seem able or willing to reply; will you tell me whether you
+ever knew Eugene Trevor?"
+
+An instant's pause--then, in a tone in which, though calm, there was
+something unnatural and strange in the sound, there came the laconic
+reply--"_I did_."
+
+And then there was a solemn pause. For what could Eustace Trevor
+add--how reply to the mute but eager questioning of those eyes, now
+fixed intently upon him, as if in the verdict of his lips there lay more
+power to ease the heart of its blind fears and nameless misgivings--more
+in one calm word of his
+
+    "Than all the world's defied rebuke."
+
+Therefore, though Mary held her breath, hoping, longing that he should
+proceed, yet shrinking from more direct inquiry, there he stood, with
+lips compressed and stern averted eyes; no marble statue could have
+remained more mute; till to break the ominous and oppressive silence,
+Mary pronounced the name of "Eustace Trevor."
+
+Then, indeed, her listener's eyes relaxed their fixed expression--a
+sudden glow lit up his countenance.
+
+In a low, deep tone, and with a soft, melancholy smile, he demanded:
+
+"And what, Miss Seaham, of Eustace Trevor?"
+
+"What of him? Oh! Mr. Temple, all--everything that you may know--may
+have reason to suspect or conceive concerning him!"
+
+Another pause; and then the voice of Mr. Temple, with renewed sadness
+replied:
+
+"What could I tell you concerning him, but that he is a wanderer upon
+the face of the earth, as you--as everybody are aware."
+
+"But why--but wherefore should this be; why forsake his country, his
+home, his kindred? Now, when Louis de Burgh gave me reason to suppose
+all further necessity was removed, his temporary affliction entirely
+subsided, why not return?"
+
+"Return!" interrupted the other--"return with that brand--that
+stigma--which once attached to his name, must mark him in the eyes of
+men--a thing of suspicion, nay, of fear for ever; return, when that
+return must be to hear that curse in every blast--to be cut off from
+every hope, every tie which makes life beautiful to other men,
+or--" he paused; for he was on the point of saying, "or--bitter
+alternative--brand a still worse stigma on another; on one who however
+unworthy of such consideration, I must still remember as my brother."
+Thus he probably would have spoken, had not he been recalled to
+recollection by the strange and anxious expression depicted on Mary's
+countenance, and then he added, with an effort at self-command:
+
+"The imputation of madness is a fearful thing, Miss Seaham, to be
+attached to a man's name; and Eustace Trevor, unfortunate man! is
+possessed of feelings most sensitive--morbidly sensitive, perhaps."
+
+"It is--it is," Mary faltered, "a fearful thing if suffered to rest
+there; but surely his is not the course to accomplish the removal of the
+idea. Let Eustace Trevor but return--let him at least try and experience
+what a brother's kindness--what a sister's love can do, to wipe from his
+remembrance the morbid memory of his past affliction; and show to the
+world (if he fears its altered smiles) that the shock his noble mind
+sustained was but for a moment; that he is--"
+
+But it was enough--those words, a brother's kindness--still more, a
+sister's love, had thrilled acutely upon the listener's heart.
+
+And Mary paused, startled to behold the expression in the eyes bent so
+earnestly upon her.
+
+"A sister's love!" what was such love to him!
+
+However, with another strong effort he said in a voice scarce audible
+from emotion, "For such a sister's love, he might indeed brave and defy
+the scorn--the ignominy of the universe; but," he faltered, "it cannot
+be."
+
+A silence of some minutes ensued. It was broken by Mary, who said in an
+anxious trembling voice,
+
+"Mr. Temple, I have a favour to ask of you: I know you are acquainted
+with much of the private history of the Trevors--I am _sure_ you are--I
+therefore entreat you will speak candidly upon the subject, and tell me
+your own opinion of Eugene Trevor. To you I can speak as I feel I can to
+no one else. My mind of late has been disturbed by doubts and fears upon
+the subject of Eugene. I know you _can_, you _will_ speak the truth; so
+conceal not your real opinion from me."
+
+"Miss Seaham, excuse me," Mr. Temple replied gravely, and with a degree
+of proud coldness. "I must decline to speak in any way of Eugene Trevor.
+It is a long time now since we have met."
+
+"Oh, why--why," faltered Mary, with clasped hands and streaming eyes,
+"would you too, like the rest, by your looks, even by your silence, make
+me suspect the worth, the rectitude of Eugene, and give me the miserable
+idea that the affection and heart's devotion now of years have been
+wasted and bestowed in vain?"
+
+It was a difficult moment for that generous, noble soul. The peculiar
+situation in which he was placed almost bewildered his sense of
+discernment between what was right and wrong in his position, and
+darkened the way before him. How act--how speak--how meet this critical
+emergency?
+
+The struggle must have been indeed intense, which enabled him at length
+to rise a conqueror over the conflicting powers which beset his soul, to
+subdue all selfish promptings of inferior nature--all selfish impulses
+and considerations; and speak and act as one might have spoken and acted
+who had never been Mary Seaham's lover, or Eugene Trevor's injured
+brother.
+
+As a brother to a well-beloved sister--or as one of his high and holy
+calling might have seized that favourable opportunity for endeavouring
+to turn a perplexed and trembling suppliant on his counsel and
+assistance from some dangerous path or fatal delusion, he took up the
+strain, and implored her not to seek from him any further information
+on a subject--concerning which he must tell her at once, that for many
+reasons it was impossible for him to enter--he could not speak of Eugene
+Trevor. But he implored her to think well of those warnings so strongly
+pressed upon her consideration by her anxious friends--above all, by the
+internal evidence of her own pure soul--against a course of action in
+which the peace and happiness of her future life might be so fatally
+involved.
+
+"Talk not of wasted affection," he touchingly exclaimed; "affection
+disinterested and blameless as yours, was never wasted--never bestowed
+in vain--for some good purpose, the All Wise so willed that you should
+for a time bestow it, and if He ordains that its waters should turn
+back, like the rain to their springs, He wills also that they should
+fill them with refreshment. Miss Seaham, it is not for me to advise you
+to break off your engagement with Eugene Trevor. I am the last person in
+the world--situated towards you as I have been"--he added in a low sad
+voice, "who ought to presume so to do; but let me speak to you, as you
+may remember I once before addressed you--before it had ever entered my
+heart to conceive you would stand in the position you now are in towards
+this Eugene Trevor. Did I not then warn you of the world into which you
+were hastening so unwarily--of its sins, its sorrows, and its snares;
+but still more, of its friendships, its smiles, its Judas kisses,
+awaiting not alone the eagle but the dove--the holy, harmless, and
+undefiled? And _now_ do not my gloomy words find an echo in your heart?
+does not that look of care, that heavy sigh, confess that it had been
+better never to have tasted of the feverish joy, the unsatisfying
+delight, in exchange for the peace and tranquillity you had hitherto
+enjoyed? Is not your confidence disturbed--your trust shaken in the
+object on whom your affections have been set? do you not fear to lean
+more heavily on that reed lest it pierce you--to grasp it firmer, lest
+you crush, and prove its hollowness? Oh, Miss Seaham! is not this in
+some degree the case with you? if so, do not seek to dive further into
+the why or the wherefore. Let God's providence have its way, when, it
+seeks to turn you from a course it is not good for you to follow. Let
+faith and patience have their perfect work; seek peace and happiness
+from a higher, surer source than the dubious object on which your
+affections have been placed."
+
+Mr. Temple paused, but he had no reason to suppose his earnest appeal
+had been as water spilt upon the ground; for something in Mary's
+face--that something, which had become of late its ruling and habitual
+expression, which might have seemed to breathe forth the Psalmist's
+weary longing for "the wings of a dove to fly away and be at rest"--at
+rest, from the ever receding hopes--the sickening doubts and
+apprehensions--the wearying mysteries attendant on her position, which
+pressed so heavily on a nature formed rather for the peace and calm of
+gentle emotions, of peaceful joys, than for its strife of passions, its
+storm of woes; an expression which had appeared to Eustace Trevor to
+deepen as he spoke, for not for a moment did he dare to interpret it
+otherwise. Never did he surmise--never _dare_ even to desire--that words
+uttered with such disinterested and single-minded intention, and in
+accents tremulous with such unselfish emotions, could in any other way
+affect his listener's heart. That in that hour of languid yearning for
+strength she felt that she did not possess; for rest and peace founded
+on some surer basis than that "reed shaken by the wind," such as her
+inauspicious love had gradually assumed the semblance, she should be
+most ready to lean her weary head on the noble breast, cling to the
+sheltering arm of him who thus had counselled her, and placing her
+destiny in his hands, ask him to guide her future course through the
+deceitful bewildering mazes of this life.
+
+But no word, no look betrayed the secret impulse of her heart; and in
+the same anxious strain Eustace Trevor proceeded:
+
+"Darkly, ambiguously, I have been compelled to speak; the subject having
+been, as you can bear witness, forced in a manner upon me; yet one step
+further I will take, and leave the rest in the hands of God. This ring,"
+drawing the signet from his finger, where for the first time since the
+adventure in which it had formed a part, Mary had again seen it; "keep
+it," he continued, in a voice tremulous with emotion as Mary
+mechanically received it in her hands, looking wonderingly and
+enquiringly in his face; "keep it till you see _him_, Eugene Trevor
+again; then show it to him from _me_--from Edward Temple. Tell him the
+circumstances under which you received it, and ask him to clear up the
+mystery concerning it. If he refuses, then for his own sake as well as
+your own, I conjure you to bid him farewell for ever. If on the
+contrary, casting off all falsehood and deceit, he lays all before you,
+then--then--may Heaven direct the rest!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+An hour or two after Mary had been left alone within the marble _sala_,
+almost as in a dream, gazing upon that mysterious and momentous ring,
+the little party were proceeding northwards in the cool of the evening,
+in one of the hired conveyances of the country. Mary, her brother, and
+Mr. Wynne occupying the interior; Mary being only at a later stage of
+the journey, confirmed in her supposition of Mr. Temple having proceeded
+thus far on the outside, for since he had parted abruptly from her he
+had not again appeared.
+
+Then, however, when, to change horses, they stopped before a road-side
+inn, her brother suddenly touched her arm, and directed her attention
+towards the spot, where in the shadow of the door, his features only
+partly distinguished in the declining evening light, stood the tall and
+stately figure of Temple, apparently conversing with Mr. Wynne who had
+just alighted, though his eyes were fixed earnestly in their direction.
+
+"Look, Mary, does it not strike you now?"
+
+"What, Arthur?"
+
+"That likeness; there just as he stands in that uncertain light?"
+
+Mary for all reply shuddered slightly, and turned away her head. The
+next moment Mr. Wynne had rejoined them, and they started again.
+
+But by the inn-door there still stood that dark figure.
+
+Arthur, with an exclamation of surprise, put forth his head, and
+inquired why they had left Mr. Temple behind.
+
+"Because--because," Mr. Wynne replied in a peculiar tone of voice, "he
+has taken it into his head not to travel any further with us just now. I
+shall rejoin him when I have seen you safe at Genoa, for I cannot make
+up my mind to part so suddenly with my two dear children. Temple desired
+me to bid you good bye, Arthur, for he has no great fancy for
+leave-takings, at any time; and I was to say farewell for him to you
+too, Miss Mary."
+
+This he said in a more serious manner, taking Mary's hand as he spoke,
+and gazing earnestly into her face. The hand he held was very cold, and
+on the pale face there was a strange and anxious expression; but whilst
+Arthur was loud in his professions of surprise and regret at this
+unexpected deprivation, Mary uttered no word of astonishment or regret.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+                        Bear up,
+    Yet still bear up. No bark did e'er,
+    By stooping to the storm of fear,
+    Escape the tempest's wrath.
+
+    BEAUMONT.
+
+
+    He doth tell me where to borrow
+    Comfort in the midst of sorrow.
+
+    WITHERS.
+
+
+It was the eve of the opening assize day, and even in the quiet little
+town of ---- might be observed that aspect of bustle and excitement
+generally prevailing on such occasions.
+
+In a private apartment of the hotel honoured by the presence of the
+judge himself, sat a young man bending with the intensest interest and
+attention over the books and papers which lay upon the table before him.
+
+It was Arthur Seaham, whose brave and strenuous exertions had been
+crowned with honourable success. He had been called to the bar, and was
+about to start forward with hopeful confidence on his new career, it
+being his first case with which we find him so zealously engaged.
+
+Happy young man! Many might have envied you at that moment. Young in
+heart, sanguine and resolute in spirit, with every good and honourable
+motive to urge you on to exertion--a life of action and reality is
+before you.
+
+    "Life that shall send a challenge to the end,
+    And when it comes, say--Welcome, friend!"
+
+"_L'action avec un but_"--the auspicious banner under which you launch
+forth upon your new career.
+
+For some hours the young barrister continued unremitting at his task,
+and would perhaps have remained so many more, had not another voice than
+that which had probably during this time been sounding in his
+ears--suddenly broke the spell, and flushed his cheek--kindled his eye
+with a very different inspiration to that which had previously illumined
+it.
+
+A clear musical laugh which, to Arthur's ear, sounded more like the
+ringing waters of Tivoli than anything he had ever since heard.
+
+Then the door opening, admitted what might have appeared (to pursue the
+same strain of analogy) a wandering sunbeam from the skies of golden
+Italy, in the person of Carrie Elliott, the judge's lovely daughter.
+
+"I am disturbing you, I know, Mr. Seaham," she exclaimed blushingly,
+advancing; "but it is your sister's fault. She says it is quite time
+that you should be disturbed; did you not, Miss Seaham?" turning to her
+companion.
+
+Mary, who, with a faint and gentle smile, very different in its
+character to that which played so brightly on the features of the other,
+acquiesced in the truth of the assertion. But Arthur did not look very
+angry at the interruption, and was soon standing by the window entering
+with a very unbusiness-like spirit into conversation with his lively
+visitor, who, this being her father's first circuit in a judicial
+capacity, had been, much to her amusement and delight, suffered to
+accompany him on this occasion.
+
+To this circumstance had Mary also been indebted for the opportunity
+thus afforded her of witnessing her brother's first start in his
+profession; for having been of late thrown somewhat intimately into the
+society of the judge's family, it had finally been arranged that the two
+young ladies should have the benefit of each other's society, on an
+occasion of such especial interest to them both.
+
+"But do tell me something about your case, Mr. Seaham. Is it not a very
+interesting story? a poor young woman accused of forgery?"
+
+"Yes," Seaham replied, glancing at his sister; "at least an attempt to
+exchange bank-notes, which on discovery were found to be forged. It is,
+indeed, an interesting case; and having full internal evidence that she
+is innocent, I am doubly concerned in her acquittal. That fact at least
+is in my favour, for I am afraid I shall be never able to plead _con
+amore_ under contrary circumstances. The fact is, this poor woman has
+been for years toiling hard to amass a sufficient sum to carry her to
+America to her betrothed husband. When still far from the desired point,
+sickness and other causes having often interrupted her exertions and
+retarded her success, she finds her lover, impatient at the delay,
+beginning to entertain injurious ideas of her constancy and truth. In
+this distressing emergency, it happened (this is her own statement of
+the case) that some friend came forward, and made up in those same
+forged notes the requisite amount; that she received them in perfect
+ignorance of their real character; but refusing absolutely to give up
+the name of the guilty donor, she was imprisoned, and now stands
+arraigned for at least connivance in the delinquency."
+
+"Poor creature!" murmured Mary, "is this then the end of all her
+deferred hope--and wearing, wasting anxiety of mind and body! Oh!
+Arthur, in such a cause you must surely be successful; how much you will
+have to say to soften the hearts of her judges, and lead them to look
+upon the case with lenity and pity!"
+
+"Really, Mary!" exclaimed her brother, smiling with affectionate
+interest at the sudden energy with which the subject of discussion had
+animated his sister; the thrilling pathos of her tone--the brilliancy
+which lighted up her languid eye--the earnest spirit shining with almost
+sublimity from her anxious countenance, all which he had but a moment
+ago observed as affording so sad a contrast to the beaming brightness of
+her fair companion; "I really believe you would do more for my client in
+the way of eloquence than I should, if by eloquence the cause is to be
+gained. Do you not think so, Miss Elliott?"
+
+"Miss Elliott has not yet tested your powers in that way," Mary rejoined
+with a smile, whilst Carrie only laughed and blushed.
+
+"As for my eloquence," she added with a sigh, "it could only spring from
+the sympathetic feeling which one woman must have for the sufferings and
+the trials of another; at least"--in a low tone she added, "she must be
+very young or very happy," glancing at Miss Elliott, "if she be found
+wanting in that most powerful of inspirations."
+
+"Poor woman!" interposed Miss Elliott, who perhaps began to fear she
+might be considered too uninspired in the eyes of the young barrister,
+"she seems deemed throughout to suspicion. How dreadful to be suspected
+wrongfully! But, as for that lover, I am sure he cannot deserve all the
+trouble she has suffered on his account. I dare say, the faithlessness
+was all on his side, for no person could suspect or doubt any one they
+really loved. Do you not think so, Miss Seaham?" turning away her face
+from Arthur to look at his sister with a pretty blush.
+
+An expression of intense pain shot across Mary's countenance.
+
+"I thought so once," was the almost gasping utterance which trembled on
+her lips; but she paused, merely saying in a low tone, her eyes bent
+mournfully on the ground, "at any rate, the one who doubts and suspects
+is the greatest sufferer of the two. Yet there are circumstances, I
+hope, in which, without faithlessness, our perfect trust and confidence
+in another may--must indeed be shaken."
+
+"Of course; otherwise the virtue becomes indeed a very weakness,"
+rejoined Arthur with some moody significance of tone and manner.
+
+"Now, I must go, for I suppose it is nearly time to dress for dinner,"
+exclaimed Miss Elliott, who, though only partially acquainted with the
+particulars of Mary's love affair, probably perceived that she had
+inadvertantly struck upon some tender string; "I suppose, you will soon
+be doing the same."
+
+And away the gay-hearted creature glided, singing as she went.
+
+"Now, Mary," Arthur cried, his eyes and ears disenchanted; "wait for me
+just one minute." And down he sat for the space of several moments, and
+his pen flew swift as thought over the parchment. Mary also sat
+patiently, her eyes fixed with a look of affectionate interest on the
+intelligent countenance of the writer.
+
+At length, his task completed, the pen was thrown, with a gesture of
+triumph and satisfaction upon the table, and "Now, Mary, it is
+finished," was the exulting expression of his lips.
+
+There was something in the congratulating smile which met his own, that
+seemed to change the spirit of the young man's dream; for more
+thoughtfully he gathered up his papers, whilst "love, fame, ambition,"
+might have seemed at once annihilated from his thoughts, by the tone of
+voice in which--glancing at Mary, who drew near to assist him--he
+abruptly murmured:
+
+"Mary, you are not looking well."
+
+"Am I not?" with forced cheerfulness; "ah! I dare say you think so
+to-day--by comparison."
+
+"Nonsense!" knitting his brows; "I am _not_ speaking comparatively, but
+quite positively. You have been looking less well every day for some
+time. I am becoming impatient. I want to see you looking better, or I
+should say, _happier_."
+
+"As happy and bright I suppose as--" began Mary, attempting playfully to
+divert the dreaded theme.
+
+"Pshaw! as bright as no one. I am thinking only of you, Mary."
+
+"But you should think of some one else, now Arthur, that you are a
+steady, professional man."
+
+"And now that I am this steady, professional man," taking the words out
+of her mouth, "I feel that I am justified and competent to offer my
+sister the settled home she once faithfully promised to share with me.
+_She_ may have altered her wishes on the subject; mine remain unchanged.
+Still, Mary, (whatever you may have taken into your silly little head,)
+till your happiness is more definitely secure, you will remain the
+paramount object of my interest and affection. My dear Mary," as his
+sister putting her hand in his, and smiling gratefully in his face,
+still shook her head, as if desiring and expecting for that dear
+brother, less unselfish aims, and more smiling hopes to cheer him on his
+promising career.
+
+"God knows," he anxiously continued, "I speak from my heart when I say,
+that should you give me any hope that I could in any degree succeed in
+the promotion of your happiness, I should require no greater impetus to
+any exertion I may be called upon to make, than your affectionate
+interest in my success. Nay, do you not remember, even when we were
+children, your encouragement was the greatest incentive to my boyish
+ambition--how every mark of affection from you was more valuable to me
+than any bestowed by my other sisters, although I loved them all so
+well. In short, I declare to you, that the power of making me quite
+happy lies in your own hands--far more than in any careless-hearted
+beauty whom I might in a foolish moment take it into my head to ask to
+be my wife--and find, after all, that she did not care a straw for me.
+Therefore, dear Mary, only be persuaded to give up this, as I am sure
+you must begin to feel it, most equivocal and inauspicious engagement,
+and let us try if we cannot be happy together, in time perhaps--as happy
+as if no such cloud had ever arisen--and who knows what more propitious
+fate may not still be in store for you?
+
+"Mary," he continued, as his sister shook her head despondingly, "only
+consent to let final measures be taken, and I shall go forth to-morrow
+with double energy and hope. After all! the pain is more in the idea
+than in the reality, for the matter is becoming really a mere affair of
+the imagination; for a year and a half you have not seen or heard of
+him. But do not think I would make light of the sacrifice. The
+destruction of a great hope, must be, under any circumstances, a trial
+hard to be endured. But cheer up, dear Mary, there may be a brighter sun
+yet to shine upon you. Will you think this over?"
+
+"I will Arthur," she murmured faintly, "I promise you that your mind
+shall very soon be set at rest on this subject."
+
+She could promise this with a presentiment that the words were not
+spoken without foundation--with a certain vague, unaccountable
+presentiment, that some crisis was at hand in which her future fate
+would surely be accomplished. But she was little prepared for the
+communication which her brother now gently broke to her--that the
+opportunity was indeed, very soon to be afforded her, for that in the
+forthcoming case for which he had just been preparing his brief, Eugene
+Trevor would have to appear to give his evidence.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+    Un Dieu descend toujours pour dénouer le drame,
+    Toujours la Providence y veille et nous proclame
+    Cette justice occulte et ce divin ressort,
+    Qui fait jouer le temps et gouverne le sort.
+
+    LAMARTINE.
+
+
+The court was crowded early the following morning, for it was not often
+that cases of such interest as the principal one to be brought forward
+on this occasion were provided by the inhabitants of ----, a town of the
+principality, in which it is well known, crime, comparatively speaking,
+is more rare than in other portions of the United Kingdom.
+
+The prisoner had also been long known in the vicinity for her blameless
+career, and the patient industry with which, under disadvantages and
+discouragements (for she had been at an early age separated from both
+her parents, and thrown upon her own resources), she had pursued her
+laborious course for ten long years, her heart set on an ever receding
+hope, which she had in the end been doomed to see engulphed by the dark
+cloud which now overshadowed her fame.
+
+The court, therefore, was crowded as we said before, when a few minor
+cases having been disposed of, the prisoner for the forgery case was
+summoned to the bar.
+
+There was nothing in the appearance of the accused which could at first
+sight strike the vulgar gaze. Neither youth nor beauty to excite the
+feeling in her behalf; for though to adopt the loving language of the
+poet:
+
+    "Fair she was, and young, when in hope
+    She began the long journey;
+    Faded she was, and old, when in disappointment it ended;"
+
+the age of care and trouble, rather than of years, for she was not more
+than one or two and thirty. Streaks of grey had already spread over her
+forehead, "and the furrows on her cheek spoke the course of bitter
+tears." Yet few there were amongst the intelligent and feeling part of
+her beholders who did not soon begin to have their interest strongly
+rivetted. And one amongst them, who felt her soul moved to its very
+depths by pity and womanly compassion the instant her eyes fell upon the
+pale meek face which bore such deep traces of sorrow--and patience as
+great as her sorrow.
+
+And yet it was a passive sorrow it expressed, a subdued and passive
+suffering, which the careless might have attributed to dulness or
+insensibility, so little did the prisoner appear moved to wonder or self
+pity, by the sharp sense of unmerited misfortunes.
+
+No--rather as one whose mind is all made up of submission and
+resignation; who, accustomed to the constant anguish of disappointment,
+considered as no strange thing this last great grief which had befallen
+her.
+
+And yet, the indictment being read, the prisoner in a low quiet tone
+pleaded "Not guilty."
+
+The facts, as commented upon by the counsel for the crown, were
+undeniably against her. Her case was pitiable, it was true. It seemed
+that at the very last--besides the sickness which had so often retarded
+her endeavours--a robbery committed in the little shop, in which she
+carried on a small precarious trade, had despoiled her of the
+hardly-earned treasure of years; but this circumstance alone made it
+more likely that one in her situation should grasp at any means,
+promising to put such an effectual end to her long course of
+difficulties and disappointments. She pleaded ignorance as to the nature
+of the aid administered to her. Had she then only consented to give up
+the name of the guilty donor, the charge would have been withdrawn; and
+her pertinacious refusal to do so was enlarged upon by the learned
+counsel as evidence of her being accessory to the fraud.
