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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43358 ***
+
+Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
+without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have
+been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are noted with
+underscores: _italics_. The Table of Contents was not present in the
+original text and has been produced for the reader's convenience.
+
+
+[Illustration: Granville intercepting the Stranger.--See page 176]
+
+
+MODERN FLIRTATIONS,
+
+A NOVEL:
+
+BY CATHERINE SINCLAIR,
+
+AUTHOR OF "BEATRICE."
+
+[Illustration: Blind Uncle Arthur endeavoring to escape from the
+flames.--See page 334]
+
+STRINGER & TOWNSEND, NEW YORK
+
+
+
+
+MODERN FLIRTATIONS,
+
+A NOVEL:
+
+
+BY CATHERINE SINCLAIR,
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+"BEATRICE, OR THE UNKNOWN RELATIVES," "MODERN ACCOMPLISHMENTS," "MODERN
+SOCIETY," "HILL AND VALLEY," "SHETLAND AND THE SHETLANDERS,"
+"HOLIDAY HOUSE," "CHARLIE SEYMOUR," ETC.
+
+
+    "I clasped my hand close to my breast,
+    While my heart was as light as a feather,
+    Yet nothing I said, I protest,
+    But, ---- 'Madam! 'tis very fine weather!'"
+
+    RITSON'S SONGS.
+
+
+NEW-YORK:
+STRINGER & TOWNSEND, PUBLISHERS,
+222 BROADWAY.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+    PREFACE
+
+    CHAPTER
+
+    I.
+    II.
+    III.
+    IV.
+    V.
+    VI.
+    VII.
+    VIII.
+    IX.
+    X.
+    XI.
+    XII.
+    XIII.
+    XIV.
+    XV.
+    XVI.
+    XVII.
+    XVIII.
+    XIX.
+    XX.
+    XXI.
+    XXII.
+    XXIII.
+    XXIV.
+    XXV.
+    XXVI.
+    XXVII.
+    XXVIII.
+    XXIX.
+    XXX.
+    XXXI.
+    XXXII.
+    XXXIII.
+    XXXIV.
+    XXXV.
+    XXXVI.
+    XXXVII.
+    XXXVIII.
+    XXXIX.
+    XL.
+    XLI.
+    XLII.
+    XLIII.
+    XLIV.
+    XLV.
+    XLVI.
+    XLVII.
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE.
+
+
+It was the rule of a celebrated equestrian, which might be adapted to
+authors as well as to horsemen, that every one should ride as if he
+expected to be thrown, and drive as if he expected to be upset.
+Impunity in publishing, far from rendering an author presumptuous,
+should tend rather to increase his timidity, the danger being greater
+always of venturing too much, than of hazarding too little; and the
+more cause any writer has to feel grateful for the lenient judgment of
+an enlightened public, the more circumspect should he become, not to
+trespass by an obtrusive reappearance on that notice which has already
+perhaps been, as in respect to the author herself, beyond all
+expectation favorable.
+
+An old proverb declares that "a goose-quill is more powerful than a
+lion's claw," and authors have been called "keepers of the public
+conscience;" but no influence is perhaps so extensive as that
+exercised by what is termed "light reading," which has now in a great
+measure superseded public places and theatrical entertainments,
+affording a popular resource with which the busiest men relax their
+hard-working minds, and the idlest occupy their idleness. It becomes a
+deep responsibility, therefore, of which the author trusts she has
+ever felt duly sensible, to claim the leisure hours of so many, while
+it is her first desire that whatever be the defect of these pages, no
+actual evil may be intermingled, and the cause of sound religion and
+morality supported, for her feelings are best expressed in the words
+of the poet,
+
+    "If I one soul improve, I have not liv'd in vain."
+
+Novel-reading, formerly considered the lowest resource of intellectual
+vacuity, has been lately promoted to a new place in the literary
+world, since men of the brightest genius as well as of the highest
+attainments in learning and philosophy, allow their pens occasionally
+to wander in the attractive regions of fiction; therefore works of
+imagination, no longer merely a clandestine amusement to frivolous
+minds, are now avowedly read and enjoyed, to beguile an idle hour, or
+to cheer a gloomy one, by men of science, of wisdom, and of piety.
+Such is the general encouragement given now to works of fancy, that,
+as the literary existence of authors depends on attracting readers,
+there will scarcely be encouragement enough soon to induce historians
+and biographers to dip the pen of veracity into the ink of
+retrospection, while it is perhaps to be lamented that when so large a
+proportion of the public attention is occupied by novelists, their
+works being certain of instant circulation, for a very short period
+and for no more, few authors afford themselves time to aspire at the
+highest grade of imaginary composition. When such volumes are really
+true to nature, they convey very important truths in a form more
+popular than a dry sententious volume of moral precepts, and perhaps
+history itself can scarcely afford so graphic a portrait of human life
+as many of those fictitious volumes, written under the inspiration of
+genius, which portray in vivid coloring, the thoughts and motives by
+which men are internally influenced.
+
+The Life of Cleopatra, or the Memoirs of Agrippina, can afford
+scarcely so much direction to young ladies respecting their views of
+life and manners in the present day, as might be conveyed by a
+judiciously-drawn portrait of that world as it is, on the stage of
+which they are about to be personally introduced; and a large
+proportion of those elaborate volumes dignified with the name of
+history, can only be considered in the main fictitious, because, while
+biographers would confidently state the private opinions, secret
+intentions, and real characters of illustrious men who lived and acted
+several hundred years ago, they cannot justly estimate the actual
+dispositions and motives of their own most intimate friends, nor
+confidently point out what circumstances have influenced the greatest
+events in their own day. If two authors, entertaining opposite
+political sentiments, were to write the history of last year, every
+fact recorded, and every individual mentioned must inevitably be
+represented, or misrepresented, according to the writer's own private
+feelings, while each would believe he was writing unadulterated truth.
+
+Thus poetry and fiction, when true to the principles of human life,
+exhibit the mind and soul of man visibly to the senses; and history,
+which has been called "the Newgate Calendar of Kings and Emperors,"
+supplies the facts of human existence, and may be considered a
+portrait of men's persons and external actions.
+
+In writing a story of domestic life, it is singular to reflect how
+commonly men are remembered by their eccentricities, and loved for
+their very faults, while the most difficult task in fiction is, to
+describe amiable persons so as to render them at all interesting and
+not utterly insipid. Probably it may be for this reason that modern
+writers too frequently, instead of describing the principles which
+ennoble human nature, and the sentiments which embellish life, have
+painted in vivid coloring, all that is low, mean, and vicious in
+society, introducing their readers into scenes, the reality of which
+would be shunned with abhorrence, and flinging over vice such a mantle
+of genius as converts the deformities of society into subjects of
+interest--unfortunately even of sympathy.
+
+Were authors obliged hereafter, to live with the characters they
+create, how few would desire to share with them in such a world! Even
+where the intention is to represent an attractive character, it seldom
+appears as one which could be an agreeable acquisition to any family
+circle; and in works of sentiment or feeling, nothing is less
+successfully pictured than a generous and refined attachment, fitted
+to survive every trial or vicissitude of existence, between those who
+are to love each other for ever. Few stories could be written, if
+lovers in a romance acted with the slightest degree of confidence or
+esteem; but such narratives are generally founded on a teazing
+succession of narrow-minded suspicions, and unwarrantable concealments
+on the part of heroes and heroines, who condemn each other unheard,
+and go through volumes of heart-breaking alienation, enough to
+terminate life itself, rather than ask the most simple explanation,
+while the reader cannot but feel a certain conviction in closing the
+last page, that an engagement begun with cavilling jealousies and
+painful recriminations, can never become productive of lasting peace.
+
+The mothers and daughters in fashionable society have of late been so
+harshly stigmatized by the press, that it seems as if some authors had
+taken up a porcupine's quill dipped in gall, to ridicule their conduct
+and motives, while not a pen has yet been drawn from the scabbard, nor
+a drop of ink spilled in their justification; but the weight of
+censure might become greatly lightened by being more equitably divided
+among all who are entitled to carry a share, and in these volumes an
+endeavor is made to rectify the balance more justly, though with what
+success remains to be discovered by the author herself, as not a
+single friend ever sees her pages, or puts on the spectacles of
+criticism till after they are printed. The only peculiarity to which
+she makes any pretension, in once more presuming to publish, is, that
+avoiding all caricature, all improbability, and all personality, she
+has introduced a few individuals acting and thinking in the ordinary
+routine of every-day life, while her highest ambition is to represent
+in natural colors, the conduct and feelings of men elevated and
+ennobled by the influence of Christianity.
+
+When Dr. Johnson remarked once that it required a clever person to
+talk nonsense well, Boswell replied, "Yes, sir! If you were to
+represent little fishes speaking, you would make them talk like great
+whales;" and on a similar plan, authors describing society, instead
+of sketching the good-humoured chit-chat and lively _persiflage_
+with which the business and amusements of fashionable life are carried
+on, too frequently fill up their dialogues with set speeches, moral
+essays, and long quotations, such as never are extemporized in any
+drawing-room, where too energetic a stroke given to the shuttlecock of
+conversation makes it instantly fall to the ground. The flagrant
+impossibilities by which a carelessly-written narrative is carried on,
+destroys often at once the illusion. Persons are described, who may be
+overheard speaking aloud their most secret thoughts when supposing
+themselves alone, soliloquizing audibly in the streets, journalizing a
+history of their own crimes, becoming permanent guests in houses to
+which they have no introduction, preserving the noblest sentiments
+amidst the most degraded habits, and dying enlightened Christians when
+they have lived as dissolute infidels.
+
+A celebrated mathematician threw aside a novel once in disgust, saying
+that "it proved nothing;" but in these pages the author has
+endeavoured to prove much. Amidst the bustle and business, the joys
+and sorrows of life, she has attempted to illustrate how truly
+"wisdom's ways are of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace,"--how
+superior is the Christian standard of principle to the mere worldly
+code of honour or expediency, and how much of the happiness intended
+for man by his Creator is ruined and forfeited by the perversity of
+his own will, in neglecting the good of others, and in vainly
+grasping, like a spoiled child, at more than is intended for his
+share. While thus writing a fiction, which may perhaps be denominated
+a large religious tract in high life, the author humbly submits her
+pages to the judgment of others, and cannot conclude in the words of a
+more universally venerated, or of a more generally popular fictitious
+author than the excellent Bunyan:
+
+     "Thus I set pen to paper with delight,
+     And quickly had my thought--in black and white;
+     For having now my method by the end,
+     Still as I pulled it came, and so I penned
+     It down, until at last it came to be,
+     For length and breadth, the bigness which you see."
+
+
+
+
+MODERN FLIRTATIONS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+The newspapers have recently adopted a strange habit of sometimes
+unexpectedly seizing an individual's name, long since retired from
+public notice, and gibbetting it up before the world's eye, when least
+anticipated, by volunteering a paragraph to announce, that some aged
+lord, or ex-minister, whom no one has remembered to think of for half
+a century or more, is residing on his estates, and enjoying, the
+editor is happy to understand, astonishing health, considering his
+advanced years. In observance of this custom, an exclamation of
+irritability and astonishment, too violent to be worthy of record, was
+elicited one day, from a dignified and very distinguished-looking old
+gentleman, with a venerable head, such as Titian might have painted,
+and a high lofty forehead bearing the traces of deep thought and
+feeling, when, after having seated himself on his favorite arm chair
+at the United Service Club in Edinburgh, his eye rested with a look of
+kindling amazement on these few lines, in large consequential-looking
+type, on a leading column of the Courant.
+
+_June 1829._ "We are happy to inform our readers that the brave and
+noble veteran, once a distinguished hero in many a well-fought fight,
+Sir Arthur Dunbar, G.C.B., is yet alive, reposing on his well-earned
+laurels, at a retired mansion in the marine village of Portobello.
+Though frequently and most severely wounded in battle, besides being
+deprived of an arm in Lord Rodney's engagement during the year '82, the
+Admiral's health continues unimpaired and his cheerfulness invariable,
+at the advanced age of 70."
+
+"Pshaw! stuff and nonsense! Some enemy is resolved to make a
+laughing-stock of me in my old age!" exclaimed he, angrily pointing out
+the paragraph to his gay young relative, Louis De Crespigny, who was
+familiarly leaning over the high back of his chair; and then crumpling
+up the offending Courant with an obvious wish that it might be consumed
+in the flames--"I hope this is only the work of some wretched
+penny-a-liner; but if I even suspected that my conceited, good-looking
+scoundrel of a nephew had a hand in the jest, I would cut him off with a
+shilling,--or rather without one, for I could scarcely raise so much as
+a shilling to leave him, and he knows that. This is most thoroughly
+ridiculous! I, who have been dead, buried, and forgotten for years, to
+be made as conspicuous here, as a hair-dresser's wig-block! The editor
+shall be prosecuted,--horse-whipped,--or--or made as absurd as he has
+made me!"
+
+"Why really, Admiral, I wish he had as much good to say of us all, and
+then the sooner he paragraphs about me the better!--'We are happy to
+inform our readers that the agreeable and fascinating Cornet De
+Crespigny, of the 15th Light Hussars, now in his eighteenth year, is
+still alive!'--the public likes to know the exact age of distinguished
+men, such as you and I, Admiral!"
+
+"The public is an ass!" replied Sir Arthur, breaking into a smile;
+"and perhaps I am another, to mind what is said at all, but that
+rascal of an editor has made me ten years older than I am; besides
+which, though a grey-haired Admiral of sixty-four is not probably much
+addicted to blushing, he really has put my modest merit out of
+countenance. I would rather pay the newspapers any day for overlooking
+than for praising me. We ought to live or die for our country; but
+now, when I am no longer needed, let me stay in peace on the shelf,
+like," added he, giving a comic smile at his empty sleeve, "like a
+cracked tea-cup with the handle off!"
+
+"But, Sir Arthur!" replied the young Cornet warmly, "you who never
+turned your back on friend or foe, are not very likely to remain
+quietly on the shelf, as long as every man who lives must respect you,
+and every man who dies continues to appoint you, as my father did, his
+executor, the trustee of his estates, and the guardian of his
+children, asking you to lend them a hand, as you have done to me in
+all the difficulties of life."
+
+"I have but one hand to lend, and that is much at your service, in
+whatever way it can be useful! the other, though absent without leave,
+has been my own best friend, as the loss of that arm was the luckiest
+hit in the world. It obtained me a step at the time, and the pension
+has supported me ever since. What with my nephew's frantic
+extravagance, and my two young nieces being but indifferently provided
+for, I often wish, like every body else, for a larger income. Poor
+girls!" added Sir Arthur, knitting his bushy eye-brows into a
+portentous frown, which gave to his venerable countenance a look of
+noble and manly sorrow. "No one can blame them! but it was little
+short of insanity in my brother to leave such young children under the
+sole guardianship of a heartless spendthrift like your friend and my
+nephew Sir Patrick, who would sell his soul for sixpence."
+
+"Yes! and squander it the next minute," added young De Crespigny,
+laughing. "I saw Pat produce a £20 note yesterday at Tait's
+auction-room, and a buzz of wonder ran all through the circle of his
+friends. Such a sight had not been seen in his pocket for many a day,
+and he threatened to put it up to auction, saying, he was sure we
+would all give double the value for it, as a rarity, considering the
+quarter from which it came. He really seems to pique himself on his
+poverty, and has the art of doing what another man would be cut for,
+with so much grace and apparent unconsciousness, that his friends
+really forget to disapprove."
+
+"I never forget!" replied the Admiral, slowly rising and adjusting his
+spectacles. "I am even told the incorrigible rascal has mortgaged the
+legacy he pretends to expect from me! He would do anything short of a
+highway robbery for money, and has done some things that seem to a man
+of honor quite as bad. But," added Sir Arthur, growing more and more
+angry, "as long as he can give his friends a good bottle of claret,
+they ask no questions! Patrick Dunbar has caused me the only feeling
+of shame I ever had occasion for, and yet to see that proud
+snuff-the-moon look of his, you would suppose the world scarcely big
+enough to hold him! With his chin in the air, as I saw him yesterday,
+he will certainly knock his forehead some day against the sky!"
+
+"You cannot wonder, Sir Arthur, that Dunbar is in immense favor with
+himself, when he is so admired, and almost idolized in society. He
+certainly has the handsomest countenance in Scotland;--as my uncle
+Doncaster says, Pat is a portrait of Vandyke in his best style. With
+that grand, chivalrous, Chevalier-Bayard look, he is the best rider
+who ever sat on horseback! I could not but laugh when he mounted
+yesterday for a ride along Princes Street, and turned to me, with his
+lively, victorious laugh, saying, 'Now I am going to give the ladies a
+treat!'"
+
+"The insufferable coxcomb!" said Sir Arthur, relaxing into an
+irresistible smile of indulgent affection. "From the day he first
+came staggering into this world to astonish us all, he has thought
+himself the finest sight between this and Whitehall!"
+
+"Of course he does! Pat is asked for so many locks of his hair, by
+various young ladies, that his valet keeps a wig to supply them; and
+he might almost pay his debts with the countless collection he has
+received of sentimental rings, displaying forgotten forget-me-nots, in
+turquoises and gold! Who, on the wide earth, except yourself, Sir
+Arthur, would ever dream of finding fault with our gay, dashing,
+high-spirited friend, Dunbar, the life of society, the model of dress,
+equipage, and good living. Why! the very instant he opens his lips,
+all dulness vanishes like a spectre! I wish the whole world were
+peopled with such men; but he promises to shoot himself as soon as he
+sees his own equal. He staked his reputation one day that he would!"
+
+"His reputation!! the sooner he parts with it the better! Let Patrick
+Dunbar exchange his own with the first man he meets in the street, and
+he will gain by the bargain."
+
+"Pardon me there, Sir Arthur, your nephew is universally allowed to be
+the best fellow upon earth!"
+
+"Very probably! 'the best fellow upon earth' generally means a
+selfish, extravagant, scatter-brained roue; but I must be off! There
+is a cold, sharp, cutting wind, blowing in at the back of my neck,
+which makes me feel like Charles the First when the axe fell. If you
+have any influence, De Crespigny, with my scape-grace of a nephew--all
+nephews are scape-graces, as far as my experience goes--try to make
+him more like yourself, and I shall be grateful, with all my heart."
+
+"Like me!!!" said the young Cornet, turning away with a smile; but it
+was a smile of bitterness, almost amounting to remorse, while he
+hastily grasped a newspaper, and flung himself into a seat. "No! no!
+Sir Arthur, he is not quite so bad as that. Dunbar has his faults; he
+wears them upon his sleeve, and attempts no disguise; but there are
+many worse men in the world, who are held up as examples by those who
+know no better. Whenever I reform myself, you may depend upon my
+lecturing our friend, but not till then. We must both sow all our wild
+oats first."
+
+"Yes! and endure the fruit of them afterwards," replied Sir Arthur,
+with a look of anxious kindness at his young relative. "That is the
+only crop where to sow is more agreeable than to reap! But I waste
+words! Young men will be young men, and I might as well ask this east
+wind not to blow, or try to turn the sea from its course, as attempt
+to stop the mad career of that scatter-brained madcap! It would matter
+less if he only fell himself hereafter, like a pebble in the stream;
+but the fatal eddy extends in a wide circle, which must reach the
+interests of those helpless young girls, my nieces; and I cannot but
+grieve over the consequences which may, and must befall them, after I
+go to that rest which is in the grave, and to that hope which is
+beyond it."
+
+"Never trouble your head about that which shall occur then, Sir Arthur!
+'Too much care once made an old man grey.' My motto is, '_apres moi le
+deluge_!' This little world of ours got on wonderfully well before we
+came into it, and will do astonishingly well again, after we make our
+exit," said young De Crespigny, with a strange medley in his tone, of
+melancholy thought, and contemptuous derision. "Pat tells me that both
+my young cousins promise to turn out a perfect blaze of beauty, with
+long shining ringlets that they almost tread upon in walking, teeth
+that would make the fortune of a dentist, and complexions that
+Rowland's kalydor could not improve. Ten years hence, I shall propose
+to one or both of them myself, if that will give you satisfaction."
+
+"Perfect! but as marrying two sisters at once is not quite customary,
+let your intentions be limited to Agnes. She is several years the
+eldest; and I like the good old patriarchal rule of marrying by
+seniority; besides which, she is quite a little flirt already, though
+scarcely yet in her teens. She will be a young lady, entirely suited
+for the ordinary marrying and giving in marriage of every-day life;
+but little Marion is the very light of my eyes, and I must match her
+by a very high standard indeed. It will be a dark day for me, if ever
+I am obliged to part with her at all; and being now only in her sixth
+year, I may, without selfishness, hope to keep her beside me for my
+few remaining days. I must begin match-making for Agnes, however,
+directly, and your offer shall be duly considered. A future peer, with
+countless thousands in expectancy, and not particularly ill-looking,
+does not fall in our way every morning."
+
+"So all the young ladies seem to think!" replied the young Cornet, in
+his most conceited tone. "Girls dislike nothing so much as to marry on
+a competence; there is a great deal of romance in marrying on nothing,
+and a great deal of comfort in marrying on wealth; but a mere vulgar
+competence has neither romance nor reality. Now I can offer both!
+First, actual starvation on a Cornet's pay; and then, with my uncle's
+leave, the pumpkin will turn to a carriage, and the mice into horses;
+but in the meantime, Sir Arthur, Pat tells me you keep a capital
+chop-house at Portobello, so pray invite me to drop in some day at
+six, to begin my siege of your pretty niece. I must come and see,
+before I can conquer," added Mr. De Crespigny, in a tone of peculiar
+conceit, with which he always spoke either to ladies or of them.
+"Probably next week I may find my way to this _terra incognita_
+of yours. Is it across the Queensferry, or where?"
+
+"My good friend! you are not so pre-eminently ignorant of geography as
+you would appear; for did I not see you honoring that dullest of all
+dull places, the little obscure village of Portobello, with your
+august presence, only yesterday. I nearly spitted you on the point of
+my umbrella, you hurried so rapidly past, evidently wishing to escape
+from that girl in a cloak, who seemed to beset your footsteps!"
+
+"Impossible!!!" exclaimed young De Crespigny, coloring violently, and
+starting from his seat. "Could it be in the nature of things that I
+should cut you!"
+
+"True enough! I might have said, like Lady Towercliffe to Prince
+Meimkoff, '_vous m'avez coupe_.'"
+
+"Indeed!" continued the cornet, trying to conceal his countenance. "I
+wish you had cut my throat in return!"
+
+"If it is to be done, I would rather somebody else did! Why, De
+Crespigny! you will set the house on fire with that violent poker
+exercise! Your own face is on fire already! Have more regard for your
+complexion! Ah! now it is pale enough! Are you ill? My dear fellow!
+what is the matter?"
+
+"Nothing! I am merely looking at the beautiful sunset!"
+
+"What! does the sun set in the east to-night?" asked Sir Arthur,
+jestingly; "that is worth looking at!"
+
+"I am annoyed with a spasm of toothache!" said De Crespigny, putting a
+handkerchief to his face, which nearly covered it; and then suddenly
+throwing open the window, he looked far out, as if in search of his
+groom. He leaned forward so long, however, that Sir Arthur kindly but
+vehemently remonstrated on the danger of exposing himself, while in so
+much pain, to the cold air; enumerated a whole host of remedies for
+decayed teeth; suggested the great comfort and convenience of having
+the offender extracted by Hutchins, and ended by hoping his young
+friend would still have a tooth left for his proposed dinner at
+Portobello.
+
+"Depend upon me for that," replied Mr. De Crespigny, with forced
+vivacity. "I shall ferret you out next week. I have little doubt your
+pasture is excellent in that quarter, and there is no one from whom I
+would be half so happy to receive a soup ticket."
+
+"Keep your flattery for the ladies, where it will always be
+acceptable, and where I hear you are already an experienced
+practitioner in the arts of captivation. As for my dinner, I consider
+it an imposition to ask any friend, and not give him the best my cook
+and cellar can furnish; and you may expect whenever you do come, to
+find a notice over my door, 'hot joints every day!'"
+
+"But it was the society of your house, and not the dinner, to which my
+agreeable anticipations were directed; and there, you know, I cannot
+be disappointed! as somebody wisely said, when shown a tempting bill
+of fare, 'show me a bill of the company!'"
+
+"That reminds me to say, you must not expect my pretty niece to be at
+my little bathing machine of a house! It would not be fair to inveigle
+you under such false pretences; but I promise you an old man's
+welcome, and the best that my cottage can produce; aged as this
+newspaper makes me I enjoy every inch of life, and hope you, at the
+same age, will do the same. I may almost apply to my little villa that
+favourite saying in Spain,
+
+    'My home, my home! though thou'rt but small,
+    Thou art to me th' Escurial.'"
+
+With a cordial shake of the hand, and a smile of cheerful benignity,
+Sir Arthur withdrew, and as his firm and stately step receded, Mr. De
+Crespigny watched him with a look of respectful interest, which ended
+in his turning away after the admiral had disappeared, and heaving a
+deep sigh, while a cloud of care darkened on his forehead, and a look
+of angry vexation shaded his previously animated eyes.
+
+Day after day passed on, subsequent to the preceding conversation,
+during which Sir Arthur frequently postponed his chop, to what he
+considered an atrociously late hour, in hopes of his promised guest
+appearing. Once the admiral felt positively convinced that he had seen
+him enter a Portobello omnibus at four o'clock, but still he appeared
+not. Week after week elapsed, and still Sir Arthur ate his dinner
+alone, in long-surviving expectation that either his own not very
+dutiful nephew, or young De Crespigny, would "cast up;" but at last
+these hopes and wishes were ended by his hearing that Sir Patrick's
+embarrassments had caused him to leave Edinburgh by moonlight, and
+that, soon after, Mr. De Crespigny as suddenly departed, no one knew
+why, when, or wherefore.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+The two most dashing, bold, and mischievous boys at Eton during their
+day, had formerly been Sir Patrick Dunbar and Louis De Crespigny, who
+astonished the weak minds of masters and pupils, by the strange and
+startling invention displayed in their exploits, as well as by the
+ingenuity with which both got safely out of every threatening
+predicament, and the sly humor or cunning with which they frequently
+shifted the disgrace, or even the punishment, of their offences, on
+others who deserved it less, or perhaps not at all. Invariably at the
+head of every mad exploit, or at the bottom of every secret design,
+how they could possibly have escaped being expelled was a frequent
+topic of subsequent wonder among their contemporaries in the classes;
+but their delight was to run as near the wind as possible, and still
+to display their skilful pilotage by baffling justice, and evading the
+utmost rigor of the law, while always ready rather to do harm than to
+do nothing.
+
+When very young, the two enterprising friends, both since gazetted
+into the 15th Light Huzzars, had shown an early predilection for
+military life, by frequently escaping to the neighbouring barracks,
+assisted by a ladder of rope on which they descended every night from
+the windows. A gay, joyous reception invariably awaited these lively
+boys at the mess-table, where they sung many a jovial song, and
+cracked many a merry jest over their claret, till, after some hours
+spent in rapturous festivity, they stole silently back within bounds,
+and were re-admitted at the window, by their respective fags, who had
+received orders, under pain of death, to keep awake and answer their
+signals for the ladder by instantly lowering it. The spirits of both
+these young companions were more like the effect of intoxication, than
+mere sober enjoyment; and, on one occasion, they set the table in a
+roar, by having a rivalship which would best imitate the gradual
+progress of becoming tipsy, though drinking nothing but cold water; in
+which exhibition they showed so much talent for mimicry, taking off
+the surrounding officers before their faces, and making so many
+home-thrusts and personal remarks, that the scene was never afterwards
+forgotten in the regiment. On another occasion Sir Patrick caused
+himself to be placed in a coffin, stolen from the undertakers, and was
+carried through the barracks by his companions, who made paper
+trumpets with which they played the dead march in Saul, while all the
+sentries saluted as they passed. Such juvenile exploits in the dawn of
+life were now the subject of many a laughing reminiscence, and had
+been followed by others on a more extended scale and of more matured
+enterprise, at Mr. Brownlow's, a private tutor, where the two young
+men afterwards distinguished themselves in a way not easily to be
+forgotten, causing their better disciplined companions to wonder,
+though in very few instances to admire.
+
+In the favorite aristocratic achievements of driving stage-coaches,
+breaking lamps, wringing off knockers, assaulting watchmen, with other
+fistic and pugilistic exploits, they were nearly unrivalled; and
+occasionally their genius had soared into an extraordinary display of
+dexterity, in transposing the signs suspended over shops, and in
+filching silk handkerchiefs from the pockets of their friends, merely
+as amateurs, but still the deed was done, and the laugh raised
+literally at the expense of the sufferer, as the plunder was retained
+to be a future trophy of success. Each successive stage of their
+youth, in short, supplied an inexhaustible fund of standing jests and
+lively anecdotes, the wit of which mainly consisted in their mischief,
+while they betrayed an utter recklessness about the opinions or the
+feelings of others, till at length the patience of their unfortunate
+private tutor was so completely exhausted that he gave them a secret
+hint to withdraw, which they accordingly lost no time in preparing to
+do, but not till they had enjoyed a very characteristic revenge. When
+Mr. Brownlow had taken a party of friends with him one evening to the
+theatre, Sir Patrick suddenly discharged from the gallery the whole
+contents of a prodigious bag of flour, which powdered all the heads,
+faces, and coats, in the pit, perfectly white, and caused an uproar of
+anger and of irresistible laughter throughout the house; and the same
+evening Louis De Crespigny, as a farewell frolic, abstracted a stuffed
+bear from the neighbouring hair-dresser's, and having equipped it in
+the costume of Mr. Brownlow, hung it from the lamp-post, where a
+panic-struck crowd was speedily assembled by the alarming report that
+the reverend gentleman had committed suicide. A strict investigation
+took place respecting the authors of these unpardonable tricks, but,
+though suspicion fell at once upon the real culprits, and the
+circumstantial evidence against them seemed irresistibly strong, Sir
+Patrick argued his own cause with so much skill and vivacity, while De
+Crespigny looked so innocently unconscious of the whole affair, that,
+with a silent frown from the master, of stern reproof and suspicion,
+they were, not honorably acquitted, but allowed to return home without
+any public mark of censure or disgrace; and soon after both joined
+their regiment at Dublin.