+
+From the depositions of the witnesses, it then appeared that Mabel
+Marryott's father had originally been a farmer in the county of
+----shire; that soon after his daughter's birth he had emigrated to
+Australia; that her mother had not followed her husband's fortunes; had
+remained in England in the service of a family of consideration and
+distinction in that above-mentioned county, where she still remained. It
+appeared that the mother had little intercourse with her daughter. At an
+early age, the latter had been apprenticed to the business in which she
+afterwards became a partner; and then, as the phrase goes, this little
+affectionate parent "washed her hands" of her concerns, and left her to
+strive for herself. About ten years before, the prisoner became
+acquainted, and finally engaged herself in marriage, with a young
+artisan on the point of emigrating to America, a contract which proved
+indeed one of those "long engagements" so often doomed to misfortune and
+disappointment. They were not to be united till, by their joint
+exertions, they had accumulated a sufficient sum to pay the expenses of
+the voyage, and supply a capital whereupon to begin with comfort their
+married life. Now, by an accident which had in a great measure disabled
+the lover from pursuing his customary avocations, much of this labour of
+love had been cast upon his betrothed, who, in spite of many
+discouragements and disadvantages on her side, had, with never-failing
+courage, persevered in her exertions, up to the time of her last
+misfortune--that of having all her little possessions stolen--when she
+seemed, by all accounts, at length to have been well nigh driven to
+despair, for to add to this distress, her lover's unkindness--"unkindest
+cut of all," began (as under the curse of absence, the most confiding
+lovers are too prone to do) to doubt the alleged causes of her
+protracted separation, and to write bitter upbraiding letters to that
+effect.
+
+"We then hear," the learned gentleman proceeded, "that the prisoner
+began to sink and sicken with despair; but suddenly she receives a
+letter--she does not tell from whom--but saying something about an
+appointment with some friend, she leaves her home, and returns in a few
+days, all exulting happiness. She had received a supply of money
+sufficient for her need, but is confused and mysterious when questioned
+as to by whom this bounty has been bestowed. Then without further delay
+she had paid off her debts, procured for herself such necessaries as
+time admitted, took leave of her friends, and proceeded to Liverpool,
+and was to have sailed the following morning for America. But in the
+meantime the notes she had circulated had been discovered to be forged,
+and a warrant dispatched for her detention; and the examination before
+the magistrates eliciting nothing from her but her declaration of
+innocence, and refusal to throw any light upon the facts connected with
+their receival, she had been committed for trial. The notes were then
+produced. They were all dated ten years back, and from the appearance of
+the paper bore every mark of time and long-keeping; and one circumstance
+was brought to bear most particularly against the prisoner, which was,
+that the names assigned upon the bill were those of the firm of Maynard
+and Co.; and the very house in which the prisoner's mother had resided
+for so many years as confidential servant, was that of Mr. Trevor, of
+Montrevor, who was at that time one of the partners in that extensive
+concern."
+
+The Judge then demanded whether the prisoner's mother was not
+forthcoming. His lordship was then informed that she was not, as it had
+been ascertained that she was at that moment lying dangerously ill of a
+mortal disease. Evidence had however been obtained, that she had not for
+the last twelve years held any intercourse with her daughter.
+
+The Judge, though considering this point unsatisfactory, forbore further
+comment, until he had heard the other side of the question, and Mr.
+Seaham, counsel for the prisoner, accordingly rose up to speak.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+No little sensation was created by the able defence of the young
+barrister. The touching, though simple outline he first drew of the
+previous history of the accused--her character and conduct, so
+inconsistent with such grave delinquency as that of which she stood
+suspected--which he produced many witnesses to testify; all was brought
+admirably to bear upon the point. Even round the impenetrable cloud in
+which her silence wrapped the affair, he cast a silvery halo, by the
+manner in which he treated her conduct in this respect. The moral beauty
+in which he clothed the idea--the matchless constancy of that poor
+woman's mind, which few who had heard the details of her history, of her
+life, could forbear to acknowledge. Who then could feel surprised if now
+she stood there preferring shame, ignominy, and suspicion to the
+betrayal of the being who, were it friend or relation--even stranger or
+acquaintance--had come forward to assist her in her extremity, and
+though but for a moment, had stood forth in the guise of benefactor,
+turning her mourning into joy--throwing sunshine upon her weary path!
+Who could sound the depths of gratitude when once strongly called forth
+in the human heart--to what even morbid extent, as he owned it might be
+deemed in the present case, might it not be carried? That the quality of
+self-preservation--self-defence was greater--many in that assembly might
+sneeringly assert; but for his own part--he was thankful to say such
+cynical lessons had not been taught him--he did think that
+gratitude--disinterested, heroic gratitude, was still a flower not yet
+quite extinct in the soil of humanity; that in the words of the poet he
+could assert:
+
+    "I've heard of hearts unkind--of hearts,
+    Kind deeds with ill returning;
+    Alas! the gratitude of men
+    Has often left me mourning."
+
+But might there not be a bond stronger even than gratitude which binds
+the prisoner's tongue in a matter touching so closely her personal
+welfare? It was his business that day to clear his client, therefore he
+must add, that very insufficient light had been obtained from a quarter
+in which much more particular evidence was naturally to have been
+expected. The prisoner had a mother, which circumstance had before been
+mentioned, and the truth of which, (even during the brief space of time
+the matter had been placed in his hands,) he made it his business to
+ascertain, now lying on her death-bed. Yet how could it be clearly
+ascertained that this mother has not assisted her daughter in her
+distress? indeed it seems strangely unnatural that she should not have
+done so throughout the long probation she had endured, and still more so
+in this last emergency. Was there no question as to whether the powers
+of natural affection might not restrain the selfish instinct of
+self-defence? Was there any proof, though there might be no direct
+knowledge, that the prisoner had not held intercourse or correspondence
+with the parent?
+
+It had been stated, that the prisoner had never set foot in the house
+where the mother had been established so many years--that she never had
+received pecuniary aid from the family with whom her mother resided; yet
+the notes had been proved to be exact fac-similes of those delivered by
+the bank of Messrs. Maynard and Co., that firm to which the head of the
+family--whom the mother served at the time of the date of these
+notes--then belonged.
+
+Arthur Seaham, as he proceeded, could not but experience the happy
+consciousness of success, could not doubt from the air of satisfied
+approving attention pervading the large assembly in the midst of which
+he stood, that whatever might be the verdict of the jury as regarded his
+client, he was at any rate doing well for himself--that he had not
+overrated his own powers and abilities; at all events he possessed one
+great gift of genius, the key to the hearts of men, that he had only to
+push bravely forward to win himself rank amongst an Eldon or an Erskine.
+The sun shone full upon a glaring court, upon many approving, admiring,
+nay, upon many tearful faces; for there were many in court who had known
+young Seaham from a boy, and whose countenance held an affectionate
+place in their hearts and memories; and yet, perhaps, there were but
+three among them all, who made any distinct and individual impression on
+his senses during the time, and these three inspiring feelings quite
+distinct from any self-pride, from any ambition in his heart.
+
+One was the prisoner herself--that pale, patient face turned on him with
+such a meek and quiet confidence, as if on him she had reposed all she
+felt of trust in human power; her eyes fixed on him, her human
+counsellor--but her heart resting upon another alone able to
+defend--even on Him who had said:
+
+    "I will never leave you, nor forsake you,"
+
+and in whom, though he were to slay her, she would still surely trust.
+
+The other two we may easily imagine were the faces so striking in their
+contrast--those two fair members of the court, who occupied convenient
+places behind the judge's chair, their eyes fixed upon him; the one all
+bright and beautiful in her excitement--the other becoming paler and
+paler from the intense and painful interest in which something in the
+case itself seemed more and more to enthral her.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At this juncture then, Arthur Seaham had arrived; he had but just said
+that he had hoped for the appearance of one witness whose evidence might
+have thrown some important light upon the subject, and to whom he had
+made too late application, when a bustle was heard outside the court,
+and murmurs arose that this very witness had just that moment arrived.
+
+Another instant, and Eugene Trevor made his way into the court, pale,
+eager, agitated; bearing every mark of a long and hasty journey. He
+approached the bench and spoke with Arthur Seaham apart, as he might
+have done with any other member of the bar, professionally, as if he had
+never spoken to him on such different matters, and in such a different
+character as in their interview at the London Hotel.
+
+The young barrister returned to his seat with altered countenance, and
+addressing the judge, announced that the gentleman just arrived in
+court, had not come in the character of a witness; but to declare facts,
+which at once cleared his client from all further imputations. Mr.
+Trevor then sworn in, declared as follows:
+
+He had come at the dying request of the mother of the accused, to state
+her confession as to having delivered the forged notes to her daughter,
+that daughter she declared--having solemnly taken her oath of secresy
+upon the Bible, being in entire ignorance of the real nature of the
+relief bestowed upon her, or the reason for the secresy imposed. He then
+produced certificates from the medical attendants as to the dying
+condition of the real offender.
+
+To what further transpired, few, beyond those especially concerned in
+the _éclaircissement_, paid any very particular attention; the general
+interest being now attracted towards the ex-prisoner, who, whilst
+listening with signs of strong emotion to the declaration of her
+innocence, had suddenly fainted, and was carried out of the court; and
+in a few minutes the hall was almost cleared.
+
+It was nearly an hour before Eugene Trevor was released from the
+examination to which he was subjected. On leaving the court, he stopped
+to make inquiries for Mabel Marryott.
+
+The official to whom he applied, informed him that the poor woman had
+been taken into a private room, where she had soon recovered; and then,
+seeming to look upon the inquirer as a privileged person, offered to
+conduct him to her presence.
+
+Eugene did not decline the proposal, but followed the man, who soon
+arrived at the apartment, the door of which he opened, looked within,
+directing Eugene to enter.
+
+The doctor had just left his patient, and she was seated in an upright
+position against a chair, still faint and pale, though restored to
+consciousness, and receiving in her trembling hands the cordials
+administered by an attendant, whilst Mary Seaham and Carrie Elliott,
+like two ministering angels, Faith and Hope personified, hung with kind
+and gentle solicitude over the poor woman's chair, encouraging her
+fainting spirit with soothing and congratulatory words.
+
+Well might Eugene Trevor pause at the threshold, ere he dared to
+introduce himself upon such a scene--into such a company. Perhaps,
+indeed, he might have made his escape, had not the opening of the door
+directed the looks of those within, ere he had time to depart unseen.
+
+He advanced accordingly, and at once approaching his foster-sister
+without raising his eyes to her attendants, stooped down, and kindly,
+though in a confused and embarrassed manner, inquired how she felt.
+
+The poor woman was much agitated by her foster-brother's appearance. She
+tried to answer, but in the attempt burst into tears, which the woman
+who attended her nevertheless pronounced would do her good. Then seeing
+that the young ladies had already retired, Mabel Marryott signed to the
+woman also to withdraw; and raising her straining eyes to Eugene's face,
+gasped forth:
+
+"My unfortunate mother!"
+
+At the same time hiding her face with her hands, as if bowed down with
+conscious shame and humiliation at the mention of that mother's name
+before one who, she naturally supposed, regarded that mother with the
+scorn and abhorrence she too well merited.
+
+But Eugene Trevor seemed to view her emotion in another light, and
+replied to her ejaculation by confirming with as much consideration for
+her feelings as the extreme case admitted, his previous information as
+to her mother's dangerous condition--the crisis indeed of a very painful
+malady under which she had been for some time labouring--speaking
+finally of her release from suffering as an event which could only by
+her friends be desired.
+
+"Release from suffering!" murmured the shuddering daughter in a low and
+horrified tone. "God grant it; God grant that it may be so, Mr. Trevor;
+but alas! my unhappy mother! has she seen a clergyman with a view to
+her spiritual relief? does she show signs of repentance? can we
+entertain hopes that her sins may be forgiven?"
+
+Then, to her companion's somewhat vague and unsatisfactory answers on
+this point, she with renewed earnestness begged that she might at least
+be allowed to set out immediately for Montrevor; and perhaps, by the
+mercy of God, see her mother before it was too late.
+
+But this proposition Eugene did not encourage; he assured her that it
+would be too late, that he was sorry to say there had been little chance
+of Mrs. Marryott's surviving his departure many hours, that she might
+rest assured that everything had been done for her mother that was right
+and proper. He then advised Mabel Marryott rather to set about immediate
+arrangements for her voyage to America, for which she should have every
+facility. Then pressing some bank notes into her graspless hand, and
+desiring her to apply to him for anything more which might be required,
+he turned away as if to escape from any thanks his generosity might call
+forth from those blanched and powerless lips; but rather, we imagine,
+impatient to cut short so painful and disagreeable an interview; and in
+another moment he stood by the side of Mary Seaham who, as we have said,
+had at his entrance withdrawn with Miss Elliott to the further end of
+the room.
+
+"Mary!" he murmured in a low voice, whilst Miss Elliott, on perceiving
+his approach, flew back to Mabel Marryott.
+
+"Mary, will you not speak to me?"
+
+Mary turned towards him, and held out her hand.
+
+"Eugene!" she said in a low agitated voice, then paused, and fixing her
+eyes on him with an earnest, wistful and distressful look; whilst on
+Eugene's side might have appeared in his countenance more of
+embarrassment than pleasure.
+
+The door opened, and voices made themselves heard without. Both looked
+uneasily and uncomfortably towards it.
+
+"Can I not see you, and speak to you, Mary, more privately before I
+leave this place? I cannot stay longer than to-day, for I am wanted at
+Montrevor."
+
+"Yes, Eugene," Mary replied in the same low, hurried voice, yet with
+more earnest anxiety of manner. "I should like very much to see you. If
+you will come this evening very late, I shall be probably alone, and we
+can speak together without interruption."
+
+He pressed her hand in sign of agreement, and hastily left the room,
+exchanging a slight and hurried greeting with Arthur Seaham who passed
+upon his way.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+    Let after reckonings trouble fearful fools;
+    I'll stand the trial of these trivial crimes.
+
+    DRYDEN.
+
+
+    The time shall come, nor long remote, when thou
+    Shall feel far more than thou inflictest now;
+    Feel for thy vile self-loving self in vain,
+    And turn thee howling in unpitied pain.
+
+    BYRON.
+
+
+To explain the chief incidents of the last chapter, it is our necessary,
+though repellent task to retrograde some six months past, and enter the
+gloomy mansion of Montrevor, where all that time its infirm master lay,
+like a chained enchanter on his bed of sickness.
+
+His son had late that day left for London, amply supplied with those
+funds to supply his exigencies, which he had little difficulty now in
+drawing from the resources of the now powerless old dotard.
+
+A few hours later, when darkness had closed in, and the house was hushed
+and still, a woman's form was seen issuing from the old man's chamber.
+
+It was Mabel Marryott. She was changed from the day we last saw her,
+sailing along the passages of Montrevor. She came forward with a slow,
+uncertain step, holding a shawl wrapped loosely over her breast; and the
+lamp she carried in the other hand showed her countenance to bear a sick
+and ghastly expression, betokening the painful disease through which she
+finally perished, to have already laid its sharp fangs on her system.
+
+But though bodily strength might be subdued, no mental debilitation
+seemed the consequence. She went straight forward to the door of her
+master's library; entering without a pause of fear, or conscious
+stricken awe, that gloomy haunt of many sinful and accusing memories,
+she shut the door behind her, placed the lamp upon a table and sat down
+to rest, her eyes wandering deliberately round the room fearing little
+to encounter the spiritual shades of the past--the meek upbraiding of
+one wronged being's saintly eyes--the noble scorn--the scathing
+indignation of another's. She feared not yet either angel or spirit, her
+day of fear was yet to come. She looked round with a keen scrutinizing
+glance of survey, and then she rose and went composedly to work; she had
+the field to herself, and one master-key which the old man had managed
+to keep concealed even from his son, she had contrived by strict
+vigilance to discover the hiding-place, and get into her possession.
+
+"Thou fool!" might have seemed the utterance of her heart, as with a
+look of fiendish mockery she flung open the depository into which she
+thus found entrance, and viewed the glittering treasures it contained.
+"Thou fool! thou hast indeed many goods laid up for many years, and this
+night--perhaps this night, this very night, thy dotard soul may be
+required of thee."
+
+"Thou fool! how long hast _thou_ to live," the spirit of air might have
+echoed in _her_ ear, as the woman proceeded on her work of iniquity.
+
+But strange the insane delusion by which each man would seem to deem
+all men mortal but themselves. Even with that fatal malady gnawing on
+her very vitals. Mabel Marryott trusting in an arm of flesh, confidant
+in human skill, was laying in store for herself many years of
+anticipatory pleasure, ease, and competence.
+
+With a well-filled purse of gold, she then had for the present turned
+away content--gold which the old man she thought would never rise from
+his bed to demand, and of which his heirs could guess only the
+existence; and thus she would have departed, had not her quick eye
+suddenly discovered a secret recess, which from the difficulty she had
+in opening it, more keenly excited her curiosity and interest.
+
+By dint of much trouble and exertion the aperture finally yielded, and a
+heap of papers, which had to all appearance been carelessly thrust in
+together, was the issue of her research. They were bank-notes. One after
+another, she read the tempting numbers--hesitated--replaced them, and
+finally divided and pocketed the half.
+
+Two hours after this deed had been perpetrated, some one came knocking
+gently at the door of Mr. Trevor's chamber, to which Mrs. Marryott had
+returned to inform her that a young woman had arrived, desiring to
+speak with her. Mrs. Marryott kept the person waiting some little time
+for she was giving Mr. Trevor his arrow-root; but at length went down to
+her sitting-room, where she found a woman of decent appearance though
+poorly attired, seated patiently awaiting her coming; a dark cloak
+wrapped around her, and a large bonnet and veil nearly concealing her
+face.
+
+On perceiving Marryott she rose, and to the inquiry: "What was her
+business?" the stranger put back her veil, and showing her pale and
+anxious countenance, in tremulous accents murmured: "Mother!"
+
+Surprise was at first strongly depicted on Marryott's countenance; but
+the next instant the hard impenetrable expression of her face returned,
+in a cold measured tone she demanded what it might be that brought her
+there?
+
+"Mother; have you no words of kindness to give your daughter?" faltered
+the poor woman.
+
+"Words of kindness--pshaw! is that all you have come this long way for,"
+the other answered impatiently.
+
+"Alas! no mother," was the sorrowful reply, drooping her head
+despairingly; "but if you have not even those to give me, how can I ask
+for more."
+
+"More! ah, I thought so--I thought that pride would have a fall at last:
+that you would put your virtue into your pocket, and be coming one day
+crawling on your knees to beg a morsel of bread, or a hole in this
+house, from the mother who was not _good_ enough for you some years ago.
+So I suppose your lover won't have you now that you are old and
+ugly--bah! don't think that I will take you in here; if this house was
+not good enough for you _then_, it's none the better _now_. At any rate
+there's no place in it for you, so you must go back from whence you
+came."
+
+"Mother, mother--do not speak so cruelly--do not blame me, if knowing
+what was good and what was evil, I could not come to live here, hearing
+of you what I did. But alas! my spirit indeed waxeth faint, and my
+strength faileth me. I am worn out with useless labour, and I come to
+ask a little help from the mother who bore me, trusting that God will
+forgive both her and me, for we have all sinned--all stand in need of
+forgiveness. * * Yes, I come to ask for a little help to take me to
+America--to Henry Wilson, who still waits for and expects me."
+
+"Oh, that's it,"--with a scornful laugh--"it's money you want; those
+'wages of iniquity,' which you scorned at so finely long ago."
+
+"Mother--those were strong words perhaps for a daughter so young to use
+towards a mother, but my heart was grieved for you; it was in sorrowful
+affection, not undutiful scorn, that I thus spoke."
+
+Mabel Marryott sat down--she had hitherto remained coldly standing--and
+signed to her daughter to do the same. The submissive manner Jane had
+assumed, probably in a degree mollifying her hardened spirit; or rather
+perhaps it was a sort of triumph, to see her virtuous child thus brought
+low before her. She had quite lived down any womanly or maternal
+feeling; and would probably, without the slightest compunction, have
+turned her from the door penniless as she came: yet something--perhaps
+the idea that it would be disagreeable and degrading to her high
+pretensions, to have that poor, shabby creature coming begging at the
+house as her daughter--made her calculate that it might be a better plan
+to get rid of her at once--easily as it was in her power now to
+accomplish it. Those notes still in her pocket, she had begun already to
+repent not having left them in their hiding place--bank notes were
+terrible things to meddle with, but at any rate no harm could come of
+their being put in use by one under Jane Marryott's circumstances.
+
+In short, it ended as we all know by those twice guilty papers being
+transferred into the hands of the innocent; and Jane Marryott--bound by
+the promise of strict secrecy, which she so resolutely maintained
+inviolate--left the house without any member of the household having
+been made aware of her identity, with the unblessed cause of fresh
+misfortune in her possession. With the unhappy sequel we are acquainted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Six months had passed, and Mabel Marryott lay groaning on a bed of
+agony. The pains of hell truly had got hold of her, and
+conscience--faint foretaste of the never dying worm, rose up to torment
+her "before her time," with the dark catalogue of remembered sin--sin
+unrepented, and therefore unforgiven. She would not turn to the one
+sure fountain, open for sin and for uncleaness. She even repulsed all
+offers of spiritual ministration from those members of the household who
+had thought and feeling, to see the awful nature of the dying woman's
+position.
+
+"No, she wanted no clergymen, they could avail her nothing--could not
+undo one of the sins she had committed." But at length one day, she sent
+to desire Eugene Trevor would come himself and speak to her in private.
+He came, and lifting herself up with difficulty in her bed, she turned
+her ghastly countenance towards her foster-son as he stood by her side,
+and fixing her sunken eyes upon him, addressed him thus:
+
+"Eugene Trevor, my daughter is to be tried this week at ---- for
+forgery."
+
+"So I was sorry to hear, Mabel; but there seems, I think, every chance
+of her being acquitted."
+
+"Chance--yes; but I am not going to leave it to chance, and die with
+this too on my conscience. I have been a bad mother from the first, I
+forsook the child at my breast for the hire of a stranger, and cast her
+on the world to shift for herself in toil and trouble; and last of all,
+by my stolen charity have brought this curse upon her. Yes, Eugene
+Trevor," she added, emphatically, "I stole those notes from your
+father's chest, and gave them to the girl--but who _forged_ them?"
+
+Eugene Trevor started as if an adder had stung him; and turning ashy
+pale, sunk down upon a chair that stood near.
+
+"What--what in the name of Heaven do you mean, Marryott?" he stammered
+forth.
+
+"Eugene Trevor, do not try to deceive a dying woman. I have confessed my
+part of the business, do not deny yours. There was not much which passed
+between you and your father that night ten years ago, that I did not
+overhear, and which now put together, would be enough to commit
+_you_--but do not fear, I am not going to betray you, only do my
+bidding; go to ---- and get that girl free--it matters little to me, who
+shall be dead perhaps, before the morning, what I'm thought of; go and
+tell them that _I_ gave the notes, and that _she_ was ignorant of this
+falsity--go, get her off, and come back and tell me she is free, and I
+die silent; if not, as sure as I lie here a dying woman, I send for a
+magistrate and tell him all."
+
+Eugene Trevor's discomfiture and perturbation at this disclosure may be
+imagined. He had been surprised at the time of her apprehension, to see
+the account of Jane Marryott's examination in the papers, but Mabel had
+professed such perfect ignorance on the subject--such careless
+indifference concerning the trouble of her daughter, that though the
+coincidence of the notes might strike him as singular, it scarcely
+occurred to him as possible that those half-forgotten instruments of his
+youthful crime, which he had not for a moment doubted his father
+immediately destroyed, could possibly have fallen into the prisoner's
+hands.
+
+There was nothing to be done but to obey his accuser's wishes, knowing
+well the determined spirit of that fearful woman, so that there would be
+no other way of preventing her, even with her dying lips, declaring the
+part he had in the dark transaction in question. He therefore took all
+necessary precautions and started on his critical commission with as
+little delay as possible, receiving before his departure, the formal
+summons from Arthur Seaham to attend as witness on the trial.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+    Ah, Zelica! there was a time, when bliss
+    Shone o'er thy heart from every look of his;
+    When but to see him, hear him breathe the air
+    In which he dwelt was thy soul's fondest prayer;
+    When round him hung such a perpetual spell,
+    Whate'er he did, none ever did so well.
+    Too happy days! when, if he touch'd a flower
+    Or gem of thine, 'twas sacred from that hour.
+
+    LALLA ROOKH.
+
+
+Mary Seaham sat alone that same evening by the hotel room fire,
+expecting Eugene Trevor.
+
+She had told him to come late, because by that time, she knew that her
+brother, with Judge Elliott's party, would have gone to the county ball
+held that night in the town; and that the important interview with him,
+who still deemed himself her lover, might take place without
+interruption.
+
+Mary had not told her brother of the appointment she had made; so
+fearful was she that any obstacle should occur to impede or prevent the
+anxious purpose she had formed. Yet now that the carriage containing
+Arthur, the radiant Carrie, and their chaperon had driven from the door,
+and she knew that Eugene at any moment, might be announced, her heart
+began to fail her, and she almost repented of what she had undertaken.
+What was she going to do or say--what part pursue?
+
+A dark and bewildered maze seemed to lie before her, and she sat there,
+pale and trembling at every sound, something grasped convulsively in her
+hand, her eyes fixed with a dark and anxious gaze upon the flickering
+fire-flame.