+
+De Crespigny and Sir Patrick had but one companion whom they
+acknowledged as their equal at Eton, in all the spirit, enterprise,
+and vivacity of their characters, but who was, in a thousand other
+respects their superior, for seldom, indeed, has there been known, in
+one so young, a character of as much intensity, or which displayed a
+combination so singular, of superb talents, rare judgment, sound
+principle, deep piety, and energetic feeling, as in Richard Granville,
+an object of admiration to all, and of envy to many; though jealously
+lost half of its bitterness in association with one so eloquent and
+single-hearted in conversation, so courteously amiable and
+conciliatory in manner, and with so fine a principle of tact, ready as
+far as possible to enhance the pleasures, to palliate the faults, and
+to share the sorrows of all his companions. Cultivated in all that
+could adorn the heart as well as the head, in whatever was amiable,
+high-spirited and generous, Richard Granville had but to follow the
+impulse of natural feeling as well as of principle, and he out-did the
+very wishes of his friends, while no one excelled him in all the manly
+exercises suited to his early years. His countenance was illuminated
+with an expression of intellectual energy, at times almost sublime,
+while there was a living grace and amiability in his manner
+irresistibly attractive. Brave, liberal, and resolute, he entered with
+eagerness into all the offensive recreations of his companions, and no
+one excelled him in riding, fencing, and cricket, while he was the
+best shot in his own country; but he firmly declined ever to squander
+his time or money on any game of chance, cards, billiards, or gambling
+in any form. While Sir Patrick's betting-book was from the first a
+model of skill, in hedging bets, and all the manoeuvres of
+jockey-ology, young Granville said all that eloquence and affection
+could dictate, to point out how dangerous and dishonorable was the
+course on which he seemed about to enter, but in vain, for Sir Patrick
+finished the discussion by offering to bet him £5 he would not be
+ruined in less than ten years. "I have a fortune and constitution
+which will last me till thirty," said the young baronet; "and I do not
+wish to live a day longer."
+
+"It is easy," said Prince Eugene, "to be modest when one is
+successful; but it is difficult not to be envied." While the very
+presence of young Granville in the room, with his riotous young
+associates, seemed as if it held up a glass to their mind's eye,
+testifying the folly and evil of their course, yet Richard Granville
+abhorred display, while Sir Patrick and De Crespigny frequently
+declared he was "too clever and too good for them;" and unavoidable
+circumstances afterwards combined to estrange the young men still
+more. A law-suit had been going on almost since the period of their
+birth, conducted in an amicable way by their guardians, in which the
+interests of all three were so deeply concerned, and the case so
+exceedingly complicated, that years passed on, during which the youths
+had all grown to manhood, and the case remained still undecided; while
+the one-sided view which was given to Dunbar and De Crespigny on the
+subject caused in them an angry feeling of hostility and rancour
+against their amiable and high-minded young relative, who was so
+enthusiastically desirous to enter the English church, and devote
+himself to those sacred duties, that he scarcely wished a favorable
+decree, which would prevent the necessity for his pursuing a
+profession at all.
+
+A Scotch law-suit may be compared to a game at battle-dore between the
+tribunals of England and Scotland, while the gaping client sees the
+shuttle-cock for ever flying over his head, higher and higher out of
+reach, and sent backwards and forwards with ceaseless diligence, but
+no apparent progress; or it is like a kitten playing with a ball of
+worsted, which is allowed to come often apparently within her grasp,
+and is then, when she least expects, twitched away farther than
+before. The Granville case had been decided by the Court of Session,
+against the two cousins, Dunbar and Crespigny, but being appealed to
+the House of Lords, was recommended for consideration, re-argued,
+re-considered, and nearly reversed, while replies and duplies, remits
+and re-revisals, commissions of inquiry, and new cases, followed each
+other in ceaseless succession, and many of the lawyers who were young
+men when the case began, grew grey in the service, while it yet
+remained in suspense. A grand-uncle of Sir Patrick's had fifty years
+before, bought an estate of £12,000 a-year from the Marquis of
+Doncaster, to whom young De Crespigny was now heir presumptive; but
+Mr. Dunbar having, it was conjectured, entertained some suspicion that
+the title deeds were not perfectly valid, as an entail had been
+discovered afterwards, by which it was generally thought that the land
+must be restored to the original owner, he hastily and most unfairly
+sold the property to the late Mr. Granville for £350,000, and dying
+intestate, after having lost nearly the whole sum in a mining
+speculation, it could not be proved whether Sir Patrick's father had
+acted as an executor for the deceased or not, so as to render himself
+responsible for his debts, and liable to refund the sum paid by Mr.
+Granville. Thus, whether the entail held good, and carried the estate
+back to Lord Doncaster, or whether it had been legally broken, so as
+to entitle the Granville family to keep it, or whether, if it were
+refunded, the price could be claimed from the heirs of Mr. Dunbar,
+still continued a mystery never apparently to be solved.
+
+For many generations past, the ancient Marquisate of Doncaster had
+been inherited by a succession of only sons, all strict Papists, who
+had each in his turn been reckoned by the next heirs exceedingly
+sickly and unpromising, but still the wonder grew, for not one had
+ever died, till he left a substitute in regular rotation, to supply
+the vacancy which he created himself; and a long train of minorities
+in the family had caused the accumulation of wealth and property to be
+enormous, when the present proprietor succeeded fifty years before our
+story commences. Nothing could exceed his own astonishment at the
+unembarrassed magnificence of the fortune, of which he most
+unexpectedly found himself in possession, as his father had been in
+the habit of concealing the amount of his own income, and allowing his
+heir rather less than nothing, saying, that as he himself had never
+had anything to eat till he had no teeth to eat with, he was resolved
+that his successor should be similarly treated. In pursuance of this
+plan, the old nobleman even on his death-bed, had actually expired
+with a practical joke on his lips. He sent for his son, gravely told
+him that with debts, mortgages, and settlements, the very encumbered
+estate he was about to inherit would scarcely pay its own expenses,
+and recommended him to live in future with the most penurious economy.
+When the will was opened, finding to his unutterable joy, that he had
+merely been played upon by the old humorist, who, in reality left him
+£40,000 per annum clear, so great was Lord Doncaster's surprise, that
+he declared his good fortune at the time to be "almost incredible;"
+and it might have been supposed, that he never afterwards completely
+believed it, as his personal expenses were always in a style more
+suited to the old Lord's threat than his performance, and he became a
+fresh instance of what may be so often remarked, that the most
+extravagant heirs in expectancy become the most avaricious in
+possession.
+
+There was one singular peculiarity in the settlements of Lord
+Doncaster's family, that so long as he had no son, or if his son at
+twenty-one declared himself a Protestant, he had the power of selling
+or bequeathing the estates according to his own pleasure or caprice;
+and the ancestor who had inserted this clause in his deed of entail,
+made his intention evident, that the succession should go to the Roman
+Catholic Church, rather than to a Protestant heir; but the present
+peer had taken advantage, on so large a scale, of his own childless
+privilege, to sell the family estates, that his two deceased sisters,
+Lady Charlotte De Crespigny, and Lady Caroline Smytheson, used
+secretly to complain, that little would be left for their children, if
+he persevered in turning every acre into gold; yet no one ever could
+guess how the large sums were squandered or melted away, which the old
+Marquis was continually raising, unless they went, as was strongly
+suspected, in the form of "secret service money," among the priests by
+whom he was surrounded.
+
+Nobody had a better right to be eccentric than Lord Doncaster!--old,
+rich, unmarried, and originally educated at home,--a misfortune
+sufficient in itself to engender so many peculiarities, as to render a
+man unfit for society ever afterwards. The aged peer was shy, proud,
+and arbitrary beyond all conception, avaricious about trifles, yet
+lavish to excess on great occasions, suspicious of all men's motives
+and intentions, and yet confiding to the last extreme of weakness, in
+the Abbe Mordaunt, his confessor, despising all men, and yet anxious
+beyond measure for the world's good opinion, addicted to the very
+worst female society, when he might have enjoyed the best, hating
+company, and yet sometimes plunging into it, when and where he was
+least expected, jealous to excess of his next heir, Louis De
+Crespigny, whom he enslaved to his caprices, as if even his existence
+were to be given or withheld at his option, yet sometimes whimsically
+cordial in his manner to him, though ready to take fire in an instant
+if his condescension led the lively youth into the slightest approach
+towards confidence or familiarity.
+
+Mr. Howard Smytheson, the wealthy brother-in-law of Lord Doncaster,
+having purchased most of the De Crespigny estates, as acre after acre,
+farm after farm, and house after house, came successively into the
+market, bequeathed them on his decease to an only daughter then an
+infant, and it became a favorite day-dream with the old peer, that his
+nephew and niece should be educated for each other, while to this end
+he tried his utmost power of conciliation with the maiden sister of
+Mr. Howard Smytheson, to whose care the young heiress had been
+consigned, hoping that thus all the amputated limbs of his vast
+property might yet be reunited in their pristine magnitude, to which
+very desirable end he thenceforth directed his whole conversations
+with young De Crespigny, to whom he more than hinted that, unless
+their will were the same about this marriage, his own will after death
+would be found very different from what his nephew probably
+anticipated and wished.
+
+The private vices of Lord Doncaster had been so very private, that
+though much was suspected, little could be known; yet, while he had
+few visible or personal expenses, and no imaginable outlet for his
+fortune, he invariably spent all his income, and considerably more,
+being one of those personages occasionally seen who excite the wonder
+and speculation of relations and neighbours, by unaccountably
+frittering away fortunes of almost royal splendor, without any
+appearance of royal luxury or royal liberality. Wearied of the world,
+in which he had nothing more to desire, and of himself, as he had
+nothing to think of or to do,--bored in short with the want of a want,
+Lord Doncaster's life was indeed a mere heartless pageant of mean
+ostentation and fretful pride, sternly insulated in a state of
+solitary old-bachelor despotism, and absorbed in himself to a degree
+which no ordinary mind could conceive or comprehend. Encumbered with
+so many unoccupied hours, it was a subject of as much wonder how he
+disposed of his superfluous time, as of his superfluous fortune; but
+he settled that question, by remarking one day to his nephew, that
+"the great business of life is, to shuffle through the day anyhow till
+dinner time." Like all parsimonious men, Lord Doncaster could not
+endure to hear any one else reckoned affluent, and Louis De Crespigny
+knew that a certain receipt for irritating him was, to over-estimate
+everybody's income, consequently he amused himself occasionally by
+audibly giving out Lord Towercliffe's fortune to be £15,000 a-year,
+and estimating his friend Sir Patrick Dunbar's rent-roll at a clear
+sum of £20,000 per annum, while he slyly watched his uncle's rising
+choler, and patiently heard, for the fiftieth time, an elaborate
+explanation, that it was impossible, and a sober calculation which
+reduced both the offending parties almost to beggary.
+
+In the month of August, as regularly as time revolved, Lord Doncaster
+delighted to read in the newspapers, his own pompous advertisement,
+the only original composition he was ever known to attempt, in which
+he prohibited poachers and strangers from shooting on his moors in
+Argyleshire, Mid-Lothian, Yorkshire, Galloway, Cromarty, and
+Caithness, but except the annual appearance of this spirited
+manifesto, no public evidence ever came forth of that extraordinary
+wealth which property so extensive must be supposed to produce. No
+charitable donations bore witness to Lord Doncaster's liberality--no
+country objects were encouraged by his public spirit--and the
+monuments daily arising in memory of departed merit, made a vain
+appeal for his pecuniary tribute of respect and regret, for Lord
+Doncaster neither respected nor regretted any man.
+
+It was an often-repeated axiom of Lord Doncaster's, that every man
+cheats or is cheated; but in one instance, and one only, his Lordship
+had shown apparently some kind feeling, or rather perhaps he might be
+said to have exhibited a capricious freak of benevolence, though the
+result had been such as to afford him an excuse ever afterwards for
+not again attempting a single act of gratuitous liberality.
+
+The nearest relative to his ancient family, after Louis De Crespigny
+and Miss Howard, was Mrs. Anstruther, a distant cousin, who, after
+making a low and almost disgraceful marriage, had suddenly died, it
+was believed by her own hands, thus consigning her two young children
+to helpless, and apparently hopeless poverty, till at length they were
+very unwillingly invited, or rather permitted to become residents in
+an almost menial capacity at Beaujolie Castle, in Yorkshire, where, as
+they could neither be drowned like kittens, nor shot like puppy-dogs,
+the Marquis caused them to be treated like the "whipping boys" in
+Charles the First's time--sometimes employed as playmates to amuse his
+nephew and niece during their holiday visits to his residence, but
+more frequently treated in a sort of mongrel way between dependents
+and slaves by the heartless and tyrannical old peer, who considered
+them as mere poachers on the preserve of his family honors, having
+forced their way into existence by some untoward accident, and become
+absolute blots in the creation, liable to be suspected, and even
+accused to their faces of every low and vicious propensity, in
+consequence of which, from an early age, he destroyed their
+self-respect, and irritated their evil passions by the most rash and
+unfounded aspersions--theft, swindling, lying, and gluttony, were
+among the principal counts in his Lordship's indictment, when he
+sometimes vented a paroxysm of ill-humor on these his unhappy
+dependents; and many a time the tears of Mary Anstruther, and the
+flashing eye of her brother Ernest, bore witness to the anger and
+grief with which they listened to his bitter and often unmerited
+upbraidings.
+
+At times, however, Lord Doncaster found it convenient for his own
+private purposes to patronize the Anstruthers, and threatened, in the
+hearing of all his young relatives, that if Louis De Crespigny's
+conduct did not in all respects satisfy him, an heir more subservient
+to his wishes might be found, and though the culprit must be his
+nephew, he need not be his successor, while the glance of his eye
+towards Ernest aroused hopes, wishes, and even expectations of the
+wildest extravagance, which were then confirmed for a time by his
+being promoted to temporary attention and consideration, not only
+displayed ostentatiously by their capricious patron, but extending to
+the increased respect and observance of the servants, the thermometer
+of whose obedience rose and fell according as the sunshine of Lord
+Doncaster's favor shone upon his young relative or not; yet brief as
+these periods of increased importance had always been, they made an
+indelible impression on the young and ambitious minds of those usually
+neglected children. "The child becomes a boy, the boy a youth, and
+then the game of life begins in earnest."
+
+Without education or principle, and with no friend on the wide earth
+to confide in or to consult, the two young Anstruthers, like weeds
+that will yet flourish though trampled upon, grew up vigorous in body,
+and enthusiastically as well as devotedly attached to each other, with
+a depth and power of affection which appeared, before long, the only
+redeeming quality in characters wherein strong passions and weak
+principles promised little, and threatened much, to all with whom they
+might hereafter become associated.
+
+The resemblance between them was as remarkable as their attachment,
+both having dark Italian-looking countenances, of remarkable symmetry,
+with a singularly excitable and determined expression in their large
+lustrous eyes, while it was remarkable that neither could by
+possibility look any one steadily in the face. There was a wild,
+almost feverish brilliancy in the eye of Ernest, expressive of a fiery
+impetuosity, amounting at times almost to an appearance of insanity,
+when, after being obliged to crouch and flatter for his bread before
+Lord Doncaster, he would retire with Mary, and give loose to all the
+angry torrent of his long-suppressed emotions. The sister's heart
+cowered sometimes before the flood of invectives and imprecations with
+which he relieved his heart by speaking of his wrongs, while he seemed
+to cherish a gnawing belief that fortune herself had shown him a most
+unaccountable and undeserved enmity, which he was resolved, by fair or
+by foul means, to subvert. "I shall yet rise above all the accidents
+of fortune! It shall be done, I care not how, Mary," said he sternly.
+"We must not be over-particular on that score, for, as the proverb
+says, 'a cat in mittens will never catch mice!'"
+
+Bold, fearless, and ready, with a keen appetite for danger, a fearless
+ambition, consummate cunning, and an insatiable thirst for adventure,
+it seemed sometimes as if he would put his mind into a pugilistic
+attitude, and buffet his way forward to pre-eminence in spite of all
+the malice of fortune and of mankind. With a temper vindictive, harsh,
+and deadly, his blood mounted like mercury in a thermometer at the
+very thought of success, and often when he spoke to his sister in the
+lowest whisper of their future prospects, she would start and look
+hastily round as if in terror, lest the wild dreams of his
+undisciplined mind might be overheard and resented, for he nourished a
+feverish hope, which he called a presentiment, but which amounted
+almost to a monomania, that the splendid residence in which they were
+now only tolerated on sufferance, "as reptile dependents," would one
+day become his own.
+
+If every man living might remove at pleasure all those who stand
+inconveniently in his way, political economists would have nothing to
+fear from a too rapidly increasing population, and the day-dreams of
+Ernest, which gained strength and consistency every hour, were
+prolific in both deaths and marriages. He carefully collected in the
+Peerage all the instances there recorded, in which distant relations
+had succeeded through a long mortality of twenty or five-and-twenty
+intermediate heirs,--he remembered that neither Louis nor Caroline had
+yet endured the measles,--he thought their Shetland ponies very
+dangerous, and, in short, if their days had been measured by him, the
+measure would have been short indeed. His personal vanity was
+excessive, and amidst his wild schemes of aggrandisement, the first
+and foremost had lately been to marry his lively, frolicsome, little
+cousin, and occasional playmate, Caroline Howard Smytheson, in whose
+infant manner, heedless and good-humored as she was, he flattered
+himself there might be traced an evident appearance of preference,
+while he could not but also remark, that before any of the young party
+had attained the age of maturity, and Caroline was yet a mere infant.
+Louis De Crespigny had already begun to exercise his genius for
+flirtation in the society of his humble cousin Mary Anstruther,--humble
+only in circumstances, but possessing that pride without principle,
+which goes before a fall.
+
+Time had ripened the faults of the two young Anstruthers, and
+perfected also their extraordinary beauty of person, when, after
+Ernest had attained the age of nineteen, a whim as sudden, and
+apparently as unaccountable as their adoption, caused Lord Doncaster,
+or rather the Abbe Mordaunt, unexpectedly to announce that they were
+dismissed from the house. Various rumours were circulated among the
+servants to account for this harsh and hasty decision, but nothing
+could be discovered for certain. Ernest was reported to have expressed
+himself with the greatest rancour and contempt respecting a report in
+circulation, that Lord Doncaster intended to marry the Abbe Mordaunt's
+beautiful niece, then on a visit at Kilmarnock Abbey, near Edinburgh.
+The Abbe was said to have missed some valuable jewels belonging to his
+niece Laura, who accused both the Anstruthers of having been seen in
+her room,--a large sum of money, it was hinted, had mysteriously
+disappeared--some people said that Ernest had been discovered at a
+late hour of the night attempting to enter the sleeping apartment of
+Lord Doncaster, without being able to give any satisfactory account of
+his intentions, and others declared that Louis De Crespigny's
+assiduities to Mary Anstruther had recently become rather too obvious,
+while surmises arose against her character; but whatever might be the
+cause, they were both hastily transferred on a few hours' notice from
+the splendors of Kilmarnock Abbey, to a small obscure lodging at
+Portobello. As Ernest was about to leave that house which had so long
+been his home, with Mary sobbing in uncontrollable grief on his arm,
+anger and despair were fearfully stamped on their young faces, when
+the Abbe Mordaunt advancing silently, placed a small sum of money in
+their hands, which the young man furiously dashed upon the ground, and
+trampled upon, saying in accents of strong and almost terrifying
+vehemence, while his countenance exhibited a dark insidious expression
+of almost maniacal fury, "I would not be human if I did not hate your
+niece and you!--my curse shall rest on both till I am revenged! Take
+back your paltry gold, I shall build up my own fortune, or perish in
+the ruins! I shall live by my own hands, or--by own hands I shall
+die!"
+
+From that day forward the names of Mary and Ernest Anstruther never
+passed the lips of Lord Doncaster or the Abbe, who ordered the
+servants also to abstain from ever mentioning them, which only piqued
+the curiosity of the second table into greater activity than ever; but
+though many vague conjectures, dark suspicions, and absurd rumours,
+were promulgated throughout the establishment, nothing certain could
+be ascertained, except that they returned no more to Kilmarnock Abbey,
+and that a final extinguisher had been placed on all their prospects
+and hopes from Lord Doncaster.
+
+About this time Mrs. Bridget Smytheson sent Miss Howard, then only six
+years old, to school, and seemed so little anxious to encourage an
+intimacy between the young heiress and Louis De Crespigny, whom she
+had long disliked, that Lord Doncaster, piqued and indignant, angrily
+reminded her of his sister Lady Caroline's dying injunction, to which
+she had promised implicit attention, that if the cousins, after they
+were grown up, could be ascertained to have to have a disinterested
+preference for each other, every opportunity should be given them to
+become attached and engaged.
+
+"Certainly, Lord Doncaster; and I shall fulfil my pledge," replied the
+over-dressed, and rather under-bred aunt, in her usual tone of
+fantastic affectation; "but these boy-and-girl intimacies are not the
+most likely to produce that romantic love with which young people
+ought to begin their married lives; and besides, how could their
+preference be disinterested, where the brilliant prospects of both are
+continually descanted on as motives to their union. No! I have a
+considerable spice of romance in my composition; and when they do meet
+again, it shall be under very different circumstances."
+
+"What a creature to have the charge of any girl!" thought Lord
+Doncaster, as he returned from handing her, with every appearance of
+profound respect, into her pony-carriage. "There is another woman
+half so insane out of bedlam; and that mad-cap child herself is as
+wild as a horse with the reins broke. The greatest annoyance on earth
+is, to have a rich and vulgar upstart among on's near connections."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+The life of Louis De Crespigny, from the hour he entered the army, was
+one continued steeple-chase after pleasure and amusement, in whatever
+form they could be courted, or at whatever expense they could be
+enjoyed. At a very early age, he was already a veteran in the world
+and its ways; for he stood "alone in his glory," the most admired,
+courted, and idolized of mankind, a perfect adept in all the arts of
+rendering himself agreeable in society, and possessing many pleasant
+qualities, but none that were valuable. During a gay career of
+dissipation and frivolity, he had entered with successive eagerness on
+a thousand flirtations, though he always forgot to marry in the end,
+while his heart, like a phoenix, was frequently consumed, yet never
+destroyed, and always ready at the service of any young lady, with
+youth, beauty, and accomplishments enough to excite his temporary
+interest. Being of opinion, that, though not yet a peer, he ought
+speedily to be one, young De Crespigny openly avowed the impossibility
+of marrying while Lord Doncaster survived, and jocularly remarked,
+that it would be a pity prematurely to cut off the hopes of his
+hundred and one Scotch cousins, who lived, like Ernest Anstruther, on
+the hope, that if his neck were broken at Melton, his succession might
+yet be "cut up" amongst them; and to the friendly inquiries of his
+many relatives, he frequently replied with a condoling look, that he
+and his uncle were both "hopelessly well."
+
+Lord Doncaster was not even yet, by any means, so great a
+Methusalemite in age, nor so weighed down by infirmities, as his
+lively nephew chose among the mothers and daughters of his intimate
+acquaintance to represent; and some ladies whom young De Crespigny had
+piqued or affronted, were actually ill-natured enough to hint, that
+Lord Doncaster was still almost young and almost handsome! They had
+even been so malicious as to insinuate, that his Lordship might
+possibly have a genius for marrying his house-keeper, almost the only
+respectable female who ever crossed his threshold; but Mrs. Fireland's
+very mature age, and very antiquated dress, shewed how completely she
+must have given up that point; and even her desire to please him in
+her own department, became every hour so increasingly difficult, and
+was attended with failures and disappointments so unforeseen and
+unaccountable, that the good woman often shook her head ominously, in
+alluding to his Lordship's numerous whims, saying, in a confidential
+under tone, which seemed to mean more than met the ear, to the
+steward, "he's petiklar! he's very petiklar! It would require a person
+bespoke to order to please his Lordship." And certainly he had become
+of late years more particular than ever.
+
+One personage only seemed to have the art of doing no wrong in the
+estimation of Lord Doncaster; and the respect which he withheld from
+all mankind, was concentrated to an immeasurable degree on the Abbe
+Mordaunt, who was the Cardinal Wolsey of Kilmarnock Abbey and
+Beaujolie Castle. Proud, overbearing, harsh, and arbitrary, he ruled
+over the house, the purse, and even the will of his patron, with
+despotic and unlimited sway. Men are generally advanced in years
+before the passions and feelings have stamped their indelible traces,
+like the impression of a seal, which becomes permanent only after the
+wax has began to cool; but in every feature of the Abbe's countenance,
+might now be seen the evidences of a gloomy, severe, and almost
+ferocious temper, yet never was there a greater triumph of art over
+nature, than in the skill with which he adapted his looks and
+conversation to the taste or caprice of those whom it was his interest
+to govern, and the astonishing facility with which he could call up a
+bland smile and insinuating voice, to supersede the habitual
+haughtiness of his tone and manner.
+
+Educated at St. Omers, in all the dark superstitions of that bigoted
+college, the Abbe was nevertheless far from desirous to seek within
+the walls of a cloister any protection from those temptations to
+worldly indulgence, which he had not even the wish to resist. He
+neither preached nor practised the virtues of his vocation, but
+paraded a whole troop of vices openly in the public eye; and far from
+attempting to reform mankind, he never attempted even to reform
+himself. Though in personal appearance of distinguished ugliness, yet
+such was the magic of his manner, that even by ladies he was
+considered perfectly irresistible; and to all, whether old or young,
+he generally succeeded in imparting a conviction, that he saw in her,
+for the first time, a realization of female perfection and female
+fascination. The Abbe was never known to stop half-way in arduously
+pursuing any object of pleasure, profit, or ambition, nor, whatever
+might be the impediments, was he ever seen to fail of success; for,
+like Bonaparte, he did not know the meaning of the word "impossible."
+
+After having recklessly squandered, in a career of almost startling
+dissipation, the whole of his own patrimony, it was believed that he
+had obtained fraudulent possession of £10,000 belonging to his very
+beautiful niece, to whom he must have refunded it had she lived to
+come of age, or had she married it must have been restored to her
+children, but about the time our story commences, she was supposed
+either to have died, or to have retired to a convent abroad, though
+whether upon conviction or not, might be considered very doubtful, as
+she had been educated by her mother in the Protestant faith, and it
+was generally conjectured that to so sudden and entire a removal from
+all former connections, her poverty more than her will must have
+consented. Laura Mordaunt had resided much at Kilmarnock Abbe with her
+uncle, to whom she seemed warmly and blindly attached, but the
+gossiping world sometimes conjectured that perhaps the evident
+partiality and admiration of Lord Doncaster might have roused in her
+some ambitious thoughts, backed by the influence of the Abbe. Among
+the peculiarities of the Marquis he had always professed a decided
+contempt for all respectable ladies, and therefore his attentions to
+Laura Mordaunt were at best a very questionable compliment, and became
+naturally of a nature which few relatives would have wished to
+encourage, yet Miss Mordaunt still remained a guest at Kilmarnock
+Abbey, till the period of her sudden disappearance, which caused so
+much astonishment among her intimate friends and near connections,
+that the father of Richard Granville, her cousin, shortly before his
+own death, wrote an affectionate letter, entreating her to return,
+were it but for a few months, and to make a home of his house for the
+future, should it suit her to do so; but to this kind and generous
+offer no reply ever came, and as all communications were to pass
+through the Abbe's hands, who alone knew his niece's direction, it
+might be doubted whether the invitation ever reached that hand for
+which it was intended.
+
+That Lord Doncaster had cruelly disappointed Laura Mordaunt, as he had
+already disappointed many others, her friend and cousin had good
+reason to believe; and though unable to imagine any really romantic or
+lasting attachment to a man, however elevated in rank or agreeable in
+manners, of at least fifty years old, yet he knew that Laura, who
+lived so retired that she could boast of few friends and no admirers,
+might really have been dazzled with the splendour of his rank or the
+fascination of his conversation; while it seemed the most
+unaccountable part of the whole affair, that if such were the case,
+the attachment had not been reciprocal, between a young and beautiful
+girl, thrown so continually in his way, and an aged roue, who had so
+evidently admired her.
+
+If the probable duration of Lord Doncaster's life had been measured
+according to the estimate formed of it in many an Edinburgh
+drawing-room, it would have brought a very small premium indeed at the
+insurance offices. By referring to that valuable record, Debrett's
+peerage, it was satisfactorily proved that the De Crespignys were a
+very short-lived family! One Lord Doncaster had died of a fall from
+his horse at thirty-five; another had been killed in battle, at
+forty-two; and not one of them had contrived very much to exceed
+eighty, therefore hopes might be entertained of the popular and
+fascinating Louis De Crespigny at last gaining the long-expected
+"step." It might have been supposed by strangers in Edinburgh, that
+there was but one marquisate in Britain, so frequently were the
+strawberry-leaves of Lord Doncaster under animated discussion; and any
+visitor who accidentally took Burke or Debrett in his hand, might
+smile to observe that the pages naturally fell open where that
+interesting paragraph presented itself to notice,
+
+    "Doncaster, Marquis of. Heir presumptive, Louis Henry De
+    Crespigny."
+
+A tradition prevailed among the elder ladies of fashion now in
+society, that a splendid set of diamonds, which had been long the
+ornament and admiration of Queen Charlotte's drawing-rooms, were since
+entailed, by an old Lady Doncaster, in the family; and many a young
+beauty, in arranging a bright futurity on her own plan, had frequently
+worn these far-famed jewels in her imagination, when presented at
+Court as a Marchioness, the envy and admiration of all her
+contemporaries. Meantime nothing could be more astonishing than to
+find how much was known in Edinburgh concerning the modes of life,
+temper, and character of the present Lord Doncaster, though he lived
+not only secluded from society, but made it his peculiar study to
+evade the scrutiny of impertinent curiosity, and was so anxious to
+check the loquaciousness of servants, that his butler and housekeeper
+had strict orders to keep up a sort of prison discipline in the
+establishment, and not to allow a word to be spoken when at meals. It
+was, however, authentically ascertained by some unknown means, that
+Lord Doncaster, who had formerly been a man of dissipated habits and
+irregular hours, now devoted himself to the care of his health as
+diligently and intensely as a miser does to the care of his money, and
+that to him it had become a subject of almost avaricious interest. If
+the Marquis had a finger-ache, it was magnified in Edinburgh into a
+case of certain death; but after a really severe illness, he was heard
+jocularly to remark, in sporting phrase, "I have had another round
+with death!" while he seemed confident, on these occasions, of always
+coming off victorious, though few among the young ladies of his
+nephew's acquaintance would have been found ready to back his
+expectations, while Agnes Dunbar impatiently remarked, that Lord
+Doncaster had been so long in the world, he seemed not to know how to
+leave it.
+
+It was generally understood by the juries who sat upon Lord
+Doncaster's case in society, that his breakfast consisted of strong
+gravy-soup and poached eggs, which were pronounced to be very
+plethoric,--he ate no luncheon, which must be very exhausting at his
+time of life,--he had an enormous appetite for dinner, which would
+certainly drive blood to his head,--and above all, he took a hot
+supper, which must be fatal at last;--every newspaper tends to prove,
+that after eating a hearty supper the night before, people are
+invariably found dead in their beds the next morning;--and it was
+already unaccountable how many mornings Lord Doncaster had survived!
+Any day in the world might bring accounts of his death,--some day must
+do so, sooner or later,--hundreds of old people were dying
+continually, and so might the superannuated peer; yet though his days
+were numbered in so many houses, they nevertheless seemed to be
+numberless, while gentlemen, older than himself, were often heard
+impatiently speculating and wondering what will he would make, and
+declaring they only wished to live, in order to know the result of so
+many anxious conjectures, while his dutiful nephew gayly remarked,
+that his uncle need never wait for parchment to write his will upon,
+while the skin on his face looked so like it.
+
+Still Lord Doncaster obstinately persevered in living on, while,
+strange to say, many of the manoeuvring mamas who had been heard to
+declare, that if an old person must die at any rate, they could spare
+his Lordship better than any other mortal, became mortal themselves,
+and were first consigned to the tomb. Even some of the young and
+lovely girls, who had thought, in the morning of life, before the
+freshness of their bloom had been dimmed, or the lustre of their
+beauty had decayed, that this one obstacle to their happiness must be
+removed,--many of these gay, joyous, and unthinking beings had sunk
+unexpectedly into an early grave, while still Lord Doncaster, in a
+most provoking and unprincipled manner, disappointed everybody, and
+continued to exist in a world where he was anything but welcome,
+resolved apparently, never, in an every-day vulgar way, to die at all.
+
+In the mean time, Louis De Crespigny, devoted to the amusements of
+life, but independent of all its finer sympathies, seemed to breathe
+nothing but the exhilarating ether of life, joyous, giddy, and
+intoxicating. He revelled in a laughing, lively, satirical
+consciousness of his own exact position in society, and privately
+resolved to make the most of it,--not that he deliberately made up his
+mind to deceive,--his code of honor was rigid enough in respect to his
+transactions with gentlemen, but in the case of young ladies it was
+otherwise,--
+
+            "Man, to man so oft unjust,
+    Is always so to woman."
+
+With ladies Mr. De Crespigny considered his own brilliant prospects
+and personal fascinations to be fair, marketable produce, which there
+could be no objection that he should use to the utmost advantage, for
+bringing in the largest possible return of pleasure, profit, and
+amusement. Accordingly, the gay young Cornet, living upon what he
+could borrow, on the disinterested attentions of manoeuvring
+mothers, and on the expectation of his uncle's speedy demise, made
+himself the chosen attendant of half a hundred accomplished and
+perfectly amiable young ladies, who laughed, talked, sang, and danced
+with him, while he soon became but too intimately known as a ruthless
+flirt, to many a young heart, and to many a happy home, where he took
+care that it should be distinctly implied and understood, that nothing
+but the jealous penuriousness of "that old quiz, Lord Doncaster,"
+impeded his ardent wish to settle for life; while in the mean time,
+wherever a good table and cellar were kept, he testified exactly such
+a degree of partiality for the sister or daughter of his host, as made
+her be considered his wife-presumptive, and secured him a regular
+knife and fork in the house on all family festivals and state
+occasions, without any trouble in either ordering or paying for the
+entertainment. It has been said, that as a rolling stone gathers no
+moss, neither does a roving heart gain any affection; but whatever
+might be the case with others, Louis De Crespigny felt himself without
+a doubt the idol of every drawing-room, where he sentimentalized,
+rattled, and flirted in every style, with every girl under twenty, as
+diligently as if he were canvassing for an election, while they
+talked, looked, smiled, and dressed their very best; and the
+excellence of any gentleman's wine might be accurately estimated by
+the thermometer of Mr. De Crespigny's attention to the daughters; but
+he had a declared abhorrence of family dinners, which looked too
+business-like and domestic, as if he had really committed himself;
+though, as Lady Towercliffe remarked to her four daughters one day,
+"he never said anything to the purpose, when the purpose was
+marriage."
+
+Though Mr. De Crespigny seemed, at the "dignity dinners" in Edinburgh,
+to live for no other object on earth, but the one fascinating young
+lady, with whom it was his game at the time to appear _epris_, and
+though she might probably be astonished and piqued during the following
+week, to observe this indefatigable amateur in flirtations equally
+assiduous in his attentions to another, and shooting like a brilliant
+meteor in the ball-room, unheedingly past herself, yet she might
+console herself by reflecting, that Mr. De Crespigny was in the habit
+of confidentially hinting how much he felt embarrassed and annoyed by
+the necessity of generalizing his intimacies, that no gossiping reports
+might reach his whimsical relative. "Because actually!" he one day
+whispered in confidence to Lady Towercliffe, "when my uncle becomes
+irritable, he threatens to make all sorts of ridiculous marriages
+himself; and it would be my last hour in his will, if he thought me
+heretic enough merely to dance with a Protestant partner. He would not
+engage so much as a housemaid of your persuasion; but for my own part,
+I leave all these concerns to the Abbe Mordaunt, who, to do him
+justice, lets me off very easily."
+
+The difference of faith made wonderfully little difference in the
+intentions of those young ladies who believed themselves the objects
+of Mr. De Crespigny's unacknowledged preference, for every bit of
+millinery in a ball-room was in a flutter of agitation whenever he
+approached; and certainly no one ever excelled more in making those he
+conversed with rise in their own opinion, from his tact in showing how
+very high they stood in his, and the consequence was, that he already
+possessed a rare and romantic collection of sentimental valentines,
+sketches with his figure in the foreground, songs with the magical
+name of Louis conspicuously introduced, withered bouquets, anagrams,
+anonymous letters, and anonymous verses, all with a too-well-remembered
+history belonging to them, which called up a smile of derision, or a
+sigh of self-reproach, according as the case required, but all
+treasured as relics of former happy hours, which had perhaps been the
+history of a lifetime to the fair donors, and the diversion of a few
+days only to himself, while he secretly applauded his own dexterity in
+escaping the matrimonial noose, and to them there remained only the
+silent remembrance of that intercourse, now for ever at an end, which
+they had believed was to last for life.
+
+Mr. De Crespigny's engagement book was nearly as complicated an affair
+as any ledger or day-book, and much more so than his own banker's
+account, for he arranged it on the most systematic principles of
+profit and loss. In whatever house he had been invited to dine, he
+considered himself as "owing a quadrille" to one of the young ladies
+at the next assembly. If he had actually "sat under her father's
+mahogany," as he termed it, she might be perhaps entitled to two
+dances; and when he had spent the greater part of a summer in her
+mother's country house, that established a sort of sinking fund in her
+behalf, which entitled him to have the use of him as a partner,
+whenever he happened accidentally to be disengaged, though indeed
+nothing ever occurred accidentally in Captain De Crespigny's
+arrangements, for he never acted on impulse, but always on systematic
+calculation. He seemed, with his gay pell-mell manner, the most
+off-hand, careless, and undesigning of men; but even in the trifling
+affair of going to a ball, where he might literally have exclaimed, "I
+am monarch of all I survey," he invariably carried in his mind's eye a
+list of all those partners with whom policy or self-interest directed
+him to dance, and very seldom indeed did he swerve from his
+pre-conceived muster-roll.
+
+It was a singular evidence of young De Crespigny's discretion and
+skill, that, while paying attentions which should either have never
+been paid at all, or never afterwards discontinued, and while, with all
+its fascinations, Lady Towercliffe declared it was dangerous to a young
+lady's happiness to be even introduced to him, still, in not one
+instance had "his intentions" ever yet been asked, and neither fathers,
+uncles, nor brothers had betrayed the slightest symptoms of
+insurrection against his universal dominion, believing, as his excuse
+for delaying to propose was so perfectly unanswerable and respectable,
+that his intentions might safely be allowed to "lie on the table,"
+while they awaited in breathless suspense the _denouement_, certainly
+to take place on Lord Doncaster's death.
+
+Some of Mr. De Crespigny's brother officers, envious perhaps of his
+extraordinary success in society, threw out sceptical hints respecting
+the certainty of his succession, and laughed sarcastically at the
+indefatigable vanity with which he evidently liked being thus torn to
+pieces among the chaperons and dowagers of society; but he laughed as
+heartily as themselves. No one could ever get the start of him in a
+joke; and his associates, when he came in competition with any one of
+them, found it no laughing matter. He knew his own power--who does not
+know that?--and difficulties only enhanced his triumph.
+
+Lord Doncaster often dryly remarked, that the best economist in
+Britain must certainly be Louis De Crespigny, as, to his certain
+knowledge, he possessed only £300 a year, and yet he seemed to revel
+in all the luxuries of life, besides having a great deal over for
+extravagance. There was no occasion for the young Cornet ever to think
+of dining at his club, as he might be entertained at the houses of
+three or four friends in a day, if he could have mustered as many
+appetites. In summer he incurred no expense, except to pay for his
+place occasionally on the top of a coach, or in a steam-boat, from one
+hospitable country house to another, where gigs were sent a stage to
+meet him on the way, if he were expected by the mail, or if by sea, a
+chariot might be seen waiting on the pier. He got "a mount" from one
+friend, the best seat in a barouche from another, and often the vacant
+place in a britschska from a third party, even to the expulsion of its
+more legitimate occupiers.
+
+"De Crespigny has nothing on earth, and you see how he looks!" remarked
+his handsome friend Sir Patrick one day to Sir Arthur Dunbar; "yet how
+magnificently he contrives to live at the expense of all those deluded
+mortals who have disposable or indisposable daughters. His future
+prospects act like a cork jacket in society, keeping him always at the
+top. Last summer worthy Lord Towercliffe, with his rapidly increasing
+family and rapidly decreasing income, took De Crespigny in his gig to
+that old tumble-down castle of his in Argyleshire, where he spent six
+weeks, ruining the family in champagne and wax candles. The house
+became rather cold in September, so at last he accepted a cast in Lady
+Winandermere's carriage to that nest of nieces and daughters at Castle
+Highcombe, where he found excellent yachting and sea-bathing. There he
+lingered a month, till the brother of those four pretty Miss Vavasours
+bid still higher for his company, by offering him a mount at Kelso, and
+mentioning that he had a first-rate French cook a '_cordon bleu_,' who
+hires his own stall at the opera during the London season, and enjoys a
+salary and perquisites amounting to more than the best curacy in the
+English Church; and all this De Crespigny repays with a few frothy
+nothings, which he is for ever repeating to any young lady who will
+lend an ear. Those who beat the bush do not always snare the bird; and
+I wonder the manoeuvring world does not yet see that he is evidently no
+marrying man."
+
+"What sort of looking individual, is a marrying man?" asked Sir
+Arthur, slyly. "I am often told that you, for instance, do not look
+like a marrying man; but pray point me out any one who does, that I
+may become more a connoisseur on the subject than I am. As for what
+you say of Louis De Crespigny, it sounds to my unpractised ear very
+like swindling; and he is not the youth I took him for if he live in
+such an element of deceit, sacrificing all sense of honor, all
+confidence, and all good feeling, for a worthless and transient
+popularity, or worse than all, for motives of mean, heartless
+self-interest. Such a man is not worth the space he occupies in the
+world!"
+
+The Admiral's honest indignation would have been vented in still
+stronger terms, could his upright and honorable mind have been made to
+understand how entirely every thought, word, and action of Mr. De
+Crespigny's life was based on the most unswerving principles of cold,
+hard, unrelenting selfishness, and with what utter carelessness he
+seemed ready to trample on the wounded feelings of others; for it
+mattered not to him what degree of confidence he betrayed, or what
+degree of sorrow he inflicted. If in one house where he had been
+received as a son or a brother, he no longer found the cordial welcome
+of other days, a hundred other doors were still opened wide to receive
+him, where he could boast of having been "very nearly caught," and
+carry on the same game as before, which was a pastime to him, though
+fatal to the peace of many, who would willingly have died rather than
+betray the injury their feelings had suffered, when, after passing
+through the ordeal of his assiduities, they found themselves beguiled
+and cheated of all that was deepest and most sacred in their earthly
+affections--robbed without compunction by one who gave no return--who
+watched with elated triumph the growing delusion of those whom he had
+marked as victims to his own self-love, and whom he appeared to
+consider all in all to his happiness, till they found out at last that
+they were in reality less than nothing to him; yet the deception
+admitted of no redress. He lived on in a sort of cowardly impunity;
+for no young girl endowed with sensibility, and conscious of her own
+injuries, could desire, after entrusting him with the whole story of
+her hopes and affections, that the truth should be known; and his was
+a crime against which no evidence can be brought; for who could
+describe the tender nothings--the refined insinuations--the looks
+which say everything and mean nothing--the wordless language of the
+eyes, with which an undeclared love may be safely and yet obviously
+professed? What but a smile of ridicule or of censure could attend on
+such a detail of "unutterable things?" But with Louis De Crespigny
+nothing was unutterable; for he could say and unsay the same things
+two hundred times, and they always seemed to carry as much or as
+little weight as he pleased at the moment, while he entered society as
+a school-boy rushes into a garden, eagerly to pursue the brilliant
+insects fluttering in the sunbeams, ready to crush and injure them all
+for his momentary diversion, and yet on his guard to retreat in good
+order, should there appear to be the slightest danger of annoyance or
+discomfort to himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+It was impossible to pass an hour in the society of Sir Arthur Dunbar,
+without seeing much to admire, and much also to love,--there was a
+sturdy, resolute, old-fashioned sense of honor in all his actions,
+tempered by the kindest and most considerate attention to the
+feelings, as well as to the interest of all with whom he might be
+associated, and his sentiments were tinctured by a generous
+liberality, only limited in action by the rigid restraints consequent
+on a very narrow income, which he had never been known to exceed,
+though he was often heard jocularly to remark, that the surplus, after
+his yearly accounts were paid, would scarcely buy him a pair of
+gloves.
+
+Though the fire of Sir Arthur's eyes had been quenched by approaching
+blindness, and his weather-beaten countenance had been scarred in
+battle, and hardened by facing every tempest which had blown for half
+a century, yet his aspect had an air of habitual distinction and
+conscious dignity which commanded instant respect. There was an energy
+in the expression of his feelings, and a straightforward pursuit of
+what he thought right in all his actions, which gave him a singular
+influence over the affections and the conduct of those with whom he
+wished to associate, and the admirable use he made of which no one
+afterwards ever had cause to regret. His early life had been one full
+of action and of vigorous exertion, seeking, with old-fashioned
+patriotism, the honor of his country, more than the promotion of his
+own interests; but in advanced years, when no longer able publicly to
+distinguish himself, he directed his time and talents to the diffusion
+of happiness at home, and to a zealous, diligent, and humble
+preparation for that long and quiet home to which he believed himself
+rapidly approaching, and which he contemplated with the best of all
+philosophy,--that of a truly devoted Christian.
+
+With all the blunt frankness of his sailor-like manner, Sir Arthur
+could nevertheless testify an almost feminine gentleness and sympathy
+towards the unfortunate. He was often discovered to have exerted
+clandestinely a degree of activity and zeal in serving the needy and
+desolate, which to a mind less eager and generous, would have seemed
+almost incredible,--he never lacerated the feelings of those who came
+to him for comfort, by attempting to convince the sufferer, as most
+people begin by doing, on such occasions, that the misfortune,
+whatever it be, is all his own fault,--and he was quite as ready, as
+well as better pleased, to rejoice with those that rejoiced, than to
+weep with those that wept, without ever, at any period of life, having
+found a place for envy in his kindest of hearts, which
+
+    "Turn'd at the touch of joy or woe,
+    And turning trembled too."
+
+With a good humored smile at his own credulity in having believed that
+Louis De Crespigny could ever be serious in proposing to sacrifice a
+day of his gay and busy life, to a prosing tete-a-tete on the
+sea-beach with an old man like himself, Sir Arthur dismissed the
+subject from his thoughts, and finally relinquished all hope of seeing
+his young friend, after a short soliloquy, in which he ended, by slyly
+hoping that the gay Cornet would never cause those who might feel it
+more, to regret his having jilted them.
+
+Not many days following, the Admiral had retired at his usual early
+hour to bed, and after some time passed in profound repose, he was
+suddenly startled into wakefulness at the dawn of day, while the
+watchman was calling the hour of "Past four o'clock," by a loud and
+vehement knocking at the front-door of his house, accompanied by the
+most fearful and vociferous out-cries of "murder!" It was the sharp,
+shrill tone of a woman in the agony of fear, becoming more and more
+vehement at every repetition of the cry, while Sir Arthur dressed with
+the rapidity of a practised seaman, and hurried down stairs, where he
+found his maid-of-all-work, and his man-of-all-work, already assembled
+in breathless consternation round a trembling, terrified-looking
+servant girl, whose eyes were gleaming with an expression of frantic
+alarm, while, from her incoherent exclamations, Sir Arthur could only
+gather that some act of unutterable horror had been perpetrated in an
+opposite house, the windows of which were all partially closed, except
+one in the upper story, which was wide open, and seemed to be much
+broken and shattered.
+
+Without waiting another moment to investigate the business, Sir Arthur
+strode across the street, hurried in at the open door, and guided by a
+momentary cry of childish distress, he mounted the staircase, with an
+activity beyond his years, three steps at a time, and precipitately
+entered the nearest room he could find. There he paused for a moment
+on finding himself in a splendidly-furnished bed-room, adorned with a
+degree of taste and elegance, far excelling what was customary in so
+obscure-looking a lodging, and the Admiral was about hastily to
+withdraw, when he became suddenly transfixed to the spot, and his eye
+seemed perfectly blasted by the spectacle which met his agitated and
+astonished gaze, while several moments elapsed before he had nerve to
+advance, and ascertain the reality of a scene, which filled him with
+horror.
+
+On a magnificent couch, the rich coverlet of which was drenched in
+blood, that had sprinkled the floor, and spouted to the very roof of
+the room, lay the cold stiffened corpse of a young female, whose head
+seemed to have been nearly severed from her body, while a violent
+contusion appeared upon her forehead. The wrist of her right hand,
+with which she had probably attempted to defend herself, had also been
+deeply cut, and in her hand she grasped a quantity of dark hair, which
+seemed to have been torn from the head of her assassin in the struggle
+for life. Her teeth were clenched, and her eye-balls were starting
+from their sockets with a look of agonised fear, most appalling to
+behold, and her long fair hair which lay in disordered billows on her
+shoulders, were matted with gore.
+
+A table near the bed had been overturned and broken,--a knife of very
+peculiar form, bent and distorted, lay conspicuously upon the pillow,
+as if placed there on purpose to attract notice, and the carpet, on
+which a pool of congealed blood had gathered, was likewise strewed
+with money, rings, bijouterie, trinkets, and plate.
+
+Nestled in a little crib, close beside the murdered woman, but plunged
+in a slumber so profound, that it could not be natural, slept
+undisturbed and uninjured, a lovely boy of about eight years old. His
+head rested on his arm, and a clustering profusion of jetty black hair
+fell over his blooming countenance, in which there was a look of
+almost death-like repose. Awakened with the utmost difficulty by Sir
+Arthur, the child, who appeared to be of wondrous beauty, opened for a
+moment, a pair of bright blue, star-like eyes, and with a cry of
+terror, called for his mother, but a moment afterwards, overcome by
+irresistible drowsiness, his rosy cheek dropped upon the pillow, his
+heavy eyes were closed, and he relapsed into the same strange,
+mysterious insensibility as before.
+
+It was a fearful sight, that young mother, with her look of ghastly
+agony turned towards the ruddy healthful countenance of her child in
+his peaceful slumbers, and it was evident that her last thought had
+been for him, as his clothes were still convulsively held in her left
+hand, while a vain attempt had obviously been made to tear them
+asunder,--many deep cuts being visible on the child's night-gown,
+though his person had been left uninjured.
+
+Sir Arthur compassionately snatched the boy up in his arms, to hurry
+him away from the dreadful scene, and called the watchman, who
+instantly raised an alarm, and summoned the whole neighborhood to his
+assistance, when before ten minutes had elapsed, the room was filled
+with a crowd of agitated spectators, scared by the tremendous event,
+and crowding around the bed in every attitude of astonishment, terror,
+and commiseration, uttering exclamations of alarm, gazing helplessly
+at the frightful spectacle, and forming a thousand conjectures
+respecting the tragical event, instead of attempting to give any
+rational assistance.
+
+"Not a moment is to be lost!" said Sir Arthur, in the steady
+authoritive tone of one accustomed in great emergencies, to command,
+"Where are the other servants?" asked he, turning to the girl who had
+first given an alarm, "and where is your master?"
+
+"I have no master, Sir!" replied she in a low incoherent whisper. "I
+think the lady was not married; but perhaps, Sir, she might be! A
+gentleman called here last week."
+
+"What was he like?" asked Sir Arthur, earnestly.
+
+"A sort of clergyman, or gentleman, Sir! I don't know nothing about
+him, but he visited sometimes at this here house. No good ever came of
+it though, for my poor young mistress was always in sore distress
+after he'd be gone away. Last time there be much loud talking and
+argufying in the parlor, but it was none of my business to listen. I
+never pays no attention to what the quality says!"
+
+"Here is a most disastrous business!" exclaimed Sir Arthur, in a deep
+and solemn tone, while he glanced at the crowd of white, livid, ashy
+faces, collected around him. "Let us remember, my friends, that every
+trifle we can observe here, may be of the utmost importance in
+bringing this dreadful mystery to light. Touch nothing, but have all
+your eyes about you to detect what you can, and let us instantly
+search the house."
+
+With the little boy in his arms, who had awakened, bewildered and
+terrified by the sight of so many strangers, Sir Arthur, followed by
+the whole troop of spectators, who huddled together with evident
+symptoms of fearful apprehension, proceeded minutely to scrutinize the
+whole house.
+
+In one apartment on the garret floor, belonging, as the terrified
+housemaid declared, to a person who had been taken in, she believed
+out of charity, to teach the little boy, the bed was disordered, as if
+the sleeper, when hastily rising, had thrown the bed-clothes almost
+upon the floor. The window-frame was broken to shivers, by some one
+violently forcing his way out; but no other sign appeared of the room
+having been inhabited. Not an article of clothing could be found in
+the drawers; not a book or a paper; and the search was about to be
+abandoned, when Sir Arthur perceived in an obscure corner of the room,
+a man's glove, stained with blood, and a red silk handkerchief, from
+which the initials had evidently been erased with great care, though
+he hoped that some one more accustomed to such investigations might
+yet be able to trace them.
+
+The next room which Sir Arthur attempted to enter had the door
+double-locked; and though the party which accompanied him made a noise
+of knocking and hammering that might have raised the dead, no answer
+was returned, till at length, losing all patience, they broke it open,
+and impetuously rushed forward, all gazing eagerly around, as if they
+expected an immediate _denouement_ of the mystery to take place; but
+some of those who were foremost shrunk back in astonishment, and
+hastily made way for Sir Arthur, while the servant girl earnestly
+whispered in his ear, with a look of anxiety and alarm, "This is Sarah
+Davenport's room! the child's maid! Better not disturb her, Sir! She is
+sometimes hardly right in her mind I think!"
+
+When Sir Arthur, disregarding the simple girl's warning, advanced, he
+perceived with surprise a very young woman, scarcely twenty, who
+started up in bed, with a look of bewildered perplexity, as he
+approached, asking in accents of tremulous alarm, what had occurred to
+cause this extraordinary disturbance. Her cheek was of an ashy
+paleness, her very lips were blanched, and her voice sounded husky and
+hollow with agitation; but all this might be attributed to so sudden
+an inroad of strangers, while again and again she asked with quivering
+accents, whether any accident had occurred, and why they all appeared
+so alarmed.
+
+"At all events, my darling boy is safe!" added she, holding out her
+arms to the child, who instantly recoiled from her, with looks of
+unequivocal terror, and hiding his face on the shoulder of Sir Arthur,
+he sobbed aloud with a degree of passionate grief and agitation which
+seemed almost beyond his years. The observant eye of Sir Arthur
+perceived that a dark scowl of malignity flitted for a moment across
+the beautiful features of Sarah, whose brow became singularly
+contracted over her flashing eyes; but making an effort instantly to
+recover herself, she averted her countenance, and added in a subdued
+voice of assumed tranquillity, "The child never knows me in a cap! I
+forgot to take it off, but the hurry of seeing so many strangers has
+confused me!"
+
+In an instant she snatched off her night-cap, when her shoulders and
+neck became covered with a cloud of dark massy ringlets, floating down
+below her waist, and shading her pallid countenance, which had assumed
+an expression of livid horror, and unnatural wildness. "Let him come
+to me now!" added she again, stretching out her arms with a ghastly
+smile; but the boy struggled more vehemently than before, and clung to
+Sir Arthur with a tenacity and confidence, which deeply touched the
+old veteran's heart, who tried to soothe the terrified child by every
+endearment which his kind nature could suggest, while his attention
+was nevertheless enchained by observing the rigid, marble look of the
+young woman's countenance; the dragged and corpse-like appearance
+which stole over her features, as if she had suffered a stroke of
+paralysis.
+
+"You have been frightened enough already, poor boy!" said Sir Arthur,
+soothingly. "No one shall hurt you! With me at least you are safe!
+Stay where you are, and do not be alarmed! No one shall touch you but
+myself!"
+
+The child seemed to understand Sir Arthur's promise of protection, and
+his head drooped sleepily down, while his eyes again closed in that
+deep unnatural slumber, from which he had been with so much difficulty
+aroused, till at length,
+
+    "Now like a shutting flower, the senses close,
+    And on him lies the beauty of repose."
+
+"Young woman!" said Sir Arthur, bending a look of penetrating scrutiny
+on Sarah Davenport, "how came you to be quietly asleep, and partly
+dressed too! while your mistress was murdered in the room immediately
+below! Did you hear no disturbance? Was no alarm given?"
+
+"My mistress!" exclaimed Sarah, clasping her hands in an attitude of
+astonishment, and speaking as if every word would choke her, though
+not a muscle of her face was altered from the fixed and rigid look it
+had previously worn. "Oh! what will become of me!"
+
+"What will become of you!" exclaimed Sir Arthur sternly, fixing his
+penetrating eye upon her. "Think rather of your murdered mistress!
+Come, come, girl! you performed that start very well; but I know good
+acting! I greatly fear you are more concerned in this horrid business
+than we at first suspected, and much more than you would wish to
+acknowledge. Get up instantly, and follow me!"