+
+Times indeed were changed, since in serene and quiet happiness, Mary had
+so often waited at Silverton for her lover's approach. No one could have
+imaged forth an intended love-tryste from her aspect now. Yet the
+critical moment came. Eugene entered--the door closed behind him, and
+once more they were alone together. Mary having resumed her seat, with
+blanched lips and beating heart--he standing on the hearth-rug looking
+down upon her like as he had done on that memorable occasion of the
+first declaration of his love--that beginning of so much happiness--but
+greater misery to Mary. Alas! was this to be its end?
+
+He began to speak hurriedly of the length of time since they had met, of
+the strange circumstances of their _rencontre_ that day; Mary listening
+as to a voice speaking in a dream, and assenting mechanically, till
+finally, as he alluded more particularly to the circumstances of the
+case, mentioning the name of Mabel Marryott and the astounding facts
+which had transpired concerning that old--he had almost said _faithful_
+but he substituted long-established servant of the family. Then the pure
+blood mounted for a moment to Mary's brow, leaving something like a
+stern and calm resolution on her countenance; whilst to Eugene Trevor's
+somewhat complacent communication, as to what he had done for the
+daughter, the measures he had taken to secure her from further trouble
+and delay in the accomplishment of her emigration, she listened grave
+and unmoved, as if she deemed his proceedings in this respect had been
+but what was strictly due to the innocent sufferer of so much iniquity.
+
+Yes, darker and darker seemed to grow the picture before Mary's eyes
+that house and home presented, of which she had once contemplated with
+such innocent satisfaction and happy anticipation becoming the mistress.
+Sin after sin, more or less strange and terrible to her startled spirit,
+rose up to scare and to repel her; so much so, that to think that one to
+whom she had been devoted, should have amalgamated himself even in a
+passive character with the influence of such a foul and infected
+atmosphere, was horrible to her feelings, and most 'blessed' indeed in
+comparison--'when men shall revile you and cast you out of their
+company'--appeared to her the persecuted in such a case.
+
+Was it that some outward manifestation of these inward impressions
+revealed themselves upon her countenance, that Eugene regarded her with
+that keen and scrutinizing expression, as for a moment her eyes were,
+with a careworn abstracted look, cast downwards upon the ground.
+
+"Now, Mary, let me hear something of yourself," he suddenly exclaimed,
+breaking off his former topic of discourse; "what have you been doing
+since I saw you last?"
+
+Mary did not return the question; she did not ask "What have _you_ been
+doing?" but as she looked up into her lover's face, what was it that
+made it impossible to return the smile, the glance, with which he
+awaited the reply? What was it that made her turn away her eyes with a
+pang--almost a shudder at her heart? Alas! what new impression did she
+receive from looking on that face, which had been to her the beloved
+dream, the haunting vision of her youth.
+
+Was it come to this. Had absence changed her heart? Had it become
+strange, untrue, towards her early love? Did she turn her eyes away from
+her lover's face because his cheek was haggard, his brow sunken, and his
+eye lost the brightness of those days when
+
+    "The sunshine of her life was in those eyes."
+
+Ah, no! she felt that this was not the case. Had she but read signs of
+grief, of sickness, written there, and her heart would have gone forth
+to soothe and sympathize with all the truth and fervour of the past.
+
+But no, it was none of these which had laid their signet there. Alas for
+her enlightened eyes! she felt it was not sorrow--not sickness--but
+sin; that no cloud had settled on his brow which she could have dared
+the fond attempt to pierce; and agony to think that it should have come
+to this; that she should be seated at his side, and feel it were not
+possible that she could lay her weary head upon that lover's arm, place
+her hand in his, with the love and confidence with which she had even
+yearned towards another.
+
+But this had been the vague and passing reflection of a second. With
+scarcely perceptible pause she had softly replied:
+
+"I have done little, Eugene, which would count for much in your varied
+and busy existence. The most important feature in my own consideration
+has been an excursion to Italy, which I took last summer with my
+brother."
+
+Mary's voice trembled nervously as she uttered these last words, for she
+felt that now had come an opportunity she must not neglect, for leading
+on to the critical subject on which she had to speak: and, as if to
+support her desperate purpose, unclasped the little trinket-case she had
+all this time still held concealed in the palm of her delicate hand.
+
+"To Italy! oh, indeed;" was Eugene's reply. "I was very nearly going
+there at the same time; it was just a chance that I did not. My father's
+illness, a constant tie upon my movements, prevented me at the last
+moment; how delightful it would have been if we had met."
+
+Mary made no reply, but looked down still with that peculiar expression
+which could not but strike Eugene as ominous of something of an
+important and peculiar nature.
+
+"And you were charmed, I suppose;" he proceeded, perusing her
+countenance with increasing interest and attention; "so much so that I
+fear you would scarcely have considered my society as an addition to
+your enjoyment; you have learnt to live too well without me, I am
+afraid, Mary."
+
+That low and flattering tone of other days thrilled Mary's heart, and
+flushed her cheek with emotions as of old; but gently removing the hand
+which for an instant she passively yielded to his pressure, she did not
+raise her eyes as once she would have done, in tender rebuke at the
+unjust assumption--she did not say how wearisome and dark had life
+become without him--how void, wasted and incomplete!--but hurriedly, as
+if she feared the working of the olden spell, and the consequent melting
+away of her sterner resolution, she started forward upon the anxious
+theme weighing on her heart.
+
+"I met with a strange adventure at Tivoli, Eugene; it was about that I
+wished most particularly to speak to you. One morning, as I was walking
+out early, I found this ring upon the ground;" and as she spoke she
+produced the signet from the case, and held it towards him. "You may
+imagine how surprised I was to see your initials, and your crest; I
+scarcely knew indeed what to think, till walking on a little further I
+overtook--Mr. Temple!"
+
+Her listener, who had at first taken the ring wonderingly from her hand;
+as she proceeded, raised it to the light, and then abruptly, as if for
+the purpose of closer examination, he started up and approached the
+candle.
+
+He uttered not a word, but had his face not been turned away, it might
+have been seen to have changed to an ashy hue.
+
+"I was surprised," Mary proceeded, "for though the initials were thus
+accounted for, the crest being yours seemed too unlikely a coincidence;
+indeed I had previously cherished a vague but wild idea that it might
+possibly belong to your brother, and that his long-wished for recovery
+was at hand."
+
+She paused, but no comment on her words, no reply, but an almost
+fiercely impatient interrogative: "Well?" as he turned his countenance,
+but not his eyes, round upon her, proceeded from his lips.
+
+"Well, you see I was disappointed," her mild voice resumed more firmly,
+now that she had launched upon the critical theme beyond recall. "At
+least," she added, with a wistful earnest glance, "I found, as I said
+before, that it had been dropped by Mr. Temple. Oh, Eugene! how came it
+in his possession--that ring, that impression which I remember to have
+seen upon a letter--that fatal letter which seemed to have been the
+beginning of so much sorrow and annoyance. Oh! what is this mysterious
+connection subsisting between you and Mr. Temple? tell me--tell me
+truly--faithfully--what is it that makes this signet with your arms,
+your crest, his also?"
+
+Eugene Trevor burst into a forced and insulting laugh.
+
+"Good Heavens, Mary! why not ask that question of Temple himself? how in
+the world am I to tell whether it might have been begged, borrowed, or
+stolen by the clerical impostor? Stolen most likely--as I can pretty
+plainly perceive," fixing on her face a keen and cynical look of
+scrutiny; "he has managed to steal something else besides. Yes," he
+continued, "I begin to understand now the secret of the cold looks and
+measured words with which, after so long a separation, I am received by
+you, Mary. I see what this excursion to Italy has done for me. It is _I_
+who ought to ask questions, I think. You saw a great deal of Temple, I
+conclude, after the first adventure?"
+
+Though Eugene endeavoured to assume a tone of irritated suspicion
+natural to a man whose jealousy was not unreasonably awakened, there was
+a look of dark and eager anxiety in his countenance which could not be
+concealed.
+
+"Yes," Mary continued in a tolerably firm voice, though she had turned a
+little pale at her lover's implied accusation, "circumstances certainly
+did throw us together--circumstances neither of his seeking or my own."
+
+A fierce fiery expression shot from Eugene's eye.
+
+"Oh, they did!" he exclaimed, taking refuge in the passionate burst of
+rage in which his feelings found vent. "I thought so; and this is his
+most honourable, most virtuous mode of proceeding, insinuating himself
+into your society, inveigling your affections by his heroic sanctity,
+and poisoning your ear by base and interested insinuations against
+myself--if he wishes to circulate his malicious lies, why not speak them
+out plainly like a man--not send you to attack me in this manner with
+that accursed ring?" dashing the signet forcibly to the ground.
+
+"Eugene!" interposed Mary, "these reflections on the most honourable and
+upright of men are unfounded and unjust. There was nothing in the nature
+of our intercourse with which the most jealous could find fault. He, Mr.
+Temple, was in a manner forced into joining my brother and myself during
+a short excursion, by an old friend, Mr. Wynne, with whom he was
+travelling, and at last parted from us abruptly. As to the rest it is I
+alone on whom your displeasure need fall; it was by my anxious
+importunity alone--which he tried in vain to evade--that I drew from him
+all that I learnt on a subject on which it has become necessary to the
+peace and quiet of my spirit, that I should be more clearly enlightened.
+He told me that his lips were sealed upon the points on which I
+questioned him; but that some mystery does exist--some mystery
+respecting your brother, Eugene, some mystery in which you yourself, and
+indeed he Mr. Temple, are strangely, closely confused--is most certain.
+And then he gave me back that ring, and referred me to you for a true
+and faithful relation of all I so anxiously desired to ascertain; or for
+your sake, as well as my own, to bid you farewell for ever. Oh, Eugene!
+disperse then, I implore you, this dark, bewildering cloud, for I
+cannot, cannot walk on any more groping in this darkness. Think of me
+what you please--wrong my motives if you will, but only show me the
+truth whatever it may be; or, Eugene," she added, faintly, her voice
+melted into a tone of mingled compassion and concern, "I must indeed put
+an end at once to my ceaseless perplexity, by bidding you farewell for
+ever."
+
+Eugene Trevor was calm now, though still livid with the passion into
+which he had excited himself. He sat down, close to Mary's side, and
+there was a dogged air of resolution expressed in his countenance.
+
+"I am willing to tell anything that you may wish to ask," he said
+sarcastically, "to tear off any part of this delightful veil of mystery
+in which you have been pleased to invest my deeds and actions, for the
+benefit of your romantic imagination. So pray begin your catechism."
+
+"Your brother?" was the faint and faltering interrogatory, which came
+from Mary's lips.
+
+Eugene Trevor's assumed calmness vanished; he started up, and approached
+the fire-place, murmuring hoarsely:
+
+"Well, what of him?"
+
+"Where is he? Who is he? How is it that he does not return or appear in
+England--in the world? What has he to do with Mr. Temple? For that some
+mysterious link does exist between those two; I have for sometime had
+suspicions which I can no longer quell, or put aside as imaginary and
+vain--by night as well as by day I have been haunted by wild, strange
+dreams that Mr. Temple and your brother are the same."
+
+She paused aghast, for she had risen and approached Eugene in her
+excitement, and now stood gazing as Adah might have gazed upon the face
+of her husband Cain, when for the first time his countenance was
+revealed to her in all its undisguised hatred and wrathfulness of
+expression.
+
+"Eugene!" she murmured, her voice melting into a tone of mingled
+surprize, compassion and concern. "Eugene!" and she laid her hand
+soothingly on his arm.
+
+He turned his eyes, flashing defiance upon her.
+
+"Well," he cried, "and if they were, pray, what of that?"
+
+"If--if" she cried, returning his gaze unshrinkingly, "then--then your
+brother, Eugene, should not _now_--never should have been a banished
+exile from his home and heritage. They have wronged him basely, who
+ever, on the plea of madness, deprived such a man of honour, hope and
+happiness. Farewell indeed, Eugene, if this _could_ be the case.
+Farewell, at least, till you have repaired your grievous error, and
+restored Eustace Trevor to all which has been wrongfully, deceitfully
+taken from him."
+
+She turned away, but Eugene Trevor seized her hand.
+
+"Stop, Mary," he said in a low voice of subdued and concentrated rage.
+"Stop, if you please, and hear _me_. You may remember, you said, a
+little time ago, farewell, _if_ I did not reveal to you all you desired
+to know. I have told you nothing yet, though you seem indeed too ready
+to conclude every thing of the blackest and most preposterous
+description against me. But although you are so eager for any excuse to
+rid yourself of me, for ever; though the heart you once swore would
+scarcely have been torn from me, were I proved to be the greatest
+villain upon earth, has shown itself a very woman's in its weakness, its
+feebleness, its inconstancy. Yes, Mary, villain as you may wish to
+consider me, _I_ preserve at least the virtue of _constancy_. I love you
+as much as ever, Mary. I will not give you up. What," he exclaimed,
+fixing his eyes upon her pale and startled countenance, and advancing
+towards her as she sunk down upon a sofa, "do you own yourself, false
+and faithless, enough to wish that I should do so? Do you now love this
+Eustace, this Temple, whatever he may please to call himself?"
+
+"Eugene!" gasped Mary's blanched lips.
+
+"Answer me, Mary, or rather prove it. I see indeed that our marriage has
+been deferred too long; promise me, _swear_, that it shall take place
+secretly; there is nothing now that should impede it. I can manage my
+father now, that that woman will be out of the way. You know, Mary--you
+cannot wonder that I should have considered her presence as an objection
+to your entrance into my father's house; the obstacle will now be
+removed."
+
+But Mary shrank back with shuddering repugnance at the suggestion thus
+presented to her delicate imagination. _She_ invited to take the place
+of Mabel Marryott--_she_ to have room made for her within her lover's
+home, by the removal of such a being.
+
+"Mary, you are not--you cannot own yourself so faithless and so false as
+to love that other man."
+
+"No--Eugene--no. What right have you to entertain such a suspicion? but
+you--you have not told me what I required."
+
+"But I _will_ tell you, Mary--I will tell you everything. I will
+redeem--I will atone for all that I may have done--I will lay my fate in
+your hands--I will yield my future conduct, my every action, to your
+guidance and direction. As your husband, I shall be content to give up
+all, whatsoever your wishes may cost me. But I will wait no longer; say
+you will be my wife, Mary: and I swear to fulfil whatever you may impose
+upon me."
+
+He had passed his arm with a kind of reckless excitement round her
+waist, and now held her tightly towards him, so that her heart beat
+wildly against his own, though she shrank trembling from the close
+embrace, and still he repeated, with a voice which sounded to her ear
+more like hatred than affection:
+
+"Say--promise me, you will marry me in a week, Mary, publicly or in
+secret, as you will; you are your own mistress, no one can prevent you.
+Speak, say that one word, Mary, and you shall hear everything as truly
+as if I stood before the judgment-seat of God."
+
+But Mary's lips could not utter a reply, her breath seemed choked, a
+mist was before her eyes, though the once most beloved face on earth
+was bending down upon her, so near that his very breath fanned her
+cheek. She saw it, but as in a frightful dream changed into the face of
+a demon, and she felt that breath to be upon her brow like a burning and
+a blighting flame. Yet in the strange terror, the perplexity of feeling
+which had come over her, a kind of fascination, which something in that
+dark, lurid glance fixed so steadfastly upon her, seemed to enthral her
+senses. She might perhaps, had it been possible, have forced her lips to
+give the required promise. But though they moved, they uttered no sound.
+She grew paler and paler, more and more heavily she pressed against the
+retaining arm which encircled her, till finally her head lay back on the
+cushion of the couch; and Eugene Trevor started at perceiving her closed
+eyes and ghastly countenance, released her from his hold, for she had
+fainted!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+    For thee I panted, thee I prized,
+    For thee I gladly sacrificed
+    Whate'er I loved before;
+    And shall I see thee start away,
+    And helpless, hopeless, hear thee say--
+    Farewell! we meet no more.
+
+    COWPER.
+
+
+Eugene Trevor's first impulse was to step back shocked and amazed; but
+the first paroxism of passion into which he had worked himself, in a
+degree cooled by this unlooked for catastrophe, he felt that he had
+acted in a weak and unreasonable manner.
+
+Yes, to say that he stood there, looking on that good and gentle being,
+whose pitiful condition only showed the climax to which he had
+distressed and unnerved her guileless spirit, by the course of conduct
+he had so unjustifiably pursued--the peace and happiness of whose life
+he had so selfishly blighted.
+
+That he had looked on her thus, and thought chiefly of himself, was but
+too true a proof of the purity and genuineness of the feelings, which
+had prompted him to press upon her their union in so urgent and
+unjustifiable a manner.
+
+Yes--dark and perplexing considerations as to the position of his own
+affairs came crowding upon his mind. Mary's suspicions, nay, even
+amounting to certainty, as to his brother's identity, he had himself
+recklessly confirmed; but that mattered little, for suspicion once
+awakened on the subject, the truth in any case, must sooner or later
+have transpired.
+
+No, he should have long ago have broken off with Mary, as his brother
+had required; that would have been the only means of keeping that mad
+enthusiast quiet till his father's death, and his own affairs
+satisfactorily settled. What infatuation had kept him hankering after
+that "mess of pottage," which after all, he felt had become far less
+valuable to him, than all that had been risked through its cause. He had
+been in love with Mary Seaham three years ago; then he was really and
+truly in love--in love with her sweet youth--her gentle excellence; and
+could he then have made her his wife without the trouble and annoyance
+to which the engagement had since subjected him, he had little doubt
+that the step would have been for his happiness and benefit; but as it
+had turned out, he should have long since have given up the inauspicious
+business--the strength and purity of his affection had not been such as
+could stand the test of their protracted separation. The crystal stream
+would soon have palled upon his vitiated taste, had it not been for the
+excitement of opposition, and the triumph over his brother it procured
+him.
+
+Added to this, we must in justice say, there had ever remained in
+Eugene's heart at all times--and under every circumstance, a sort of
+fascinated feeling towards Mary which had never been wholly
+extinguished--an influence over his nature wonderful even to himself.
+But this was nothing to the disquieting fears which now assailed him for
+the future; he could not well see his way before him, and
+impatiently--with feelings in which every bad passion was combined, he
+turned away from the poor girl, who lay there so wan and faded before
+him; in this moment of excitement, considering her but as the source of
+the disturbance and perplexity, in which through her, he had involved
+himself. With but one more glance, therefore, at the pale, prostrate
+form, he rang the bell with careless violence; and leaving the room,
+contented himself with desiring the servant whom he met hurrying to obey
+the summons, to send Miss Seaham's maid to her, and hastily quitted the
+house.
+
+In no happy mood of mind, Eugene Trevor regained his own hotel, and
+having made inquiries as to conveyances, started by the night mail from
+----, and reached Montrevor the following afternoon.
+
+His first inquiry was for Marryott. He was told that she had expired
+soon after his departure. "Had any one been with her?" he asked.
+
+"No one; they had supposed her to be asleep for some hours; but at
+length she had been found by the housemaid who took up her gruel, stiff
+and cold."
+
+Yes--the sin of that hardened and unrighteous woman had surely found her
+out. The curse breathed from the pale, meek features of the corpse of
+her, whose angel heart she had crushed and broken--whose death she had
+rendered lone and desolate as her life, had come back "on her bosom
+with reflected blight," she too had breathed forth her expiring sigh in
+agony unrelieved.
+
+But who wept over her remains--who cared for, who mourned her death? not
+one within that mansion. Old Mr. Trevor heard of the event, with the
+satisfaction of a child released from the dominion of a harsh attendant,
+and took advantage of his disenthralment to creep from his chamber to
+his study, to enjoy the long restricted luxury of gloating over his
+beloved treasures; and from whence, overcome by that unwonted exertion,
+he had but just been carried back to his chamber by his servant, who had
+discovered him thus employed, when his son arrived.
+
+Eugene's first act was to order the property of Marryott to be submitted
+to his inspection, and he had but just satisfied himself of there being
+no more forged notes in her possession, when the officers of the crown
+employed to make inquiries into the business, arrived at Montrevor.
+
+Their examination of the deceased's effects proved, of course, equally
+unproductive, as was every inquiry which was afterwards made. A few
+questions put to the bewildered Mr. Trevor, to whose presence Eugene
+tremblingly admitted the officials, showed him incompetent to give any
+available evidence. Their warrant went no further.
+
+With the death of the self-accused offender, ended every possibility of
+further enlightenment. She had gone to give an account of her actions to
+a Judge from before whom all hearts are open and no secrets are hid; and
+who require no human testimony to decide His just and terrible judgment.
+
+They departed, and Eugene breathed more freely, though far was the
+removal of this one weight of anxiety from leaving peace and comfort at
+his heart. The gloom and darkness which brooded over the house of sin
+and death, lay with a leaden weight upon his soul. For the first time he
+seemed to be sensible of the foulness of the atmosphere in which for
+years he had breathed so contentedly--the dark maze in which he had
+entangled himself. Perhaps it was the influence of _her_ presence, which
+even still, as it had ever done, exercised a power over his feelings--a
+wish, a transitory yearning for better, purer things; for happiness such
+as he had never tasted in his world of sensuality.
+
+From whatever it might have arisen, certainly his was no enviable frame
+of mind, and in the perplexity of the moment he was almost prompted to
+relax his immediate hold of all his anxious schemes and purposes; put
+his father under proper guardianship, and leaving the house, the
+country, for a time, abandon the issue to the future--to fate. If the
+old man died soon, well and good; he knew his present will would secure
+him the bulk of his large and long accumulated unentailed property. If
+he lingered on for years, why even then, he little feared his brother
+taking advantage of his absence. No, not his brother perhaps, but his
+friends. Might they not rise up in Eustace Trevor's behalf; and the old
+man become, as in his present state he was likely to do, a ready tool in
+their hands, to effect his ruin--for ruin to him any alteration in that
+will must prove--that will made under his own auspices; at the same time
+that the deed was executed, which in favour of his brother's alleged
+incompetency, put all power into his hands, with regard to the
+management of the entailed property.
+
+No, he must retain his post even to the death, and above all he must
+gain assurance as to the security of the deed, on which so much
+depended, and which it had been necessary to humour the old man, at the
+time, in the whim of keeping secreted in his own possession, without the
+farther security of a copy--a legal expense against which, he had
+strongly protested. There was another point too on which he was still
+painfully anxious. Were the remainder of those forged notes, which his
+father had evidently neglected to destroy, still in existence, and in
+the same place from which the rest had been extracted?
+
+With these thoughts on his mind, Eugene went to his father, and with the
+usual address of which he was full master, broke to him the nature and
+the cause of the intrusion with which he had that day been terrified and
+annoyed--in short the whole history of Marryott's share in the forgery
+case, the origin of which he recalled to his darkened recollection.
+
+The old man was confounded and dismayed--his old panic as regarded his
+son's youthful delinquency reviving in full force. He, however, held out
+still, that the notes had been destroyed, and that Marryott must have
+been a witch to have restored them to existence.
+
+Eugene combated the folly of this idea, at the same time impressing upon
+him the necessity of ascertaining the better security of any papers of
+importance, than Marryott's abstraction of the forged notes, proved them
+to be in at the present moment.
+
+For that purpose he conducted the miserable old man to his study, or
+rather private room; and with great difficulty induced him to go through
+an examination under his inspection of all places he thought it likely,
+the will and the remainder of the notes might be secreted.
+
+But the old man's cunning avarice was a match for the younger one's
+cupidity.
+
+He had his own peculiar feelings with respect to the will. A jealous
+tenacity in preserving to the last his power over the disposal of his
+riches, however other powers might have departed from him, and as to
+giving up his will to Eugene, that he would never do. He knew where it
+lay snug and secret, and if Eugene treated him ill, and stole the money
+over which even now his eyes gloated, and his hands passed so
+graspingly, he knew what he could do, and as for the notes, he had in
+truth forgotten that secret hiding-place.
+
+So the search ended for that day without the desired results, for the
+old man grew faint and feeble, and said he could do no more that time,
+but would continue the search on the morrow, so, content for the
+present, his son supported him back to his chamber. He did not leave his
+bed for the following week, before the end of which period Mabel
+Marryott was carried out to be buried. And there she lies--the same sun
+which shines upon the evil and the good, gleams upon the decent stone
+which perpetuates the dishonoured memory of the wicked--as upon the tomb
+of mocking grandeur, in which the weary had found rest--that rest "which
+remaineth for the people of God."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+    Desolate in each place of trust,
+    Thy bright soul dimmed with care,
+    To the land where is found no trace of dust.
+    Oh! look thou there.
+
+
+The servant had either not understood, or had neglected the orders of
+Eugene Trevor. Her own faithful attendant had not accompanied Mary, and
+Miss Elliott's maid, who waited upon her, had gone to the hall to be in
+attendance in the cloak-room upon her young lady. So that when the poor
+girl recovered from her temporary insensibility, she found herself quite
+alone, and nearly in darkness with but a dim and bewildered recollection
+of what had occurred, the sense of physical indisposition preponderating
+at the moment. She feebly arose, and managed to drag her chilled and
+heavy limbs to her own room.