+
+There was something fearful and appalling in the silence which reigned
+among the many persons who had gathered around, when Sarah, as a
+prisoner, was led into the chamber of death. A look of shuddering
+horror distorted for a moment her pale and haggard countenance, when
+she was unwillingly drawn forward to the place where her deceased
+mistress lay, and Sir Arthur, with silent solemnity, pointed to the
+ghastly spectacle. His eyes were intensely and most mournfully fixed
+on the prisoner's sullen and nearly livid countenance, while she
+silently clung to a chair to support herself.
+
+Sarah appeared neither startled nor astonished after the first thrill
+of horror, but with a cold stony look of almost preternatural
+calmness, she muttered to herself in a low tone, which became
+nevertheless distinctly audible to all the spectators, and was
+evidently meant to be heard,--
+
+"Why am I brought here! I know nothing, about this! The poor lady has
+committed suicide! No wonder! She often wished herself dead! She had a
+miserable life of it, and has got rest at last! I wish!" added Sarah
+suddenly, with vehement, almost frantic energy, "O how I wish that I
+could change places with her! O that I could be that cold, senseless
+image, without memory or feeling, without hope or fear, shut up from
+living wretchedness in everlasting sleep!"
+
+"Let us hope that the Almighty has in mercy received her never-dying
+soul, and that in His own good time He will reveal the guilty
+assassins who sent her so suddenly to judgment," said Sir Arthur
+solemnly. "Unburden your own mind now, by confessing all, and be
+assured it will relieve the agony you are so evidently suffering.
+Murder is like fire, it cannot be smothered long."
+
+"I know nothing! What could I know!" replied Sarah hurriedly. "She has
+destroyed herself, or thieves have broken into the house and robbed
+her. Could I help that?"
+
+"No one has broken into this house," replied Sir Arthur, scanning the
+expression of her fixed and apparently unalterable features. "But you
+can perhaps tell us who escaped by that shattered window above? Not a
+lock is broken--not a door is injured--not a trinket seems missing,
+among the many scattered around the room. Here is money in abundance,
+if gold had been the inducement! Some other motive has provoked this
+crime--jealousy perhaps--or revenge----"
+
+At the last word an angry hectic rushed over the face, arms, and neck
+of the prisoner, and her eye glittered for a moment with an unnatural
+fire, which rapidly faded away, leaving her as pale and death-like as
+the corpse beside which she stood, and on which her eye now rested
+with a look of cold and passionless indifference.
+
+"It was only yesterday that she wished herself dead! this is her own
+doing!" said Sarah, turning away. "Why am I brought here! This is too
+dreadful! too shocking! It will drive me mad--it will! it will!" added
+she, with rising agitation; and then suddenly bursting in a hideous
+maniacal laugh, which rang with fearful sound through the gloomy
+chamber, and caused the horror-struck spectators to fall hastily back,
+"I would have saved her! I would! What woman ever sheds blood! but it
+was too late! I would have saved her, as I saved the child; but it was
+done--kill me! kill me! if you have any mercy, let me die! let me hide
+myself in the grave for ever!" Saying these words, with a scream of
+agony, she fell upon the floor in violent convulsions, from which it
+was nearly an hour before she entirely recovered, when faint, weak,
+and exhausted, Sir Arthur suggested that she could be carried to bed;
+but before she left the room, anxious, if possible, to elucidate the
+mystery, and to gain some clue for pursuing the actual murderer, he
+detained Sarah during a moment, and desired that a glass of water
+might be brought for her, hoping that the violent emotion she had
+betrayed might lead her to a full confession. Laying his hand then
+upon her arm, in tones of deep and awful solemnity, he looked at her,
+and pointed once more to the corpse, saying,--
+
+"By a dark and harrowing crime those lips are sealed in the silence of
+death! What a tale they could disclose, if they might but once
+describe all that passed in this room a few hours ago! Those very
+walls have echoed this very night to her cries! You alone seem able to
+throw any light upon the horrid deed. You could tell all, or I am
+greatly mistaken. We shall yet know, at the day of judgment, if not
+sooner, how this fearful act was done. Consider, Sarah Davenport, that
+undying remorse will pursue you through life, and be the fitting
+tenant of your soul, unless by timely repentance you avert the fearful
+doom, and hereafter your heart will be tortured by the pangs of
+eternal despair. Unfortunate woman! consider now, or during the long
+period of your approaching imprisonment, whether it be better to
+repent and confess at once, or to confess and suffer everlastingly."
+
+Not a word or look gave evidence that Sarah so much as heard Sir
+Arthur speak. Her large eyes were vacantly fixed on the ground, her
+hands were firmly clenched, and her teeth were set with an air of
+resolute determination, when, after a silence of several minutes,
+during which her very stillness was frightful, supported by some of
+the strangers around, she walked with almost mechanical
+unconsciousness out of the room.
+
+Again and again the house was searched that day--the very floors and
+wainscots torn up; but not a trace could be discovered to throw light
+upon the cause or circumstances of this disastrous event; and equally
+remarkable was it, that no hint could be obtained of who or what the
+murdered lady had been. There were books on the table in various
+languages, but not one retained any name written on the boards, though
+it was evident that on some a coat of arms had once been pasted, and
+subsequently defaced. Not a letter or paper could be found with either
+signature or direction, though one or two notes were discovered
+beneath the pillow of the bed, all anonymous, but written in a similar
+hand, and containing nothing that could identify the writer; and
+several sketches of the child, beautifully executed in various
+attitudes, were found in a portfolio, beside which were written many
+simple verses, containing the most fervent expressions of tender
+affection and anxious solicitude for the boy, and the most passionate
+bursts of melancholy, but all conceived in general terms, which
+baffled the researches of curiosity.
+
+"This hand is disguised, yet surely I have seen it before," said Sir
+Arthur, musingly examining the anonymous notes, which related chiefly
+to remittances of money. "The face of that appalling spectacle
+sometimes seems also familiar to me. Have I not met with it already,
+or is this only the delusion of an excited mind? These deep and
+prominent eyelids--the small aquiline nose--the delicately-pencilled
+eye-brows--and that month of perfect grace and beauty, which seems
+still almost to speak without a tongue, in the language of
+heart-broken misery, telling of deceived affections--of blighted
+hopes--of unpitied and solitary tears."
+
+Sir Arthur seated himself on a chair beside the couch for some moments
+in agitated reflection, vainly endeavoring to collect his thoughts,
+and form them into some tangible remembrance. "It is a strange and
+bewildering sensation, to look at the mute features of this death-like
+image, and to feel as if once she had been known to me in her days of
+youth and bloom. A vague harassing perplexity besets me in trying to
+realize the floating and flickering remembrance, which dimly mock my
+efforts to catch them. It seems like starting out on a dark night, and
+trying to distinguish some busy scene, where figures and lights
+appear, and vanish again before they can be identified. Where have we
+met before? Surely in some dream of former days I once beheld those
+fixed and glassy eyes lighted up with intelligence! but my treacherous
+memory will not help me--it recalls enough to torture me with
+perplexity, and not enough to be of any actual avail."
+
+Sir Arthur wearied himself with intense efforts to identify the
+lineaments before him, but in vain. They were lovely indeed, and many
+a stranger came likewise to try whether they could be recognised, but
+without success. The fearful story circulated like wild-fire--the
+excitement and curiosity it produced became intense; but not a gleam
+of light was thrown upon the dark and mysterious event.
+
+Among the many who hurried to behold the murdered woman before her
+remains were disturbed, two gentlemen arrived one evening after dusk,
+and having ascertained that neither the Admiral nor any other stranger
+was in the house, they gave Sir Arthur's servant, Martin, who was in
+attendance, a handsome donation, and desiring him not to follow,
+hurried up stairs, and remained in the room alone for several minutes.
+Both were much muffled up, and evidently avoided any scrutiny of their
+countenances; but they seemed greatly agitated on leaving the room;
+and as they hastened past Martin, and threw themselves into a hackney
+coach which awaited them at some distance, one of the party had
+appeared so overcome, that he could not walk without support. Much
+conjecture was aroused by this incident, which seemed to increase the
+mystery and interest attached to the melancholy circumstances, and not
+a doubt could be entertained that these untimely visitors had a more
+than common connection with the affair, but of what nature, and to
+what degree, could only admit of very vague conjecture.
+
+Nothing could exceed the active interest taken in all the proceedings
+by Sir Arthur, who seemed to forget all his years and infirmities,
+while keenly promoting the cause of truth and justice. Much as he had
+formerly bemoaned the trouble entailed upon him by deceased friends,
+many of whom had bequeathed their estates and children to his
+guardianship, he felt on this occasion, a pity so intense, for the
+nameless, friendless, and helpless boy, thus unexpectedly and
+tragically thrown on his compassion, that he publicly pledged himself
+to harbor and protect the child in the mean time, trusting that some
+connections might at last be found, to whom he more naturally
+belonged. "Life has had a mournful commencement for him, poor boy! His
+days are dark, and his friends are few," said Sir Arthur, with a
+strong emotion of pity, "but we must hope for the best hereafter, and
+do the best that can be done in the mean time, trusting that a wise
+Providence, who cast him on my care and kindness, will also watch over
+his future welfare."
+
+On the night previous to that appointed by Sir Arthur for committing
+to the grave the last remains of the murdered lady, he who had so
+often faced death in every form, and "kiss'd the mouth of a cannon in
+battle," yet felt himself awed and deeply affected in contemplating
+the solemn preparations for committing to the tomb one so young, so
+deeply injured, and so apparently unlamented. It was with mournful and
+mysterious wonder that he stood beside the corpse, and contemplated
+that mortal frame, from which the spirit had been so suddenly and so
+cruelly driven; and he could not but imagine the scenes of love and
+joy which those eyes had once probably looked upon--the busy thoughts
+that had hurried through that lifeless head--the warm affections that
+had flowed through that heart, now for ever at rest.
+
+While yet his mind was dwelling with painful interest on all the
+thoughts which crowded through his fancy, Martin hastily entered the
+room, and in an agitated voice requested Sir Arthur's immediate
+presence in the entrance-hall, as some persons were there who had
+orders to communicate only with himself.
+
+On arriving in the passage, Sir Arthur was astonished, and almost
+startled, to find several porters in the passage, carrying a coffin
+magnificently decorated, and covered with a velvet pall, on the summit
+of which was conspicuously placed a large brass plate, with the date
+of the murder engraved, and bearing no other inscription, but these
+two words in German characters--
+
+    _My Wife._
+
+"This is strange!" said Sir Arthur, turning anxiously to the men. "Who
+sent you here?"
+
+"A gentleman left his orders with the undertaker, Sir. No questions
+were to be asked; and he paid for everything at once, leaving neither
+name nor direction," said the man who seemed to have charge of the
+business. "We know nothing of him; but he desired us to deliver this
+note into your own hands, and perhaps it may tell you more."
+
+Sir Arthur hastily tore open the letter offered to him, giving an
+impatient glance at the handwriting, which was exactly similar to that
+of the anonymous notes he had already so carefully and so vainly
+scrutinized. He was astonished; and solemn as the occasion was, almost
+amused to observe that his name and direction had been carefully cut
+out of the newspaper paragraph which he quarrelled with some weeks
+before at the Club, and that this unknown correspondent, to prevent
+the possibility of his writing being detected by those who examined
+the outside, had pasted these printed letters on the cover, "Sir
+Arthur Dunbar, Portobello." The packet was sealed with a plain
+impression on black wax; the paper bore a broad black border; and
+there was an evident tremulousness in the pen which had inscribed
+these words:--
+
+"Enclosed is the sum of £200, for the benefit of Sir Arthur Dunbar's
+adopted ward, Henry De Lancey. The same amount shall be transmitted
+annually, so long as no effort is made to trace from whence it
+originates; and the day he comes of age, it shall be increased to £500
+per annum. The first attempt to find out his connections will be
+detected, and shall put a final period to all intercourse. The
+unfortunate woman was married to one who remained ignorant, till a few
+hours ago, of the circumstances attending her death. She disgraced his
+name, and abandoned his house; nevertheless her child may one day,
+perhaps, be acknowledged; and the whole expenses of his education
+shall be liberally defrayed, till he is grown up and has chosen a
+profession."
+
+It was a strange, cold, heartless communication from a parent, without
+one expression of relenting affection, one word of solicitude for his
+happiness, or one expression of gratitude to Sir Arthur for taking
+upon himself so arduous a charge; but still it was to a certain extent
+most satisfactory, the Admiral being relieved of a great perplexity,
+by having thus ascertained in what rank of life the interesting boy
+should be educated, as he felt justified now in obtaining for him the
+highest cultivation, an advantage to which he attached the utmost
+importance, often repeating his favorite aphorism, that "principle is
+the helm, and learning the main-sail, which carries a young man
+forward in life; but both would be useless, unless the wind, which
+'bloweth where it listeth,' be sent from Heaven to guide and direct
+him safely into harbor."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+The day of trial at length arrived, and the court, from the roof to
+the floor, seemed one sea of faces, crowded together like the "studies
+of heads" on a painter's canvass. During the legal investigation,
+which was conducted with deep solemnity and anxious perseverance, the
+mystery became still deeper, and more inscrutable. No appearance of a
+robbery could be observed, except that the finger of the lady's hand,
+on which a wedding ring had probably been worn, was much bruised and
+discolored, as if, immediately after her decease, it had been
+violently torn off; and a vain attempt had evidently been made to
+snatch away a gold chain hung round her neck, to which was appended a
+small broken miniature frame, set with brilliants, and adorned with
+what seemed to represent a very antique coronet. The portrait which it
+once enclosed, had been, with obvious difficulty removed, as the marks
+were visible all round, of some sharp-pointed instrument having been
+inserted in the frame, to which there still adhered several broken
+fragments of glass.
+
+Sarah Davenport, who had been fully committed for trial, on suspicion
+of being an accomplice, refused to give any references as to
+character, and was strongly suspected of habitually concealing her
+real name, and of more than once assuming those that were fictitious,
+as her clothes and linen appeared to be marked with various initials,
+but in not one case did they bear those that she pretended were her
+own. It was evident that she labored under a powerful, but
+forcibly-subdued excitement; yet, with a tone and manner externally
+cold and hard as Siberian ice, she persisted in professing her own
+perfect innocence, and her utter consciousness of anything that might
+by possibility lead to a discovery of the perpetrators. She coldly,
+and almost calmly, threw back glance for glance, on the spectators
+nearest her, who were keenly watching every turn of her countenance,
+while dark surmises, and fearful conjectures, were whispered in
+murmurs of horror on every side; but at length her eye wandered to a
+distant part of the court, when suddenly a livid paleness flashed upon
+her face--an indescribable but startling lustre glittered in her
+eyes--her whole frame shook, as in the coldest blast of winter, and
+with a suppressed groan of agony and fear, she bowed her head upon her
+hands, and sunk fainting upon the floor. At the same time, a man was
+observed hastily to leave the court, and, gliding with rapid steps
+through the narrow passages, disappeared, before any of those who
+stood near had presence of mind to stop him, or could even identify
+his appearance.
+
+Nothing apparently touched the feelings of Sarah Davenport, except
+when a suspicion seemed to be implied that she meant to injure the
+boy; and when a question to this effect was put to her by the court,
+she wrung her hands and burst into tears, saying, in accents of
+piercing anguish, though with a shudder as if death were upon her,
+"No! oh, no! Who suspects that I would injure a hair of his head! He
+once loved me! Few--few but he, ever did!--none that have not
+afterwards given me reason to hate them! I am a solitary, lost, and
+desolate being; but let him not forget in after years, that I saved
+his life!--that I saved it at a risk you never can conceive!"
+
+An impulse of mournful interest and astonishment ran through the
+assembled multitude, when they beheld the rare and singular beauty of
+the child, after he was led into court; and it seemed as if the
+spectators had ceased to breathe as soon as he began to answer some of
+the questions which were skilfully put, to draw out his recollections
+of past times, and especially the dark history of the last few weeks.
+He was at first shy and intimidated, but gradually regained an
+unexpected degree of self-possession, and spoke with a surprising
+degree of intelligence and distinctness of all he remembered.
+
+The boy retained a faint recollection of having been awakened, on the
+night of the murder, by some violent scene of strife and horror; but
+his faculties had evidently been so benumbed by opiates, that no
+distinct impression remained; and to his own young mind, the whole
+seemed like a fearful dream, too dreadful to look back upon even yet,
+except with bewildering terror. He gave a clear account, however, of
+the last evening he had passed with his mother, of whom he spoke in
+accents of infantine affection, evidently unable yet to conceive that
+he should see her face no more.
+
+An old gentleman, he said, had come into the room and spoken angrily
+to her; while, with astonishing precision, the boy acted over the
+whole scene, recapitulated some of the language they had used, and
+described how his mother had hung to him with frantic eagerness,
+saying she would promise anything, if she might only retain her child;
+how the stranger, who was very tall, and wore a black coat, had spoken
+again with angry vehemence before he left the room; and how his
+mother, when left alone, had prayed and wept over him with looks of
+agonized and desolate grief, until he had been carried away to bed by
+the maid, who administered some medicine to him, which she said the
+doctor had ordered.
+
+He spoke much also of a large room, hung with pictures, in which his
+earliest days had been passed, and of a small dark apartment close
+beside it, into which he had often been precipitately hurried,
+apparently for concealment, and where toys and sweetmeats had been
+always provided to keep him quiet, while he was punished with the
+utmost severity, for making the slightest noise; and he still
+remembered with looks of apprehension, the gentleman dressed in black,
+who most frequently visited him there, and often caused his mother to
+weep bitterly.
+
+Sarah Davenport was then recalled, and rigidly cross-examined,
+respecting the gentleman who had visited at the house; but she
+doggedly asserted her entire ignorance respecting his rank in life, or
+connections, and pertinaciously maintained that the lady's death had
+been her own voluntary act, and that the sleeping potion had been
+given to the boy by his mother's own imperative orders, as she did not
+herself know even what it contained.
+
+During a long and anxious consultation of the jury, there was a hushed
+and intense silence in the court, so still and unbroken, that the
+breathing of an infant would have been audible, while every eye
+perused the countenance of the prisoner, with an intensity that
+brought a hectic flush, burning like fire, upon her cheek, and she
+gazed around with a glance of anger that caused her beauty for the
+moment to look like that of a fiend or a fury.
+
+At length, after arduously scrutinizing every atom of evidence that
+could be gathered, the jury, though morally certain of the prisoner's
+being an accomplice in the crime, felt unwillingly obliged to bring in
+a verdict of "not proven," and she was immediately liberated, after
+which, amidst the yells, jeers, and execrations of the populace who
+were convinced of her criminality, she hurried from the court, and was
+seen no more.
+
+Nothing is half so attractive as a mystery, and many crowded at first,
+with a temporary enthusiasm, to see the beautiful boy, so strangely
+bereaved, and so cruelly abandoned; but the interest and excitement of
+hearing and relating his story were soon superseded by greater wonders
+and fresher news. In a world where all are rushing on headlong in
+pursuit of novelty, and where events, great or small, are speedily
+hurried into one common oblivion, people were tired at last of
+thinking or talking about young Henry and his concerns.
+
+Every one of the Admiral's friends hinted that he could have managed
+the whole affair ten times better than Sir Arthur; all blamed him for
+many things, and praised him for very few; the Admiral was wondered
+at, criticised, discussed, admired, pitied, and censured, more than he
+remembered to have been for many years before; and the givers of
+advice were lavish of propositions and objections, all which were
+borne by their venerable friend with good-humored indifference,
+whether adopted or not. At length some perfectly new murders from
+London came on the tapis in society; those who liked reading in the
+Jack Sheppard style were satiated with studies from the life; the
+Mording Post assumed a terrifying interest; and the lady of fashion
+who consulted Sir Henry Halford about her appetite, because she could
+no longer enjoy her murders and robberies at breakfast, would have
+thought, when they were coming out hot and hot every week, that it was
+a wearisome repetition to speculate another hour upon a murder nearly
+a month old.
+
+In short, "the Portobello story" ceased to be told or listened to.
+Henry had had his day. There is no such thing now as a nine days'
+wonder, because nothing lasts so long. Young De Lancey had been talked
+of as much as any reasonable being could expect to be talked of; and
+now it was universally voted a bore whenever the subject occurred in
+conversation; for, as Lady Towercliffe remarked, with a very
+long-drawn yawn, when, for the last time, it was alluded to in her
+presence, "It was a shocking, barbarous, and really startling affair;
+but all stories should be allowed to die out like an echo, which grows
+fainter and fainter at every repetition. One cannot be for ever
+talking of the same thing."
+
+When Henry De Lancey lost one parent, he certainly gained another in
+Sir Arthur, who often afterwards remarked, that in no instance could
+virtue be more obviously its own parent, than in the case of any
+kindness he had shown to this fascinating boy, whose gay, joyous
+spirits became a source of perpetual amusement to him, while the
+Admiral seemed to derive new life from watching the frolicsome gambols
+of his young companion, occasionally enlivened by the gleeful vivacity
+of his niece Marion, when she escaped a single day from the trammels
+of school, bringing generally in her train two of her favorite
+juvenile companions, Clara Granville and Caroline Smythe, both several
+years older than herself.
+
+On many occasions the sensibility of Henry De Lancey seemed already to
+have attained almost the depth and intensity of manhood, so strong
+were the bursts of natural feeling with which he occasionally spoke or
+acted, while it was deeply affecting to trace throughout the
+extraordinary progress thus early made in his education, the careful
+culture given to his remarkable abilities--the pains bestowed by his
+solitary parent to strengthen his mind for future difficulties and
+sorrows, the earliest and worst of which she could so little have
+foreseen or apprehended.
+
+With considerable thoughtfulness of character, however, and natural
+integrity of mind, which Sir Arthur was delighted from the first to
+remark, yet, when the merry group of young friends assembled together
+on the shore of Portobello, building houses of sand, or running
+eagerly in search of shells, it would have been difficult to say which
+was the most carelessly happy, while the Admiral seemed to borrow
+their young spirits for the time, and gazed with ceaseless delight on
+those joyous countenances, radiant with laughter and smiles, which
+were archly turned towards their aged playmate, sometimes with a
+challenge to run after them, or lighted up with smiles of affection
+when they brought him a bouquet of his favorite flowers, torn roughly
+from the stems, and crumpled in their little hands.
+
+Sir Arthur often seemed almost ashamed to betray the engrossing
+interest and delight he felt in his young companion, who gained every
+day a stronger hold upon his affections, and it appeared as if he were
+anxious to forget that a time had ever existed when the playful and
+interesting boy was unknown to his heart; but a circumstance occurred,
+not long after Henry's adoption, which brought painfully to mind, with
+greatly increased solicitude, the fearful mystery that hung over his
+origin, proving also that danger still threatened him from some
+unforeseen quarter.
+
+While the whole party of his young guests were noisily engaged on the
+shore in a game at hide-and-seek, one day in the month of July, Sir
+Arthur had seated himself on a bench within sight of them, sometimes
+watching their gambols with pleasure, and frequently conning over a
+newspaper, which proved by undeniable and satisfactory demonstration,
+that the country was entirely ruined--that the Government was coming
+to an end--that the Houses of Lords and Commons would be completely
+demolished--that the ministry had not another day to exist--and, as a
+grand climax, that anarchy, confusion, bankruptcy, and revolution,
+were about finally to drop their extinguisher over Great Britain. Sir
+Arthur had read the same thing in different words every day during
+fifty years, and under twenty varied administrations; yet still the
+wonder grew, how a constitution so mismanaged could so long survive,
+and that when all was wrong at the head of the country, it still had a
+leg to stand on. The Admiral's patriotic meditations had been several
+times interrupted by repeated complaints from the little girls, that
+Henry had hid himself so well, that they could not possibly find him;
+but he was too much pre-occupied to give the subject much attention,
+till at length Martin announced that the children's dinner had waited
+some time, and that still the boy was not to be found, though his
+companions had been searching for him at least half an hour.
+
+Upon hearing this, Sir Arthur hastily started up, making a
+considerable expenditure of energetic and wondrous explanations, while
+he gazed around with increasing surprise at the wide waste of sand,
+like an Arabian desert, with which he was on every side encompassed,
+and where it seemed to him as if a mouse could not be long concealed.
+
+A hasty and most anxious search was instantly commenced in the garden,
+while Sir Arthur and Martin shouted the name of Henry at the full
+pitch of their voices, but in vain; not a sound was heard in reply,
+nor was there a spot unexamined in which he could by possibility be
+lurking.
+
+The Admiral now became seriously alarmed at so unaccountable a
+disappearance, especially when the child's gardening tools, with which
+he had been last observed, were found mutilated and broken, at a great
+distance, on the beach--one of his shoes had fallen off close to the
+water, and his hat lay nearly buried in the tide. Sir Arthur instantly
+summoned the police to his aid, but the search continued fruitless,
+till at length the dreadful conjecture became more and more probable,
+that Henry must have rashly ventured into the water, and been washed
+away by the waves--in pursuance of which apprehension Sir Arthur
+summoned more assistance, that the water might instantly be dragged.
+
+Martin, meantime, no less active than his master, had accidentally met
+a stranger on the beach, who mentioned, on hearing of his alarm, that
+on the road to Leith, half an hour before, he had observed a boy
+struggling and screaming in the arms of a female, dressed like a
+nursery-maid, who complained loudly that the child would not go home,
+when a young man, rather strangely dressed, and of very singular
+appearance, had instantly offered his assistance, and carried him
+forcibly onwards. This gentleman said he had stopped the woman to
+remonstrate with her on using the boy so roughly, as a cap was drawn
+over his eyes, and he seemed to suffer agonies of terror, sobbing
+convulsively, and trembling in every limb; but the man had answered in
+reply, with a strong Irish accent, that he would see the child safe to
+his friends, and let no one do the poor boy "a taste of harm." The
+stranger added indifferently, that it was no affair of his, therefore
+he ceased to interfere; but he thought both the man and the woman had
+a very bad expression, and he would not trust either of them with his
+dog for an hour, to use it kindly.
+
+Without wasting time in returning to communicate what he had heard,
+Martin hurried forward to Leith, where, with reckless speed and
+untiring diligence, he threaded all the narrow streets, and elbowed
+his way among carts, carriages, parcels, and passengers, till at
+length he reached the pier, to which he had been so eagerly aiming his
+steps. At its farthest point stood a smoking steam-boat in full boil,
+while men and women, boxes, packages, bags, and trunks were pouring
+in; and at length, as he breathlessly approached within some hundred
+yards, an arbitrary little bell was rung, to summon stragglers on
+board, and to hurry stragglers away.
+
+A single plank, connecting the steam-boat with the pier, was on the
+point of being withdrawn, when Martin approached; and while he paused,
+in momentary hesitation whether to pursue his almost hopeless search,
+the steward peremptorily desired him to hasten on board instantly, if
+he were coming at all, as not a moment more could be lost.
+
+At this moment a cry, almost amounting to a scream of childish joy,
+became audible on the deck--a young boy was seen vehemently struggling
+in the arms of a female; and in an instant, pursued by a man who
+vainly endeavored to overtake him, he rushed past the steward, ran
+across the temporary bridge, and clasped Martin round the knees,
+exclaiming, with eager incoherent exclamations of almost hysterical
+delight, "Take me, Martin! take me! O let me go home to Sir Arthur! I
+did not come away without leave! I did not, indeed! That naughty,
+horrid woman forced me! She tied a cap over my face, and would not let
+me go back! I have been so frightened and so sorry," added the child,
+bursting into tears, and sobbing as if his heart would break; "I
+thought Sir Arthur would be angry, and I thought, perhaps, I would
+never see him again! O take me home, Martin! take me home! and let me
+never see these people again!"
+
+The boy put his hand, with an air of happy confidence and security
+into that of Martin, who snatched him up in his arms, with a thousand
+expressions of joyful surprise; but a moment afterwards, when he
+recollected himself, his first impulse was to secure the culprits who
+had decoyed Henry away, and to deliver them up to a magistrate for
+examination. With this intention, he looked hastily around, intending
+to cause their immediate apprehension; but the steam-boat had sailed
+off; and all the gesticulations he could make to bring them back only
+caused the steward laughingly to shake his head, thinking that Martin
+had merely missed his passage, as he deserved, for not showing more
+alacrity in obeying his injunctions to embark.
+
+At Portobello, meantime, Sir Arthur had suffered agonies of grief, and
+even of self-reproach, thinking he had too securely relied on the
+safety of his young protege; and with a heavy heart he was still
+directing his steps, and conducting his assistants to the most
+probable places for finding the child's body, having already ordered
+his maid to have everything in readiness, in case a chance remained of
+his being restored to life, when he felt a gentle pull at the skirt of
+his coat, and, on looking down, he uttered a volley of joyful
+exclamations, on beholding the radiant countenance of Henry, whom he
+clasped in his arms with unutterable joy. While Martin and the boy
+himself gave each his own history of the strange adventure, Sir Arthur
+walked up and down in a state of irrepressible irritation, clenching
+his teeth, and grasping his walking-stick firmly in his hand, as if
+about to wreak instant vengeance on the miscreants. At length, after
+exhausting his indignation, he took Henry again in his arms, declaring
+he would never for a moment lose sight of him again.
+
+Nothing in Henry's narrative threw the slightest gleam of light on the
+plans or intentions of the strange man and woman, which seemed
+destined to remain buried in impenetrable obscurity. They had
+evidently been accomplices in decoying him from home; and the boy had
+brought away from the steam-boat a small book which they had given
+him, full of ribald songs and profane jests, but covered with
+magnificent boards, and clasped with silver hinges, which seemed to
+have once belonged to some ancient missal, and still retained in the
+inside a collection of texts beautifully written in a very remarkable
+hand, which seemed to be that of a highly-educated female.
+
+For some time afterwards, several suspicious-looking people were seen
+lurking about Sir Arthur's premises, late at night; and one evening a
+shot was fired suddenly in at the drawing-room window, which passed so
+near to Henry's head, that his hair was actually disturbed; but though
+an active police had been placed on the watch, not a trace could be
+obtained of the authors of this outrage.
+
+As time wore on, and the mind of Henry rapidly expanded on all
+subjects of classical learning and general science, the fearful and
+melancholy events of his early years faded considerably from his mind,
+while he made astonishing progress at the excellent school where Sir
+Arthur placed him, exhibiting that happy, but rare combination of deep
+thought, and refinement of mind, with extreme liveliness of fancy, and
+enthusiasm of character. This threw a perfect witchery over his
+conversation, which sparkled with vivacity, or flowed with uncommon
+depth and power, as best suited the occasion, while at the same time,
+during his intercourse with Sir Arthur, he became imbued with the
+highest principles of honor and good-feeling; and from his master he
+imbibed the most enlightened knowledge of the doctrines and duties of
+Christianity, with the profoundest reverence for its precepts and
+practice.
+
+Sir Arthur felt a dreary blank during Henry's absence at school, which
+became more and more intolerable as his eyesight was at length nearly
+extinct; and he had serious thoughts of engaging a person to walk out
+with him during the day, and to read to him during the evening, being
+of opinion that it is the highest wisdom, as well as the best
+Christianity, cheerfully to meet every appointed privation, and derive
+from the blessings that remain, as much enjoyment as they can afford.
+
+Sir Arthur often remarked to his friend, Lady Towercliffe, that it is a
+misfortune to wear out a taste of any inoffensive occupation; and he
+began to fear it might be possible for him to survive his enjoyment of
+reading. "In my long life," he observed, "I have myself travelled all
+the travels described by others, thought all the thoughts, and felt
+all the feelings. If I read such a book as Robertson's America, for
+instance, the question forces itself upon me, 'what the better would I
+be of knowing this whole volume by heart!' The time was once, when a
+romance carried me off into another existence altogether, and I seemed
+to awaken as from a dream, when called back to the ordinary business
+of life; but now I can anticipate from the first page, the whole
+_denouement_ of every novel, and never for an instant forget my own
+identity in reading the story."
+
+"It is a shocking symptom of advancing years," said Lady Towercliffe.
+"But you must wait till I publish."
+
+"Yet," continued Sir Arthur, "there is one volume always new, in which
+I never can tire of reading my own heart and character; and in the
+Bible, the descriptions of eastern countries are so like what I have
+observed myself of the scenery, customs, and manners, that they fill
+me with recollections and associations that are of endless interest."
+
+No sooner had Sir Arthur mentioned incidentally, to Lady Towercliffe,
+and several friends, that he would willingly give a handsome salary to
+a person of good reading and writing abilities, than it seemed as if
+all the meritorious young men in Scotland happened at that very time
+to be looking out for precisely such a situation; and it made Sir
+Arthur almost melancholy in examining testimonials, which ought to
+have procured any one of them a bishopric, to think that so many
+admirable youths, of learning and talents, were ready to sacrifice
+themselves for a mere home, and a pittance of £50 per annum!
+
+No situation ever became vacant in the memory of man, for which Lady
+Towercliffe had not some protege exactly suited; and no sooner did she
+hear that Sir Arthur required a secretary and reader, than she wrote
+him a note of seven pages, closely penned, in which she made it
+evident that there was but one individual in the world who could suit,
+or ought to suit, and that one individual was the bearer of her
+despatch, who waited below for an answer.
+
+It appeared that, with all her zeal in the cause, Lady Towercliffe
+knew very little of the young man she so vehemently recommended; but
+having accidentally met him in a bookseller's shop, he had been
+employed by her to copy some verses in an album, and she thought him,
+without exception, one of the most civil and grateful creatures in the
+world, who really deserved encouragement.
+
+When Sir Arthur sent for Mr. Howard up stairs, his kind heart was
+almost shocked at the tone of wild energy, and the look of feverish
+anxiety with which he entreated that his capabilities might be tried.
+His figure, though youthful, was tall, gaunt, and meagre, while his
+care-worn countenance, which bore a stern and melancholy aspect, was
+lighted up by large, dark, flashing eyes, in which there gleamed an
+expression of singular excitement. He appeared young and handsome, but
+not prepossessing--so gloomy and determined was the expression of his
+firmly-compressed mouth, that it seemed almost indicative of ferocity;
+and his eye had that peculiarity invariably expressing evil--an
+impossibility of looking any one steadily in the face.
+
+"You see me under great disadvantage, Sir Arthur; friendless,
+homeless, and poverty-struck," said Mr. Howard, with a look of eager,
+deprecating solicitude, which spoke at once to the generous heart of
+the Admiral, and filled him with commiseration. "Fate and fortune have
+hitherto frustrated my efforts, and weighed me down with life-crushing
+sorrows; but only give me employment, and I would not thank the Queen
+to be my cousin!"
+
+It was a favorite saying with Sir Arthur, that he would be more
+ashamed to suspect mankind, than to be deceived by them; and if he had
+a weakness in the world it was a total incapacity to give pain.
+Touched by the nervous excitement in Mr. Howard's eye and manner,
+which he attributed entirely to his necessitous circumstances, he
+almost immediately engaged him, to the entire satisfaction of Lady
+Towercliffe, who never asked or cared any more about her protege,
+gratified that he had achieved "a job," and that by her interest, and
+hers only, a place in the world had been filled up, which would have
+been occupied by some one else, perhaps equally deserving, if she had
+not interfered, and she was satisfied for the present to have been of
+consequence to somebody, no matter whom.
+
+Mr. Howard generally spoke in a subdued, mysterious voice, as if
+afraid to let himself know what he was saying; yet sometimes his words
+came forth with a rushing impetuosity, full of energy and fire, like
+lightning itself. His hollow, blood-shot eyes, betrayed a wild,
+watchful, suspicious expression, by no means prepossessing; and there
+was something inscrutable in the bland, perpetual smile he always wore
+upon his countenance, and in the frozen tranquillity of his manner,
+which occasionally, though seldom, gave way to bursts of tempestuous
+emotion. The very pupils of his eyes seemed to have become darker,
+with a fearfully wild and ferocious expression when irritated, while
+the fierce fire flashed out from beneath his lowering brows, with a
+blaze of inexpressible fury; yet in a moment he could command himself
+again into a cold, calm, and almost haughty exterior, while the
+spectral paleness of his handsome countenance made him look like
+marble itself.
+
+Years passed on, during which Sir Arthur endured, rather than enjoyed,
+Mr. Howard's attendance, whose pre-occupied air and vague manner
+continually annoyed him; but his benevolent heart shrunk from
+consigning the poor man to that hopeless and solitary want which he
+seemed to apprehend must inevitably follow the loss of his present
+situation, and from day to day he postponed the decision, till habit
+grew into second nature, and he became so accustomed to hear "The
+Times," column after column, spouted forth in a rather theatrical tone
+by his reader, and to dictate notes and letters to his very silent and
+diligent secretary, that he almost forgot at last to think of parting
+with him.
+
+When Henry returned for the first time from school, six or seven
+months after Mr. Howard had become domesticated at Portobello, the
+secretary professed a vehement fancy for the boy, would fetch and
+carry for him like a tame dog, and loaded him with attentions; yet,
+though in general most affectionately grateful to all who showed him
+even a trifling kindness, these assiduities and flatteries were
+lavished upon him in vain. The boy shrunk instinctively from Mr.
+Howard's notice, but could assign no other reason to himself or others
+for this apparently unreasonable antipathy, except merely that the
+stranger resembled somebody he had seen before, but how, when, or
+where, not a trace remained in his memory. This little caprice did not
+appear to be noticed or resented by the secretary, till one day, when
+Henry refused some bon-bons which Mr. Howard offered him, saying, the
+last he accepted had made him sick, and when the boy soon after flew
+gaily out of the room, Marion was for a moment startled and surprised
+to observe the malignant scowl with which the eye of Mr. Howard
+followed Henry. It was a glance, fell and malignant, that feared to be
+seen, while his cheek became pale as death, but whether in anger or in
+sorrow, Marion thought it impossible to divine.
+
+As Henry grew older, his instinctive dread of Mr. Howard seemed only
+to increase, but he was too considerate to disturb the tranquillity of
+Sir Arthur by mentioning it, or to injure the poor man himself, by
+giving way to a feeling of dislike so unaccountable, and yet so
+perfectly unconquerable; but at length, after many years of such
+prudent self-restraint, when nearly grown up to manhood he could not
+help saying one day, in a careless tone, to the Admiral, after
+witnessing a sudden outbreak of temper in Mr. Howard that morning,
+
+"Your secretary always reminds me, Sir Arthur, of Sinbad's Old Man of
+the Sea. It seems impossible to get handsomely rid of him, and he will
+never certainly make a voluntary departure!"
+
+"I fear not!" replied the Admiral, with something between a smile and
+a sigh. "He does all I desire him, but without interest or pleasure,
+and he has the most undisguised contempt for every living being,
+almost amounting to hatred, yet he expresses unbounded gratitude for
+being harbored in my house. What can I do? It would be cruel to kick
+the man out of doors, merely because he is unhappy; but I have often
+observed, Henry, that he is no favorite of yours, though that is the
+only subject on which you have never been entirely open with me."
+
+"Because I am heartily ashamed of my feelings, Sir Arthur, and you are
+the last person on earth to whom I wish to tell anything against
+myself. You have told me there are people with a loathing antipathy to
+cats, and somewhat similar is the shuddering sensation with which I
+see your worthy secretary enter the room. A sort of shiver comes over
+me, and a wish to keep him off--to avoid his very glance and touch. He
+has a strange under-look certainly! His smile makes me shudder! and
+yet the feeling is quite undefinable! They say dogs and children have
+an instinctive liking or antipathy to those who secretly like or hate
+them, and perhaps my sensation is on somewhat similar grounds.
+
+"There is something fearful in the eye of Mr. Howard, occasionally,
+when I catch it fixed upon myself," added Henry rapidly, but in a sort
+of musing, absent under-tone, while his voice acquired a deeper tinge
+of thought, "I seem to have beheld him once in a dream! When he looks
+at me in that strange and extraordinary manner, his eyes like the
+flickering glare of light in a gloomy cavern, I feel and know that at
+some period in my life I have seen such a countenance before! The time
+and place have escaped me, but the remembrance is painful, and in his
+presence I cannot but be convinced that I am in the presence of an
+enemy. It is a feeling I can neither drive away, nor distinctly
+realize!"
+
+"Why did you never tell me this before, Henry?" asked the Admiral,
+rising with agitation. "He has been hardly dealt with by fortune, but
+surely you do not think----"
+
+"Think!!--; I think nothing, Sir Arthur, for I know nothing, and I
+ought not to have spoken as I have done,--it was wrong and rash. I
+shall try to conquer this,--to conquer myself,--and, as they say,
+acquired tastes are always the strongest, I may yet learn to like Mr.
+Howard better than any one living; but, in the mean time, Sir Arthur,
+he does occasionally look to me, very like some stray member of the
+Lunatic Asylum!"
+
+"I sometimes think," said Sir Arthur, "that Howard has a bee in his
+bonnet."
+
+"He has a whole hive of bees in his bonnet!" replied Henry in his
+usual off-hand tone; but when he looked round, as is usual, when
+people are spoken of, the individual himself, Mr. Howard, stood before
+him. A mortal paleness had overspread his countenance, contending
+emotions seemed flitting across his lowering brow, like shifting
+clouds in a threatening sky, and his eye gleamed upon young De Lancey
+with a look of maniacal fury; but the same artificial smile was on his
+lips which he habitually assumed, while, in the blandest tone of
+courtesy, he turned from the steady penetrating gaze of Henry to Sir
+Arthur, saying, in a tone of servile cunning, but with a smile the
+most ghastly that was ever seen on a human face,
+
+"Every fool can find fault, but my livelihood fortunately depends not
+on any boyish caprice. It is derived from the generosity of a noble
+mind, unbiassed by cruel and unfounded prejudices, which may, however,
+yet be my ruin. A small leak sinks a great ship, and even you, my
+benefactor, may hereafter be influenced by the opinion of one who
+avowedly hates me, though without cause,--I should have little to
+dread if he were like you, but then who is? Come what may, however,
+you deserve and shall ever retain my undying gratitude and attachment.
+I have met with little kindness in life, and am never likely to forget
+that little, from whatever benevolent heart it comes. In this bleak,
+desolate, most harsh and cruel world, you are now my only friend."
+
+"Those who have deserved friends, Mr. Howard, are seldom so entirely
+destitute of them!" said Sir Arthur, with a certain tone of
+interrogation in his voice, for he abhorred the slightest approach to
+flattery, and always had an instinctive apprehension that it was
+accompanied by deceit. "We are too ready often to throw the blame upon
+human nature, when our own individual nature is to blame. For my own
+part, I have met with little unkindness or ingratitude hitherto, and
+would willingly look upon the sunny side of life, hoping all things,
+and believing all things, of mankind in general, and of yourself among
+the number."
+
+The darkened sight of Sir Arthur prevented him from perceiving that in
+the countenance of Mr. Howard there flitted a quick succession of
+emotions, fiery and vivid as summer lightning, but Henry observed with
+astonishment the powerful though ineffectual efforts he made to
+control his agitation. His hands were clenched, till the very blood
+seemed ready to spring; he gnawed his nether lip with frightful
+vehemence, and his eyes shot fire from beneath his dark and frowning
+brow. With a glance of unspeakable malevolence at Henry, and a hurried
+bow to Sir Arthur, he hastened with rapid steps out of the room, and
+subsequently out of the house.
+
+"If there be a madman out of bedlam, Sir Arthur, that is he!"
+exclaimed Henry, following with his eyes the rushing steps of Howard,
+as he crossed the garden. "Before I go to college, let me hope you
+will dismiss him. Give the man a trifling pension, or do anything for
+him, rather than trust yourself in his hands, for I am mistaken,
+indeed, if he is not a bad and dangerous man."
+
+"Before you return here, I may perhaps be able to find some other
+situation for him; but he has done nothing yet, Henry, to forfeit my
+protection, and I scarcely think he would live, if I dismissed him. He
+has drank a bitter cup of wretchedness, and without principle or hope,
+he has more than hinted to me, that death itself will be his resource
+if I turn him adrift. It was a well-meant officiousness of Lady
+Towercliffe to force him upon my good offices, and I cannot yet see
+any easy way to relieve myself of the charge, without causing more
+distress than I can reconcile myself to occasioning."
+
+"He is certainly a strange, mysterious being," replied Henry, wishing
+to turn off a subject which he saw was agitating Sir Arthur with
+perplexity; "but Mr. Howard is not probably the only man on earth whom
+in the course of my existence I shall not be able to comprehend."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+The most popular girl at Mrs. Penfold's "Seminary for Young Ladies,"
+near Edinburgh, was Marion Dunbar, too much loved by her companions to
+be envied; admired by all, and almost idolized by each, while beneath
+the gay, sparkling surface of her joyous disposition, there rolled on
+a warm current of sensibility and feeling sufficient to repay, and
+more than repay, all the deep tenderness and enthusiastic affection
+she excited among the little circle of her young and ardent friends.
+
+Cast in the finest mould of classical beauty, and formed mentally as
+well as personally in the very poetry of nature, the perfect grace and
+symmetry of her features became enlivened frequently by a rich and
+radiant smile, like a Hebe, glowing with the richest hues of health
+and joy. Her splendid eyes sparkled with every passing emotion,
+sometimes dimmed for a moment by tears of sensibility, but usually
+glittering with smiles, while occasionally, when amused or delighted,
+she burst into a comic, elfish laugh, the very essence of glee and
+joyousness--a most enlivening accompaniment to what she said, while
+her conversation, always fresh and unpremeditated, rushed straight
+from her heart, fresh and natural as a mountain stream.
+
+The color of a violet was not more deeply blue than the dark,
+unfathomable eyes of Marion, shaded by a fringe of eye-lashes that
+might have been mistaken for black. No description could do justice to
+the fascination of her smile, without one shade of affectation, while
+her pure transparent complexion, fresh as a bouquet of roses, took a
+richer tint from all the fleeting emotions which chased each other
+through her mind. A rich profusion of nut-brown hair played around her
+high arched forehead of alabaster whiteness, and a thousand laughing
+dimples quivered around her delicately-formed mouth, giving her a
+merry, joyous look of girlish beauty, varied occasionally by a melting
+softness of expression when she looked on any countenance that she
+loved. On one occasion, a celebrated sculptor asked Sir Patrick's
+permission to take a cast of Marion's head, and on obtaining the
+desired permission, he observed, that if those features could be
+turned into marble, he would stake his whole fame on the impossibility
+of any critic pointing out a single defect. But while admiration is
+given by the eye of an artist merely to symmetry, expression is the
+mystery of beauty; and the charm of Marion, in the estimation of her
+friends, was, that her face seemed like a mirror formed to reflect
+every emotion of their own hearts.
+
+The most stern and morose of human beings must have been conciliated
+into some degree of regard by the deep tenderness of a character
+"without one jarring atom form'd," which seemed made only to love and
+to be loved. While her gay fancy revelled in "cheerful yesterdays and
+confident to-morrows," the flowers that grew around her path, the
+birds that sang as she passed, the very turf beneath her feet, and the
+sky above her head, called forth her feelings. She had a tear to spare
+for the sorrows of every one who claimed her sympathy, and a ready
+smile for the joys of all her companions, while yet a great deal of
+unoccupied love remained at her disposal, the chief portion of which
+was bestowed with prodigal enthusiasm on her indulgent uncle Sir
+Arthur, whose doting affection would have spoiled any other
+disposition, but only rendered her more keenly to merit and to deserve
+his partiality.
+
+In the estimation of Sir Arthur, his "little Marion" never became a
+day older, and he considered her a perfect prodigy in everything she
+said or did, watching all her words, and entering into all her
+juvenile feelings with a versatility of mind astonishing at his
+advanced age. Nothing on earth is more touching than to see the warmth
+of sensibility and enthusiasm yet surviving the chill of many a year
+in this disappointing and sorrowing world; but there was a degree of
+mutual confidence between Sir Arthur and his young niece which can
+seldom exist with a disparity of years and circumstances. Besides all
+her feminine gentleness, and almost poetical gracefulness of
+character, Marion yet displayed at times a power of intellect and an
+energetic strength of character for which a superficial observer would
+have been totally unprepared; for her mind seemed always to rise in
+proportion to the occasion, while she had been born apparently to
+practise without reserve that beautiful Christian rule, for each
+individual always to consider himself last. Rarely are deep feelings
+and intense sensibility united with that high intelligence of mind,
+and that vivid gladness of spirit peculiar to Marion; but the stream
+of her mind was deep as well as sparkling, while during her early
+years sorrow flitted through her cheerful, laughter-loving mind, like
+the shadow of a butterfly in a bright sunny flower-bed. Pleased "she
+knew not why, and car'd not wherefore," there was a peculiar grace in
+all she did, and an infectious merriment in all she said, which
+attracted a joyous group of companions continually around her, on whom
+the light of her own buoyant vivacity seemed to be continually and
+brightly reflected.
+
+Nothing could be more pleasing and characteristic than to observe the
+refined ingenuity with which, from the earliest age, Marion tried to
+evade receiving the multitude of little presents with which it was Sir
+Arthur's delight to surprise her. Trinkets and toys would have
+multiplied around her, if she had not frequently made an ostentation
+of possessing more than it was possible for her to use; and when Sir
+Arthur allowed her a choice in any gift he was about to force on her
+acceptance, she invariably selected that which seemed least expensive;
+and her uncle afterwards told, that when, on the twelfth anniversary
+of her birthday, he clasped a beautiful Maltese chain round her neck,
+she said to him, with a deepening color and faltering voice, "I would
+like better to love you for nothing, uncle Arthur! My drawers up
+stairs are like a jeweler's shop already. You know I inherited half
+dear mamma's ornaments, and Patrick says you bring Rundell and Bridge
+in your pocket every time I have a holiday; but I would be quite as
+happy to see you all for yourself."
+
+The merry-eyed Marion seemed to "wear her heart upon her sleeve," and
+to see only what was best in all those with whom she associated. With
+her small means, it was truly astonishing how frequently and
+ingeniously she invented some unobtrusive way of conferring a favor on
+her companions, as if she were receiving rather than bestowing one;
+and it certainly appeared as if she scarcely knew the difference.
+There was not an individual among her numerous young contemporaries
+who did not often relate traits of goodness in one whom they always
+found ready to answer the largest drafts that could be drawn upon her
+good offices, while the cheerfulness of her mind reflected itself on
+all.
+
+If one of her young friends rushed joyously forward to announce some
+unexpected success, Marion's features seemed as if they had been put
+together only for smiles and laughter, while her bright eye glittered
+with instant gladness, and a glow of color mounted to her dimpling
+cheek, as she felt and expressed with spontaneous warmth all that
+kindness could dictate, and more; but if some unforeseen affliction
+visited the hearts of her juvenile associates, there seemed no limits
+to the patience with which she listened to their complaints, or to the
+eager assiduity with which she endeavored to alleviate their sorrow.
+The most trifling attentions she never overlooked, were it merely the
+tying of a string, or the picking up of a handkerchief, which she did
+with a good-humored grace all her own, and the trifling actions of
+life are those by which the character can generally be most justly
+appreciated. Great achievements are a conspicuous embroidery laid on
+the surface often for effect, but the ground-work and material are
+formed of what is most unobtrusive and often scarcely noticed. With
+Marion, every kind and generous feeling was as natural as perfume to
+the violet, and equally inseparable from her daily existence; her
+ideas were fresh and vivid, while her manner was thoroughly
+fascinating and thoroughly feminine, at the same time that all the
+grace of look and expression added a surpassing charm to her lively
+and intelligent conversation, every word of which sprang from the
+spontaneous impulse of a heart full of natural emotion and
+straightforward sentiments.
+
+Many a difficult exercise she had secretly assisted to write for her
+young contemporaries, many an unintelligible drawing she had touched
+up, many a dress she had privately mended, many a little debt she had
+clandestinely paid for her juvenile friends, and far from wishing to
+be thanked, she shrunk with modest sensibility from letting her
+services be over-estimated, even by those whom she had most exerted
+herself to oblige. Whenever a kindness had been privately done at
+school, the author of which could not be guessed at nor discovered,
+few hesitated to declare that it must have proceeded from Marion
+Dunbar, and none were ever mistaken in saying so.
+
+It was indeed wonderful that the lovely and gay young school-girl
+found time for a tenth part of her kind and tender affections, at Mrs.
+Penfold's first-rate seminary for what Sir Arthur called
+"fiddle-faddle education." There no taste was inculcated for quiet
+pursuits or domestic intercourse, and it was one of Mrs. Penfold's
+favorite axioms, that nature is always vulgar; but in her zeal for the
+honor of her establishment she seemed resolute to make every pupil an
+Admirable Chrichton,--or more,--not in studying the experience of past
+ages, and reading the thoughts and feelings which have been recorded
+for their instruction by millions of the best and wisest of their
+predecessors in life, but in all the frivolities of existence; and to
+this end the pupils were stinted in sleep and food, while they pursued
+a course of application more incessant, though not so profound, as
+that of students for a double first class at Oxford. The most eminent
+masters were in hourly attendance to cultivate every thing but the
+heart or understanding. The various arts of killing or of wasting time
+were taught in perfection, by the best, or at least by the most
+fashionable teachers; and, as the Admiral disapprovingly remarked to
+her brother, "little Marion was surrounded by professors of every
+thing on earth,--by professors of trumpery in all its branches, but by
+no professors of common sense!"
+
+With Mrs. Penfold each pupil was a favorite in exact proportion as she
+appeared likely to acquire a talent for the difficult art of rising in
+the world, by which she might reflect credit and celebrity on the
+theatre of her education; and it seemed, therefore, by no means
+intended as an expression of kindness, when the lady was heard one day
+impatiently to exclaim in accents of reproach, "Marion Dunbar is all
+heart, and no head! Some girls do nothing, but she does less than
+nothing; and though she gets on in years, she gets on in no other
+thing!"
+
+Wearily busied in being taught, Marion yet felt that there was no
+incitement, and one only, which made every effort a pleasure, while it
+gave life to the dull routine of her heartless labors, and that
+incitement was her fervent, incessant desire to please, not the
+dictate of vanity, but of spontaneous sensibility; and while, with her
+bright and beaming looks, she was by no means a prodigy, Marion very
+much under-rated her own powers, believing, in the simplicity of her
+heart, that she really was the most hopeless dunce on many subjects,
+only able to recommend herself by diligence and by alacrity to oblige.
+
+Even Mrs. Penfold was disarmed of half her severity, by the eagerness
+with which Marion, buoyant with youth, and joyous as a bird on wing,
+undertook any task, or suffered any penance to compensate for such
+little _etourderies_ as had caused her to be in temporary disgrace; and
+the stern schoolmistress herself could not but smile sometimes in the
+midst of her gravest lecture, to observe the look of extreme anxiety
+and self-reproach with which Marion listened to the catalogue of her
+small indiscretions, and the grateful joy with which she heard that
+there were any terms on which she might yet be restored to favor.
+Caroline Smythe, her most frolicsome companion, frequently amused
+herself by inventing imaginary scrapes into which Marion was supposed
+to have fallen, and by sending her express to Mrs. Penfold for a
+reprimand, while the lively girl watched, in laughing ambuscade, for
+the bright beaming smile which flashed into the supposed culprit's
+countenance, the instant she unexpectedly found herself honorably
+acquitted.
+
+Thus the foundation of Marion's mind was laid, and these were the
+light breezes that ruffled the smooth current of her life; but
+enchanted by the slightest pleasures, few ever bore the burden of her
+annoyances so lightly, while a brilliant painted curtain hung over the
+future, filled with images of anticipated joy, to be realized in all
+their brightness and beauty, as soon as she became emancipated from
+the dreary thralldom of Mrs. Penfold's manufactory of young ladies.
+
+Meantime, Marion's mind grew and flourished, like some rare and
+beautiful plant injudiciously cultivated, yet glowing in almost
+unprecedented luxuriance. Plunged in this inextricable labyrinth of
+educational troubles, she had to undergo lessons from sunrise till
+sunset, while all the varied arts, sciences, and languages were piled
+promiscuously on her brain, like an ill-grown coppice, distorted and
+stunted for want of more judicious thinning and training. She could
+name things in every language, but was told nothing of their nature
+and properties; while, as Sir Arthur complained, "poor little Marion
+was taught plenty of sound, but no sound sense, except what she had
+inherited by nature, without paying £100 a-year for it."
+
+In music Marion displayed great taste and expression, while her
+flexible, richly-toned voice poured out sometimes a flood of harmony
+most exquisite to hear, as the pathos of her full round intonations
+drew forth the feeling and sympathy of all her auditors. Expression in
+music is like expression of countenance, not to be taught or acquired,
+but the spontaneous result of natural emotion, and with Marion music
+was almost a passion, for her whole spirit seemed instinct with
+melody, while her lark-like voice trilled its liquid notes with joyful
+hilarity.
+
+Signors and Signoras, who might have fitted their pupils to become
+chorus-singers at the opera, were multiplied around the young ladies
+at Mrs. Penfold's "College of Frivolity," followed in ceaseless
+succession by Messieurs and Mesdames, who taught the young ladies to
+maltreat pianofortes, by playing on them at the rate of 100 miles an
+hour, or to speak foreign languages better than the natives, and to
+write them better than they could write their own;--
+
+    While hands, lips, and eyes were put to school,
+    And each instructed feature had its rule.
+
+On Sunday evenings, for the sake of effect, the girls were regularly
+assembled to prayers, which were conducted like those of Frederick the
+Great's soldiers, being performed simultaneously at the word of
+command as a part of their exercise, without a semblance of reverence,
+and within a very limited number of minutes, while they were hastily
+slurred over by Mrs. Penfold herself, with scarcely an external aspect
+of solemnity or interest. Sunday had long been considered by all the
+pupils at Mrs. Penfold's as a privileged day for writing letters,
+wearing best bonnets, peeping from behind a red silk curtain at the
+congregation, criticising the clergyman's manner, dress, and
+appearance, discussing, in suppressed whispers, who it would be
+possible or impossible for them to think of marrying, and enjoying
+rather a longer walk than common in strolling to church and returning
+again.
+
+Any knowledge of the Bible inculcated at Mrs. Penfold's was like all
+the other acquirements taught in that establishment, more for show
+than use. Each young pupil could repeat by heart, without hesitation
+or mistake, the whole history of Jacob, Abraham, and any of the
+patriarchs, prophets, or apostles, and enumerate all the kings who
+ever reigned over Israel, but they remained utterly uninstructed
+respecting the influence which the Divine revelation should obtain
+over their own life and character, nor were they ever taught to
+inquire what was their own nature, why they were placed upon the
+earth, and whither they were likely to go after this perishable world
+had passed from their sight. Summer flowers alone were implanted in
+their minds, but no thoughts, hopes, or affections, such as may last
+for winter wear. To them their birth seemed merely to have been the
+commencement of an existence, given entirely for their own individual
+pleasure or advantage, which was finally to terminate at their death.