+
+In the morning she awoke restored to a full consciousness of the reality
+of the last night's events; very dark appeared to her the world on which
+she opened now her eyes; a vague sense of misery oppressed her--a
+feeling as if the end of all things was come--that the truth, light and
+beauty of existence had passed from her for ever--that her life had been
+thrown away--the best powers of her mind--the affections of her heart
+wasted on an object suddenly stripped of every false attribute which she
+had so ignorantly worshipped.
+
+She did not feel inclined, as may be supposed, to face the glare and
+bustle of the court, and under plea of a headache excused herself from
+accompanying Miss Elliott and her brother, who, having been obliged to
+be in attendance at an early hour, had only exchanged a few words with
+his sister at her room-door previous to his departure.
+
+Mary would, therefore, have been left alone all the morning had it not
+been for a visit from Jane Marryott, who came to say farewell; and to
+express her grateful thanks, both for the aid she had received from her
+legal advocate and the kindness shown to her by the young ladies after
+the trial.
+
+Mary received her with much kindness, and encouraged her by the sweet
+sympathy of her manner, to relate "the tale of her love with all its
+pains and reverses." There was something in the subdued and chastened
+tone of the poor woman's happiness, as soothing to Mary's own troubled
+heart, as her meek and patient demeanour during her affliction had been
+touching; and as to look upon the "grief so lonely" of her upon whose
+patient countenance, she had read a tale of baffled hopes, and
+disappointed affection, which had made her think with tears upon her
+own; so now she did not feel it impossible to accede a smile of
+melancholy rejoicing in her pious joy, though no answering chord
+vibrated in her own sorrowful bosom--and she felt that the sea of
+trouble, and the ocean wide, which had hitherto disunited Jane Marryott
+from her affianced lover, was nothing to the deep gulf which must, from
+henceforth, roll between her soul and his, whom she had so long looked
+upon in that light.
+
+But the faint mournful smile did not perhaps escape the observation of
+her humble visitor, or fail to touch the scarce less delicate sympathies
+of one doubly refined in the furnace of affliction. Jane Marryott could
+not repress a glance of anxious interest on the pale young lady's face,
+as at the close of her own recital, she respectfully proceeded to
+express her wishes for the health and happiness of her brother and
+herself.
+
+She had heard, she continued timidly to say, that Mr. Eugene Trevor was
+the favoured gentleman who was to make Miss Seaham his wife--then
+paused, humbly apologising if she had offended by her boldness, for she
+marked the momentary spasm of painful emotion which passed over Mary's
+countenance.
+
+She would not have ventured to speak on the subject she added, had it
+not been for the interest, painful though it had become in its
+character, which bound her to that family. Mr. Eugene Trevor being as
+Miss Seaham probably was aware, her foster-brother.
+
+Mary bent her head in sign of acquiescence, and then murmuring that Jane
+Marryott had not offended, enquired in a low and faltering voice if she
+had been thrown much in contact with the Trevor family of late years,
+that if so, she would be much obliged by any particulars respecting it:
+she need not fear to speak freely on a subject which indeed was one of
+such peculiar interest to herself, though not now in the manner to which
+Jane had made allusion. She had indeed been long engaged to Mr. Eugene
+Trevor, but----. Mary felt not strength to complete the communication;
+her voice died away, leaving her listener to frame her own conclusions
+from the dejected pause and broken sentence.
+
+"I would do anything to oblige or serve you, dear young lady, though
+there is little on the subject of that family which can be connected in
+my mind but with shame and sorrow. However, with the exception of one
+unhappy visit of mine to Montrevor last year, I have not entered the
+house, or lived in its neighbourhood, since I was quite a young child;
+then I remember just having been taken there once or twice to see my
+mother, and being allowed to play with little Master Eugene, and most
+distinctly of all going with him into the room where was Mrs.
+Trevor--such a sweet and gentle looking lady--who spoke very kindly to
+me; and there too was Master Eustace, a beautiful boy, who seemed very
+fond of his mother, whilst Master Eugene would not do a thing that he
+was bid--he was but a child then you know," she added apologetically,
+"and they say was never taught much to love and honour that parent, by
+those who took him as an infant from her breast. Alas! that I, my
+mother's own child, should have to say it--but such visits were not
+many; my mother did not care for me enough to run the risk of offending
+her master by having me about the place. He hated strange children in
+the house, and when I was taken there it was by stealth. So at a very
+early age I was sent away to some distant relations in Wales, who
+apprenticed me to the trade, and all I have since heard of the family
+has been by hearsay; for there was nothing of all that reached my ear,
+which made Montrevor a place I could have visited with any comfort or
+pleasure.
+
+"My mother, when I had grown up, offered me a situation in the
+establishment, and because I refused to accept it, speaking my mind
+perhaps too freely, she never afterwards noticed me in any way,
+withdrawing all support in my necessity; till the unlucky hour, I was
+induced to give up that patient waiting on God's own time I had
+hitherto maintained, and turned aside to seek to bring it to pass by
+ways and means that were not of his pointing out. I might have seen that
+no good could have come out of gold taken from that house, no blessing
+be attached to bounty drawn from such a polluted source. God has been
+very merciful, and made all things to work together for my good; but
+still even now I rejoice with trembling, and were he again to withdraw
+his favour--I should only feel that it were due to my past
+unfaithfulness. Oh, dear young lady! it is a good thing to wait
+patiently on the Lord, to believe that good is hid behind every cloud of
+seeming evil; that grief or disappointment, if dealt us, is intended for
+our future happiness either here or hereafter. May you find this to be
+the case, and feel it also to your comfort, if I am right in guessing
+from your countenance that you stand in need of consolation. I am very
+bold, a humble stranger to speak thus to you, young lady--but you have
+encouraged me by your kindness and condescension, and we are told never
+to neglect, to speak a word in season to the weary, and even when you
+hung over me in my fainting fit yesterday, I marked the contrast between
+your sad pale face, and that of the bright young lady by your side."
+
+Mary put her hand into the speaker's for a moment as if both in grateful
+acknowledgement of her sympathy, and as encouragement for her to
+proceed. There was something inexpressibly soothing to her wounded
+spirit in the simple earnestness of the poor woman's speech--strength
+and calm resolution to meet the darkened future, seemed to infuse itself
+into her own soul as she sat and listened.
+
+At length in a low sad voice she responded:
+
+"Thank you very much for speaking to me in that manner. I feel already
+that it has done me good, for you are indeed quite right in supposing
+that I am not quite happy, though my present unhappiness springs from a
+cause of which you, with all your troubles, have never, I think,
+experienced the bitterness. I have much on my mind just now, doubts and
+fears on a subject, on which I am unable to gain any clear
+enlightenment. You, who perhaps have received information from more
+authentic sources, may be able to tell me what you may have heard
+concerning Mr. Eugene Trevor."
+
+Jane Marryott looked pained and embarrassed, and hesitated how to reply.
+
+"Do not fear to speak out plainly," faltered Mary, turning away her
+head; "anything is better than the uncertainty and vague insinuations
+with which I have been hitherto tortured."
+
+"Then, Miss Seaham," Jane Marryott answered, sorrowfully, "if I speak
+plainly as you desire, I am forced to confess that all that I have heard
+of Mr. Eugene Trevor, makes me fear his being too like his father in
+disposition to make any lady happy."
+
+"Mr. Eugene Trevor cannot possibly be like his father," murmured Mary,
+her woman's faithfulness still rising up in her lover's defence.
+
+"God grant that it may not be so in every respect," resumed the other.
+"But, alas! it is written 'that the love of money is the root of all
+evil;' and what but the coveting of his father's riches, though it might
+be for a different purpose than the old gentleman's avariciousness--I
+mean the spending it on his own selfish pleasures--could have made him
+act in many respects as I have heard that he has done; though God
+forgive me for exposing the faults of a fellow-creature."
+
+"Speak on, I entreat," Mary anxiously exclaimed.
+
+"Well, Miss, I mean why did he not stand up, like his brother, for his
+injured, excellent mother; and if he did not exactly join hand in hand
+with those who oppressed her, why countenance her wrongs by their
+contented endurance? then about Mr. Eustace that true and noble-hearted
+gentleman?"
+
+"Ah! what of him?" Mary eagerly inquired, lifting up her sadly-drooping
+eyes, and fixing them upon Jane Marryott's face with an earnest, fearful
+expression.
+
+"He was treated shamefully by his father from a child," was the reply;
+"but I fear more badly still at last by his brother, if, indeed, it be
+true that he had any hand in the dark business, in which I am told he
+was mixed up."
+
+"What business?" inquired Mary, turning very pale.
+
+"It is almost too dreadful a story to repeat--almost to believe; but as
+I have mentioned the subject, and you, Madam, have made me to understand
+that you were not without unpleasant suspicions as to its truth, I will
+tell you what I was informed about the matter. The fact is, that an old
+servant at Montrevor, who had been much attached to Mrs. Trevor and Mr.
+Eustace, and who happened to be a native of the town in which I lived,
+came to the place, and finding me out, visited me for the purpose, I
+believe, of venting the bitterness of his soul against my unfortunate
+mother, who he spoke of as the cause of all the sorrow which happened to
+those he loved; but when he saw me ashamed and grieved equally with
+himself, then he opened his heart more gently to me, and told me all
+about the present subject of his distress, and what had induced him to
+leave Montrevor, swearing never again to set his foot in it, as long as
+either Mr. Trevor, his son Eugene, or my mother, darkened its doors. He
+told me Mr. Eustace Trevor had been attacked by a brain fever, brought
+on by the shock of his mother's death, such as he had had once before
+after hard study, when Matthew had himself attended on his young master,
+who was delirious for some days and nights; but that this last time,
+neither he, nor any of the servants, were allowed to go near his
+chamber; and that at last he had been carried away at night to a
+madhouse, it being reported through the house that he was out of his
+mind. Matthew went once or twice to the door of the establishment, to
+request to see his master, but was refused admittance. A week or two
+after, however, Mr. Eustace came back to Montrevor, and went to the
+library, where his father, brother, my mother, and a lawyer were
+assembled, making up papers to deprive him of his property. None of the
+servants saw him but Matthew, who was told to hold himself in readiness
+to assist his master, if any attempt was made upon his liberty. This,
+however, was not the case; he left the house as he came, in half an
+hour's time. Matthew followed him, and was sent back a few stages off,
+to bring his master's things away from Montrevor, chiefly for the sake
+of his mother's picture, which was amongst them. Then he gave Matthew
+some money, and finally but firmly commanded him to leave him. He said
+that he was going to quit the country, never to return; wished to retain
+no one, as that might lead to his discovery, entreating him, if he
+really loved him, to acquiesce in his wishes. He looked ill, and much
+reduced, of course, by all that he had gone through, both in body and
+mind. His beautiful hair had been shorn, and with a smile that went
+through Matthew's heart like a dagger, he uncovered his wrists, and
+showed deep marks of manacles that they had put upon him indented there.
+But he said: 'Matthew, I was never mad; it was only another attack, such
+as you, good old fellow, nursed me through some time ago; but never
+mind, there are worse things than the charge of madness to suffer in
+this world. I am going to leave the country, and my unnatural enemies
+behind me; and if you wish to serve me faithfully, as you hitherto have
+done, do not try to follow me or to find me out.' And then when Matthew
+continued to entreat, he grew firmer still, and told him if ever he
+found himself importuned by pursuit, either by friend or by foe, or the
+story of what had happened had got spread abroad, he should suspect him
+of being the cause. So Matthew was fain, with many tears, to bid him
+farewell; and very soon after it was that Matthew came to me. But I have
+shocked and distressed you, dear young lady," Jane Marryott added,
+observing the look of horror which deepened on Mary's countenance, as
+she with blanched cheeks and distended eyes listened to the recital. "I
+have never breathed all this to other mortal ear, and should not to you,
+had not your questioning drawn me to speak out what I fancied you to
+have already conjectured. Nay, they say that many of Mr. Eustace's
+friends were inclined to look suspiciously on the matter; but earthly
+friends, for the most part, are cold and lax in the behalf of those out
+of sight."
+
+"And was nothing more heard by Matthew of his master?" Mary faintly
+inquired.
+
+"Yes, early in spring, Matthew, to his joyful surprise, received a
+letter from Mr. Eustace, telling him to go to Oxford, and to remove some
+of the property he had at that place to London, where it was received by
+a strange clerical gentleman, and taken away he knew not whither. But it
+was a consolation to Matthew to know, at least, and be assured by the
+gentleman, that his master was safe and well, although still trusting to
+his obedience and his silence. I have never since heard or seen anything
+of Mr. Matthew, for he left to settle in London. I have often thought
+upon the strange story, and wondered whether anything more had ever been
+heard of Mr. Eustace."
+
+Jane Marryott ceased; and for an instant Mary sat with clasped hands,
+and a stunned expression in her countenance, till at length meeting the
+gaze of her companion fixed upon her, with a look of regretful concern;
+she held out her hand and with a wan smile, such as wherewith a patient
+might express his thanks at the performer of some painful but necessary
+operation, thanked her again for having satisfied her painful
+curiosity; sweetly--yet with an expression which much belied the
+assertion--assuring Jane Marryott when she expressed her fears as to the
+effect upon her mind this communication had produced--that though pain
+of course such a relation could not fail to cause her--yet it was not
+more than she had endured of late, nor more for her to listen than some
+points of her communication must have been to her, Jane Marryott, to
+reveal; for even in the absorption of her own feelings, Mary had not
+failed to mark and to compassionate the look of humbled shame and
+sorrow, which bowed down the daughter's head in those parts of her
+relation bearing allusion to her mother, whilst at the same time the
+honest simplicity of her class and character, had forced her to pass
+through the ordeal without compromise or circumlocution; and thus from
+the lips of the stranger of yesterday, there had been revealed in a
+manner calculated to strike entire conviction upon the mind of the
+listener, every circumstance which before had been concealed by a dark
+cloud of mystery--or that the tender consideration of friends had dealt
+out to her, in the vile daily drop of vague insinuation and report.
+
+Stupified and still, she sat for some time after Jane Marryott had taken
+her departure. Mary having said something at parting about seeing her on
+the morrow, as Jane Marryott did not leave for Liverpool, the place of
+her intended embarkation, till she had received the final tidings of her
+mother's fate; promised to her by Eugene Trevor.
+
+But the interview did not take place. Mary sent her a useful present,
+but was too unwell to see her when she called.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+    As they, who to their couch at night
+    Would win repose, first quench the light,
+    So must the hopes that keep this breast
+    Awake, be quenched, ere it can rest.
+
+    MOORE.
+
+
+We left Mary yielding herself to the passive impression made upon her
+mind by the startling results of that strange conversation; then
+gradually that mind began to rouse itself to think, and form, and
+deliberate as to what was to be done--or rather _was_ there anything to
+be done? Was hers to be the tongue to blaze about the woman's story, to
+give substance and a shape to the airy-tongued aspersions brought
+against her lover's name--was this her woman's part? Oh, no; yet
+something she had to do--some part to act?
+
+Under the influence of this impulse it was that she arose, and going to
+a writing-table, sat down, and wrote to Eugene Trevor; not to
+accuse--not to condemn--not even to attack him in the mildest terms with
+the grave charge she had heard laid against him.
+
+There was no such spirit as this in Mary; though the mere reminiscences
+of past words and looks which had escaped her lover in moments of
+uncontrol, but more still the words he had left unspoken--the looks so
+sedulously avoided, rose before her remembrance, and flashed fearful
+conviction on her mind; the more her soul shrunk from the dark idea now
+connected with her lover's history, the more did her heart bleed for
+him, who must all along have carried in his breast so heavy a load of
+conscience, upon whose life one fatal remembrance must have cast its
+bleak and dreary shade, whose smile must have hidden so aching a
+heart--whose laugh, which had so often rejoiced her soul, must have rung
+forth so false and hollow from his breast; and as love seemed startled
+from its seat, so did a great compassion usurp its place within her
+soul.
+
+And he, the persecuted, the alien--how far less for him she felt were
+tears of pity due!
+
+No, addressing Eugene in the subdued and broken terms which more
+touchingly spoke the feeling actuating her heart than any stern or
+solemn eloquence of appeal could have done, she began by alluding to the
+distressing interview of the preceding night; she gave him to understand
+her determination, that it should be final--that it had become the
+gradual conviction of her mind, that it was not fit that they should
+ever be united--before she had seen him, indeed, she had promised her
+brother that their inauspicious engagement should be brought to an end.
+Since then a terrible story had been sounded in her ear--one she had not
+courage to repeat--she would only say it related to his conduct to his
+brother, of whose identity with Mr. Temple she now was fully aware. Mary
+asked for no confession or denial of the imputation, but she told him
+simply where that brother was to be found, and implored him no longer,
+if innocent, to countenance such an implication, by consenting to
+continue his present false position in his father's house, under cover
+of so baseless a plea as that which had made his brother an exile. But
+if any shade of truth rested on the story, why then what remained, but
+that full reparation which would bring peace and happiness to his own
+soul--greater peace and happiness, she was sure, if a single shade of
+guilt in this respect had laid upon it than he ever could have tasted
+since the dreadful moment when first it rested there? She was sure,
+though bitter words had been wrung from him in the excitement of last
+night's conversation, that he would feel convinced of the
+disinterestedness of the feelings which prompted her anxiety in this
+affair--that she would have pleaded for the interest of an utter
+stranger, as now she pleaded for the valued friend whom, whatever
+circumstances accrued, it was probable she should never see again. Mary
+alluded but slightly to the prospects of her own future, and that only
+to express how its altered aspect would be cheered and brightened by the
+knowledge that this just and necessary line of conduct had been adopted.
+
+Mary had been interrupted in the middle of her letter by the return of
+Miss Elliott from the courts. Little dreaming the nature of the
+correspondence over which she found her sad friend employed, there was
+enough revealed in her manner and countenance to bespeak the anxiety and
+painful absorption of her mind.
+
+Even Miss Elliott's glowing description of the success, superior to that
+indeed of the preceding day which had attended her brother's exertions,
+in a case of considerable interest and importance (a report delivered
+not without many beautiful blushes on the fair speaker's part), even
+this scarcely seemed to have power to concentrate and excite her
+listener's languid and abstracted attention.
+
+"Dear Miss Seaham, have you been sitting writing here all the time I
+have been away? if so, it is very naughty of you, for you do not look
+fit at all for the exertion. I am sure you must be more ill than you
+will allow us to suppose--and without your own maid too."
+
+"I fainted last night, a thing I have not done since I was a child; of
+course to-day I feel rather weak and languid, in consequence," Mary
+replied, seeing it was necessary to account in a more satisfactory
+manner, for her wretched appearance.
+
+"Fainted, my dear Mary, what could have been the cause?"
+
+"I suppose the heat of the court, all the excitement and agitation of
+the day, had something to do with it," Mary answered hurriedly; "but
+pray do not tell Arthur, I would not have him annoyed with any anxiety
+on my behalf just now. I feel rather tired, having had a long visit from
+poor Jane Marryott and this letter too to write; when it is over," with
+a faint smile, "I trust you will find me a more agreeable companion."
+
+Carrie Elliott took the gentle hint, and pressing her rosy rips on
+Mary's cheek, in her graceful caressing manner, went away to her own
+apartments.
+
+"Oh, happy Arthur!" thought Mary as with tears starting to her eyes, she
+returned to her painful task. "Oh, why is it," asked the swelling heart,
+"that such different lots are appointed to human beings? why are some
+destined to be thus privileged and blest, whilst others are suffered,
+like myself, by a strong delusion, to place their hopes and happiness
+upon unworthy objects; to feed on ashes--to lean on reeds which pierce
+them, to be wounded--disappointed in their tenderest affections." What
+had there been in her blameless life to draw upon her such retribution?
+But these were but the murmuring risings of the moment--in another,
+that spirit humble, contrite and resigned, which unquestioning kisses
+the rod of Him who hath appointed it, had resumed its customary place
+within the writer's breast.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Eugene's letter concluded, Mary did not pause there. She felt there was
+one more step to be taken. She wrote to Mr. Wynne; she told him in a few
+emphatic words, how from a source bearing only too strong a stamp of
+veracity, doubts and suspicions which had long vaguely agitated her
+mind, had received perfect confirmation; namely, that Mr. Temple was no
+other than Eustace Trevor, the brother of Eugene. "But it is not this
+fact, dear Sir," she continued, "which most concerns and distresses me;
+it is the strange, and fearful story, which for the first time, in one
+terrible moment was revealed to me. I allude to the conduct of Eugene
+towards his brother. You, dear friend, I am convinced, are fully
+informed of every particular respecting Mr. Eustace Trevor's history. I
+implore you then to tell me, is there entire truth in this awful tale;
+and if so, to entreat your injured friend to allow no farther guilt to
+be accumulated on the unhappy offender's soul. I have even ventured to
+write to Eugene, and entreated him to take the first step towards
+atonement and reconciliation; but if my feeble influence fail, then help
+him to cast aside those morbid feelings and ideas (noble and generous in
+their origin as they were) which hitherto actuated his conduct, and to
+return to England--to the world--reassert his rights--the lawful place
+in his country and amongst his friends. Whether his unhappy brother
+comes forward in this cause or not, still let him act, as alas!
+presumptuous as it may be for me to speak thus, to one so far above me,
+it had been well for all he had long since acted. What but woe could
+come when the righteous and the true fled before the face of wickedness
+and deceit--stooped to false disguises with a heart and conscience which
+could have defied the united malice of the world. Let him return; all
+that is merciful I am fully convinced, as far as is consistent with
+human justice, will sway the conduct of one, so true and faithful a
+follower of that Divine Being, whose long-suffering forgiveness to the
+vilest offenders against His goodness, no man can fathom."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This letter proved of the two, the most agitating and trying to Mary's
+feelings; so that when her brother, just after its completion, entered
+the room, he found his sister's cheeks no longer pale as Miss Elliott
+had left them, but burning with a false and feverish excitement.
+
+He questioned her affectionately about her health; for though she at
+first, with a forced vivacity, congratulated him fondly on the brilliant
+report she had heard of him from so eloquent a source, the brother had
+not failed in the meantime to observe her quivering lips, the glittering
+restlessness of her eyes, and the trembling hands with which she sealed
+the letter before her.
+
+"Dear Arthur," she said, with a melancholy attempt at a smile, "I am as
+well as one in my position can be, for look," she added hurriedly, "I
+have done your bidding," and she took up one of the letters and placed
+it in Arthur's hand.
+
+The brother started as he read the direction, then looked up anxiously
+into his sister's face.
+
+"Mary, have you really done it?"
+
+She bowed her head.
+
+"And you are finally free of the engagement?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"And you do not repent of what you have done?"
+
+"No."
+
+"And you do not find it very painful?"
+
+A wan smile was the answer.
+
+"Dear Mary!" the brother exclaimed, turning away to hide a bright drop
+that started to his eye, "how shall we ever be able to repay you for all
+you have suffered so long and patiently?"
+
+A smile again played upon her lips, as she marked the _we_ for the first
+time used in a speech of this nature, and putting her hand in her
+brother's, she replied:
+
+"By allowing me to witness your happiness, dear Arthur."
+
+Too much occupied with unselfish concern for his sister, the young man
+did not understand the speech as it was intended; but after a moment's
+anxious consideration, inquired:
+
+"Mary, has anything occurred since our conversation the day before
+yesterday, to hasten this step? I know that Trevor went away early this
+morning, but had you any meeting with him yesterday?"
+
+"I had," she answered, colouring deeply; "but, Arthur," in a faltering
+voice, "spare me any further questions; let what I have done suffice."
+
+"Selfish--heartless--double-hearted," were the emphatic murmurings of
+the young man's lips, as he turned away with dark and moody brow, "would
+that _I_ might ask a few questions of him."
+
+"Arthur!" Mary exclaimed, laying her hands reproachfully on his
+shoulder, "you will make me believe that after all you are vexed and
+disturbed that our engagement is over."
+
+"No, Mary, Heaven knows that is not the case; but still, it makes my
+blood boil to think how you have waited so long and faithfully, and that
+after all your trust and patience will have been all in vain, that your
+precious affection should have been wasted."
+
+"Then, Arthur, console yourself with the assurance that I grudge no
+measure of faith and patience I may have exerted. Faith and patience can
+never be in vain; would that was all I have now to mourn over. As for
+wasted affection--affection never can be wasted," unconsciously quoting
+the words once sounded in her ear, in tones which ever since had
+lingered there. "My affection, though blind, perhaps, and mistaken, was
+pure and innocent. God will not suffer it to return fruitless to my
+bosom."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Arthur Seaham was obliged to go and prepare himself for the judge's
+dinner, and Mary to exert herself during her _tête-à-tête_ evening with
+Miss Elliott.
+
+The next day she was too ill to rise. Her maid was sent for, and with
+her Mary a day or two after went to a pretty cottage not far distant,
+belonging to her brother, where he was soon to join her. The Morgans
+were not then in the country.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+    But now, alas! the place seems changed,
+    Thou art no longer here:
+    Part of the sunshine of the scene
+    With thee did disappear.
+
+    LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+                Confess! Record myself
+    A villain!
+
+    VENICE PRESERVED.
+
+
+Mary Seaham's letter reached Montrevor the day after Mabel Marryott's
+funeral. Eugene Trevor tore it open eagerly, turned ashy pale as he
+perused it, then, thrusting it into his pocket, went about his business
+as before.
+
+Day after day went by, and the letter remained unanswered--unacted upon.
+
+With sullen defiance, or silent contempt, Eugene Trevor seemed to have
+determined upon treating the earnest appeal the important requisition
+it contained. The appeal he endeavoured to consider it of a weak, simple
+woman, who probably looked upon an affair of so serious--nay, he was
+forced to acknowledge, so fearful--a nature in no stronger light than
+that of some romantic fiction, only costing the actor engaged in it the
+struggle of some heroic and high-wrought feeling to bring the matter to
+a satisfactory issue; and who little knew that it would have been far
+easier to him to put a pistol to his head, than to draw down upon
+himself such ruin--in every sense of the word--as the sacrifice so
+calmly required of him by the fair and gentle Mary Seaham must entail.
+
+"Senseless girl! what! recall my father's incensed heir to his admiring
+friends, now all up in arms at the treatment--the persecution, they
+would call it--that he had received at my hands! restore him in all the
+strength and brightness of his intellect, striking conviction to every
+mind as to the truth of the testimonies, which would not fail to start
+up on every side, to substantiate the false nature of the plea which had
+alienated him from his lawful rights. Then how would vague reports find
+confirmation! surmises, suspicions be brought to light! And what would
+become of _me_? what would become of my debts--my character--my
+honour--my covetousness?"
+
+If these were in any sort the reflections which influenced Eugene Trevor
+for the next week or so after the receipt of Mary's letter, that letter
+seemed to have had at any rate the power of subduing for a time his
+energies and courage in the prosecution of former designs.
+
+He made no attempt to alter his father's obstinate determination to keep
+wholly to his bed. He seemed suddenly to have lost his anxiety as to
+securing the will, and discovering the remaining forged notes. He was
+moody, gloomy, apathetic. One day chance took him to that part of the
+house where his mother's boudoir was situated. Pausing as he passed the
+door, he pushed it open, and entered.
+
+The window was open--the sunbeams played upon the old quaint furniture,
+the room seemed fresh, and bright, and clear, in comparison with the
+rest of the house; which ever since Marryott's death and funeral seemed
+to have retained the influence, and impressed him with those revolting
+ideas attached to the signs and ensigns of mortality entertained by the
+mind who cannot, or dare not, look beyond those consequences of
+corruptibility for the object of that fearful power. A dark, pall-like
+covering seemed spread over the whole house; a close, sickly atmosphere
+to pervade it throughout.
+
+But here--all this seemed to have been effectually shut out, as if the
+destroying angel, as he brushed past with hasty wing, had seen the mark
+upon that door, which forbade him entrance; and Eugene Trevor went and
+stretched his head out of the window, breathing more freely than he had
+done for many a day.
+
+Suddenly, however, he drew back; the action had brought to his
+remembrance just such another clear, bright sunny day, when he had last
+stood leaning in that position; but alas! how differently accompanied.
+
+Then alone with a fair, pure, gentle girl--her sweet presence, her
+tender voice, infusing into his soul an influence which for the time had
+lifted him almost above himself into a paradise of thought--of feeling
+he had long since forfeited; and now alone--alone with his own dark
+jarring thoughts--alone with that juggling fiend impenitent remorse
+gnashing at his heart--alone with his present disquiet--with the
+threatening fear of the future--the withering memories of the past. Well
+might he have cried aloud for the lost dream which suggested this
+comparison--a dream indeed false and treacherous in its foundation; for
+except that conscience slept undisturbed, how was he different then to
+what he is now. And yet he would fain have recalled it, for suddenly
+with that association seemed to have taken hold upon his fancy a
+passionate yearning, an impatient regret that he had not been able to
+secure possession of the being who had at that time certainly exercised
+a very worthy influence over his affections. A tormenting idea that his
+marriage at that period might have warded off the evils now circling
+threatening around his head; or at the worst have given him a fond and
+devoted sharer in his fortunes, such as in the whole world he knew not
+where to look for now. For how she had loved him! Yes, it was pleasant
+and soothing to his feelings, in their present ruffled state, to
+remember that he had been loved so tenderly, so purely, so entirely for
+himself alone: and then came the stinging reaction--the remembrance
+that he was no longer loved--that he had seen a look of fear, almost of
+aversion, usurp the place of confiding affection in those soft and
+loving eyes: that finally, she had fainted from mere abhorrence at the
+idea of the promise he had pressed so urgently upon her--then too, when
+it seemed she had not heard the story which proved the cause and subject
+of her letter.
+
+No--but she had been in Italy with his brother, that
+martyr-hero--fascinated, enthralled, no doubt,--and he must lose,
+relinquish her too. No, by heaven! that he would not do--that weak,
+pale, soft-hearted girl, should he passively resign his power over her
+also? villain or not as she might deem him, he must make her to believe
+it were cruelty, perjury, and sordid unfaithfulness, to desert him
+now--to break her vows, because she had discovered that there was one
+with better claims than himself to the fortune and expectations she had
+imagined him to possess.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In this new mood Eugene went to pay his customary morning visit to his
+father's room, and there fresh fuel was added to the fire lately kindled
+in his breast.
+
+The old man had for the last few days taken a different turn. At first,
+as we have said, his disenthralment from Marryott's guardianship had
+been a relief to his mind; but to this feeling had succeeded a restless
+disquiet as to the consequences of the removal of this Cerberus of his
+household, and the destruction both of himself and property, fraud,
+robbery, poisoning, fire, ruin and destruction in every possible shape,
+seemed to be hanging over his head by a single hair. He was in a
+perpetual fear whenever he found his son had left the house.
+
+The day to which we allude, Eugene Trevor was assailed with the usual
+amount of murmuring and complaint.
+
+"Eugene, a pretty state we are in now. I should like to know what's to
+become of us if we go on much longer in this manner."
+
+"In what way, my dear Sir? everything seems to go on very quietly;
+really, with scarcely half a dozen servants in the house, and all the
+plate safe in the bank, I do not think there's any chance of much harm
+being done."
+
+"No harm? Gracious powers! how do you know what abominations of
+extravagance are not going forward--you who are always sleeping miles
+away from the wretches, and know not how I may be robbed, and cheated,
+and eaten out of house and home. I'll tell you one thing, Eugene, I am
+determined I'll get to the offices, if I'm carried there, and see to a
+fraction every bit of meat weighed that comes into the house, as _you_
+won't help me."
+
+"My dear Sir, I would do everything in my power, I assure you, but the
+chief object at present I think will be to try and find some second
+Marryott, who, I hope," with a sneering emphasis on the words, "you will
+find an equal treasure of honesty and faithfulness as the other."
+
+"I don't want another Marryott," whined the old man, peevishly; "I won't
+have a housekeeper at all, with their forty-guinea wages--they are as
+bad as any of them--Marryott understood my ways--"
+
+"And your coffers too, Sir," added Eugene, with a scornful laugh. "A
+pretty hoard she had at the bank. I am sorry she made no will; I, as her
+foster-son, might have been the better for it; but as it is, it belongs
+to her husband, if he is yet alive."
+
+"What's the use of telling me all this _now_," whimpered the father,
+"when you let her go on doing it without giving me a hint?"
+
+"Oh, my dear Sir, she saved it for you in other ways! 'Set a thief to
+catch a thief,' you know, at any rate she let no one rob you but
+herself, which, as so very old and faithful a servant, of course she
+considered herself privileged to do; but set your mind at ease," he
+continued more soothingly, as the old man writhed upon his bed, groaning
+in agony of spirit, "I'll make it my business to find some honest,
+decent woman, who at least will not be able to claim the privilege of
+common property on the above-mentioned score."
+
+"But how can you be sure of her being decent and honest?" still
+persisted Mr. Trevor; "there's not one amongst the race, I believe, that
+is so. I'll have nothing to do with any of them. I will tell you what,
+Eugene," and the old man's eyes gleamed at the sudden suggestion, "the
+only thing that's to be done--why don't you get a wife, and bring her to
+live here, and keep the house?"
+
+Eugene Trevor's brow darkened.
+
+"A bright idea, Sir," he responded, ironically.
+
+"Yes, yes," continued the old man; "what are you thinking of, Eugene,
+that you don't marry? you're getting on in life; I was married before I
+was as old by half. What's to become of the family and fortune--if
+there's any left of it--if you don't marry?"
+
+His son's eye brightened.
+
+"And by the bye, now I think of it," the father continued, craftily,
+"what became of that pretty young lady you brought here with Olivia, to
+that grand luncheon some time ago? I liked her--her voice was soft and
+gentle, and her manners sensible and quiet. She was something like your
+mother, Eugene, when I married her; now why could she not do for you?"
+
+"You remember, Sir, that when I did propose making her my wife, it did
+not meet with your unqualified approbation," replied his son, evasively.
+
+"Oh, didn't it! but that was long ago--then Marryott was here to look
+after things, and she, I suppose, didn't like it; but now couldn't you
+look her out again--she isn't gone, is she--you have not lost her?"
+
+Eugene set his teeth hard together and did not immediately reply; but
+then he said, fixing his eyes on the old man's face, and speaking in
+tones of affected carelessness:
+
+"After all, I do not see how _my_ marriage can be an affair of such
+_great_ consequence, for you know, Sir, there is Eustace."
+
+The old man's face convulsed terribly--that name had not for many years
+past been uttered by Eugene or any one in his presence.
+
+"Eustace," he murmured tremblingly, "and what has it to do with
+Eustace--isn't he mad, or dead, or something?"
+
+"He is not dead, certainly, Sir; and mad or not, he might be coming back
+any day, to put in claims which would not make my marriage so very
+desirable or expedient a business."
+
+Mr. Trevor looked fearfully around him.
+
+"But, Eugene," he gasped in a low, breathless whisper, "he's not
+near--he's not likely to come and threaten me. You must keep the doors
+fastened--you must keep him locked out."
+
+"Oh, my dear father!" his son responded, "there's no such immediate
+danger as all that; he's far enough off, and not likely to trouble you:
+only I mean, if--if anything were to happen--then--then, of course, he
+would be here to look after his own interests; for he's on the watch
+for your death, I have been told on good authority, and therefore of
+course you know it would not do for _me_ to run any risk--to marry for
+instance--unless I can see my way a little more plainly before me."
+
+The old man became livid with rage; all his ancient hatred against his
+son seemed to revive at the suggestion thus insinuated against him.
+
+"To watch for my death! and what then will that do for him--the
+bedlamite? Eugene! Eugene!" grasping his arm, "never fear him--go and
+get married--bring your wife here to look after the house, and I'll live
+another half century to spite him, and then see who'll have it all.
+We've got a will, Eugene, haven't we?" chuckling and rubbing his hands
+exultingly.
+
+"There was one made certainly, and a deed giving me the guardianship
+over the entailed estates in case of your death, under plea of Eustace's
+incompetency. But if you remember, you would not have a duplicate made
+of it. I hope you have it safe."
+
+"I'll look it out, Eugene," Mr. Trevor continued as if effectually
+aroused by the new friction his old heart had received. "I have it safe
+enough. I'll get up immediately--no, not to-day, but to-morrow. I'll
+make a day of it, and put all things right."
+
+"Very well, my dear Sir; keep yourself quiet for to-day. My man is here,
+you can trust in him should you want anything. I'm going to ride for an
+hour or two."
+
+"Eh--to ride--where? I can't be left," the old man whispered.
+
+"Oh, my dear Sir, William will take as good care of you as myself. I'm
+really expiring for want of fresh air, and exercise. I'm going to ride
+over to Silverton on a little business--to make inquiries you know about
+my wife," he added, looking back with a laugh as he left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+    Oh! it is darkness to lose love, however
+    We little prized the fond heart--fond no more!
+    The bird, dark-winged on earth, looks white in air!
+    Unrecognised are angels till they soar!
+    And few so rich they may not well beware
+    Of lightly losing the heart's golden ore!
+
+    WILLIS.
+
+
+Eugene Trevor accordingly mounted his beautiful horse, all fierce and
+fiery for the want of exercise, and rode fast to Silverton without
+scarcely once slackening his steed's pace. Just as he approached the
+mansion, he raised his eyes to a chamber window above. Strange to say,
+he never drew near the house without being moved with a pang smiting at
+his heart, fraught with more or less of regretful recollections; for he
+could not but remember whose gentle eyes had so often watched for him
+there.
+
+But to-day, a darker and more determined spirit spoke in the upward
+"flash of that dilating eye," as his horse's hoofs clattered over the
+stony approach.
+
+Mrs. de Burgh only, he heard to his satisfaction was at home, and she
+was confined to her dressing-room with a sprained ankle, but no doubt
+would see Mr. Trevor--a supposition in which the servant was quite
+correct.
+
+Mrs. de Burgh was only too delighted to have the tediousness of her
+confinement thus broken in upon, particularly as she was hoping to hear
+all about Marryott's death, and the strange circumstances connected with
+the forged notes of which only vague and contradictory reports had
+reached her ear.
+
+Having, therefore, first accounted for her accident, and giving vent to
+some complaining strictures on Louis's unfeeling conduct in leaving her
+alone; whilst he went visiting and amusing himself in Scotland, making
+it indeed appear an act very unconjugal and unkind, till it came out
+that Mr. de Burgh's departure had taken place before her accident; and
+that she had in her fretful pique never written to inform her husband
+of what had occurred.
+
+After this the fair lady began to question her cousin concerning the
+late events at Montrevor, and Eugene Trevor to satisfy her curiosity as
+far, and in the manner he deemed most expedient.
+
+"So you see, Olivia," he added, "altogether I have had a pretty time of
+it lately, what with one thing and another, and have been terribly put
+out."
+
+"Well, I thought there was something the matter, as you had quite
+deserted Silverton."
+
+"Plenty the matter; but there was one subject I came on purpose to speak
+to you about to-day; you were always my friend in need, Olivia, and I
+want to consult you--I mean about Mary Seaham."
+
+"Oh, indeed!" replied the lady, with a suppressed yawn, and a tone in
+which the words "that weary old subject" seemed expressed; for there is
+nothing which in the end so much wears out the sympathy and interest of
+one's friends, however much excited they may have been in the beginning,
+as a protracted love affair.
+
+"Oh, indeed! have you seen or heard anything of her lately?" Mrs. de
+Burgh then inquired with assumed interest.
+
+"Yes, I saw her at ---- after the trial, at which, you know, I had to
+appear. She was there with her brother, who was retained for the
+prisoner."
+
+"Indeed, how did she look? is she much altered, poor girl?"
+
+"I don't know," he answered gloomily; "she looked pale; but then, our
+interview was of no very pleasing nature, and.... But I have heard from
+her since then," he added, in the same tone, without concluding the
+former sentence; "she writes to break off the engagement."
+
+"Well, Eugene, you can scarcely wonder; you must own, you have tried her
+patience to the very uttermost," his cousin answered, smiling
+reproachfully; "but it is just the way with you men," she continued, as
+she scanned more closely the working of Eugene's countenance, "you would
+keep us waiting till doomsday to serve your own convenience, without one
+scruple of concern; but if we begin to show any disposition to be off,
+then you are, forsooth, the injured and aggrieved; well, however, is it
+not as well? What profit or pleasure can such an engagement be to you,
+who year after year seem no nearer the end than at the beginning? and as
+for your father, I believe he's 'the never-dying one.'"
+
+"But, Olivia, matters have lately taken a different aspect," her cousin
+muttered, gloomily, "my father is urging me to marry, and would do
+anything to further it. I would marry her to-morrow, if it could only be
+managed."
+
+"Well, why not tell her so. I suppose it was only the apparent
+hopelessness of the case which induced her to give you up--tell her at
+once."
+
+"I did tell her when I saw her last--more, I pressed an immediate
+marriage urgently upon her; but," with a bitter laugh, "the idea has
+become so repugnant to her feelings, that she absolutely fainted with
+horror and aversion."
+
+"Nonsense, Eugene, from joy most likely."
+
+"Joy, indeed--and that letter she wrote after. Oh, no! she has taken it
+into her head that I am a villain, and--"
+
+Mrs. de Burgh laughed.
+
+"A villain," she repeated, "not quite so bad as that I hope, though not
+very good I am afraid. A villain! no, we must manage to get that idea at
+least out of the young lady's head."
+
+"But how?" Eugene asked.
+
+"Why, really, I don't know; let me see--I will write to her--though
+letters are not worth much. I wish, indeed, I could get her here away
+from her relations, who are all such terribly good people."
+
+Eugene Trevor drew his chair eagerly forward.
+
+"What here, do you really mean it--do you think it possible--that there
+would be any chance of her consenting to come?"
+
+"I do not see why it should be impossible--at any rate we can try, and I
+flatter myself I am not a little clever about these sort of things. Oh,
+depend upon it, poor girl, she will only be too glad to be persuaded
+into loving you again. But then, Eugene, I must be sure that you really
+are in earnest--that the affair will be really brought to a decided
+issue, before I move again in the business. I burnt my fingers too
+severely with it before, and brought upon myself quite sufficient odium.
+What does Mary say in her letter? I must be quite _au fait_ in the
+business, you know, and understand what I am about."
+
+"You shall know everything," said Eugene, approaching nearer, and
+subduing his tone to a confidential whisper. "It is a more complicated
+matter than you suppose. There is one very serious point to be dealt
+with: you will be surprised when you hear that it relates to my unlucky
+brother."
+
+Mrs. de Burgh started, and looked a little uncomfortable.
+
+"First of all," he added in still lower tones; "but," pausing suddenly,
+"will you be so good as to tell that young gentleman not to stare me out
+of countenance," alluding to his cousin's eldest boy, a delicate and
+serious-looking child, who sat on his mother's sofa, his intelligent
+eyes with earnest scrutiny rivetted upon Eugene's countenance, as he sat
+there with bent brow, and dark look of brooding care.
+
+"Don't be rude, Charlie; go to the nursery," said his mother, half
+angry, half amused. "Why do you stare at cousin Eugene? do you not think
+he is very handsome?"
+
+The boy coloured, but rising slowly, as if to escape an answer to the
+question, murmured evasively:
+
+"Yes, I'll go up stairs, and look at my pictures about the dark-looking
+Cain thinking about his brother Abel."
+
+"The strange child," said Mrs. de Burgh, with a little awkward laugh,
+for she knew the picture to which the child alluded, and was
+irresistibly struck by the similitude which it seems had suggested the
+comparison. A dark flush at the same time suffused the temples of her
+companion; but it had soon passed away. After a momentary pause, drawing
+near Mrs. de Burgh, and placing his chair a little behind her couch,
+with eyes bent still on the ground, Eugene resumed the subject thus
+interrupted. He spoke to her of his brother.
+
+We will not detail the conversation, or how much, or in what manner he
+revealed or confided of that momentous theme. We must not compromise
+Mrs. de Burgh by supposing it possible she would have made herself privy
+to any known questionable transaction; suffice it to say, that it was
+dusk before Eugene Trevor rose to leave her, and that then the cousins
+parted most amicably.
+
+Eugene promised to ride over very soon again; and when he had gone, Mrs.
+de Burgh after lying still meditating for a short time, aroused herself
+with the philosophical observation that this was a strange world--rang
+the bell for lights, which being brought, and her writing materials laid
+before her, she wrote as follows:
+
+     "My dearest Mary,
+
+     "Eugene Trevor has just been here, wretched beyond description, to
+     tell me you have broken off your engagement with him just as
+     matters were beginning to take a favourable turn, and he could
+     marry you to-morrow. I tell him he deserves this for having taxed
+     your patience so long; but that, as you may imagine, gives him
+     little comfort. But, Mary dear, I cannot believe you so very
+     hard-hearted as to place so final an extinguisher on his hopes.
+
+     "He tells me you have listened to reports about him; one scandalous
+     story in particular he mentioned, about his strange and unfortunate
+     brother, in behalf of whom, some romantic adventures in Wales and
+     abroad, gave you an interest unduly awarded. I say unduly--because,
+     however fine and noble a creature Eustace Trevor may be by nature,
+     it is not right that you should be unfaithful and unjust to Eugene
+     through his cause. However, this is an affair which we cannot
+     rightly dispose of in a letter; in one conversation I could put
+     everything before you, dear, as clear as day.
+
+     "My dear Mary, come to Silverton; you owe it to Eugene--you owe it
+     to yourself--you owe it to me, who first made you known to my
+     cousin, not to refuse this request. I do not know where to direct
+     this letter, I only know that you are somewhere in Wales, so send
+     it to Plas Glyn, from whence it is certain to be forwarded to you.
+     When I also tell you I am confined to my sofa by a terrible sprain
+     which will keep me a prisoner, Heaven knows how long, you will
+     suspect perhaps a little selfish feeling is mixed up with my
+     solicitude for your visit; but no, indeed, I am too seriously
+     anxious for your own happiness and Eugene's to have any such minor
+     considerations, though a pleasure only too great would it be to me
+     to have my dear Mary with me again.
+
+     "Louis will be at home by the time you arrive. I need not say how
+     glad he will be to see you. Eugene shall not come here at all, if
+     you do not like it--he need not even know of your arrival; he
+     seldom comes to Silverton now. Alas, poor fellow! the recollections
+     this place awakens can be but painful to him under present
+     circumstances.
+
+     "Mary, Eugene may have some faults, but still I maintain that you
+     might have made him what you wished, and that love so tried as his
+     ought not to be thrown away, as you are about to do. Not many men,
+     after being exposed to the temptations to which Eugene has been
+     subjected, would still, after four years' almost constant
+     separation, be so very urgent in the cause of marriage. But, dear
+     Mary, even setting aside all this, what have you better to do than
+     to come here with your faithful servant? You surely do not mean
+     quite to desert Silverton and your cousins. I want you to see my
+     children; the youngest is such a fine creature. I shall look
+     forward to your answer with the greatest anxiety; you do not know
+     how much may depend on acceding to the request of
+
+     "Your affectionate
+
+     "OLIVIA."
+
+And this was the letter Mary at last received, after having, day after
+day, waited in sick and solitary suspense for any answer which she might
+have received from Eugene Trevor--solitary, for though her brother, as
+speedily as his professional engagements would permit, had followed her,
+a summons from Judge Elliott had quickly succeeded, offering the young
+man some very responsible legal appointment, which required his
+immediate presence in London. Of course there could be no question of
+demur. Mary urged her brother's immediate departure, over-ruling any
+scruples on his part at leaving her alone, and his earnest desire that
+at least she should accompany him to town.
+
+No, she persuaded him that she should rather like the rest and quiet of
+the place in her present state of feeling; "besides, dear Arthur," she
+said with a melancholy smile, "it is necessary that I should begin to
+learn to accustom myself to a solitary life."
+
+"I do not at all see that, Mary," Arthur answered almost angrily--"why
+your's should ever be solitary."
+
+"No indeed," was the affectionate reply; "I know that can never be, with
+such a brother, and," with a playful smile, "such a sister as I hope
+soon to have."
+
+"Mary, you have become very anxious to dispose of your brother."
+
+"Yes, certainly I am, to such advantage;" then with gaiety which shot a
+ray of gladsome pleasure from the young man's bright eyes, she added:
+"besides, I am as much in love with Carrie as yourself; and she and I
+are sure to get on well together."
+
+So Mary was left alone, supposed at least to be calmly happy, when alas,
+poor girl! to such a desirable condition she was as yet very far from
+having arrived. No, there was as yet too much of suspense and
+uncertainty still gnawing within her soul.
+
+It is not all at once, without a struggle, and one backward longing
+look, that we can resign ourselves to the certainty that the hope and
+trust on which we had flung our all, has proved a lie. There were two
+letters yet to come ere she could let the black curtain fall over the
+past for ever.
+
+Alone too, with a dreamy impression stealing over her, that whatever her
+brother's affection might maintain, this loneliness was a foretaste of
+her future life. And then the bitter sigh and yearning void, as the
+thought flew back to visions all too brightly wrought, now for ever
+flown.
+
+Her faithful servant, who marked her dear young lady's spirits sink
+lower and lower every day, sighed too over her disappointed
+expectations, for she thought "it would have been better for Miss Mary
+to have married Mr. Trevor--even if he were somewhat of a wild
+gentleman, as they said he was: she is so like an angel that she could
+tame a lion. So good and tender a heart as hers, was never made to live
+alone with no one to love her, and to love--and my heart misgives me,"
+added the affectionate servant. "She will never get over the affair. And
+Mr. Arthur too, he is getting too great a man to have much time to give
+to her--and there's his heart too, quite gone they say after Miss
+Elliott, who is as much taken with him I fancy; and after all he is but
+a brother, and the best of them are not so sure and comfortable like as
+a husband. But after all," the good woman continued to soliloquize, "a
+bad character will not certainly do for my young lady, and there's
+something wrong in the Trevors they say. Who would have thought it, and
+my Miss Mary loving Mr. Eugene as she did; but she is so good and
+innocent-hearted herself! At any rate, she must not stay moping here
+much longer. I can see she's getting quite low and nervous."