+
+Before Marion had been long at school, however, she formed an intimacy
+which produced a permanent and most happy effect on all her subsequent
+life and feelings. Clara Granville, several years older than herself,
+had been nurtured, like her brother, in holiness, and in every
+domestic excellence, while she lived only for the dictates of a
+chastened and sanctified heart. Delicate in health, and fragile in
+extreme to appearance, there was something almost seraphic in the
+delicate purity of her lovely countenance, and in the tranquil
+composure of her graceful manner. During a long and tedious illness,
+with which Clara was seized, a short time before leaving school, she
+testified a tender and almost exclusive affection for Marion, who
+spent all her leisure hours--or rather moments, for hours were scarce
+at Mrs. Penfold's--in the most assiduous attention to the beloved
+invalid, and in imbibing those elements of good, those feelings and
+principles of religion which were to be guides of all her future life,
+and thus she became, before long, an enlightened, well informed, and
+deeply pious Christian, not shrinking from the society of one who
+excelled herself, but humbly and gratefully seeking, on all occasions,
+her advice and instruction, while both had their hearts filled with a
+fervent desire, steadily and consistently to pursue their own best
+interests, and an anxious wish also to succor and benefit others, in
+all the troubles and sorrows of life, though Marion was apt to feel
+like the poet,--
+
+    Ready to aid all beings, I would go
+    The world around to succor human woe,
+    Yet am so largely happy, that it seems,
+    There are no woes, and sorrows are but dreams.
+
+Marion's health and spirits were refreshed and invigorated by frequent
+excursions to visit Sir Arthur, who endeared himself to his eager
+young auditors, Henry and Marion, by expatiating with all the
+freshness of youth, to their wondering ears, on the times long past,
+when holidays, romping, sight-seeing, birth-days, and festivals, were
+still in fashion, but these were the days of his own boyhood, before
+children were too wise and busy to have time for natural enjoyment.
+The Admiral was thought, by Mrs. Penfold, a sad marplot, having
+already, as she knew, done all in his power to dissuade Sir Patrick
+from placing the "little fairy," as he called his favorite, in such a
+tread-mill as her school-room, where he said the only knowledge to be
+acquired was, that knowledge of the world which ruins the heart, and
+where fascination was to be taught as one of the fine arts, but all
+his representations, whether in jest or in earnest, were in vain. Sir
+Patrick, being the guardian of both his sisters, had determined to
+expend a considerable part of the provision bequeathed by their father
+in training them up as carefully, for the course of fashionable life,
+as he would have trained a promising race-horse which was expected to
+win the St. Leger, confidently anticipating a short and brilliant
+career of admiration and success, ending with a splendid trousseau, a
+chariot and four, and a profusion of wedding favors.
+
+Even the gay, frolicsome Caroline Smythe, many years older than
+Marion, and the most seditious and unruly of pupils, became speedily
+tamed down to mechanical obedience at school, where, losing her
+naturally intense enjoyment of mere existence, she seemed at best
+almost a habitual drudge in the usual routine of labor. There was a
+mystery never apparently to be fathomed about this lively girl, which
+excited the most intense curiosity among her companions, but though
+she was gifted with an extraordinary degree of volubility, which
+astonished and diverted the whole school, talking in a rapid and
+irregular manner of all events, past, present, or to come, with a
+brilliant confusion of drollery and humor, still she never dropped a
+hint which threw the most transient light on her own situation and
+affairs. No one knew whence she came or who she was, but though
+defying all the powers of all the masters to render her accomplished,
+yet Mrs. Penfold evidently treated her with extraordinary
+consideration, and almost with respect.
+
+Many were the restrictions and directions given respecting her to the
+scholars and teachers, which seemed to them most unaccountable, and
+several of which were voted by the juvenile community to be so
+peculiarly barbarous and oppressive, that though the young lady
+herself seemed neither surprised nor annoyed by the rigid watchfulness
+exercised over all her motions, it excited among her companions an
+indignant pity, and a keen spirit of partizanship. She was never on
+any occasion known to walk with the governesses and the other girls
+beyond the narrow limits of the high garden walls, and on Sundays,
+instead of attending the parish church, it was observed that one of
+the teachers invariably remained at home to read prayers with her. No
+general invitations sent for all the pupils by the friends of other
+girls, were ever accepted for Caroline, who had special permission to
+visit with Marion at Sir Arthur Dunbar's, but at no other house in the
+visible world.
+
+She never spoke of home,--received no letters, and once only had a
+visitor, an object of keen and eager scrutiny to the little gossiping
+community of Dartmore House, who discovered nothing more, however,
+than that Caroline's aunt, Mrs. Smythe, was a gay, fantastic-looking,
+showily-dressed little woman of no certain age, for whom her niece
+seemed to care very little, as the whole flood of her affections was
+concentrated on her companions at school. Money she had in the most
+lavish abundance, while she squandered it with a degree of reckless,
+and almost contemptuous profusion, perfectly startling to those who
+scarcely received as much in a year as she seemed able to spend in a
+day on presents for those she loved, which was the chief use to which
+her large funds were devoted.
+
+Marion, the companion and pet of her two elder companions, Clara and
+Caroline, tried with all her powers to extend her affection also to
+Mrs. Penfold, but her feelings found nothing to feed upon in the cold,
+formal, rigid manner, and stern upright appearance of the
+schoolmistress, who repelled all intercourse with her pupils,
+considering them necessary grievances to be endured in her house, as a
+source of existence to herself, but not of pleasure. Towards these
+little slaves of education, driven from task to task with ceaseless
+pertinacity, no confidence was shown, and between them conversation
+became systematically discouraged. A governess was appointed to sleep
+in each room to secure silence among the pupils, few of whom had that
+glow of heart and imagination peculiar to Marion, and it was
+fortunate, perhaps, that her large stock of sympathy was not more
+frequently in requisition, as the most astounding confidences were
+sometimes imparted to her wondering ears.
+
+One young lady, in a high fever of romance, described to Marion at
+great length, in the strictest confidence, an elopement which took
+place from the school where she had last been educated, on which
+occasion the young narrator had accompanied the bride part of her way,
+and returned home without detection, by climbing in at an open window.
+Another of the pupils asked if she did not think Monsieur D'Ambereau,
+the Italian master, wore singularly handsome mustachios, adding that
+it was a very common custom now for noblemen to go about in disguise,
+teaching at boarding-schools, in order to see the young ladies; and a
+third of Marion's young friends pointed out to her notice that many a
+ringlet appeared to be more carefully curled than usual, and many a
+dress to be put on with unwonted solicitude, when Monsieur Frescati,
+the singing-master, was expected.
+
+Girls in a boarding school are as unnaturally situated as nuns in a
+convent, where the feelings and emotions, being checked in their
+spontaneous course, are thrust into channels for which they never were
+originally intended. Marion had a sufficient object in view, every
+time she entered a room, from the desire she felt to please all with
+whom she associated, which gave a vent to the warmth of her affections
+in seeking the reciprocal attachment of her companions; but many of
+the other pupils, shut out from nature with her sunshine and flowers,
+her feelings and emotions, and wearied by a monotonous, uneventful
+life of dictionaries and grammars, snatched at every legitimate or
+illegitimate source of novelty or excitement, and their conversation
+became as frivolous as a toy-shop, while the hopeless vacancy of their
+thoughts obtained relief if even a blind fiddler or a hand-organ
+appeared beneath their windows. It was an object of romantic interest
+for the day, to most of the girls, if an officer in uniform passed
+along the high-road within sight; an equestrian in plain clothes, if
+tolerably mounted, furnished them with a subject of exclamations
+during the following half-hour, and even the very Doctor, a mere
+country pill-box, who prescribed for Mrs. Penfold's pupils, being
+well-dressed, and not much above forty, would himself have been
+astonished could he possibly have guessed the interest excited by his
+visits, and the keen discussion that ensued after his exit, respecting
+his slightly grey hair, and brilliant yellow gloves.
+
+Each young lady at school had a large assortment of romantic stories
+to relate, in a confidential under-tone, to her listening companions,
+of lovers who had committed suicide, gone mad, or been, at the very
+least, rendered miserable for life, in consequence of a disappointed
+attachment; while the whole party impatiently anticipated the time,
+not perhaps far distant, when their own turn would come to be
+idolized, admired, courted, and finally married to some "perfect
+love," with title, fortune, and establishment all pre-eminently
+superlative. Pure as the swan that passes through the darkest and most
+turbid stream, with plumage unsoiled, Marion's mind, in the meantime,
+remained untainted by the atmosphere of evil and frivolity around her.
+She caught at all that seemed good, avoided what was evil, and
+rejected every thought that might injure the unsophisticated
+excellence of her artless mind.
+
+There arose, however, in time, one source of individual anxiety to
+Marion, known only to herself and Mrs. Penfold; but it increased in
+weight and urgency every year, throwing occasionally a shadow of care
+over that bright young countenance, in general so beaming with joy,
+though with true philosophy Marion tried often to forget what it had
+proved impossible for her to remedy. Once a quarter, or at least
+during every successive "half," the mortifying fact forced itself upon
+her observation, that no bills were so irregularly paid as her own;
+for while their amount rapidly accumulated, Sir Patrick's agent
+forwarded annually the very smallest instalments, with a thousand
+apologies, and many promises of a final satisfactory settlement at
+some future period, which period never seemed any nearer; and Mrs.
+Penfold often dryly remarked, in the hearing of Marion, that "short
+accounts make long friends."
+
+An appeal to Sir Arthur for his interference often occasionally
+suggested itself to the mind of Marion; but she knew that his
+influence was less than nothing, and she greatly feared lest his
+vehement partiality to herself might lead him to overlook the very
+limited nature of his income, and to volunteer some generous
+sacrifice, such as she would rather suffer any privations than
+occasion. The pension and half-pay of Sir Arthur very barely sufficed,
+she knew, to defray his extensive charities, and to furnish sometimes
+the hospitable table, and the bottle of first-rate claret, round which
+it was his delight to gather a frequent circle of old brother
+admirals; but his purse was little calculated to stand the shock of
+such a draft as Sir Patrick would unhesitatingly have drawn upon it,
+had the idea occurred to him that Sir Arthur might perhaps be induced
+to take Marion's school bills upon himself.
+
+In no instance was it more obvious than in that of Sir Patrick Dunbar,
+how precisely in society men are generally estimated at their own
+valuation. He was, like his sisters, pre-eminently handsome, while the
+hauteur of his demeanor, bordering on a sort of well-bred contempt for
+others, rendered his slightest notice an event of considerable
+magnitude even to many whom the world might have deemed his superiors
+in rank, fortune, and talents. There were a few exclusives, however,
+among his own exclusive set, whom he admitted to the most unbounded
+familiarity and good fellowship, inviting them to entertainments,
+given much more as an ostentatious display of wealth and taste, than
+from any feeling that might be dignified with the name of friendship;
+and thus, by a reckless and unbounded profusion in dress, equipage,
+and hospitality, unchecked by one sentiment of justice or of prudence,
+the young Baronet obtained universal celebrity for his generosity and
+good humor,--anecdotes of which were circulated with delighted
+approbation in every house.
+
+He was known to have tossed a sovereign one day to an old woman at a
+cottage door, for merely reaching him a glass of water; he paid the
+post-boys double always when travelling; he gave ten pounds at a
+ladies' bazaar, for a paper card-case, which he presented the next
+moment to Clara Granville; and he sent Marion a magnificent rosewood
+box, filled with crystal perfume bottles, and gold tops, which cost
+twenty pounds, when at that very time she had scarcely a frock to put
+on, and was in agonies of vexation under an unpaid shoemaker's bill.
+
+Sir Patrick's grooms and footmen always roundly estimated his income
+at £20,000 a year; and his rent-roll certainly exceeded that of all
+the parents united who paid Mrs. Penfold regularly for cramming their
+children's understandings; but while Sir Patrick made it a matter of
+accurate calculation to train Marion with skill and sagacity in the
+way most likely to take her speedily off his hands, yet it was no part
+of his calculation to pay for anything in money if he could do so in
+words; and while he rattled off whole estates in a dice-box, and raced
+himself into difficulties, entering horses for every cup, and dogs for
+every coursing-match, he privately resolved that Marion and her
+embarrassments should always remain both out of sight and out of mind.
+
+Mrs. Penfold's grave and dry expression of countenance became graver
+and drier every time she contemplated the rapidly-increasing amount of
+Marion's bill, while she urgently impressed on her pupil's mind the
+absolute necessity of entreating more zealously than ever for the
+speedy payment of such very old scores.
+
+Observing Sir Patrick so exceedingly profuse in his expenditure,
+however, Mrs. Penfold believed there could be no cause to apprehend
+any defalcation at last, being convinced that he might at any time
+defray her demands with ease, though the only thing he never found it
+convenient to command was ready money; and Marion soon discovered that
+it made him frantic with ill-humor to be asked for any. Of this
+peculiarity she had once an early instance, never afterwards to be
+forgotten. Having received from Sir Arthur, on her fifteenth
+birth-day, the first five sovereigns which it had ever been her good
+fortune to possess, she accidentally heard Sir Arthur laughingly
+complain during her mid-summer holidays at home, to Mr. De Crespigny,
+that he had arrived at the bank that morning too late to present a
+draft for money, and having given his last shilling to a beggar, he
+was, according to his own expression, "completely cleaned out," not
+having enough even to pay for being admitted to the exhibition of
+pictures, and actually put to some temporary inconvenience by his
+penniless condition for that day.
+
+In all the pride of exhaustless wealth, Marion soon after stole up to
+her brother's side, and displayed her glittering treasure; but afraid
+to be suspected of conferring a favor, with intuitive delicacy she
+asked Sir Patrick to take charge of it until the following Saturday,
+that she might consider what to purchase on that day. Scarcely
+conscious of what she said or did, the young Baronet mechanically
+dropped the sovereigns into his pocket, where sovereigns in general
+had a very short reign, and soon after sauntered away to the club.
+
+Day after day elapsed, week after week, and every time Sir Patrick
+entered the room, or drew out his pocket handkerchief, Marion thought
+she was on the eve of being paid; but at length her holidays came to a
+close, and still not a syllable transpired respecting her funds.
+Rendered desperate at last by anxiety to re-enter school, laden with
+presents to her favorite companions, Marion, who valued money only as
+a means of being kind to others, ventured one day, with glowing
+cheeks, and faltering voice, to remind Sir Patrick, for the first
+time, of their little pecuniary transactions, which was so very
+trifling that he had probably forgotten it.
+
+"You tiresome little dear! am I never to hear the last of those
+sovereigns!" exclaimed he angrily, throwing down his newspaper. "You
+deserve not to be paid till Christmas! But here they are! No! I have
+no change, I see, at present. Well! I shall remember it some other
+time!"
+
+That "other time" never came, however, and Marion returned penniless
+to school, sympathizing more fully than she had ever done before, in
+Mrs. Penfold's lamentations respecting Sir Patrick's carelessness
+about money,--a subject which supplied that lady with a ready-made
+excuse, whenever she was out of humor at any rate, for venting it all
+on her unoffending pupil, whose sensitive heart became so imbued at
+last with vexation and anxiety, that on attaining the age of sixteen,
+she ventured to pen an earnest appeal to Sir Patrick, begging with all
+the eloquence of natural feeling, that if the expenses of her
+education were inconvenient, she might return home, where she would
+willingly shew all the benefit derived from the advantages he had
+already afforded her, by continuing her studies alone, and by devoting
+herself entirely to his comfort, amusement, and happiness.
+
+This letter, which cost Marion agonies of thought, and a shower of
+tears, received no answer whatever; and with a sigh of unwonted
+depression, she dismissed the subject from her thoughts, and trying to
+hope the best, quietly resumed the course of her occupations,
+comforted by the consolatory reflection, that in two years she would
+have nothing more to learn--the whole range of human acquirement being
+supposed to attain its completion by each of Mrs. Penfold's pupils at
+the age of eighteen.
+
+Clara Granville, and Caroline Smythe, having attained the highest acme
+of perfection under the finishing hand of Mrs. Penfold, were about to
+be emancipated in a few months from the thralldom of school, and to
+astonish society by their brilliant acquirements; respecting the most
+advantageous mode of displaying which, great pains had been taken to
+instruct them, though the inclination seemed wanting in both girls,
+being already surfeited with admiration and panegyric among their
+masters and governesses, who vied with each other in praising their
+two most advanced pupils, by whose influence they hoped hereafter to
+obtain recommendations and employment.
+
+Marion had strolled one evening with Caroline, farther than Miss
+Smythe had ever been known to venture before; and the two young
+friends were seated in an arbor at the extreme verge of the bounds
+prescribed by Mrs. Penfold, in earnest conversation, while watching
+with delight the declining sun, which superbly illuminated a heavy
+mass of clouds in the western horizon. Time flew on, and darkness
+nearly closed around them while they discussed with lively, careless
+humor, all the petty annoyances of their daily life, and compared the
+little hopes and fears they entertained for the future. As the hour
+became later, Marion felt that the high exhilarating key in which
+Caroline spoke, and her gay, well-rung-out laugh, made her almost
+nervous in the obscure and solitary retreat to which they had
+withdrawn; but ashamed of her own timidity, she determined to conquer
+or conceal it.
+
+Marion was flattered when a companion like Caroline, some years older
+than herself, thus treated her with familiarity; though certainly,
+neither on this occasion, nor on any other, was it with confidence, as
+no living being seemed entirely in the confidence of Miss Smythe, who,
+while she appeared gayly and heedlessly to rattle on in conversation,
+yet kept a cautious silence respecting all that concerned herself.
+
+Many very reserved persons pass for being perfectly open, by means of
+a frank, free manner, and by speaking in a confidential tone
+concerning the most private affairs of those with whom they converse;
+and this Caroline did to excess, asking Marion, with every appearance
+of kindness, a hundred questions, which in her own case she either
+could not, or would not have answered, and testifying the most
+cordial, unfeigned interest in all that related to the prospects or
+feelings of her companion, who never attempted to conceal a wish or a
+thought, and often forgot that the trust was not mutual.
+
+Caroline was talking eagerly with great animation, and telling Marion
+that the only injury she never would forgive, was, if any of those she
+loved had a sorrow that did not allow her to share with them; and
+especially if they permitted themselves to suffer from any pecuniary
+difficulties which it was within her power to relieve, when suddenly
+Marion laid a hand on her arm, making a hurried signal for silence,
+while she whispered in a low undertone,
+
+"I have scarcely heard you for the last five minutes. Did you observe
+that strange-looking man, very much muffled up, who scrambled several
+minutes ago to the top of the garden-wall? He was staring wildly about
+him for some time, then gliding noiselessly down, and has suddenly
+disappeared?"
+
+"Where? where?" whispered Caroline, grasping Marion's hand with a look
+of wild alarm, and speaking in a low, hoarse tone of extreme terror.
+"For your life, Marion, do not stir! Tell me which way he went! He
+must not see us. O how on earth has he traced me out!"
+
+"Who?" asked Marion, bewildered and terrified, when she beheld a
+degree of frantic alarm depicted on the countenance of her companion,
+which seemed almost unaccountable. "Dear Caroline! whom do you fear?"
+
+"A madman!" replied Miss Smythe, in accents of mingled anger and
+disgust. "He has haunted me for years! He threatens either to murder
+or to marry me; and you may guess which I think the worst! He has even
+adopted my name! Did you never hear, Marion, that he actually put his
+marriage to me last year in the newspapers! He besets my
+footsteps--besieges my dwelling-place, persecutes me with letters,
+sends me his picture, follows me to church, throws stones at my
+windows in the night, and frightens my very life out, yet the law
+leaves me unprotected, because he commits no actual breach of the
+peace. It was to avoid him that I begged my aunt to let me live here!
+How did he discover my retreat?"
+
+Caroline seemed to have lost all command of herself in the agony of
+her fear, and poured out a flood of words in the rapid and subdued
+accents of extreme terror, while she retreated into the darkest corner
+of the arbor to screen herself from observation, hastily dragging
+Marion along with her, and whispering an eager request, if they were
+discovered, that she would endeavor herself to get off, and fly
+towards the house for assistance. "Meantime I shall engage his
+attention; but if he once sees me, all hope of escape on my part would
+be vain, while the very endeavor might irritate him! Everything
+depends on you, Marion! Be resolute, and lose not a moment, or you may
+be too late."
+
+In agonized suspense and apprehension the two friends remained during
+several minutes, cowering behind the overhanging branches, and
+scarcely venturing to breathe, while Caroline bent her head eagerly
+forward to catch the slightest sound, and grasped Marion's arm almost
+convulsively, as if to secure her being perfectly immovable; at
+length, after some time, she heaved a deep sigh, expressive of relief,
+and looked up, saying
+
+"He is surely gone! he must be gone! I never eluded his eye
+before!--his sight is almost supernatural; but he must be gone at
+last! Let us hurry home!"
+
+"Stop!" whispered Marion, in an under tone, "I heard a rustling close
+behind us, among the leaves and branches. Some one certainly
+approaches!"
+
+"Fly, then, Marion! all is over, and I must face the danger!" said
+Caroline, with sudden energy, while rising and drawing herself up to
+her full height, with resolute countenance, though her limbs evidently
+trembled beneath her, she walked towards the door, saying, in a loud,
+commanding accent, to a tall man, much muffled up in a loose
+great-coat, who had now appeared at the door, "Who goes there?
+Ernest!!" added she, in tones of remonstrance. "How dare you enter my
+presence again! How dare you intrude here!"
+
+"Be true to yourself and me!" replied the stranger, in a voice which
+sounded harsh and excited, while the deep, full tones appeared to
+Marion as if she had heard them before; but the darkness prevented her
+from seeing him distinctly, even if his dress had not been sufficient
+to disguise him from the most penetrating eye. "Say what you will, I
+know you are glad to meet me," added he, in accents of increasing
+wildness. "All that you do is dictated by others; but Caroline, in her
+secret heart, loves me! I know that! By your looks, by your voice, by
+your manner, it was revealed to me years ago! Yes, you love me, and
+cannot deny it! Speak but the word, and we may both be happy,--happier
+than the wildest dreams of fancy! No impediment can prevent it! Let
+your aunt conceal you where she will, she cannot hide you from me. In
+the farthest corner of the earth--in the deepest dungeon that was ever
+dug, I shall find you out, and still free you from persecution. She
+may do her worst, but love laughs at locksmiths, and I can still
+enable you to elude her vigilance. I come now prepared, if you will
+but consent to fly with me!--now,--this moment. If not,----"
+
+The madman's voice, which had been loud and vehement, here dropped
+into a low, stern, inaudible murmur, and his hand plunged into the
+breast of his coat, seemed as if it grasped some weapon there, while
+Marion, taking advantage of his pre-occupied attention, darted off
+with the speed of thought, and almost as noiselessly fled towards the
+house. A loud, angry cry to stop her, mingled with curses and
+imprecations, from the madman, while he waved his singularly long arms
+menacingly above his head, only accelerated her pace, while he
+followed some steps in pursuit; but terror gave wings to her feet, and
+rushing into the entrance-hall, she instantly rang the large dinner
+bell, and raised an alarm, which assembled the whole household, all of
+whom gazed with looks of panic-struck astonishment at Marion's pale
+and ghastly countenance.
+
+Not a moment required to be lost in explanation, for Mrs. Penfold
+seemed at once to guess the whole nature and extent of Caroline's
+danger, the instant her name was mentioned; therefore Marion had but
+to point out the direction in which she might be found, when Mrs.
+Penfold hastened forward, preceded by several of the more active
+servants.
+
+When Marion had rapidly executed some orders committed to her she
+quickly returned towards the arbor, but not a trace remained there of
+any one. The little table had been upset, several branches torn down
+that surrounded the entrance, and the grass beneath was much trampled
+and disfigured; but all was silent and deserted. After one hurried
+glance of alarm and perplexity, Marion hastened forward to the garden
+gate, which she found had been violently burst open, and on emerging
+into the high road beyond, she there found Mrs. Penfold and her
+servants all crowding round Caroline, who remained in a dead faint on
+the ground for nearly half an hour.
+
+A carriage was rapidly disappearing at full speed in the distance, but
+already almost too far off to be distinguished; and Marion perceived
+the figure of a man lurking behind the hedge close beside her; but
+when she made it evident that he was observed, he rushed close up to
+her side, saying, in a threatening tone, between his clenched teeth,
+"You have provoked a madman!"
+
+Scarcely had Marion time to utter an exclamation of sudden affright,
+before he sprung over the hedge, and was seen running across the
+neighboring fields, until his figure mingled with the surrounding
+gloom, and vanished out of sight.
+
+Mrs. Penfold's chief care, after Caroline's recovery from her alarming
+swoon, was earnestly to enjoin that the circumstances of this
+adventure should never be mentioned, or so much as remembered by those
+who had witnessed them; a story so extraordinary and alarming, being
+likely to injure her establishment, besides causing much unnecessary
+gossip among the younger pupils; but had Marion ever been disposed to
+consign, as desired, the whole adventure to oblivion, she could not
+but be continually reminded of it for several weeks afterwards, by the
+startled and agitated manner of Caroline, whose frolicsome spirits had
+entirely deserted her, while she seemed for some time to be in
+imminent danger of a nervous fever. If any one appeared suddenly in
+the room, she almost screamed with the start it occasioned her; she
+could not bear for a moment to be left alone, and seemed as if
+continually listening, even when safe in the house, for the sound of
+steps in pursuit of her. Gradually, however, her mind became more
+composed, and she ventured one day to take a stroll with Marion in
+some of the nearer parts of the garden, though even there she scarcely
+spoke above her breath, and turning hastily round several times, as if
+apprehensive that some one approached.
+
+Had the far-famed Upas tree grown over the arbor, Caroline could
+scarcely have shunned more fearfully the slightest approach in that
+direction, and with equal care did she avoid any allusion to what had
+occurred there, not a hint of which ever transpired in her most
+confidential moments. The very sound of her own feet on the gravel
+seemed to startle her, and as she walked beneath the shade of some
+tall forest trees which overhung the garden-wall, Marion observed that
+Caroline trod more cautiously; and though she dropped not a word
+respecting her feelings or fears, it was evident that her nerves were
+strung to an agony of sensitiveness, for the fluttering of a bird in
+the hedge, or the fall of a leaf, made her start, and she seemed about
+at last to give up the point in despair, and hurry homewards, when
+suddenly a loud shrill whistle arose amidst the branches of an
+ash-tree, almost directly over their heads, and before Marion had time
+to look round, a small packet had dropped at the feet of Caroline.
+
+With a half-suppressed cry of alarm, the terrified girl fled, while
+Marion, scarcely less frightened, instinctively picked up the parcel,
+and followed, while again she was pursued by a volley of oaths and
+imprecations, which ended in a laugh so wild, so maniacal, and so
+fearful, that for months afterwards it rung in her ears, causing her a
+shudder of horror and alarm.
+
+When Mrs. Penfold tore open an innumerable multitude of seals which
+closed the packet addressed to Caroline, she discovered within only a
+long incoherent letter of several sheets, filled with the most
+extravagant professions of ardent love, and the most vehement
+declarations, that nothing on earth could impede or discourage him in
+his resolution to carry her off, which he seemed still persuaded, with
+the self-delusion peculiar to madness, must be a welcome assurance to
+Caroline, whose words and actions he perseveringly attributed to the
+arbitrary influence of others. Accompanying this farrago of most
+intolerable nonsense, was a black shade in a wooden frame,
+representing the profile of a young man, certainly handsome, and which
+seemed to Marion like features she had known elsewhere, but being
+frequently addicted to observing resemblances, she felt at once
+persuaded that this must be some such vague and unaccountable likeness
+as she had frequently found or fancied before.
+
+Time wore on, and still Caroline lingered at school, unwilling
+apparently to forsake the comparative quietness of Mrs. Penfold's,
+where, though her age exceeded by some years that of the other pupils,
+and though her cotemporary Clara had been already introduced into
+society, she still seemed anxious to forget herself and her affairs in
+the multitude of her masters and studies, so completely was she
+engrossed by which, that she evidently grudged every moment and every
+thought which interrupted her progress. At length, on the evening
+previous to that fixed on for her final departure from school, when
+Mrs. Smythe was expected to convey her home, Mrs. Penfold was
+bestowing on Caroline some of her last advice, of the most approved
+mode of "getting on" in society, and especially on the manners and
+conversation most attractive to gentlemen, when a note was brought
+into the room, which had arrived by express, bringing the melancholy
+intelligence that Mrs. Smythe's carriage had been upset a few miles
+off, causing so severe a blow on the head, that a concussion of the
+brain had taken place, and she continued insensible, at a village some
+miles off, where little hope remained of her recovery. The Doctor who
+wrote these hurried particulars had obligingly sent his own carriage
+and servant to accompany Miss Smythe to the spot, that she might take
+a last leave of her dying relative, and he recommended that she should
+not lose an instant, or it might be too late to find the sufferer in
+life.