+
+These were good Mrs. Hughes' thoughts and reflections on the subject,
+and it was no inconsiderable satisfaction to her mind, when Mary came to
+her one morning with a letter in her hand, informing her, that she had
+received an invitation from Silverton, which she intended to accept, and
+begged her to prepare without delay for the journey; after which Mary
+sat down and wrote to Mrs. de Burgh, and also the following announcement
+to her brother:
+
+     "Dearest Arthur,
+
+     "You will be surprised--perhaps not well pleased--to hear that I am
+     going to set off to-morrow for Silverton. I have had a pressing
+     letter from Olivia de Burgh; and there are many things that I must
+     have explained by Louis and herself, before I feel that I can with
+     a mind contented and at ease settle down (I do not speak
+     ironically, but with the calm assurance that there will be much of
+     blessedness in store for me) in that estate--a life of single
+     blessedness--which now lies before me.
+
+     "Do not then suspect me of weak and wavering motives in the step I
+     am going to take. Believe me when I say, that it is not my
+     intention even to see Eugene. Olivia has promised that I should not
+     meet him unless I desire it; and what could our meeting cause, but
+     pain and discomfort to us both? No, I can no longer fight against
+     the conviction which time and my more experienced perception has
+     forced upon me, that Eugene Trevor is not what my blind affection
+     so long firmly believed him.
+
+     "God knows my love was not of an evanescent nature; and
+     irresistible indeed must be the causes which have so undermined it.
+     But still my heart shrinks from doing an act of injustice, by
+     condemning him more than he deserves; and there is one horrible
+     suspicion with which my mind has been distracted, my heart can
+     never rest till it has been more clearly enlightened.
+
+     "Oh, Arthur! it is a dark and terrible story, I cannot enter upon
+     it now. Suffice it that, if true, it must cast a shadow on my
+     latest hour of existence. If you knew how it has--how it still
+     preys upon my imagination, even till I sometimes fear the
+     bewildering influence it may produce upon my senses, you would not
+     now blame the impulse which leads me to prefer even the risk of
+     obtaining this fearful certainty--rather than continue groping in
+     darkness--for to such I may compare the condition under which I
+     have for some time laboured. But Olivia has promised that my mind
+     shall be relieved, and Louis, I know, will tell me the truth. May
+     God give me strength and fortitude to bear it.
+
+     "I shall not wish to remain at Silverton longer than is absolutely
+     necessary; if therefore your business will permit you to join me
+     there, I can travel with you back into Wales where the Morgans will
+     by that time have returned, and I can stay with them as they wish,
+     till our plans and prospects, dear Arthur, are more finally
+     arranged."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+                Thou, my once loved, valued friend!
+    By Heavens thou liest; the man so called my friend
+    Was generous, honest, faithful, just, and valiant:
+    Noble in mind, and in his person lovely;
+    Dear to my eyes, and tender to my heart;
+    But thou, a wretched, base, false, worthless coward.
+
+    All eyes must shun thee, and all hearts detest thee,
+    Pr'thee avoid, no longer cling thou round me,
+    Like something baneful, that my nature's chilled at.
+
+    VENICE PRESERVED.
+
+
+It was as may be supposed, a trying ordeal for poor Mary, her arrival at
+Silverton. The circumstances attendant on her last arrival, then
+hopeful, trustful, happy; for what appeared the light fears and
+imaginary evils which then oppressed her, contrasted with her feelings
+and circumstances now? The thousand recollections the sight of the place
+recalled, everything, caused her heart to sink and sicken within her.
+
+With trembling limbs she alighted from the carriage, and in answer to
+her inquiries for Mrs. de Burgh, was ushered by the servant into the
+drawing-room.
+
+A gentleman stood leaning his elbow against the marble mantle-piece. The
+door closed upon her, and she found herself alone with Eugene Trevor.
+Surprise, distress, displeasure, were alternately displayed on Mary's
+countenance; and withdrawing the hand which, having hurried forward to
+meet her, he had seized passionately in his own, she faltered forth in
+accents choked by indignant emotion:
+
+"I did not expect this; Olivia promised--or I should never have come."
+
+"It was not Olivia's fault, the blame is entirely mine, Mary. But, ...
+is it really come to this? can you look around; can you remember all
+that passed between us in this room; nay, what happened on this very
+spot--here where our vows of love were plighted?"
+
+"I do remember," she replied in accents low and mournful, and leaning in
+trembling agitation against the very chair on which on that occasion
+she had been seated.
+
+"Then surely your heart cannot harden itself against me--cannot doom me
+to misery."
+
+"My letter," Mary faintly murmured, gently but firmly repulsing the
+effort he made again to take her hand.
+
+"Oh! that abominable story, cooked up against me, which you are so ready
+to believe--Olivia will explain...."
+
+"God grant it!" she murmured, turning her eyes lighted with a brightened
+expression on his face; but oh! for one calm, clear, truthful glance in
+return.
+
+Again painfully she averted her head, and saying faintly:
+
+"I will go to Olivia," moved slowly towards the door. Eugene did not
+attempt to stay her departure, only darkly eyeing her retreating
+footsteps, he suffered her to leave the room without stirring from the
+spot whereon he stood.
+
+Slowly and heavily she ascended the familiar staircase to Mrs. de
+Burgh's dressing-room. Her cousin, still lying on the sofa, started with
+affected surprise at her appearance, and stretched out her arms to
+receive her.
+
+Pale, cold, and silent Mary suffered the embrace, then sinking on a
+seat, covered her face with her hands, sobbing forth:
+
+"Olivia, this was cruel; this was unkind--untrue; I came here trusting
+to your word. Where is Louis? he surely would not think this right,
+would not have allowed me to be drawn into such a distressing position."
+
+"My darling Mary, what do you mean? You have not fallen in with Eugene,
+I hope? Well, that is too bad of him; and he promised so faithfully that
+he would leave an hour ago. One of the children let out that you were
+coming, and you know there is no managing lovers in a case like this;
+the poor fellow is half mad with wretchedness on your account. However,
+go he shall, dear, if you wish it--pray make yourself easy on that
+point. You must have some tea; you are exhausted after your journey; and
+then we shall be able to talk comfortably together. No one shall
+interrupt us. Louis has not come home yet, but I expect him every
+moment; he will be so charmed to see you."
+
+Thus Mrs. de Burgh hurried on with affectionate alacrity, without giving
+Mary time to renew her reproaches or complaints, but by the tears which
+from her overcharged heart the poor girl still silently continued to
+shed.
+
+Mrs. de Burgh did not mind those tears; she rather considered them a
+favourable sign. Had Mary appeared before her after the meeting into
+which she well knew she had been surprised--cold, calm, stern, silently
+upbraiding, she would have feared then for the success of the cause in
+which she was engaged.
+
+But judging from herself, tears in her sex's eyes were marks of
+conscious weakness, and the melting mood of feeling rather than of any
+firmness or serious effect upon the mind; therefore with secret
+complacency she watched and awaited the close of her gentle cousin's
+agitated paroxysm of emotion. Then she had strong tea brought, of which
+she insisted upon her drinking, overwhelming Mary with care and
+tenderness, in the meantime sending for the children to stay a few
+moments to divert her thoughts, and restore her by their innocent
+presence to a more natural state of thought and feeling. Then, after
+partaking herself of some dinner, which Mary declined to share, she saw
+her guest ensconced in a comfortable arm-chair by the fire, looking very
+pale, it was true, and eyes bright only from nervous excitement, but
+her feelings apparently tranquillised and soothed; then struck bravely
+forth upon the anxious theme.
+
+With tact, skill, and eloquence which would have graced a better cause,
+Mrs. de Burgh pleaded in her favourite's behalf--favouritism, alas! we
+fear drawing its source from principles doing little honour to the
+object of her partiality, and justifying still less the restless zeal
+with which she strove to forward a cause, in which the fate of a good
+and innocent being was so closely implicated.
+
+But though "her tongue dropped manna and could make the worst appear the
+better reason," the time was past when the willing ear of the auditor
+could be thus beguiled. She had no longer to deal with the too credulous
+and easy-to-be-persuaded Mary of other days, but one with eyes too
+tremblingly awake, and ears too powerfully quickened, to the discernment
+of falsity from the truth.
+
+Each specious statement rang false and hollow on her unpersuaded mind,
+touching not one atom of that weight of inward conviction which, alas!
+had been too firmly rooted there, for aught but the touch of genuine
+truth to undermine; and when, with her face buried in her hands, she
+listened with suspended respiration to the story of the brother's
+madness, which flowed so glibly from those eager, fluent lips, little
+Mrs. de Burgh deemed now every word thus uttered served but more
+forcibly to confirm the fearful impression which the simple-motived Jane
+had made upon her listener's mind.
+
+"And then poor man," Mrs. de Burgh, continued, "after frightening the
+old man out of his wits by his violence, he fled from the house and hid
+himself no one knew where. Poor Eugene's anxiety on his behalf was
+extreme; but of course, as he supposed him to have gone abroad, all
+researches were taken on the wrong track. There is no one to vouch for
+the condition of his mind during that interval--when he came to your
+part of the world it seems that he had pretty well recovered."
+
+Thus had Mrs. de Burgh concluded her plausible relation, pausing not a
+little, anxious for the effect produced upon her ominously silent
+auditor. Mary then lifted up her eyes, and with an expression upon her
+face, the fair Olivia did not know exactly how to understand, replied:
+
+"Yes, he came to us, appearing like some being of a higher sphere, and
+in accordance with Mr. Wynne's earnest persuasion (Mr. Wynne, a man
+whose keen and sensitive discernment it would have been difficult to
+deceive) settled down amongst us at once--unmistakably endued with every
+attribute which bespeaks the spirit of wisdom and a sound mind. He had
+spent the winter at ----, and often spoke of the solitary life he led
+whilst at that wild spot. Since that time we have frequently visited the
+Lake; and very far seemed the idea of madness to have entered the minds
+of the poor simple people of the place, in connection with that 'great
+and noble gentleman,' as they called him, who, to their pride and
+profit, had taken up his abode amongst them for a time. Then he went to
+----, and there he was taken very ill at the inn. The landlady and the
+doctor, who are both familiar to us, never had but one simple idea
+respecting the nature of his malady. He came to us with the signs of
+past suffering stamped too plainly on his countenance--suffering which,
+in such a man, appeared but to exalt and sanctify the sufferer in the
+eyes of those who beheld him.
+
+"But all this would bear little on the point, were it not for the surer
+testimony which not myself only, but the many who for five years lived
+in daily witness of the calm excellency of his life and conduct--the
+undoubted strength and clearness of his mind and understanding are able
+to produce. Tell the poorest and most ignorant of the little flock,
+amongst whom Mr. Eustace Trevor (their beloved Mr. Temple) so familiarly
+endeared himself, that he--who even, though interchange of language was
+scarcely permitted between them, they had learned to venerate as some
+almost supernatural being--that _his_ mind had been ever overthrown by
+an infirmity which had banished him from society, from his friends; and
+they would laugh to scorn the imputation, and say 'that the world rather
+must be mad, that imagined such an absurdity against him.'"
+
+Slowly and painfully, as if each word was drawn from her by the
+irresistible conviction of her secret soul, to which some inward power
+compelled her to give utterance, Mary offered these assertions. Mrs. de
+Burgh's countenance when she concluded showed signs of uneasiness, but
+she only said with some bitterness of tone:
+
+"Those people must indeed be rather uninformed, who are not aware that
+it is more frequently the strongest and the wisest minds who are most
+liable to that most deceptive of all maladies; but really, my dear
+Mary," she continued with increased asperity, "it seems to me a great
+pity that you did not sooner appreciate the extraordinary perfections of
+which you speak with such enthusiasm--both you and poor Eugene might
+then have been spared all the trouble your mutual attachment has thus
+unfortunately occasioned--though, of course, this is only according to
+your own view of the case, for it would enter into few people's heads to
+believe it probable that poor Eustace Trevor could ever marry."
+
+The blood flowed with painful intensity over Mary's face and brow, and a
+spark of almost fire shot from her usually mild eyes. But from whatever
+cause the strong emotion proceeded, whether impatient indignation at
+such unjust and cruel persistance on her cousin's part, or any other
+feeling, its unwonted force, though momentary, seemed entirely to
+over-power her self-possession, for though her lips moved, she found no
+words to reply, but drooped her head in silent confusion before her
+cousin.
+
+So Mrs. de Burgh continued:
+
+"You, Mary, would have been the last I thought to put such a
+construction on an affair of this sort. You cannot know the
+circumstances of the case, and the difficult position in which Eugene
+might have been placed. That a most violent hatred between him and his
+father always existed is well known. That Eustace Trevor's feelings in
+this respect (feelings which it is to be confessed were not without some
+foundation) after his mother's death amounted to frenzy, as it is easy
+with his excitable disposition to believe. His violence must indeed have
+been extreme, for I know from good authority, that it has been
+impossible ever since to mention his eldest son's name in Uncle Trevor's
+presence, without sending the old man almost into convulsions. For peace
+and grief's sake alone, Eugene might have found it necessary to have his
+brother removed from the house, especially when sanctioned, as of course
+the action must have been, by medical certificates; at any rate, it is
+only charitable to suppose error--rather than malice deliberate and
+propense--to have been the origin of the proceeding."
+
+Mary's eyes were by this time lifted up in anxious attention.
+
+"Yes, yes," she murmured, with clasped hands and agitated fervour;
+"convince me it were _error_, and I should be thankful--oh, how thankful
+to cherish the idea; but vain, vain will be the endeavour to reason me
+into the persuasion that anything short of the most generous
+misconception could have justified any such proceeding with regard to
+Eustace Trevor, as the cruel course which was pursued against him; and
+oh, Olivia, I wonder at you--a woman--advocating such a cause."
+
+Then pressing her hand wearily across her brow, as if she felt the
+overpowering influence of the dark bewildering theme which had taken
+such painful hold of her imagination.
+
+Mrs. de Burgh lay back upon her sofa, and was silent. She felt herself
+getting into deeper waters than she had power or ability to struggle
+with. She had been persuaded to use all her rhetoric, into arguing a
+serious but gentle-minded girl into marrying a man, towards whom time
+and experience had much shaken her estimation.
+
+To sift so particularly a matter, the wrongs and rights of which she
+had, like the world in general, been contented to take for so many years
+on credit, she was not prepared; and Mary's rebuke chafed her spirit,
+and changed in a manner the current of her thoughts.
+
+"How very disagreeable it would be for Eugene, if his brother should
+ever come forward, claiming rights, of which he had been dispossessed by
+his brother, under false pretences--" and the fair lady was beginning,
+for the first time, seriously to agitate her mind with these
+reflections, when the door softly opened, and Eugene Trevor himself made
+his appearance.
+
+One uneasy glance directed towards Mary, as if to see how she would take
+the intrusion; a slight movement of her shoulders, as she met the look
+of anxious inquiry which Eugene Trevor fixed upon her, seeming to
+express: "I have done my best--you must now try for yourself--" and Mrs.
+de Burgh took up her work and applied herself to it assiduously. Eugene
+Trevor said something not very coherent about his horse not being ready
+and seated himself a little behind Mary's chair, who had seemed more by
+feeling than by sight to be aware of her lover's entrance; for she had
+not lifted up her downcast eyes, fixed so drearily on the fire. And now
+only a scarce perceptible shudder and more rigid immovability seemed to
+announce the knowledge of his proximity.
+
+"Mary is very tired," observed Mrs. de Burgh, glancing up from her work.
+
+Eugene bent gently forward, and looked with earnest solicitude into
+Mary's face. He did not speak, but volumes could not have expressed more
+than the silent concentrated fervour of those dark, passionate eyes.
+
+It was impossible not to feel in some degree their power, though the
+influence which had enthralled her soul in other days, was gone; or
+remained, to use that most hackneyed of all similes, only as the power
+of the repellant rattlesnake.
+
+Painfully she turned away her head, whilst the hand of which Eugene
+gently had managed to possess himself, struggled to free itself from his
+hold. Probably, Mrs. de Burgh conceived, from all appearance, that this
+was the momentous crisis which it was her duty to make another effort
+to assist.
+
+She had a little piano-forte in her dressing-room, removed there to
+while away the hours of her confinement to its precincts; and she
+contrived, without disturbing her companions, to wheel her light sofa in
+the right direction. She then arranged herself in a moment before the
+instrument, and saying, playfully, "Mary, my dear, you shall have some
+of your favourite songs to cheer you up a little," she struck the
+chords, and without waiting for further encouragement or reply, began to
+sing--perhaps by accident, but more probably by design--her choice
+falling upon those plaintive songs and ballads with which she delighted
+Mary that first evening, more than four years ago, of her last visit to
+Silverton. That night on which her fair hostess was always pleased to
+consider the magic of her own sweet singing had in no slight degree
+contributed to weave the fatal spell, whose broken charm it was now so
+much her object to renew. What better could she do for Eugene's
+interest, than try this method of enchantment once again?
+
+And could Mary listen, and her susceptible soul not be touched by the
+memories and associations which must be naturally awakened? Could she
+sit by Eugene's side, and not be carried back in softened fancy to the
+time--that time to use the impassioned language of the poet--
+
+    "When full of blissful sighs
+    They sat and gazed into each other's eyes,
+    Silent and happy, as if God had given
+    Nought else worth looking on this side of heaven."
+
+Alas! for the spell so irremediably broken, that not even this sweet and
+subtlest of all human influences can restore.
+
+Mary's soul was stirred indeed within her, but it was with very
+different emotions than those which were intended to be produced; above
+all was her heart swelling within her, with wounded, more than indignant
+feelings, against the pretended friend who had thus made her the
+unsuspected victim of an unworthy plot.
+
+Therefore the soft music rather seemed to irritate, than to soothe her
+jarred and shaken nerves--the words of thrilling pathos, which the
+strain for the most part conveyed, to sound in mocking accents on her
+ear.
+
+    "The sunshine of my life is in those eyes,
+    And when thou leav'st me, all is dark within."
+
+What to her could such words be, but mockery; when now, alone "the image
+of a wicked, heinous fault lived in the eye," which once, indeed, had
+seemed too powerfully to absorb the whole sunshine of her life.
+
+But still she sat there, pale, spiritless, and subdued, as if some spell
+still bound her, she had not energy to break, however unwillingly she
+yielded herself to its sway. Sat--till from silent looks, it seemed that
+Eugene, perhaps encouraged by her passive conduct, began again to urge
+in low and pleading tones his anxious suit, his father's earnest wishes
+on the subject--his own broken-hearted despair. Then, it seems, her
+passive trance had given way, for very soon after, when Mrs. de Burgh,
+warned by the sound of Eugene's voice, that matters were taking a more
+decisive and particular character, had begun to strike the chords with
+considerately proportioned force, she was startled by hearing Mary's low
+voice close behind her, announcing, in accents tremulous with agitation,
+her intention of immediately retiring to bed.
+
+The sweet sounds were abruptly suspended; the performer looking up,
+said, with cheerful _insouciance_ which she did not exactly feel, for
+she was rather disappointed at this ominous sign of the destruction of
+her hopes that affairs were taking a more favourable turn:
+
+"Yes, dear Mary, certainly, you shall go directly. I forgot that you had
+had so fatiguing a journey."
+
+Then glanced uneasily round to see how it went with the other party
+concerned.
+
+Eugene Trevor had approached the window, and having, with impetuous
+hand, drawn aside the curtain, threw open the shutter, and looked out,
+as if to ascertain the aspect of the night.
+
+"By Jove, dark as pitch," he murmured moodily; then looking back, cried
+with a kind of reckless laugh, "Olivia you must keep me here to-night, I
+think, if you have the least regard for my neck."
+
+Mrs. de Burgh glanced towards the window.
+
+"Is it so very dark?" she asked, evasively.
+
+"Dark--not a star to be seen--but--what in the name of fortune, is that
+strange sudden light yonder?"
+
+Mrs. de Burgh again glanced towards the window, but from the position of
+her seat could not gain sight of anything but the thick impenetrable
+darkness. Mary, however, standing with the candle she had taken up in
+her trembling hand, mechanically turned her eyes in the direction
+indicated. They were, indeed, immediately attracted by a red glare,
+which, rendered more conspicuous by the surrounding blackness,
+illuminated the distant sky opposite, just across the twelve miles of
+flat country separating Silverton from that wooded rise, which had so
+often rivetted her interested gaze, as marking the neighbouring site of
+Montrevor.
+
+But it must have been a meteorical appearance which had produced the
+transitory effect, for even as she gazed it seemed to have faded from
+her sight--or rather, she observed it no more--saw nothing but the dark
+eye of Eugene Trevor flashing upon her with a lurid glaze, which in the
+troubled confusion of her ideas seemed in some way confounded with this
+late aspect of the sky.
+
+    "Sullenly fierce, a mixture dire,
+    Like thunder clouds, half gloom, half fire."
+
+She turned away, lighting her candle with unsteady hand.
+
+"Good night, Olivia," she said gravely.
+
+Mrs. de Burgh held out her hand.
+
+"Good night, Mary. I hope you will sleep well, and be better to-morrow."
+
+By a faint, cold smile, Mary alone acknowledged the kindness of the
+desire. She was turning silently away, but something seemed to come over
+her spirit--a chill--a pang--a sinking at the heart--such as those must
+feel who, be the circumstances what they may, have torn thus away the
+last link of that broken chain which once, alas! so fondly bound them.
+
+She paused, her softened glance directed towards Eugene. There was no
+relenting, no wavering in the glance, nothing but a mournful interest,
+sorrowful regret, offered up as it were, as a final tribute to the past.
+
+But it seemed not that Trevor was in a condition of mind to enter into
+the spirit of this silent adieu. Throwing himself back upon a chair,
+without appearing to notice it, and addressing himself to Mrs. de Burgh,
+he exclaimed in a tone of almost insolent defiance:
+
+"Olivia, I must trouble you to order me a bed also. I shall not turn out
+this dark night for any one."
+
+It was not so much the words, but the tone in which they were spoken,
+which seemed to complete the work of disenchantment. The softness passed
+from Mary's eyes, and her parting look, though still sorrowful, was
+grave and firm, whilst in a voice, low, but full of dignified reserve,
+she uttered the words "Good bye."
+
+Simple as was their emphasis, they were not to be mistaken. They seemed
+to say "Good bye, Eugene, for whether you stay to-night, or go, you and
+I meet not again." And then she slowly left the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+    Suddenly rose from the South a light, as in autumn the blood red
+    Moon climbs the crystal walls of Heaven, and o'er the horizon,
+    Titan-like, stretches its hundred hands upon mountains and meadow,
+    Seizing the rocks and the rivers, and piling huge shadows together.
+
+    LONGFELLOW.
+
+
+    Why flames the far summit? why shoot to the blast,
+    Those embers, like stars from the firmament cast?
+    'Tis the fire-shower of ruin, all dreadfully driven
+    From his eyrie, that beacons the darkness of Heaven.
+    Oh crested Lochrel! the peerless in might,
+
+    Heaven's fire is around thee, to blast and to burn;
+    Return to thy dwelling, all lonely, return,
+    For the blackness of ashes shall mark where it stood.
+
+    CAMPBELL.
+
+
+It was with a numbed and dreary sense of bruised and outraged feeling
+that Mary--the last fibre of mistaken partiality torn from her
+heart--the last atom of her false idol crumbled into dust, lay down upon
+her bed that night.
+
+She had lain there perhaps an hour, when the loud ringing of the
+hall-door aroused her from the state of dreamy stupor which was stealing
+over her.
+
+Her first supposition was that her cousin Louis had returned. Then the
+hasty-ascending footstep of the servant, the quick knocking at the door
+of Mrs. de Burgh's dressing-room, from which the chamber appointed for
+Mary was not far removed; the hasty communication then given, the loud
+and agitated voice of Eugene in reply, his impetuous rush down stairs
+and from the house--as the banging of the hall-door made her aware--led
+her rather to conclude that some intelligence of peculiar importance,
+perhaps relating to the illness of old Mr. Trevor, had been received
+from Montrevor.
+
+The next moment Mrs. de Burgh's bell rang violently, and very soon after
+her maid entered Mary's apartment, begging Miss Seaham to go immediately
+to Mrs. de Burgh.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Montrevor was on fire! Mr. Eugene Trevor had been sent for. Mrs. de
+Burgh was greatly agitated.
+
+Pale and horror-stricken, Mary hastened to obey the summons. She found
+her cousin with her sofa pushed towards the window, gazing in strong
+excitement on the red glare, now again plainly visible in the distance,
+and so fearfully accounted for.
+
+"Gracious heavens, Mary, is not this terrible! the poor old place.
+Eugene has gone off distracted, not knowing whether he will find the
+whole house consumed; as for the wretched old man, God only knows what
+has become of him! it did not seem that the messenger brought any sure
+tidings of his safety. How dreadful if he were to perish in the flames!"
+
+"Dreadful, indeed!" murmured Mary; but she was no match for her cousin's
+volubility. She sank down shivering by her side, her eyes fixed in
+appalled bewilderment on the awful sign written in the heavens--sign, as
+it were, of the judgment and fiery indignation which is to devour the
+adversary.
+
+They sat there long intent upon the anxious watch, though little was to
+be gleaned from that flickering and unconstant glare, now deepening,
+now dying into comparative darkness, but that the fire was still in
+existence.
+
+Mrs. de Burgh had ordered some of her servants to follow Eugene, and
+render any assistance in their power; one was to return immediately with
+intelligence. In the meantime she entreated Mary not to leave her, a
+petition which poor Mary, in her present state of mind, was not inclined
+to resist.
+
+Coffee was brought up to revive their strength and spirits, during the
+two hours which at least must elapse before the messenger could arrive,
+and wrapping Mary in a warm shawl, the weary interval of suspense passed
+away as quickly as could be expected. It was over at last. The servant
+returned. Mrs. de Burgh had him up to the dressing-room to hear the
+account from his own lips.
+
+In a few words the man related, that one entire wing of the house had
+been past recovery when the party arrived from Silverton, or before any
+effectual assistance could be procured. It was the wing containing the
+private library of Mr. Trevor; there it was supposed the fire had broken
+out and made some way before discovered by the household.
+
+The catastrophe was supposed to have originated in some way from Mr.
+Trevor, as he was missing in his own apartment; and it was feared that
+he had perished in the flames, as he had been known to have some nights
+before crept stealthily from his bed-room to the study. It did not
+appear that any of the servants had been sufficiently courageous to
+attempt his rescue, and of course now all hope of saving the unfortunate
+old man was at an end, the flames having communicated with the adjoining
+passages before the alarm was given, though even then Mr. Eugene Trevor
+had seemed almost inclined to pierce the flames in that direction, so
+great was his horror at the intelligence.
+
+Mrs. de Burgh at this awful communication fell into a fit of hysterical
+weeping, whilst Mary, pale as death, speechless, tearless with emotion,
+sat with her eyes raised and her hands clasped together. "Thoughts too
+deep for tears" stirred up within her breast--thoughts of death,
+judgment, and eternity.
+
+How terrible indeed the retribution which had fallen upon the head of
+that sinful old man. How mighty and terrible the hand which might be
+said to have taken up the cause of the oppressed, and stopped the way
+of the ungodly!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Fearfully vivid was the light which guided Eugene Trevor on his course,
+as like a demon of the night he dashed through the darkness--his
+neighing, foaming steed bearing him far onward before the party
+following him from Silverton.
+
+The conflagration lighted the country many miles around, and fierce was
+the effort the distracted rider had to make to force the frightened
+animal to proceed.
+
+When entering the grounds, the flames shone through the leafless trees
+full upon his path, his dilated nostrils inhaled at every breath air
+heated like a furnace; and bleeding, panting, trembling in every limb,
+stopped short before the blazing pile.
+
+A shout from the spectators, now congregated in considerable numbers,
+announced the anxiously expected arrival of Eugene Trevor. One second's
+pause, as raising himself in his stirrups, he seemed in one wild,
+hurried, desperate glance to review the fearful scene--then casting away
+the reins and springing to the ground, called out in a hoarse loud
+voice an inquiry for his father; but without waiting an answer--or
+perhaps reading the full truth too plainly revealed on the countenances
+of those around him--he darted forward, almost as the servant had
+related (it might have appeared with the desperate impulse to attempt
+even then the rescue of his father's remains); when, either repelled by
+the violent heat or suddenly recalled to recollection, he staggered
+back, struck his clenched hand wildly against his brow, and turned away
+just as that part of the roofing gave way; the flames bursting out with
+increasing fury necessitating a hasty retreat. The conflagration
+presented altogether a scene of awful grandeur. Engines were playing on
+the other extremity of the mansion, though little hopes of checking the
+devastation were entertained.
+
+All the furniture and other valuable property which it had been possible
+to rescue had been already removed, and now lay strewn out in the park
+before the house; and there, a little aloof from the rest of the crowd,
+with arms folded on his breast, stood Eugene Trevor watching the
+progress of the demolition--the terrible glare distinctly revealing the
+expression of dark despair settled in his glazed eyes and upturned
+countenance.
+
+A few gentlemen of the neighbourhood were on the spot, but a feeling of
+delicacy restrained them from intruding on the sufferer their sympathy
+at that dreadful moment.
+
+The feelings of a man who stands beholding the house of his forefathers
+burning before his eyes, with the fearful knowledge that a parent's
+blackened corpse is consuming to ashes beneath the ruins, might seem
+indeed to require no other consideration to render their harrowing
+nature complete. But were these the subject matter of the thoughts which
+pressed upon the soul of Eugene Trevor at that awful moment?--or had it
+been the natural promptings of filial piety alone which at first had
+impelled him to rush forwards in that fatal direction?
+
+Alas! no--rather must we fear it was the impulse of the man, goaded by
+the consciousness that there too was consuming the papers on whose
+existence all which he had staked his greedy soul to obtain, and the
+destruction of which must be the total demolition of all his unrighteous
+hopes and prospects, bring him to the feet of an injured and offended
+brother, and prove, in short, his ruin.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The work of destruction continued unabated; portion after portion of the
+burning mass gradually gave way; the roof of the large dining-room fell
+in with a tremendous crash, and all the interior part of the mansion
+being now destroyed, nothing remained but the mere skeleton of one of
+the oldest, stateliest residences in the kingdom.
+
+By this time, Eugene Trevor had turned away, and exerted himself to
+speak with the superior servants and superintendents of the estate; and
+then the friends still lingering by, hesitated no longer to draw near.
+They first shook hands in silent and sorrowful token of their sympathy
+with the bereaved man, proceeding to press upon him invitations to
+accompany them to their respective homes. Eugene received their advances
+with as much calmness as could be expected; their hospitality, however,
+he thankfully declined.
+
+If he went anywhere he had promised to return to Silverton, but his
+presence would be required on the spot some time longer. After he had
+seen to everything that remained to be done, he should probably go to
+----, the town four miles distant. He had hurt his arm by approaching
+too near the fire, and must have it looked at by a surgeon.
+
+His friends had too much consideration to urge him further, and having
+received his repeated thanks, and assured them that they could not be of
+any further assistance, they departed.
+
+The further proceedings of that night, or rather morning (for it was
+about four o'clock) before the work of ruin was finally achieved, were,
+as may be supposed, to seek for the remains of Mr. Trevor from amidst
+the wreck of the fallen house. They were at length discovered.
+
+There they lay: the iron chests which lined the apartment, (once the
+general library of the mansion, but long since monopolized by Mr. Trevor
+for his especial use and purposes)--and which alone remained of
+everything belonging to it, testified to its identity. The existence of
+these giving hopes of the security of its contents, caused a ray of
+renovated hope to kindle on the countenance of Eugene Trevor, who
+superintended the investigation in person.
+
+But the hope was but transitory. The position of the blackened bones
+indicating his father's remains, plainly betokened the vicinity of the
+miser to the old oak _bureau_, at the time of his dreadful death: of
+that receptacle, of course, nothing now remained but the iron bends
+which had once so jealously secured its contents, and the blackened
+ashes of paper in considerable quantity; rendering it still more
+probable that the horrible catastrophe had originated through their
+means--namely, that the wretched old man had set some of them on fire
+during their examination; indeed, within the fleshless hand of the
+miser, clutched doubtless in his dying agony, there still remained a
+scorched fragment of parchment, upon which the eager eyes of his son
+still deciphered a word or two, which at once told him his fate was
+decided; that it was the unrighteous will on which his future fortunes
+so strongly depended, the last atom of which, miraculously preserved, he
+now beheld.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A few moments more, and Eugene Trevor turned his back upon the smoking
+ruins of his home; and soon, in the hateful light of morning, with bent
+brow and livid cheek, was riding away to ----, with feelings at his
+heart it would be indeed but a futile endeavour to describe.
+
+With the guilty woe of him who ponders over a well-merited fate--a
+serpent wound around the heart, stinging its every thought to
+strife--can alone perhaps suggest a fit comparison, when applied to the
+state of a man's mind under circumstances like the present.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+    Away, come down from your tribunal seats;
+    Put off your robes of state, and let your mien
+    Be pale and humbled.
+
+
+Mr. de Burgh was in the north of England when he received news of the
+destruction of Montrevor, by means both of the public papers and a few
+hurried lines from his wife.
+
+He had been contemplating at the time a speedy return; but this dreadful
+intelligence hastened his movements, and three days after the fire he
+arrived at Silverton.
+
+Mr. de Burgh did not see Mary at first. The unrest and agitation of mind
+under which for some time she had been suffering, brought to a climax by
+the shock this last dire event had occasioned, produced its physical
+effect, a kind of low nervous fever, now confined her to her bed.
+
+Her cousin Louis was surprised to hear of Mary's being at Silverton,
+Mrs. de Burgh having slightly mentioned the fact in her hurried letter
+to him; nor did she consider it at all necessary to enlighten her
+husband as to the cause and circumstances of her visit when on the night
+of his return, Mr. de Burgh commented somewhat sarcastically on the
+subject.
+
+"Yes, Mary was very kind to come to me, when I told her of my accident
+and loneliness--indeed I do not see in the least why she should not have
+come," Mrs. de Burgh remarked.
+
+"Nor I either, if she likes it," he answered drily--"at any rate this
+fire will bring matters to a crisis both as regards her affair with
+Eugene Trevor, as it will also a few others."
+
+"Of course you will go and see after poor Eugene to-morrow, and try and
+persuade him to come here."
+
+"Of course--but as to coming to stay here, I am pretty well persuaded
+that Eugene Trevor will have too much on his mind just now to think of
+visiting any where. I shall be curious to know how things will turn
+out."
+
+"Oh, of course my poor uncle left Eugene all the money," Mrs. de Burgh
+said.
+
+"Most probably, all his immense savings, but you know the estates are
+strictly entailed."
+
+"Yes ...," was the answer, with some hesitation; "but if Eustace Trevor
+does not make his appearance."
+
+"That will not alter the entail whilst he is alive, and every exertion
+will be made which can lead to his discovery, if his father's death does
+not, indeed, as there is every likelihood, make him come forward of
+himself."
+
+"But if he is mad?"
+
+"Pshaw!" was the only reply deigned by Mr. de Burgh, with the expression
+of indignant incredulity, which any such allusion always excited in him.
+
+Mrs. de Burgh was silent for a few moments, but there was a very
+significant display of intelligence visible on her countenance.
+
+The fact was, that she was inwardly struggling between a very womanly
+desire to let out the secret of which she was in possession, and the
+unwillingness she felt to gratify her husband by the communication of
+Eugene's rejection by Mary--also she felt some hesitating repugnance to
+relate the particulars concerning the identity of the lost Eustace
+Trevor with Mr. Temple, the esteemed and beloved friend of all the
+Seaham family. But then her silence would but for a few hours postpone
+the intelligence--the truth would be revealed by Mary on the first
+opportunity, if it transpired not through other means. So at length,
+after keeping it fluttering for some time on the tip of her undecided
+tongue, the final plunge was taken, some mysteriously oracular words
+were spoken, which excited Mr. de Burgh's curiosity, and led to the full
+and final developement of the whole story of "Mr. Temple," and every
+particular relating to him as received from Mary. The surprise and
+interest of Mr. de Burgh at this communication, was of course extreme.
+He was much excited, walking about the room and questioning his wife
+over and over again on the subject, whilst she having once broken the
+ice scrupled not to afford him every satisfaction in her power--nay,
+taxing her imagination and ingenuity to make the romantic story even
+more extraordinary than it really was.
+
+The following morning Mr. de Burgh rode off immediately after breakfast
+for the town of ----, and on his return late that afternoon desired to
+see Mary, and though Mrs. de Burgh objected that she was not fit for
+any exciting conversation--that she was very weak and ill, so much so,
+that she was going to write to Arthur Seaham to come to Silverton as
+soon as it was possible--Mr. de Burgh persisted on its being a matter of
+importance, the more so when he heard, that, on that very morning Mary
+had received a foreign letter, which Mrs. de Burgh supposed was from her
+friend the clergyman, the companion of Eustace Trevor, though she had
+not as yet alluded to its contents, which seemed nevertheless to have
+considerably affected Mary.
+
+Mr. de Burgh was, therefore, in the course of the evening, taken to
+Mary's room, where she was lying on the sofa ready to receive her
+cousin, for whose visit she had been previously prepared.
+
+The interview lasted some time--when Mr. de Burgh left the room, he
+immediately sat down and wrote a note, which he dispatched without
+delay. It was, he afterwards told Mrs. de Burgh, when she could induce
+him to satisfy her curiosity, to the lawyer concerned in the management
+of the Trevor affairs, whom he had seen that day. He had just written
+to inform him where Eustace Trevor was to be found, it being proposed
+to send a special messenger abroad to summon him to England, in order to
+take possession of his inheritance.
+
+"No will of any kind having been found in existence, Eustace Trevor
+comes of course into undisputed possession of the property and estates,
+both entailed and unentailed, that is to say," added Mr. de Burgh, with
+something of sarcastic triumph in his tone, "if he is found in a fit
+state of mind to enter upon his rights."
+
+"And poor Eugene," demanded Mrs. de Burgh, bitterly.
+
+"Eugene, I did not see," answered her husband; "a hurt he received the
+night of the fire, it seems, was inclining to inflammation, and he was
+ordered to keep quiet; at least, he would not see me when I called at
+the inn. The lawyer tells me he seems suffering much anxiety and
+distress of mind; no wonder, for from what I hear, it will go hard with
+him, if he finds not a generous and forgiving brother in Eustace Trevor;
+his ten thousand pounds, the portion secured by the marriage settlement
+to the younger children, will be but a poor set off against the immense
+expectations on which he had speculated so securely."
+
+"You are very ungenerous and unkind to speak in that way of a fallen
+man; I hope Mary does not enter into your sentiments, I am sure I shall
+always stand up for Eugene."
+
+"Oh, no doubt, through thick and thin," was the rather sneering reply,
+"unkind indeed, I should say, it was cruel kindness 'that the wrong from
+right defends;' as for Mary, I am glad to find that she has for some
+time not been quite the blindly obstinate and deluded person I had began
+regretfully to esteem her, that her infatuation has long since been
+giving way before the evidences of truth and reason--yes, her charity in
+the point in question is rather more honourable to her character than
+that which you profess; there being an old proverb I have somewhere
+read, which says: 'Charity is an angel when it rejoices in the truth;
+but (something with a very different name) when it embraces that, which
+it should only pity and weep over.'"
+
+Tears, indeed; the tears of many mingled and conflicting feelings were
+trickling through the pale fingers clasped over Mary's aching eyes when
+left alone by her cousin. The letter that morning received from Mr.
+Wynne, the superscription of which had been noted down by Mr. de Burgh,
+held tight in her other hand; that letter, which indeed contained such
+fearful testimony to the truth of Jane Marryott's story, and all she had
+heard assigned against him, whom she had once so blindly and ignorantly
+worshipped. Mr. Wynne related succinctly the whole story of Eustace
+Trevor's wrongs, as confided by his own lips on his first arrival in
+Wales. This Mr. Wynne had taken on himself to do unauthorized by his
+friend; it was all, indeed, which Mary's letter seemed purposed to
+effect--her own communication of having entirely broken off her
+engagement with Eugene Trevor, only rendering more wholly out of the
+question the execution of the step she had so urged upon Eugene's
+brother.
+
+For her own sake, for her preservation from a fate he so deprecated on
+her account--he had promised to sacrifice his own interest--to take no
+step likely to lead to the well-merited discomfiture and disturbance of
+his brother, or an exposure of the past. The point on which the
+agreement turned had now been established. He would not too closely
+inquire by what means, and in what manner; but the promise he must still
+consider binding on his part, a promise but too much in unison with the
+solemn determination of his aggrieved and wounded spirit when last he
+quitted his father's house, never again to seek a son or brother's place
+within those dishonoured walls. This had been the substance of Mr.
+Wynne's letter. How changed the aspect of affairs since the period when
+it had been penned. How mighty the hand, and by what terrible means had
+been effected, that which her weak influence had attempted to achieve!
+
+It might, indeed, be called an instance in which the still small voice
+must fail, but the power of the all mighty one be heard in the fire.
+
+And now, all the past--the strange position in which she stood--the
+circumstances in which she had become involved, passed before Mary's
+mind's eye as in a bewildering dream--confused and conflicting feelings
+she could scarcely divide from one another, troubling her enfeebled
+spirits; till, at length, those relieving drops had flowed, and prayers
+mingled with those tears to the all wise and the all merciful disposer
+of events, in whom she trusted.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It must not be supposed that Eustace Trevor had been unmoved by the
+urgent appeal conveyed in Mary's letter; that the words she had written,
+the argument she had used, had unimpressed him with their justice and
+their truth. They brought to his recollection the words of the psalm
+sung that afternoon in the little church of Ll---- by the simple village
+choir, when first the fair face of Mary Seaham had cast its softening
+spell upon his frowning destiny--those words which had even then struck
+upon his fancy as strikingly applicable to his own strange case, and
+which from Mary's low sweet voice had thrilled like an angel's soft
+rebuke upon his ear.
+
+    "Since I have placed my trust in God
+    A refuge always nigh,
+    Why should I, like a timorous bird,
+    To yonder mountain fly."
+
+But erroneous as might have been the cause of action, crooked the path
+he had been morbidly driven to pursue; innumerable causes seemed now to
+oppose the conduct that angel-like minister with unworldly and too
+prevailing voice now urged him to pursue. No, for the present let it
+suffice that she was saved from a fate, which apart from all selfish
+feelings, he feared for her worse than death; for the rest, matters must
+take their natural course, work out their own intended end, swayed by
+the hand which ruleth the universe--much more the affairs of the sons of
+men; for neither to blind chance, or what men call fate, did Eustace
+Trevor commit his ways.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+    My gentle lad, what is't you read
+    Romance or fairy fable?
+    Or is it some historic page
+    Of kings and crowns unstable?
+    The young boy gave an upward glare:
+    "It is the death of Abel!"
+
+    HOOD.
+
+
+It was about ten days after the event recorded in the last chapter, that
+Mary Seaham, for the first time since her illness, came down stairs; and
+wearied by the exertion, and left comparatively alone--for Mrs. de Burgh
+was driving with her little girl, and Mr. de Burgh, and her brother--who
+had arrived to take his sister away as soon as she was sufficiently
+strong enough to move--were also from home; only the quiet, eldest boy
+remained to keep her company.
+
+She was lying late in the afternoon upon the drawing-room sofa, the
+effects of her still lingering weakness causing a dreamy feeling of
+weariness to creep over her. Struggling with the sensation, and wishing
+to arouse herself, she now and then opened her languid eyes, and spoke
+to her little companion, who sat so seriously at the foot of the couch,
+amusing himself with the book upon his knee--his favourite book of
+scripture prints and stories.
+
+He was an interesting and peculiar child, very unlike the girl, who had
+all the _eveillé_, excitable disposition of her mother--or the
+high-spirited, most beautiful child, the youngest boy, of whom his
+parents were so proud and fond.
+
+"What are you reading, Charlie?" Mary inquired.
+
+"About Cain and Abel. Here is the picture of Cain, that dark, bad man,
+who hated his brother Abel," the child replied.
+
+"And why did he hate him, Charlie?"
+
+"Because his brother's works were good, and his were evil."
+
+"It is very dreadful not to love one's brother. Always love your's,
+Charlie," Mary said mournfully.
+
+"I do love him," the boy answered with simple earnestness, lifting up
+his expressive eyes to his gentle monitor's face; "and look," he
+continued, sidling closer to her side, "here are two other brothers, who
+once did not love one another; and one was obliged to go and live for a
+great many years in a far-off country; but see here, he is returned, and
+the brothers have forgiven one another; and," continuing in the words of
+the scripture explanation written in the page, "'Esau ran to meet him,
+and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.'
+That is a nicer picture, Mary, than that of Cain and Abel, for Abel
+there is dead, and Cain can never be forgiven; but must wander about the
+earth with a mark upon his forehead, lest people should kill him; but
+Jacob and Esau might be friends on earth, and meet again in heaven."
+
+Mary placed her hand fondly and gratefully on the head of her dear
+little expositor. A tear of happier feeling trembling amidst the lashes
+of her drooping eyelids, than had gushed for many a day from her
+perplexed and troubled spirit, for she thought of two other brothers,
+who, through the mercy of God, were still spared on earth--the one to
+forgive, the other to be forgiven; and a calm, peaceful, expression
+stole over the sweet countenance whose placid serenity distressing
+thoughts had of late so sadly disturbed, till at length, as Charlie went
+on to read to her, at full, the history, as he said, "of another
+brother--the best brother of all." "Even Joseph, who was sold for a
+servant, whose feet they hurt in the stocks, who was laid in irons,
+until the time came that he was delivered, the word of the Lord tried
+him;" but who yet, when his brothers were brought to bow down before
+him, he spoke kindly to them, even to those who had done him such
+grievous wrong, and kissed them, and wept over them, and made them as
+rich and happy as he could--the soft monotony of the child's voice
+lulled her senses to repose; and with that glittering tear still
+moistening her drooping lashes, and a smile, sweet and innocent as might
+have been that of the child by her side, she peacefully slept.
+
+The boy's voice then sunk to a whisper, and so absorbed was he in his
+interesting task, and the carpet of the saloon so thick and soft, that
+he perceived or heard nothing till a darkening shadow fell upon his
+book.
+
+Then he quietly lifted up his serious eyes, and beheld a tall stranger
+gentleman standing at a little distance before him. But the stranger
+was not looking at him, the little boy: his full, dark eyes were bent
+with earnest intensity upon the sleeping Mary, who, as she lay there
+with that still serenity of brow, that look almost of child-like
+innocence which sleep, like death, sometimes brings back to the
+countenance, might have well suggested to the recollection of the gazer
+these beautiful lines of Mrs. Hemans, "The Sleeper:"
+
+    "Oh lightly, lightly tread,
+      Revere the pale still brow,
+    The meekly drooping head,
+      The long hair's willowy flow.
+
+    "Ye know not what ye do,
+      That call the slumberer back
+    From the world unseen by you,
+      Unto life's dim, faded track.
+
+    "Her soul is far away
+      In her childhood's land perchance,
+    Where her young sisters play,
+      Where shines her brother's glance.
+
+    "Some old sweet native sound,
+      Her spirit haply weaves;
+    A harmony profound,
+      Of woods with all their leaves.
+
+    "A murmur of the sea,
+      A laughing tone of streams;
+    Long may her sojourn be
+      In the music land of dreams."
+
+The stranger's rivetted regard seemed to attract the young Charlie's
+also, for he now turned his eyes upon the slumberer, and then, as if
+equally attracted by the angelic sweetness of her expression at that
+moment, or wishing to demonstrate to the intruder the privileged
+position he held with respect to the object of their joint attention, he
+slid still nearer to Mary's pillow, and gently kissed her cheek; then,
+again looking up, something remarkable in the stranger's mien and
+countenance--something mournful and tender, yet altogether more noble
+and beautiful than he had perhaps ever seen before upon the face of man,
+seemed to inspire favour and confidence in his innocent breast; for the
+little fellow smiled benignantly and trustfully, as, holding out his
+hand, he said softly:
+
+"And you may kiss her too, if you like; but very gently: you must not
+wake her, she has been so ill, poor thing!"
+
+At these words his listener started, dropped the little hand he had
+kindly taken, the crimson blood suffusing his brow. He cast one hurried
+glance on the object of their conversation, then with irresolute
+quietness turned away, and paced the room with hushed but rapid steps,
+as if to calm some sudden storm of troubled feeling, the boy's
+innocently spoken words had awakened in his breast.
+
+When next he paused before the couch, the deep flush had passed away,
+leaving his countenance paler than before, though calmer and more
+composed; and smiling kindly upon the watchful child, as if to promise
+him that his injunctions should not be disregarded, he reverently
+stooped, and "very gently," as the boy had enjoined, touched with his
+lips the fair white hand which drooped by Mary's side; and when again he
+raised his head, the wondering child perceived a tear glistening in the
+tall, pale stranger's eye. And no wonder if the heart of Eustace Trevor
+swelled with peculiar emotion at that moment! The last time his lips had
+pressed the form of woman it had been in that kiss of agony, in "that
+last kiss which never was the last," which, in his strong despair and
+mighty anguish, he had imprinted on the cold, cold brow of his mother,
+ere they hid her from his sight for ever!--his then only beloved on
+earth, with whom all the light and hope of his existence would be
+quenched for ever!
+
+And must he not now turn away from her he had learnt since to love, with
+a love such as he had thought never again to feel on earth?--from that
+being, fair, and gentle, and good as the object of his soul's first
+pure, faithful idolatry: she whose sleeping smile--cold, pale and
+tranquil almost as that which had greeted his arrival that night of
+never-to-be-forgotten misery--now welcomed the exile on his homeless,
+hearthless, desolate return!
+
+Must he turn away, and never look on _her_--never look on Mary thus
+again? Was it the last time, as it had been the first, that he should
+ever dare to press that dear hand as now he had done? Nay, more--must he
+see it given to another?--would he be called upon to crown the measure
+of that generous mercy with which he had come, his heart overflowing--by
+withdrawing the restraining hand he had, for the few last years, held
+between his unnatural enemy, and that innocent object of his enemy's
+covetous affections? Was he to be called upon--yes, perhaps by Mary
+herself--to abstain from his threatened exposure of the past, and stand
+from between Eugene and herself?--now, in his hour of triumph, to be
+merciful, generous and forgiving in this also?
+
+For why else did he see her here?--why, if the purport of her letter
+still held good, that she had bade adieu--cancelled for ever her
+engagement with her former lover? Why, then, was she here, in the very
+place where she had first fallen into this dangerous snare?