+
+Struck with grief and consternation by this most unexpected and
+calamitous intelligence, Caroline, though she had never before seemed
+much to love her aunt, yet now became overwhelmed with the shock, and
+lost not an instant in hastily preparing to obey the melancholy
+summons, by throwing on her coat and bonnet, while she rushed into the
+arms of Marion, and burst into an agony of tears in bidding her
+farewell.
+
+The French governess who had been summoned to escort Caroline in the
+carriage, was one of those nervous persons, who became perfectly
+frantic when hurried, and she flew about the room, uttering a volley
+of incoherent exclamations, expressive of her wonder and perplexity at
+so sudden a call on her activity, while her preparations seemed to
+make no visible progress. There is a secret, mysterious pleasure in
+being waited for, which every living mortal seems to enjoy when they
+have the opportunity; and without a thought of Caroline's impatience,
+her anxiety, and her sorrow, Madame D'Aubert expressed the most eager
+and vehement solicitude about her own dress, and a resolution not to
+stir till equipped to her entire satisfaction, for so rare and almost
+unprecedented an event, as leaving the boundaries of Dartmore House.
+
+Every thing that has a limit, however, must come to an end, and Madame
+D'Aubert's toilette being at last completed she leisurely advanced,
+talking to herself and to everybody else, arranging her shawl, and
+giving a last finish to the contour of her bonnet, before she threw
+herself with dignified deliberation into the chariot.
+
+Marion had affectionately insisted on conveying her weeping friend to
+the carriage, while, with all the little arts of affection, she tried
+to console and encourage her, till at length they exchanged a final
+embrace, and parted. Scarcely, however, had Miss Smythe placed her
+foot upon the steps, while the man-servant who accompanied the
+carriage carefully assisted her in, before Marion suddenly sprung
+forward with an exclamation of terror, seized hold of Caroline's
+dress, and before she could speak, dragged her forcibly into the
+house, exclaiming in accents almost inarticulate from alarm,
+
+"Come back, Caroline! come back! This is some mistake! some dreadful
+trick! Caroline! dear Caroline! come back! That servant wears the very
+dress of the person who attacked you in the garden! I cannot see his
+face, but I am certain it is he!"
+
+Before Marion could finish her sentence, the supposed servant had
+violently seized Miss Smythe by the arms, and was about forcibly to
+drag her towards the carriage, when the loud cries of Marion brought
+assistance. The almost fainting girl was rescued, and the post-chaise
+secured; but not a trace could be seen of the madman, who instantly
+vanished; and the post-boy could give no intelligence respecting him,
+except that he had been ordered out at an inn close by, in urgent
+haste, that evening, with a promise of double payment if he implicitly
+obeyed the gentleman, who seemed highly irritable, and swore at him in
+a most fearful manner, if he made the slightest delay, or so much as
+asked a direction which way to turn.
+
+The most diligent search was made, but made in vain, by the officers
+of police, to find out the lunatic's retreat, which eluded their
+utmost research; and as Caroline Smythe was privately removed soon
+afterwards from school, where the subject was forbidden ever to be
+mentioned, the whole story seemed almost buried in oblivion, and
+Marion herself felt at last as if the entire adventure had been an
+agitating dream, remembered by no one but herself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Marion's sister, Agnes, five years older than herself, after being
+distinguished as the best musician, best sketcher, best linguist, best
+everything, at Mrs. Penfold's, had left school with no real knowledge,
+except of the most frivolous kind, accidentally gathered in
+conversation, and repeated again in society like a parrot. Formed to
+excite the most rapturous admiration, by the gorgeous magnificence of
+her almost regal beauty, art had acted the part of the Fairy Bountiful
+in forming Agnes, while nature had showered her choicest gifts on
+Marion.
+
+Agnes was brilliant without being interesting, and dazzling without
+being attractive, for her mind seemed irremediably and incorrigibly
+vulgar, selfish, and vain. A good actress, an inimitable mimic, and
+incomparable in a tableau, she assumed generally a queen-like dignity
+of manner, "stalking through life," as Sir Arthur said, "with an
+assured and stately step, as if practising for her appearance as a
+Duchess at the next coronation."
+
+Admiration seemed to Agnes the only pleasure of life, and amusement
+its only business; while, if ever she had possessed any sensibility,
+it was frittered away on the fictitious sorrows of the Adelines and
+Julias in the volumes which she read with surpassing diligence from a
+circulating library; though, in all other respects, Agnes wasted her
+time amidst such listless idleness, that she might have let her nails
+grow, like those of a Chinese mandarin, to testify how literally she
+did nothing.
+
+No one, certainly, could excel Agnes in turning up her hands and eyes
+at the faults of others; but those who trace nothing except evil in
+their companions, have seldom much good in themselves. Marion found it
+one of the most important and pleasing studies in the world, to
+comprehend the character and temper of her friends and connexions,
+besides her own, with a wish to render herself suitable to them, as
+her mind, pliable without weakness, was bent on constantly yielding
+her own wishes to those she loved; but this unobtrusive generosity was
+only a subject of satirical remark to her sister, who could neither
+understand nor believe in Marion's utter singleness of heart and
+disinterestedness; her own sole aim being selfish indulgence, and her
+sole rule to obtain it in the easiest possible way.
+
+Self-love was the ruling passion of Agnes; love of others the
+quickening principle, or rather impulse with Marion, who would have
+zealously planted flowers for even strangers to enjoy; but Agnes would
+have plucked all those of her friends, and scarcely taken the trouble
+to rear any even for her own use. Agnes, cold, vain, heartless, and
+self-sufficient, thought she was made only for this world, and this
+world for her, and for such as herself, young, gay, rich, and lovely,
+while all others were mere intruders on the creation. But Marion, on
+the contrary, followed the dictates of her own heart, in wishing to do
+good of every kind to every person, while still she had learned to aim
+above nature, to that high standard of Christian perfection, so
+exalted, that those who have gained the most elevated human attainment
+in virtue and excellence, must still consider the structure of their
+minds, however beautifully decorated with generous sympathies and kind
+emotions, as being only begun, while they perseveringly aspire
+upwards, even to the measurement of that Divine Being who left us an
+example that we should follow his steps.
+
+Agnes had now been, for three seasons, the reigning beauty of
+Edinburgh! There it is the privilege of every tolerable-looking girl
+to be considered in her own set pre-eminent, during the first winter
+after she is introduced; but though the public eye usually grows weary
+of the same features, however perfect, during a second campaign, Agnes
+had apparently taken out a diploma of beauty, the reputation for which
+seemed confirmed to others by her own thorough conviction of being
+completely unrivalled, and by the exulting consciousness she displayed
+of her own supreme loveliness. Three seasons of tumultuous joy,
+triumph, and conquest, had already succeeded each other, during which
+Agnes was, to use her own expression, "fiercely gay," yet still no
+younger rival had appeared to eclipse the dazzling array of her
+charms; and not a whisper was heard that the freshness of her
+Raphael-like beauty was at all impaired; nor were any ladies ever
+heard to "wonder" what gentlemen could possibly see to admire in Agnes
+Dunbar, as not a dissenting voice had yet ventured to make itself
+audible on that subject.
+
+Agnes began life with that perfect confidence in her own knowledge of
+the world, universally felt by young ladies under twenty, especially
+when they have seen very little of it, and with a thousand schemes and
+projects of perfect happiness. Though one after another her castles of
+cards fell to the ground, still, in the exercise of persevering
+energy, she rebuilt the edifice again with new materials, and on what
+she imagined a better construction, but still in every instance, to
+her own unutterable astonishment, she found that most unaccountably,
+"hope told a flattering tale!"
+
+Considering every officer she danced with as a hero, and every
+gentleman who paid her a compliment as a lover, Agnes wasted her first
+season, as most young ladies do, in flirting with scarlet uniforms,
+the inhabitants of which were generally so much alike in ideas and
+conversation, that if blindfolded, she might have found it difficult
+or impossible to distinguish which of her countless red and gold
+admirers happened at the moment to be "doing the agreeable."
+
+All her military victims were dying to know what Agnes thought of their
+brother officers; whether she intended to adorn the next ball by her
+presence, or the next concert; how she liked their military band; if
+she proposed patronising their night at the theatre; whether she
+preferred a _galope_ fast or slow; how she thought the colonel's
+daughter looked on horseback; whether she did not think it barbarously
+tyrannical of the commander-in-chief to insist on their all wearing
+uniforms; how she liked the new regulation jacket; and above all,
+whether she thought the order for their wearing mustachios an
+improvement or not!
+
+To all these subjects, and many more of similar import, Agnes lent her
+very profound attention, not only during the discussion, but in many a
+solitary hour, while her whole head, heart, and understanding were
+crowded with the recollection of epaulettes, mustachios, spurs, and
+gold lace, and she privately believed that the supreme felicity of
+earth,--all the most refined sensibilities of life, and all its
+brightest joys, were to be found at Piershill Barracks.
+
+Sir Patrick laughingly alleged that Agnes had rehearsed a set of
+prepared conversations suited to every different occasion,--a musical
+conversation for amateurs, full of crotchets and quavers--a hunting
+conversation about foxes, dogs, and steeple-chases,--a Court of
+Session conversation for the lawyers,--and a dragoon conversation,
+discussing at great length whether officers should dance with spurs or
+without them, and in which she had been known to enumerate correctly,
+the facings of every regiment in Her Majesty's service.
+
+Her brother often and loudly declared that nothing is more perfectly
+hopeless, than for any young lady to expect a serious attachment from
+an officer actually quartered with his regiment, as it was against all
+rule, and contrary to all nature or custom, for Cupid to attack the
+army. The mess-table, he assured her, invariably sets its face against
+matrimony, and the mess-table conversation was an ordeal, through
+which he protested that few young ladies could wish their names to
+pass; but nevertheless, Agnes, full of groundless expectations and
+lively vanity, continued to endure a succession of heart-rending and
+unaccountable disappointments, from very promising military admirers,
+who had stolen her bouquets, listened to her music, and drunk Sir
+Patrick's claret month after month; but no sooner did marching
+orders come for Dublin, Leeds, or Canada, than these interesting
+affairs came to an untimely end with a P.P.C. card, or a sort of
+never-expect-to-meet-again bow, and Agnes was left with the army-list
+in her hand, wondering what regiment would come next, and whether
+there were many unmarried officers in it.
+
+"How amusing it is," said Agnes, in a confidential mood, one day to
+Clara and Caroline, "when I walk about with Captain De Crespigny at
+the promenades or balls, and see all the other beaux looking angry or
+disappointed!"
+
+"Nothing on earth is so charming, I suppose, as to be a beauty!"
+exclaimed Caroline, with a good-humored sigh, and a look of comic
+humility, "I would sacrifice ten years of my life to be admired for
+one! To hear people saying, 'Have you seen the lovely Miss Smythe? Is
+Miss Smythe to show herself at Lady Towercliffe's party?' and then,
+like you, Agnes, to have all the beaux dying for me!"
+
+"I would rather be married for any attraction in the world, than mere
+beauty," said Clara, earnestly; "even money is a more tolerable
+motive. How insufferable it would be to live with a person whose
+affection depended on whether your hair were well dressed, or your
+shoes well made!"
+
+"That is the very thing I should like!" exclaimed Agnes, "to see it
+considered of the greatest consequence whether I wore pink or blue,
+and whether it were one of my well-looking days or not!"
+
+"But then, Agnes, your well-looking days would occur seldomer and
+seldomer, while during the very periods of illness and depression,
+when attention and kindness are most needed, a fastidious husband
+would feel injured if your complexion were not at its best," replied
+Clara, laughing. "No! no! give me the happiness that will, as my
+milliner says, 'wash and wear well!'--good fire-side domestic
+comfort."
+
+"Comfort! I hate comfort!" said Agnes, indignantly, "a stupid,
+detestable word, as opposite to real happiness as night is to day! I
+shall be satisfied with nothing short of felicity."
+
+"But felicity can last only a day, while peace and comfort may be
+enjoyed for life," replied Clara. "In talking of marriage, you seem to
+think of nothing beyond the honey-moon, and to forget the hours, days,
+and years of actual life that must follow!"
+
+"It is absolute nonsense looking so far out to sea as you do, Clara,"
+said Agnes, impatiently. "How I shall enjoy, next winter, perhaps,
+chaperoning you both to parties if I can find any fascinating victim,
+tall, thin, and handsome enough to please me."
+
+"But surely you would not, for any consideration, marry yet!"
+exclaimed Caroline. "Lady Towercliffe says that the holiday of a
+girl's life is from the time she leaves school till the day she
+marries, and you should enjoy ten years at least, Agnes, before you
+are tempted to begin the cares of life."
+
+"Cares!" exclaimed Agnes, with a contemptuous laugh, "I do not mean
+ever to take any cares upon myself! but, as Captain De Crespigny very
+sensibly observed yesterday, the husband worthy of me should be made
+on purpose. In the first place, he must be rich, for I have a scruple
+of conscience in ever witnessing a poor marriage, where, after the
+wedding-cake has been eaten, there is nothing else left. In
+everything,--even in the mere choice of a ribbon,--I am fastidious,
+and would rather not have a thing at all, than dispense with getting
+precisely what I like. My intended, then, must have been educated at
+Eton, for I do think the ugliest bit of human nature on earth is a
+Scotch school-boy of about fourteen. He must have such a foot! so
+small! oh! no foot at all. He must employ Buckmaster the tailor, get
+his shoes from Paris, and never wear the same gloves twice. He
+must----"
+
+"My dear Agnes! this should be all put into the contract!" said Clara,
+laughing. "It perfectly ruins me to hear you talk so extravagantly;
+and, besides, pray be warned in time of your own probable fate, that
+the beauty of a family, or the beauty of a winter, is said always to
+make a poor marriage. I never could understand the reason of that; but
+Lady Towercliffe says, men are perverse beings, who like to criticise
+and undervalue a professed beauty, while, in the mean time, they are
+taken by surprise, and fall in love unexpectedly with some obscure
+girl, whose charms they discover, or fancy for themselves, and whom,
+probably, not another man living ever thought tolerable."
+
+"For my part," said Caroline, "I shall wait till a person can be found
+as handsome as Sir Patrick, as agreeable as you tell me Captain De
+Crespigny is, as clever as Mr. Granville, as merry as young De
+Lancey----"
+
+"And as rich as Lord Doncaster!" interrupted Agnes.
+
+"No! no!--, a hundred times no!" replied Caroline, coloring, speaking
+in a singular tone of asperity, "I hate and abhor money as a
+consideration in marrying! I wish money had never been invented! It
+becomes a misery for those who have too much, as well as for those who
+have too little."
+
+"Well! give me money," said Agnes, laughing. "And let me tell you,
+Caroline, that even if you have eight or ten thousand pounds, which is
+probably the utmost, you will find it no great inconvenience during
+the long run of life. Money has its merits, and I should be afraid to
+marry any man, even the most romantic of my lovers, if it involved the
+necessity for his sacrificing one of his usual comforts;--if it
+obliged him to drink his bottle of sherry instead of claret every day,
+I am not quite sure that he would never begin to grumble! They tell me
+it should be considered a man does not wish himself twice every day
+unmarried again. No, no money, is no bad thing, and if you have any to
+spare, pray let me have the surplus."
+
+"Who, and what are Mrs. and Miss Smythe?" was a frequent question of
+Agnes to herself, never apparently to obtain a satisfactory answer. On
+Caroline leaving school, her aunt had taken a villa at Portobello,
+where the two English strangers excited extreme attention, more from
+their evident desire to avoid it, than from any thing very remarkable
+in their appearance or manner, though Mrs. Smythe was certainly of that
+_genus_ old maid so common in England, with a handsome independence, a
+suite of servants, a pony-carriage, most splendid dress, and some
+pretensions still to youth and beauty, as any fragment of good looks
+that yet remained she most liberally displayed; while her manner had a
+flirting tone of coquetry most unsuitable to her apparent age, forming
+a singular contrast to the quaker-like simplicity of Caroline's dress.
+
+There was a singular contrast between the gravity of costume affected
+by Miss Smythe, and the keen festivity of spirit with which she
+entered into every scheme of amusement, or even, it might be said, of
+mischief. Her vivacity was occasionally almost overpowering, her fancy
+lively beyond example, while with her brilliant, yet interesting
+animation, there was mingled a rare acuteness of mind, a swift
+comprehension, and an innate passion for all that was amiable and
+beautiful, which gave liveliness and vigor to what she said, though
+the rapidity of her mind sometimes led Caroline to a false estimate of
+persons and circumstances, as she always judged or acted from
+instantaneous impulse; yet there was a generous frankness in her
+disposition, which captivated those who knew her, and a graceful
+simplicity in all she did, which gave it interest; for, without
+intention, there was something in all her thoughts and actions
+striking and peculiar.
+
+Her features, though irregular, attracted and enchained the eye, from
+the magical variety of their expression, and though an amateur of mere
+beauty might have been surprised and perplexed to divine why her light
+grey eyes, pale cheeks, and chestnut hair could beguile his attention
+away from the more perfect contour of others, the amateur of
+physiognomy was delighted to find there an ever-varying source of
+interest in watching the bright emanations of thought, feeling, and
+vivacity, which glittered or sparkled in her eye, or played about her
+mouth.
+
+When Mrs. Smythe first settled at Portobello, scarcely a week of
+gossiping, wonder, and conjecture had elapsed, in the little community
+around, when she requested to have an interview with Sir Arthur alone,
+which took place immediately, and must have excited much interest in
+his mind, as the Admiral remained silent and abstracted during the
+whole subsequent evening, while he strolled slowly up and down the
+drawing-room, "pacing the quarter-deck," as he called it, for a length
+of time; and, after being closeted some hours the following day with
+Mrs. Smythe and his confidential agent, they proceeded to a
+magistrate's house together, with whom they requested a private
+conference, the purport of which did not transpire.
+
+From that day, an intimacy, amounting to friendship, was established
+between Sir Arthur and the two ladies, who seemed on all occasions to
+look to him for advice and protection, and in whose house they spent a
+part of every day, to the unspeakable delight of Henry De Lancey, who
+was charmed, on his return from college, to find so agreeable an
+addition to the small circle at Seabeach Cottage.
+
+"Years rush by us like the wind;" and how rapid seems the transition
+from boyhood to mature years! Henry had early attained an
+extraordinary development of mind and appearance, a strength of
+intellect and a decision of purpose which seemed to Sir Arthur almost
+precocious, while every day discovered some new talent, or enlarged
+those he already possessed, for his mind seemed ever on the wing and
+full of energy. "Either he is nobly born, or nature has a nobility of
+her own," thought the Admiral, when viewing the character of his young
+protege, as it gradually arose to personal and intellectual supremacy.
+His mind was ardent, courageous, and deeply contemplative, full of
+generous impulses, but apt to view all that happened to himself
+through an exaggerated medium. His mysterious history, and the
+fascination of his manner and appearance cast a spell over the
+interest and affections of all who beheld his countenance, or heard
+the sound of his harmonious voice. With a strikingly handsome person,
+he had already acquired a decided air of fashion and refinement, while
+a bright vein of almost chivalrous romance which enlivened his mind
+was subdued by a poetical temperament, inclining him to dwell much on
+melancholy musings, relating to the strange circumstances of his own
+early history. Keenly sensitive to kindness or neglect, his love and
+gratitude to Sir Arthur were without bounds, and his brotherly
+affection for Marion was tinged with the natural enthusiasm of his
+disposition, but before long the warmest and deepest feelings of his
+nature were secretly concentrated on the gay, giddy, and fascinating
+Caroline Smythe. Every scrap of paper that came in his way became
+covered with sketches of her buoyant figure and graceful profile, in a
+variety of animated attitudes; or, on other occasions, verses in Latin
+or English, little better certainly than the nonsense verses at
+school, immortalised her charms.
+
+Young as he was, however, Henry's spirit recoiled already from the
+danger of loving too well, or being beloved by any, when he was
+taught, in hours of solitary reflection, to remember that principle
+and honor must forbid him to seek a mutual attachment, while his name
+and station remained unknown, and, perhaps, disgraceful. There was a
+bewildering power in Caroline's society, which chained him to her side
+wherever they met, while, contrary to his resolutions and wishes, his
+every look, smile, word, and action became steeped in love. Often and
+severely did he upbraid himself for this vain and dangerous
+indulgence, but he seemed spell-bound and unable to remember, in her
+presence, any thing but the delight of listening to her gay sallies
+and her delicious laugh; though the mirth of her young eyes became
+veiled often by a look of care as sudden as it was to him
+unaccountable, being so foreign to the sparkling, almost mischievous
+gaiety of her nature.
+
+Henry's devoted, and nearly boyish attachment, raised in his heart
+many a high aspiration after future distinction, many a bright hope of
+honor, promotion, and usefulness. The model for his imitation in every
+thing noble and distinguished was Sir Arthur, and he resolved to
+sacrifice love itself, till he had attained, like him, a name and a
+station for himself. The very sound of Sir Arthur's step, the very
+tones of his voice, were dear to him; and, casting aside every softer
+emotion connected with his romantic reveries respecting Caroline, he
+became impatient to face the bitter blasts of the world's trials,
+taking his beloved benefactor for his example, and the Holy Scriptures
+as his guide.
+
+"Perhaps," thought he, allowing his young mind to wander away from the
+dull inexorable realities of life, while a rapturous smile of
+anticipated joy lighted up his countenance. "Perhaps, when honor and
+distinction have at last crowned my efforts, I may yet be acknowledged
+in the face of the world, by those connexions who have now so
+mysteriously cast me off. Perhaps Caroline herself may at last be
+proud to return that fervent attachment, of which she has not yet even
+a suspicion! The old proverb says, 'all men know what they are, but
+none know what they shall be!' I know neither the one nor the other;
+but I must not be satisfied with vaguely coveting learning, honor, or
+usefulness hereafter, contemplating like a mere child the end without
+the way, but seek them energetically. Nothing is impossible to those
+who persevere! This may and must be a rough world of difficulty to me,
+but amidst a thousand buffetings and humiliations to come, I feel an
+undying hope of success, while even in this scene of hard and trying
+discipline, my best comfort and encouragement shall ever be drawn from
+the august truths of religion, in all their awfulness and solemn
+obligations."
+
+Knowledge is power, and knowledge of character is the greatest power
+of all; but Henry, in general very penetrating, was perplexed by the
+flirting, light-headed manner of Mrs. Smythe, whenever she was in the
+society of gentlemen her own contemporaries in age, and the grave,
+deferential manner she adopted towards her young companion, whom she
+seemed to treat almost inadvertently as her superior, though the
+slightest indication of her doing so usually brought the color of
+Caroline in vivid flashes to her cheek, and caused an appearance of
+mutual embarrassment between the aunt and niece, which surprised and
+puzzled him. Their extraordinary munificence to the poor and public
+charities also astonished him, as that appeared so widely
+disproportioned to their visible means and usual expenditure, though
+it seemed only to please without surprising Sir Arthur, who was
+accustomed to give so liberally himself, that Henry sometimes feared
+he encouraged his newly-found friends in a degree of lavish
+extravagance inconsistent with the ordinary means of single ladies;
+yet all was given with a graceful negligent indifference to the vulgar
+subject of pounds, shillings, and pence, quite unprecedented.
+Subscriptions to church extension, missionaries, schools, Bibles,
+blankets, food, clothing, coals, money, and medicine, were scattered
+around them with unsparing profusion, though it appeared to Henry,
+that, in the case of Mrs. Smythe herself, whose name always appeared
+ostensibly on the list as the larger contributor, there was less
+alacrity in giving, than in Caroline, who seemed to be purse-bearer
+for both, and always defrayed the whole amount.
+
+Among the many things which surprised Henry in Mrs. and Miss Smythe,
+nothing had that effect more than the keen, intense, and rather
+satirical interest with which both ladies gathered up every particular
+relating to the manners, flirtations and adventures of Captain De
+Crespigny, though it was evident, that while both ladies could relate
+every particular of his former history and character, neither knew him
+by sight. Mrs. Smythe mentioned rather contemptuously some vague
+recollections of him formerly, as a pert, awkward school-boy, while,
+to Henry's increasing perplexity, the young lady's color visibly rose
+to carnation whenever he was unexpectedly named, and her eyes usually
+glittered with a suppressed smile, if any anecdote or description in
+Sir Arthur's conversation related to him, till at length the curiosity
+which had so long been evidently fermenting in the minds of Mrs. and
+Miss Smythe, exploded one day in the form of an eager request, that
+Sir Arthur would invite Captain De Crespigny to meet them at dinner.
+
+Marion and Henry were amused at the laughing alacrity with which Sir
+Arthur at once consented, and they observed, after the note was
+despatched, that many a whispered consultation took place, and many a
+lively jest passed among the lively trio, to which they were not made
+a party; while the two ladies appeared evidently in extacies of
+amusement at their anticipated introduction. Marion would have given
+worlds to witness the scene; but her furlough from Mrs. Penfold's had
+expired on the very day of Sir Arthur's party, and she was most
+unwillingly deposited in a carriage with her baggage, at the moment
+when Captain De Crespigny alighted, in full huzzar uniform, out of the
+minibus which had conveyed him from Piershill.
+
+The Admiral's party was exceedingly small and select; but the guests
+appeared all in gay, buoyant spirits; while Captain De Crespigny,
+seeing but one young lady in the room, looked upon himself as her
+natural property, and handed her to dinner, though no formal
+presentation had taken place.
+
+With Caroline he was, before long, flirting to the top of his bent,
+while she assumed a charming look of consciousness when he addressed
+her, receiving the whole artillery of his small talk and civilities
+with the most interesting expression of naivete, though once Henry
+observed in her smile so odd a mixture of mirth and malice, while, at
+the same time, a look of covert humor lurked in her eye, and quivered
+on her lip, that he could not but wonder at the grave, demure look
+which she affected.
+
+Nothing was ever more enchanting to Captain De Crespigny than the
+blushing, averted looks with which Caroline listened to all his
+insinuated admiration; while now and then she nodded and smiled with
+the prettiest air of incredulity imaginable, if he professed it more
+openly. Occasionally, however, Captain De Crespigny was almost put
+out of countenance by her unexpected replies, or very mal-apropos
+questions, which gradually led him on, he scarcely knew how, into
+flirting perfectly _a'loutrance_, while opportunities seemed purposely
+afforded him with a degree of tact perfectly incredible in one so
+young, and apparently unsophisticated, to say even more than he ever
+said before. With a gay, laughing animation, almost amounting to
+silliness, the young lady archly doubted his sincerity, admired his
+wit, and slyly misunderstood all his compliments, till he was obliged
+to repeat his meaning and explain his insinuations, making his
+professions and speeches all so exceedingly plain and undisguised,
+that, to his own astonishment, he found himself positively making love,
+on a very few hours' acquaintance, with a degree of explicitness which
+had never occurred to him in the whole course of his practice before.
+
+In the evening, Caroline was, after many entreaties, prevailed on to
+favor Captain De Crespigny with a song; and never had he been so
+completely perplexed as by those with which the young lady, preserving
+a look of most imperturbable gravity, proceeded to favor him. She
+seemed to have a dozen different voices, and half-a-dozen different
+styles of performance, but had evidently been well taught, and
+displayed occasionally some beautiful notes. At first her tones were
+clear and sharp, accompanied by the strangest flourishes and cadences
+that Captain De Crespigny had ever heard or imagined. In the next
+song, her voice was low and husky, while her eyes were most
+sentimentally elevated to the ceiling, with a sort of St. Cecilia
+expression, rather partaking, however, of the ludicrous, and in her
+voice another like a mouse in a cupboard. At one time her tone
+reminded him of a well-known singer at Vauxhall; at another, he felt
+persuaded she was taking off Clara Novello; occasionally there was so
+considerable a tinge of the brogue, that he became convinced she must
+be Irish, and she ended by singing "The Dog's Meat Man," in a tone
+out-screaming a peacock, but adopting the air and attitude of a
+Catalani, and concluded with looking exultingly round in expectation
+of rapturous applause, which Sir Arthur bestowed in abundance, and
+Captain De Crespigny in comparative moderation, being, for the first
+time in his life, at a loss to know whether he were treated on this
+occasion in jest or in earnest.
+
+Repeated subsequent visits at Seabeach Cottage continued the intimacy
+which Captain De Crespigny had so oddly begun, and his curiosity
+became more and more piqued by the singularity of Miss Smythe's manner
+and conversation. She displayed, along with a most extravagant love of
+amusement, a genius for satire and mimicry quite unprecedented, and in
+which she most freely indulged. Many a scene was acted over by her,
+and supported by Henry, with astonishing talent and vivacity; for both
+seemed to have a similar propensity, being able, after an hour's
+intercourse with any individual, to imitate his whole peculiarities
+with almost magical precision--to follow, in an imaginary
+conversation, the very train of his ideas, and to represent every
+little trick or habitual expression, every turn of the head, and every
+tone of the voice, with a gay look of mockery which would have made
+their fortunes on the stage.
+
+One evening, Sir Arthur having delivered up to his young friends the
+key of an old chest, filled with velvet coats and brocaded silk
+dresses, formerly worn by his bye-gone ancestors, Caroline, Henry, and
+Captain De Crespigny amused themselves by grouping some beautiful
+tableaux, and by acting charades. At one time, both the gentlemen
+appeared in similar costumes, as Shakespeare's two Dominos in the
+Comedy of Errors, when Sir Arthur suddenly exclaimed, as if he had
+made some great discovery, "How very strange that I never before
+observed the likeness between you two good-looking young fellows! I
+declare it is quite remarkable! If you were brothers in reality as
+well as in pretence, it could scarcely be more striking! Do pray
+Captain De Crespigny, turn your profile more towards Mrs. Smythe, that
+she may see what I mean!"