+
+Ah, no!--he saw it all too plainly! Impelled by the impulse of a woman's
+mistaken, but generous devotion, her lover's fallen fortunes, whilst
+engaging her pity, had redeemed his offences in her eyes, and recalled
+her alienated affections; that she was here, like a ministering angel,
+to assure him of this--to console him, to sympathize; perhaps to ward
+off, by her intercession, the disgrace and ruin to which his injured
+brother's dreaded coming threatened to overwhelm the object of her
+solicitude.
+
+But he had no time to dwell on these things. There had been something in
+his touch, light as it had been, which proved sufficient to break the
+charm of slumber. Mary slowly unclosed her eyes, and murmuring:
+
+"Are you there, Charlie?" looked up and beheld her new companion. One
+uncertain bewildered gaze she fixed upon his face, then gliding to her
+feet cried: "Mr. Trevor, are you really come?" and burst into tears.
+
+"Yes, Miss Seaham, I am come," was the reply, in a voice trembling with
+emotion; and taking the hands she had extended towards him, gently
+reseated her on the sofa, and sat down by her side, looking with earnest
+mournfulness in her face.
+
+"Yes, I am come, and thank you for this feeling welcome, which is but
+too much required, for you may well imagine what a coming, one such as
+mine must be."
+
+"Yes, yes," she murmured through her fast falling tears; "I know, I feel
+it must be a fearful trial; your father's dreadful death, the melancholy
+destruction of your home. But--but, Mr. Trevor, it is the hand of the
+Almighty--His great and terrible hand--we must look upon it as such;
+and," lifting up her streaming eyes, "hope for His loving-mercies to
+shine forth once again. There has been much of dark and terrible in the
+past, but let us pray that the future may atone. Yes, you have returned,
+and all may still be right."
+
+"You think so," he replied gently, but still most mournfully; then
+averting his face, added in low and sterner accents of interrogation:
+"and my brother?"
+
+"He has been ill," was Mary's low reply, "suffering, it is to be feared,
+as much from mental anxiety as from physical pain. Oh, Mr. Trevor, your
+coming to him indeed must prove a relief--a relief from the worst of
+sufferings--suspense."
+
+"What has he to fear?" demanded Eustace Trevor.
+
+"What? You will learn too soon the desperate nature of your brother's
+position, unless, indeed, he finds in you one more generous and
+forgiving than he has any right or reason to expect."
+
+Mary spoke earnestly, but with firmness, almost severity; and as she
+uttered these last words Eustace Trevor turned and anxiously regarded
+her.
+
+"Eugene need have no fears on any pecuniary account," he again repeated;
+"he will find in me one who cannot set too low a value on that of which
+he strove so hard to deprive me. Surely you, Miss Seaham, could not have
+believed me capable of so poor and contemptible a spirit of revenge, as
+to entertain any doubt or fear as regards my conduct in that respect?"
+
+"No, no," Mary replied, with trembling fervour; "I might have rested
+well assured as to what must be the high and holy character of _your_
+revenge. 'If your enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink;'
+and oh, Mr. Trevor, by so doing, coals of fire will indeed be heaped
+upon your unhappy brother's head. But, alas! can _he_ suppose you
+capable of such magnanimity--he of so different a spirit to your own?"
+
+There was a spirit in the mild eyes, a colour on the pale cheek turned
+towards him, as she thus expressed herself, which caused a corresponding
+glow to illumine the countenance of her listener, and with still greater
+earnestness he regarded her.
+
+Mary turned away, bending her head over the boy, who had again drawn
+caressingly to her side, whilst in low, faltering accents she replied
+to his inquiries, whether she had come to Silverton since the fire?
+
+"No, the afternoon before it had occurred."
+
+"Had she seen his brother?"
+
+"She had, contrary to her cousin Olivia's promise, that so painful and
+useless an ordeal should be spared her. She had found him at Silverton
+on her arrival. It had been an interview most distressing and repugnant
+to her feelings at the time, though the startling and terrible events,
+which so closely succeeded, had in a great degree diverted her mind from
+any selfish consideration. She had since then been very ill. Her illness
+had detained her at Silverton, but this I shall not regret," she added.
+"I shall now depart with the happy consciousness, which I have not
+experienced for the last few years, that all is right which has been for
+long so very wrong, my mind relieved of its harassing weight of doubt,
+darkness and perplexity."
+
+"Yes, your sense of disinterested justice may be satisfied; but your
+heart, will it remain equally so? The cause which you have so generously
+espoused, established; will not other feelings re-assert their power,
+and my brother again triumph in the possession of that which, to call
+my own, I would gladly have cast at his feet the richest inheritance on
+earth?"
+
+These words were uttered with almost breathless agitation.
+
+"No," was the reply in a voice so low and trembling that the anxious
+listener had to hold his breath to catch its accents; "such feelings
+have long been destroyed, and can never re-assert their influence. Even
+pity is done away save for the wounded conscience, which he who once I
+loved must carry with him through life; yes, pity even is now scarcely
+to be excited; and love--can love survive esteem?"
+
+With a jealous, yearning glance Eustace Trevor watched the tears again
+falling from the agitated speaker's eyes, kissed away by the
+sympathising child; and then he rose and began again to pace the room as
+if to stem some fresh torrent of inward emotion which stirred within his
+breast. But at this juncture the door opened abruptly, and in another
+moment Eustace Trevor's hand was clasped in Louis de Burgh's, who,
+followed by Arthur Seaham, entered the room; and Mary, leaning on her
+brother's arm, left the re-united friends together.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+        Flesh and blood,
+    You brother mine, that entertained ambition,
+    Expelled remorse and nature,
+
+        I do forgive thee,
+    Unnatural as thou art--
+    Forgive thy rankest fault.
+
+    TEMPEST.
+
+Arthur Seaham stood at the hall door two days after, looking out for the
+carriage which was to convey himself and sister from Silverton, some
+delay having been occasioned by the non-arrival of the post-horses.
+
+Suddenly a single horse's hoof was heard approaching, and he had but
+just time to retreat out of observation, when Eugene Trevor rode up to
+the door.
+
+Arthur Seaham could not but feel shocked at his altered appearance--his
+haggard countenance, and the strong marks of mental suffering it
+exhibited. His very form seemed bowed down by the sudden weight of care
+and anxiety which had fallen upon him; and when, having dismounted, and
+rang the bell, he stood there, whilst waiting for the servant to attend
+the summons, unconscious of human regard, holding his horse's
+rein;--there was something touching to the young man's kindly heart, in
+the manner in which Eugene Trevor stroked the glossy mane of the noble
+animal as it rubbed its head against his master's shoulder, looking up
+affectionately into his face.
+
+The action seemed as expressively as words to say:
+
+"Poor fellow! it must go hard indeed with me before I can make up my
+mind to part with you; in your eye, at least, is none of the suspicion
+and distrust I plainly perceive in every other." And softened by this
+touch of nature, and remembering the attachment to his sister--sincere
+he believed at the time, which like a fair flower amongst noxious plants
+had shewn his nature to be so capable of better things--a feeling of
+regret was excited in Arthur Seaham's mind that that "root of all evil,"
+the promoter of "every foolish and hurtful lust--the love of money,"
+should ever have struck its baneful fibres in this man's heart.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Eugene Trevor had demanded a personal interview with his brother
+previous to his departure for London, through the lawyer who for many
+years had been the legal adviser of the family, and whom he still
+retained on his own account. Eustace Trevor had deemed it expedient to
+call in another man of business for himself. This person was now at
+Silverton, with some of the necessary documents connected with the
+property now devolving upon him; and Mr. de Burgh proposed the meeting
+of the brothers should take place there.
+
+It was with perfect unconsciousness of what awaited her, that Mary
+Seaham entered the library some few minutes after, in order to bid adieu
+to her cousins, who, she had been told, were awaiting her there.
+
+She had closed the door behind her before perceiving her mistake, and
+stood rooted to the spot with feelings the nature of which may be better
+imagined than described, at finding herself at this critical moment in
+the presence of the brothers--those two beings with whom her fate had
+been so strangely, so intricately involved.
+
+Yes, there stood the one, with look and bearing almost like that said to
+have distinguished man before the Fall:
+
+    "Erect and tall--Godlike erect, with native honour clad,
+    Within whose looks divine the image of the glorious Maker shone,
+    Truth, wisdom, sanctitude, severe and pure.
+
+    His fair large front and eye sublime"--
+
+Irradiated with that attribute of God himself--a free and full
+forgiveness of an enemy.
+
+And the other--with whom might his aspect at that moment suggest
+comparison? Alas! we fear but to
+
+    "That least erected spirit that fell
+    From Heaven; whose looks and thoughts even in Heaven
+    Were always downwards bent, admiring more
+    The riches of Heaven's pavement trodden gold,
+    Than aught divine or holy there."
+
+For as there he sat, even as he had done when suddenly confronted that
+night with his offended, injured brother, in the room of the London
+hotel, with bent brow and lowering eye, half defiance and half fear; so
+now still more he seemed to shrink into abject nothingness before him,
+abashed and confounded by the majestic power of goodness--the awful
+loveliness of a virtuous and noble revenge. For a few grave, calm, but
+gentle words from Eustace Trevor's lips had already set his anxious
+fears at rest--had assured him that the well-merited ruin with which the
+overthrow, so sudden and unlooked-for, of his unrighteous hopes and
+machinations had threatened to overwhelm him, would be averted.
+
+And there stood Mary, pale and motionless. Whilst from one to another
+wandered her distressed and startled glance, she yet saw and marked the
+contrast; saw--and mourned in spirit that thus too late her eyes were
+opened; that thus, for the first time, had been presented, side by side
+to her enlightened perception, the brother whom in her deceived
+imagination she had so blindly chosen--the one she had so ignorantly
+refused.
+
+Yes, too late--for could she dare now to lift her eyes to own the full,
+but tardy abnegation of every thought and feeling of her heart, as well
+as understanding, to the noble being it had lost?
+
+Oh, no! for those two last days that they had passed under the same roof
+together--in the same manner, as she had seemed to shrink, with timid,
+lowly, self-abasement from the brother of her discarded lover, had
+Eustace Trevor appeared almost equally to avoid any close communion with
+that brother's alienated love. It was, therefore, influenced by these
+considerations, that after her first astounded pause, feeling that it
+was now impossible to retreat, and scarcely knowing what she did, Mary
+approached the table over which Eugene Trevor had been leaning on her
+entrance, but now had risen--holding out her hand, as her kindly heart
+perhaps, under any circumstances, would have instinctively dictated
+towards any being suffering under like vicissitude; but something in the
+grasp which closed over it--a detaining grasp, such as that with which
+the miser may be supposed to clasp some treasure on the point of making
+itself wings to fly away, seemed to distress and perplex her.
+
+She turned with downcast eyes towards Eustace Trevor. His face, as she
+had approached his brother, had been averted with an expression in
+which, perhaps, was more of human weakness than it had before exhibited;
+but now he turned again and gratefully received the other she extended,
+in sign of parting, then as gently released it; and standing thus
+between the brothers, all the noble self-forgetfulness of Mary's nature
+seemed to revive within her. She felt that through her means the gulph
+had further widened which kept them apart--that she had been the shadow
+between their hearts, as now she stood in person--it was over now for
+ever. She was to go from between them--from him towards whom her heart
+had too late inclined, and from him from whom it had declined. Let her
+last act be at least one more blest in its effects, than had been
+hitherto her destiny to produce concerning them.
+
+With a smile, faint, sad, and tearful, such as might have seemed almost
+to plead forgiveness from the one whom she ceased, and the one whom she
+had learnt too late, to love, she again extended her hands, and with a
+gentle movement joined those of the brothers together; then hurried from
+the room.
+
+A few moments more, and Mr. de Burgh who was on his way to seek her had
+conducted her to the carriage, and Arthur springing in by her side; once
+more Mary Seaham was driven far away from Silverton.
+
+And the brothers--taken by surprise by Mary's abrupt departure, the eyes
+of both had followed her from the room with an expression in which
+emotion of no common kind was visible; then turned silently from one
+another, only too anxious to be released from a situation, of which they
+could not but mutually feel the increased delicacy and embarrassment;
+the lawyers were summoned to their presence; and if a few minutes before
+Eugene Trevor had pursued with wistful glance the retreating form of
+Mary, the still more anxious brow and eager eye with which he might have
+been seen soon after entering with those gentlemen into the discussion
+of the settlement of his intricate affairs, plainly testified that for
+him at least there was, as there had ever been closer affections twined
+about his heart--deeper interests at stake than any that were connected
+with that pale sad girl, who for so long had hovered like a redeeming
+angel round his path, but who now turned away her light from him _for
+ever_.
+
+Not so Eustace Trevor, as absent and inattentive he sat abstractedly by,
+or paced with anxious steps the boundary of the library, joining only
+when directly appealed to, or addressed, in the matters under
+discussion. It was plainly apparent how light and trifling the weight he
+attached to the heavy demand made under his sanction upon his generous
+liberality.
+
+Only once he paused, and with more fixed attention looked upon his
+brother with an expression in which something of noble contempt seemed
+to curl his lip and to flash forth from his eye.
+
+Perhaps the part he saw him play on this occasion recalled to his
+remembrance another scene of similar, yet contrary character, when he
+had found that brother seated in the library of Montrevor, with as much
+anxious avidity superintending arrangements of no such disinterested
+nature as those of which he now so graspingly availed himself.
+
+But it was for a moment that any such invidious reminiscences retained
+their place within that generous soul. Soon had they vanished, as they
+came--the fire from his eye, the curl from his lip. And again Eustace
+Trevor paced the room--and thought on Mary.
+
+A few months more, and Eugene Trevor, having settled his affairs to his
+entire satisfaction--thanks to the most generous and forgiving of
+brothers--had left England for the continent; and that same space of
+time found Eustace Trevor established in the neighbourhood of Montrevor,
+surrounded by admiring, and congratulating friends; superintending the
+improvement of his property, and making arrangements for the erection of
+a new mansion on the site of the one destroyed, but chiefly employed in
+acts of charity and beneficence towards the hitherto neglected poor and
+necessitous surrounding him, causing many a heart to sing for joy, who
+for many a long year had prayed and sued in vain at the wealthy miser's
+door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+    Alas! the maiden sighed since first
+      I said: 'Oh, fountain, read my doom.'
+    What vainest fancies have I nursed,
+      Of which I am myself the tomb!
+
+    L. E. L.
+
+
+It was a beautiful evening of that next summer year, and a large
+family-party was assembled at Glan Pennant, now again inhabited by its
+rightful owner, Arthur Seaham: the handsome dowry of his lovely bride,
+Carrie Elliott, joined to the emolument derived from the rapid and
+promising rise in his profession, having enabled him to take possession
+of his much loved home on his marriage, about a twelve month since.
+
+Not only were Alice Gillespie and her family the guests of the young
+couple; but Lady Everingham, their eldest sister, who had returned from
+India, and the beautiful Selina, whose husband was shortly to follow,
+was staying with their children at Plas-Glyn, with the Morgans; and no
+evening passed without, as may be supposed, some reunion of this sort
+taking place at one or the other of the neighbouring residences. But
+there was one still wanting, on this present occasion, without whom such
+gatherings could not be complete--one, regarded with a kind of peculiar
+love by each there present, though by none, perhaps, with such especial
+tenderness as by the young master and mistress of Glan Pennant; and ever
+and anon the question as to when Mary would return, and what could have
+kept her out so late, was heard repeated: the children of the party
+going back to Plas-Glyn, sorrowful at not having been able to wish that
+dear Aunt Mary good night.
+
+Some one, at length, remarked that Mr. Wynne had not been seen for the
+last day or two. Arthur Seaham observed, in reply, that he had been
+expecting a visitor, with whom he had been probably occupied; and he and
+Carrie exchanged looks of some significance.
+
+Mary was not a partner in their secret understanding. Calmly, as was
+her wont, she had been returning homeward, with the happy consciousness
+that her presence that day had lighted up many a face with
+sunshine--bound up by its consolation, many a wounded heart--that she
+could lay her head on her pillow that night, and feel that she had
+to-day lived to God, and to her fellow-creatures.
+
+And truly many a tongue blessed, and many an eye turned with love and
+respect, as they looked upon that sweet pale face, returning slowly from
+her wanderings amongst them. Mary knew she was expected home to tea, but
+having turned a wistful eye towards her favourite hill, now all red and
+glowing in the early sunset, finally began the ascent; and once more we
+see her seated on that cool, quiet spot, her eye fixed on the same fair
+scene she had viewed with such fond, but hopeful regret, on the evening
+of her last departure from her mountain-home. And, oh! it was on such
+occasions, when hours of languid ease returned like this she now
+enjoyed, that Mary felt the urgent necessity of bracing up her mind and
+nerves by a course of healthy action, by carrying out into practice the
+lesson which the great trial of her early youth had taught
+her--"Patience, abnegation of self, and devotion to others." For then
+would she feel stealing over her senses the spirit of those days, when
+she had walked the earth overshadowed by a dream. Yes, the spirit of her
+dream had changed since last we followed Mary Seaham to this charmed
+spot!--the shadows of hopes at that time vaguely cherished in her
+breast, soon, to her sorrow, so wonderfully realized, had passed away
+for ever, as their idol object had been torn from its shrine.
+
+And now this purer, nobler image, reared upon the crumbled image of the
+former, engendered by no ideal dreams--no morbid fantasy, but which, by
+the force of its own glorious strength and beauty, had won its victory
+over her soul--must this be also doomed to perish--to fade away into a
+haunting shadow of the past?
+
+Yes, Eustace Trevor must be to her as one dead--not absent!--the dream
+be dissipated, for the hope was vain on which it was founded: vain--and
+incompatible with the pure, calm hope it was now the desire of her heart
+to aspire.
+
+Not very long, therefore, did Mary allow herself to indulge in the
+beguiling luxury of her solitary repose; but remembering that there were
+loving hearts at home awaiting her return, she aroused herself from the
+spirit of reverie which was stealing over her, and waiting but to pluck
+some few sprigs of the first white heath of the season, with one last,
+lingering look on the fading beauties of the landscape, she rose and
+turned to depart; but as if arrested by fear or a feeling of wonder,
+
+    "Still she stood with her lips apart,
+    And forgotten, the flowerets dropped from her fingers,
+    Whilst to her eyes and her cheeks, came the light and
+    The bloom of the morning."
+
+For it was no dream--no deluding vision of her imagination out of which
+she was called to awake--a shadow indeed was upon her path, but it was
+the form of Eustace Trevor, which in its noble reality stood before her!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The conversation which ensued was not so lengthened as that which had
+taken place between Edward Temple and Mary Seaham, on that same spot
+some six years ago; but need we say that its issue was of a very
+different character, and that this time Eustace did not descend the
+hill alone.
+
+Mr. Wynne was waiting at the gate of Glan Pennant, when at length the
+stately figure of his friend, and leaning on his arm the fair and
+fragile form of Mary,
+
+    "The dew on the plaid, and the tear in her e'e,"
+
+appeared in sight.
+
+Hastening to meet them, he wrung the hand of Mary with emotion, but bade
+her go in fast and make the tea which had been waiting for her ever so
+long--the water getting cold whilst she was after her old tricks,
+dreaming on the hills; and Mary, with a grateful smile, having returned
+the fervent pressure of her good old friend, in broken accents, promised
+that she would dream no more.
+
+She was not indeed free from a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. Wynne, for
+it was he who, it may be said, had formed the cementing link between the
+fates of Mary Seaham and Eustace Trevor.
+
+Not that any such was wanting to maintain the strongly rooted attachment
+of Eustace towards Mary. It was one which must ever have exerted a
+sensible and indelible influence over his future life, as it had done
+over the few last years of his past existence. But there were scruples
+in his mind, the result perhaps of that extreme susceptibility
+conspicuous in his character, on every point of delicacy or honour,
+which restrained him from yielding himself to the delightful hope of
+obtaining the beloved of his brother for his wife; and it was these
+morbid scruples, as he deemed them, that Mr. Wynne had made every effort
+to overcome, and that not so much by direct argument, as by bringing
+before his friend's imagination the lovely picture of Mary's present
+existence, finally declaring that, through the daily increasing
+heavenliness of her life and conversation, she was growing so much too
+good for this world, that they should not be allowed to retain her long
+amongst them, did not some earthly tie of a very binding nature give her
+some motive for interest here below; and there was one alone he felt
+convinced could have that power--for that some secret grief, some sorrow
+unspoken, unsuspected--some strongly crushed affection, lay at the
+bottom of Mary Seaham's outwardly calm and patient demeanour, and this
+in no way connected with the old delusion of her youth, her old friend
+felt but too well assured.
+
+So on this hint it was that Eustace Trevor came--came with a heart all
+yearning, tremulous tenderness and solicitude--and once more on the
+Welsh hill-side, laid the hope and happiness of his future life at the
+feet of Mary Seaham.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And the world--that part of it at least which had known of the
+engagement subsisting between Mary and Eugene Trevor--might remark on
+the singular and interesting circumstance of her union with the elder
+brother; but as the general understanding had been, that through
+Eugene's own fault his engagement had been dissolved, and his change of
+position considerably altering that same charitable world's estimation
+of the younger brother's character, there were few inclined to make any
+invidious comment on the new arrangement, nor deem it anything but
+one--most wise, fortunate, and just.
+
+There was, however, amongst Mary's friends, one who seemed inclined at
+first to frown on the affair--Mrs. de Burgh was loth to the last to let
+fall the weapons of defence she had always wielded in behalf of her old
+favourite, and maintained, that if there was a law against a marriage
+with two brothers, she considered consecutive attachment to each equally
+to be repudiated. But as she could not well carry out the argument which
+her husband so triumphantly derided, she in the end let the subject
+drop; and finally, with as much kindly warmth as she had bestowed upon
+the beloved of Eugene, received beneath her roof the bride of Eustace
+Trevor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+As we are upon the subject, we might as well regretfully state, that
+Silverton has never yet become quite the perfect seat of conjugal
+felicity we would fain have left it, but that petty bickerings and
+debates still occasionally desecrate its inner walls.
+
+Still we hope that, though there are no very conspicuous symptoms of
+reform, the evil is somewhat on the decrease; that the fair Olivia, as
+she grows older, steadies down in a degree her high-wrought expectations
+and ideas; and her husband, in proportion, softens away his asperity and
+selfish disregard, allowing his natural amiability of disposition to
+have its own way towards his wife, as well as to the rest of the world.
+Whilst, at the same time, was there not a mansion in the neighbourhood
+where a perfect pattern of unity and godly love was exhibited, such as
+put to shame every spirit of domestic strife which approached it?
+
+In fact, the prosperity of the de Burghs continues so unabated, so
+little else do they find in life to ruffle the even tenor of their lot,
+that if they do still indulge in a few domestic quarrels, it would seem
+to be, that, preserved from every other exciting cause of trouble and
+annoyance, it must be on the principle adopted by two little sisters of
+our acquaintance, who, on being reproved for their continual squabbles
+with one another, begged that they might not be deprived of this
+privilege, saying that it would take from them their greatest amusement;
+in short, be so very dull, if they were not allowed to quarrel.
+
+The Eustace Trevors first went abroad: there they revisited those scenes
+they had last viewed together under such different auspices, but which
+had been the period from which Mary dated the current of her fate to
+have been turned--a purer, nobler image to have risen on the ruins of
+the old; and Eustace Trevor--blessed beyond conception, finds himself in
+the enjoyment of that most ambitioned privilege, the guide and guardian
+of his Mary, beneath skies which seemed to grow still "fairer for her
+sake."
+
+In about a year's time, they returned to England, where the new mansion
+awaited their reception. The mansion had been rebuilt much on the same
+plan as the other, only the position and arrangement of the library was
+entirely altered. One room, as far as it were possible, had been
+remodelled by Eustace after the fashion of the original--that one in
+which at once his happiest and his most agonizing hours in that old home
+might be said to have been spent.
+
+Mary did not tell her husband, as they sat together in the sunny window
+of that apartment, the very afternoon of their arrival, what
+associations were in her mind connected with that place.
+
+Eustace Trevor had had no personal communication with his brother since
+they parted at Silverton. It is easier for the offended to forgive than
+the offender to be forgiven, and no true reconcilement could ever heal
+the wounds, which his injured brother's generous conduct had impressed
+on Eugene's galled conscience. Besides, what sympathy could exist
+between two natures so different? what intercourse be established
+between two individuals whose course of conduct and habits of life were
+so widely apart?
+
+What were Eugene Trevor's feelings when he heard of Mary Seaham's
+marriage with his brother, we cannot exactly define; but that it placed
+only a more decisive barrier between their personal intercourse, may be
+imagined. He lived on his handsome younger brother's income of two
+thousand a-year, in London; his brother having paid all his debts, and
+thus added to his legitimate claim of ten thousand pounds to which alone
+he was entitled.
+
+The brothers met occasionally in London; but Eugene never accepted any
+invitation to visit Montrevor, nor was he scarcely heard of amongst his
+former country friends. Even Silverton was deserted by him.
+
+Some say that the avaricious parsimony of his father is growing rapidly
+upon him, and this and many other similarities of character and conduct
+which year after year develop themselves, may well cause Mary gratefully
+to rejoice that she was suffered before too late to redeem the error of
+_her first mistaken choice_.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+    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 3 of 3, by 
+Elizabeth Caroline Grey
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 40407 ***