+
+Henry laughingly received these remarks as an undoubted compliment,
+and bowed with good-humored grace to Sir Arthur, who observed with
+astonishment that Captain De Crespigny's color rushed to his very
+temples, and receded again, leaving his countenance pale and almost
+ghastly, while he suddenly broke off the entertainment, and strode up
+to the fire-place, where for some minutes he stood, with his back to
+the company, in evident agitation, while a dead silence ensued.
+
+"Well!" whispered Sir Arthur to Caroline, "I have often been told that
+people are never pleased with a likeness, but certainly Louis De
+Crespigny is the most conceited of men to feel so intolerably angry at
+being compared to my young friend here. There are certainly
+worse-looking people in the world than Henry!" added the Admiral, with
+a look of partial affection. "And it was no such insult as De
+Crespigny seems to think, when I paid him the compliment, to say that
+he resembled my boy, who is in every respect the pride of my heart."
+
+"I wish the Captain may never meet with a greater mortification,"
+replied Caroline, laughing; "and I am sure he would be much the better
+of a few pretty severe ones to keep him in his senses!"
+
+Henry meantime had observed with good-humored surprise, and no small
+degree of perplexity, the excitement, so disproportioned to the
+occasion, into which Captain De Crespigny had been thrown by Sir
+Arthur's remark, but with boyish frankness he instantly went up to
+him, saying, in a lively and rallying tone,
+
+"I am sure Sir Arthur did not mean anything personal, Captain De
+Crespigny; but his remark only proves my uncommon skill in assuming a
+likeness to any one I please. My success in disguising myself at
+college, was often beyond my intentions or utmost hopes. You would not
+know me yourself, if I represented an old man, or a French
+hair-dresser, as I have sometimes done!"
+
+"Indeed!" replied Captain De Crespigny, trying to recover himself, "I
+should think there was not the dress upon earth in which I would not
+know you again!"
+
+"Well! some day perhaps, as a beggar, I may, with your leave, beguile
+you of half-a-crown."
+
+"It would be a clever beggar who succeeded in that! but I defy you
+there. Half-a-crown! why! I have only as much as that to keep me till
+midsummer! You have my free leave to try me at any time, or in any way
+you please, and my pardon for all your success!"
+
+"I can only say," interposed Sir Arthur, "that the impudent rascal
+brought real tears into my eyes, not long ago, by a story he trumped
+up at my door, which would have deceived the whole Medicity Society.
+He can make himself appear as old as myself,--and I declare one day he
+looked not very unlike your uncle, Lord Doncaster!"
+
+A vivid flush passed over the whole forehead and features of Captain
+De Crespigny at these words; but assuming a sudden tone of liveliness
+and vivacity, he summoned Henry to continue their entertainments for
+the evening, which were to be concluded by acting a proverb of which
+Sir Arthur and his guests were to discover the design. Miss Smythe,
+dressed in cottage costume, seated herself pensively on a stool, after
+which Captain De Crespigny, equipped with a bow in his hand, and
+carrying on his back a quiver filled with all the old pens in the
+house, to represent arrows, entered in the character of Love, and was
+about to aim his darts at the peasant girl, when Henry, disguised in a
+tattered old cloak, to personate Poverty, limped slowly into the room.
+On seeing this beggarly apparition, Cupid, pushing his hair up till it
+stood on end, assumed an expression of comic horror, and with a shriek
+of dismay, rushed to the window, as if about to jump out.
+
+The whole party laughed heartily, and declared that the _denouement_ of
+this piece contained a most salutary lesson against a mere love-match;
+and Sir Arthur said, for his own part he would attend to the
+warning,--that all portionless young ladies might consider the case
+hopeless with him, and he trusted every one present intended to be
+equally prudent!
+
+"Yes! most assuredly!" exclaimed Captain De Crespigny, "I am almost
+tempted how to take my uncle's advice, and propose to my cousin, Miss
+Howard, the heiress, though love flies out of the window whenever I
+think of her. She was a little, pert, red-fingered, flaxen-haired
+child, when we parted last! The memory of that girl often haunts me
+like a night-mare since; for my poor mother, on her death-bed, got a
+promise made about our being married, or something of that kind. I
+never heard the particulars; but I believe we were to be made
+acquainted, and refuse one another, before either of us could accept
+any one else; but I should think there could be little chance of
+anything that depended on my being refused."
+
+Captain De Crespigny was bowing himself off late in the evening, and
+taking a very particular leave of Miss Smythe, having called up all
+his most fascinating graces for the occasion, while he felt inwardly
+gratified by the pleasing conviction that another had been added to
+the list of young ladies whom he had made miserable for life, when he
+was surprised to observe her mouth perfectly quivering with suppressed
+laughter, and an arch, satirical gleam in her eye for which he could
+not account, though it made him feel somewhat uncomfortable and
+dissatisfied. If it were possible that any one could be laughing at
+him, she certainly was! A world of most intolerable ridicule appeared
+in her expression--an air almost of contempt! and he turned to leave
+the room with a feeling of mortification and anger which he was
+ashamed to allow even to himself.
+
+When Captain De Crespigny hurriedly opened the drawing-room door, near
+which he and Caroline had been standing, he was surprised to see a
+person lurking close behind it, who darted instantly away, and
+disappeared; but before the intruder was out of sight, an exclamation
+of terror and dismay escaped from the lips of Caroline, who rushed
+towards Sir Arthur, exclaiming, in accents of almost frantic alarm,
+"He is there! he is there! Oh! save me, Sir Arthur! he is there! That
+horrid, dreadful man! he is there! Stop him! stop him!"
+
+Captain De Crespigny instinctively ran in pursuit of the retreating
+figure, and eagerly attempted to seize him; but the fugitive
+instantaneously opened the house door, and escaped in the darkness,
+while, apparently to intimidate his pursuer, he fired a pistol in the
+air, and waved another above his head with frantic gestures of rage
+and violence.
+
+"It is beyond all measure extraordinary how he got into the house!"
+exclaimed Sir Arthur, in discussing the event with an aspect of grave
+perplexity. "My doors are most systematically locked after dusk, and
+not a window is unbarred, yet the locks are unbroken and the bars
+untouched!"
+
+"There is something next to supernatural in the way he invariably
+finds us out, and gets access everywhere," said Mrs. Smythe, in almost
+breathless agitation. "One would imagine he had some unearthly
+accomplice to discover where we are concealed, and to assist him in
+escaping the vigilance of the police. Night and day we have been
+liable to his incursions. In town or country--in the drawing-room, or
+beside our carriage--in church, or going to a party--there he is,
+lurking secretly near us, or terrifying Caroline by his sudden
+disappearance, and gliding away like a shadow. He baffles every
+attempt to overtake or arrest him, but seems for ever on the watch!
+Sometimes he used to make his presence known by throwing a stone at
+our windows; often at midnight, by singing hoarsely beneath them, and
+even occasionally by firing a pistol in the air; but I did hope in
+this remote corner we might have enjoyed peace and safety. How are we
+ever to venture home?"
+
+"I shall escort you with the whole party in close phalanx," replied
+Sir Arthur, trying to assume a rallying tone. "Old Martin and myself
+are quite invulnerable, and I only wish my secretary were here also,
+as he would be a host in himself; but he is absent on a month's leave,
+and for the first time in my life I miss him."
+
+The night being impenetrably dark, and not a sound to be heard but the
+echo of their footsteps on the gravel, when Mrs. Smythe alighted from
+the carriage to walk across the garden leading towards her house. Sir
+Arthur immediately desired the servants to bring out lights, when one
+of the candles having flared up suddenly near Caroline, she thought
+she perceived the madman close beside her, lurking behind the stem of
+a large tree. The dark shadows concealed all but his face, in which
+there gleamed a look of maniacal triumph and malignity, while rushing
+close up to Captain De Crespigny, he said, in a threatening tone, low
+and distinct, "He who crosses my path shall die!" and instantly
+disappeared through the hedge. When Miss Smythe, on hearing his voice,
+with a stifled scream of terror fled into the house, again that loud
+and fiendish laugh, which she had already heard once, arose behind
+her, and rung through the night air in tones of high delirium, causing
+a cold shudder to thrill through the hearts of even the boldest among
+her companions, while they hastily followed her, and having placed the
+trembling girl in apparent safety, soon after took leave, charging the
+servants to chain and double-lock the door.
+
+It was some hours before Caroline could sufficiently compose her mind
+to retire; but after the house was sufficiently quiet, and the
+servants in bed, she sat up reading, with the hope that her nerves
+might become less painfully agitated. The slightest noise caused her
+heart to beat almost audibly, and she was conscious that a mouse
+rattling in the wainscot would have caused her to faint. Mrs. Smythe
+could scarcely be prevailed upon to leave her alone; but as they both
+slept on the drawing-room floor, only divided by a thin partition,
+Caroline induced her, at a late hour, to withdraw, while not a sound
+now disturbed the deep repose of nature, but "the wailing sorrows of
+some midnight bird."
+
+The moon had arisen, shining with softened radiance into her
+apartment, when Miss Smythe arose from her devotions, and she could
+not but think at the moment what a bright emblem of her divine Saviour
+that glorious luminary presented to the mind, not glowing, like the
+sun, with a radiance which no human eye can gaze upon, but reflecting
+upon the darkened earth a mild, subdued refulgence, perfectly suited
+for the steady contemplation of those whom it had arisen to benefit
+and cheer.
+
+    Nature was hush'd, as if her works ador'd
+    The night-felt presence of creation's Lord.
+
+Pleased with such thoughts, a gradual composure stole over her senses,
+and Caroline, at length, seeing her candle nearly burned out,
+consequently determined to retire for the night. Not a sound was to be
+heard in the house, but her own light step, as she moved about the
+room,--the very opening of a drawer, or the shutting of her book,
+sounded unnaturally loud, jarring upon her nerves with a startling
+effect,--the shadows in the more distant part of the room looked
+darker than usual, and the least moan of the wind increased the
+painful tension of her nerves to agony. Scarcely had she begun to
+undress, when a sudden noise not far off caused her to start with
+convulsive terror; her heart became chilled with apprehension, the
+candlestick which she carried in her hand fell to the ground, the
+light was extinguished, and she stood trembling and alone in total,
+impenetrable darkness.
+
+Caroline tried to persuade herself that the sound must have been
+produced by her own fancy,--she looked around, and all was quiet,--she
+listened, and all was perfectly still,--she reasoned with herself, and
+became resolute to try whether sleep might not plunge her into
+forgetfulness and peace, when her attention was accidentally attracted
+towards one of the windows, where the bright moonbeams rested on an
+object which seemed to blast her eyes with horror, and paralyzed her
+at once in a speechless agony of fear. The top of a ladder rested on
+the window-sill, upon the summit of which stood the dark figure of a
+man, his face plastered so close upon the glass, that his nose was
+perfectly flattened against it, and his hands raised in a menacing
+attitude towards her. The instant he saw, by Caroline's look of
+frantic alarm, that she had seen him, he dashed in the window-frame by
+a single stroke of his powerful arm, and seemed about to make a
+forcible entrance, when Miss Smythe, with the energy of despair, threw
+open the door, and fled, calling aloud, in the sharp, shrill accents
+of desperation, for help.
+
+The servants were speedily assembled around her, and the instant she
+felt herself in comparative safety, nature could sustain no more, but,
+convulsed in every nerve, and throwing herself into the arms of Mrs.
+Smythe, with a cry of thankfulness and agitation, she fainted.
+
+An instant alarm was given in the neighborhood, a diligent search was
+made, and the police for several days exerted their utmost activity to
+detect the miscreant, but in vain. Not a trace remained to convince
+Caroline that the whole had not been a hideous dream, except that the
+ladder had been left standing at her window, and turned out to have
+been stolen from a neighboring garden. The window-frame exhibited a
+frightful picture of devastation, being literally broken to fragments,
+and at some distance in the garden a loaded pistol was discovered,
+perfectly new, which it was hoped might lead to a discovery, by the
+police tracing out the maker and purchaser, seeing that it had been so
+recently obtained.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+Several meetings now took place at Sir Arthur's for the purpose of
+considering what plans would be best adapted to secure the safety of
+Mrs. and Miss Smythe, till the dangerous madman who persecuted them
+could be secured and confined, on all which occasions Captain De
+Crespigny attended, as he rather enjoyed the excitement and interest
+with which the story filled up his vacant hours, and, careless of the
+impression he believed himself to be making on the affections of Miss
+Smythe, he felt some solicitude respecting her safety, while he
+expressed ten times more than he felt, and observed, in his usual
+off-handed style, that this was not the only man whose head she would
+probably turn; but in his own case, though she had almost put him out
+of his senses already, yet he would rather make an end of himself than
+of her.
+
+Caroline drily thanked him for his obliging intentions on her behalf,
+and after a lively dialogue, in which the gay huzzar actually excelled
+himself, in his fervent expressions of admiration and regard, he took
+leave, rather wondering to think how he had been led on in professing
+so much, and giving himself a lecture as he rode home, on the
+propriety of beginning to "back out," seeing that he was getting
+rather beyond his depth. Still there were several of the reasons for
+meeting next day, usual with those who have a natural desire to
+improve an agreeable intimacy, a song to be practised, a drawing to be
+admired; and Miss Smythe having made a sort of promise to let Captain
+De Crespigny sit to her for his picture in the character of Dromio, as
+she was an admirable artist, the offer became irresistible. He had
+never yet entered their own house, as meetings were always hitherto
+arranged at Sir Arthur's; and a slight feeling of curiosity likewise
+helped him to the agreeable conclusion, that he must for once, and
+only once, call on the "Smythes," were it only to ascertain what sort
+of establishment they had.
+
+Punctual to the appointed hour, Captain De Crespigny's groom rang a
+consequential peal for his master at the gate of Rosemount Villa, such
+as had not been heard there since bells were invented, and after a
+considerable delay, the door was opened by a shabby awkward-looking
+Irish girl, speaking with a powerful brogue, who curtsied with an
+appearance of most preposterous respect to Captain De Crespigny as he
+alighted, and pointed up stairs, begging him to walk in, but without
+having an idea apparently that she ought herself to usher him into the
+drawing-room.
+
+Being always pretty confident of making himself welcome, Captain De
+Crespigny advanced, and in his usual gay, humorous tone, announced his
+own name at the drawing-room door, while he threw it open and entered.
+To his surprise, he now found himself in a small, not very splendidly
+furnished apartment, stretched on the only sofa belonging to which,
+there lounged, in solitary indolence, with a quite-at-home look, a
+young man whom he had never seen before. His aspect and dress were
+equally singular, presenting that happy mixture of the ruffian and
+gentleman, not very uncommon in Ireland. Attired in a military
+great-coat, he wore a most preposterous pair of whiskers and
+mustachios, long, coarse, and dirty, which looked as if they had been
+curled over knitting wires. Taking the last remnant of a cigar out of
+his mouth when the visitor entered, and showing not the smallest
+surprise, with a smile which betrayed a set of dingy, decayed teeth,
+and a very disfiguring squint, he watched the approaching step of
+Captain De Crespigny with a _degag_ look of indifference, saying, in a
+tone of easy familiarity,
+
+"Och! sure! I always knew a milithary man, for he enters with his lift
+foot first! Many deserters who would may-be have escaped, but the
+thrick betrayed 'em. A curious fact! Will ye be pleased to sit on your
+four quarthers, Captain?"
+
+A smile of contempt and ridicule curled on the haughty lip of Captain
+De Crespigny, while he proudly drew back, saying, in a tone of great
+reserve, and with the very slightest possible _soupcon_ of a bow,
+"Excuse me, sir, I must have mistaken the house!"
+
+"Arrah! not at all! not in the very laste. Sure! I'm here for the
+purpose!" exclaimed the stranger, starting up from his recumbent
+position with astonishing agility, and closing the door. "Isn't it
+relations we shall be before long, and why should we meet as
+strangers?"
+
+"Relations! what do you mean, sir? Here is some ridiculous blunder!"
+replied Captain De Crespigny, turning contemptuously on his heel.
+"Allow me to pass! Good morning!"
+
+"Well! relations or connexions, it's all one," continued the Irishman,
+with a look of easy good humor. "My aunt, Mrs. Smythe, dropped me a
+line to say I would be wanted about the settlement, though, for the
+matter of that, there is not much, I fancy, on either of your parts to
+settle. More gold on the outside of the pocket than the inside,
+Captain! Hey! excuse me! but as my aunt says, in the matther of money,
+we take the will for the deed!"
+
+"You must be slightly deranged, sir," interrupted Captain De
+Crespigny, in a tone of angry perplexity; "I have heard that a madman
+is loose about this neighborhood, and I need not go far, I see, to
+find him."
+
+"What! Hey! Sure you're not going to forswear all, or say thing you
+have said to my pretty cousin, Caroline. We do make short work of our
+courtships in Dublin, sure enough; but when my aunt told me this
+morning how soon you had come to the point with Caroline, and nothing
+left but to fix the day, I laughed ready to kill myself, and says I,
+'you beat all Ireland to sticks!'"
+
+"No more of this folly, sir!" exclaimed Captain De Crespigny, with
+rising irritation, and in his most peremptory tone. "Detain me here
+one moment longer, and I shall send you a shorter way down stairs than
+you ever tried before!"
+
+"Och, murder! you'll excuse me, sir, but I've not been dipped in the
+Shannon for nothing! This must all be settled as gintlemen usually
+settle these affairs in our counthry! Sure you met my cousin at Sir
+Arthur's many a time, and you'll not be afther denying that she
+convarsed with you every day for a matther of four hours!"
+
+"Perhaps she had that honor, but what then?"
+
+"Why thin, sir! such things as you said, from such a gintleman, are
+not easily to be forgotten!"
+
+"You are pleased to be complimentary!" replied Captain De Crespigny,
+turning round his magnificent head with an air of bitter contempt;
+"but what of that?"
+
+"I heartily wish," continued the Irishman, with a still stronger
+brogue than before, "that every young lady who meets with a gintleman
+such as you, had a cousin like Paddy Smythe to take up her cause, and
+I am as little to be thrifled with as any man in Ireland! The tongue
+that deceives me or mine shall never spake again. I have exchanged
+shots before now on a slighter occasion!"
+
+A momentary pause ensued, during which Captain De Crespigny frowned
+and bit his lip, in angry embarrassment, while, with a look of
+unutterable contempt and disgust, he eyed his companion, who thrust
+his hands into his ample pockets, and paced up and down the room with
+rapid strides and determined emphasis. At length, stopping opposite to
+his irritated companion, he eyed him for some moments with a look of
+stern reproach, saying, in a stronger Irish brogue than ever, and with
+a torrent of indignation, which gave almost the dignity of eloquence
+to what he uttered,
+
+"You think there are no feelings in the world to be consulted but your
+own! perhaps we may prove this a slight mistake! I have married seven
+of my cousins already to officers quarthered in our neighborhood at
+Limerick, and Caroline is the last! Captain Mortimer was introduced to
+Mary at the top of a country dance, and engaged her for life before he
+reached the bottom. Lieutenant Murray gave his arm to Bessy for the
+first time going down to dinner at Mrs. Fitz-Patrick's, and offered
+her his hand before the fish was off the table! We understand these
+things very soon in Ireland! and I would shed every drop of my blood
+before Caroline shall be disappointed!"
+
+Captain De Crespigny began now to feel seriously annoyed at his own
+position! Not having lately been quartered in Ireland, he had
+forgotten how such affairs are managed there, but at this moment a
+thousand recollections crowded upon him, of warnings he had received
+from his brother officers respecting the prudence and circumspection
+to be exercised beside the Shannon, though most of what they said, had
+been listened to with the same incredulous attention usually bestowed
+upon stories of ghosts and witchcraft. Here he was, however, snared
+like a fly in a spider's web, though without a single doubt of his own
+powers to escape, and with no stronger objection to call out this
+insolent ruffian beside him, than the publicity and ridicule he must
+inevitably incur, if involved in a vulgar every-day duel with a
+hot-headed Irishman.
+
+Seeing that the affair was likely to take a graver turn than he had
+imagined, Captain De Crespigny now slowly and resolutely strode
+towards the hearth-rug, and turning his back to the fire, in that
+attitude peculiar to Englishmen, calmly and sternly looked in the face
+of his insolent companion, whose lip became compressed with an air of
+fierce determination, while his dark eye glittered with a triumphant
+smile, and in an attitude of perfect _nonchalance_, he returned
+Captain De Crespigny gaze for gaze, while leisurely resuming his
+lounging attitude on the sofa. Neither gentleman seemed at all
+inclined to recommence the discussion immediately, and both looked
+equally angry, till the Irishman at length opened a pocket-book, to
+which, he frequently afterwards referred, with a business-like air,
+and in a tone of conscious triumph, saying,
+
+"Will you be afther denying all you said to my cousin only last
+night?"
+
+"I deny nothing, Sir, except the right you or any human being can
+have, with what I choose to say, five minutes after it has been
+uttered!" replied Captain De Crespigny, almost delirious with rage,
+and drawing in his breath between his clenched teeth, while the
+Irishman eyed him with provoking coolness, and merely muttered in
+reply, while still referring to the pocket-book,
+
+"That is not our way in Limerick! Scarcely one of my cousins had a
+case like this! Breach of promise! Sure it would fetch a verdict
+to-morrow; but the shortest way is the best! Why, Sir! you told my
+cousin, poor girl! that you wished there were not another man on the
+earth, in case she might prefer him to you!"
+
+"But luckily there are many, or she would have little chance of a
+husband!" replied Captain De Crespigny, almost beside himself with
+rage. "I have said the same thing a thousand times, to a thousand
+different young ladies, without expecting them ever to think of it
+more!"
+
+The Irishman looked away for a moment, as if some irresistible feeling
+had come over him, which he could scarcely suppress, and with a slight
+quiver in his voice, as if on the very eve of laughter, though Captain
+De Crespigny was too angry to notice it, he sang, while looking out of
+the window, these words, with a very marked emphasis,--
+
+"Erin, oh! Erin's the land of delight, Where the women all love, and
+the men they all fight."
+
+At length, Captain De Crespigny, losing all patience, followed his
+antagonist to the window, and said, in a tone of angry command,
+
+"Let there be a truce to this most contemptible farce! If you are a
+gentleman, which I very much doubt, send any respectable friend--a man
+of honor, if you happen by chance to know such a person--to my
+barracks, and before to-morrow I shall find, if possible, some
+blundering Irishman who can understand you, to settle this absurd
+affair."
+
+"That may soon be done," replied Mr. Smythe, "if I am not satisfied
+with your intentions."
+
+"Intentions!" re-echoed Captain De Crespigny, in a frenzy of contempt.
+"My intentions were merely to amuse myself for an hour or two with a
+rather pleasing young lady, and----"
+
+"Rather pleasing!! you may be proud of your gallantry!" replied the
+Irishman, with more real indignation in his voice, than it had yet
+exhibited. "Perhaps, Sir, being the lady's cousin----"
+
+"It is no matter who you are! I am not here to be questioned like a
+member before his constituents. I did not know the young lady had a
+relation on earth."
+
+"The more shame to you, Sir, for meaning to deceive her!" replied the
+Irishman in a tone of stern reproach. "If I were to get all Ireland
+for holding my tongue, you should hear the truth. But maybe you would
+be after giving me satisfaction in another way. I'm not such a wild
+beast as to thirst for blood, it can be done with pen and ink!"
+
+Captain De Crespigny fixed his eyes with stern contempt upon his free
+and easy companion, who passed his fingers through his long bushy wig,
+stretched his legs upon the sofa, and spoke with a yawning voice,
+while he added in a careless off-hand way, "If my cousin could only be
+persuaded you meant nothing from first to last, there's an ensign in
+the 42d, with very good prospects, she might have for the asking! Here
+is a paper. I prepared it in case you might object to the match; and
+if you'll only sign this assurance that you meant nothing, for the
+lady's own satisfaction, you are a free man. It will save us both a
+deal of bother and fighting. A man who has fought a dozen times like
+me, may go out once too often; and my pistols are all at Dublin!"
+
+Captain De Crespigny paused a moment, irresolute what to do. It was a
+condescension quite intolerable to have another moment's intercourse
+with such a man, and to sign any paper at his request, seemed almost a
+degradation; but then he saw before him a long vista of vulgar
+annoyance from this forward Irishman. He was aware that hundreds of
+gentlemen would laugh if the story got any publicity, and that dozens
+of young ladies would feel themselves aggrieved if it became
+circulated that his attentions had been so very marked to an obscure
+Miss Smythe.
+
+The tea-tables, the newspapers, the club, and the mess, were all to be
+dreaded; and seeing that the Irishman had, with an air of perfect
+_nonchalance_, buried himself behind a double number of the "Times,"
+which he seemed to be attentively reading, Captain De Crespigny glanced
+his eye over the paper, and finding that it contained only a short and
+simple declaration that he never had intended to marry the young lady
+introduced to him by Sir Charles Dunbar, he hastily signed his name,
+tossed the paper contemptuously across the table, and with infinite
+dignity, strode out of the house.
+
+Great was his surprise, when descending the staircase, to hear, in the
+room he had so recently left a simultaneous burst of smothered
+laughter from several persons. He could not be mistaken! It seemed
+even as if there were female voices in the number; but almost
+bewildered with anger, and happy also to escape, he hastened onwards,
+threw himself on horseback, and galloped for three hours before he had
+regained any portion of his usual equanimity.
+
+Had Captain De Crespigny followed his first impulse, on hearing the
+laughter behind him, it would have been to retrace his steps and
+re-enter the drawing-room of Mrs. Smythe, when his astonishment would
+certainly not have been small to see Henry De Lancey laughingly
+disencumbering himself of his whiskers, wig, and mustachios, while
+Mrs. Smith exclaimed, in accents of almost convulsive risibility,
+
+"Well done, my adopted nephew! You deserve to be my heir! I have often
+heard that my old aversion Louis De Crespigny's exploits were
+inimitable in his line; but we needed such a specimen as this. I
+bestow the fright upon him with all the pleasure in life!"
+
+"I only hope, if we ever, in the course of years, meet again, that my
+cousin will not recognise me," added Caroline, smiling. "It was not
+particularly flattering to see Louis in so much alarm! Yesterday,
+however, when he saw me last, I was certainly looking my very worst."
+
+"Your worst is better than the best of anybody else," exclaimed Henry,
+in a tone so exactly resembling that of Captain De Crespigny, that
+Mrs. Smythe started, and looked round with alarm; while Caroline and
+young De Lancey burst into a simultaneous laugh of frolicsome glee,
+and continued the dialogue during several minutes, with great spirit
+and vivacity, till Henry suddenly became conscious, that in imagining
+the words of another, he was gradually betrayed into expressing his
+own real feelings, and that, too, with a depth and fervor which
+sincerity alone could have dictated.
+
+Checking himself in a moment, while the color rushed to his face,
+dyeing it red to the very roots of his hair, and instantly receded
+again, he took a hurried leave of Mrs. Smythe, and turning to Caroline
+with a quivering lip, he said, in a voice which none but herself could
+hear, "I must not say in jest what I feel in earnest! Farewell! There
+are wishes known only to my own heart, and never to be realized, which
+I must try to forget. You go to-morrow, and we shall probably meet no
+more! Forgive me, then, if I say, that so long as I live you shall be
+first in my most respectful and devoted affections; and death only can
+ever make me forget you."
+
+Before Henry left the ante-room, being in search of his hat, he found
+it laid beside an open portfolio on the table, which, having, in his
+haste, accidentally thrown down, he began hastily collecting its
+contents, when his surprise was great, on turning up one sheet of the
+drawing paper, to find there a finely-executed sketch, done with all
+the skill and spirit of an accomplished artist, representing the
+venerable head of Sir Arthur; and on the same paper--could it be
+possible!--an almost living representation of himself. The likeness
+very much flattered, he thought--exceedingly flattered; but still it
+could be no other; and the picture dropped from his hand in the
+transport of his delight.
+
+Henry again returned to the portfolio, hurriedly turning the leaves
+over; and amidst a variety of superbly-finished miniatures, he found
+his own countenance over and over again grouped in animated contrast
+with that of Sir Arthur. His heart throbbed with joy, when, after
+hastily turning to the title-page, he discovered, according to his
+hopes and wishes, the name of Caroline Smythe; and he leaned his head
+on his hand, contemplating that name in silent ecstacy, while
+indulging for one moment the pleasing, but perhaps presumptuous hope,
+that he had been remembered with unacknowledged partiality, and that
+the secret was here portrayed with her own pencil.
+
+He was about then to withdraw, when suddenly the raised and irritated
+tones of Mrs. Smythe became unavoidably audible to him, from the room
+he had so recently left, saying, in accents of angry remonstrance,
+
+"That look of girlish joy when he comes, and the sadness of your eye
+when he departs, might betray it to any one less interested than
+myself; but he has met few ladies hitherto, and on his part it is a
+mere boyish fancy, which, if properly discouraged, will of itself wear
+out."
+
+Henry had fled to avoid hearing what was not intended for him, before
+Caroline replied, in a low, agitated voice,
+
+"I think and hope you are mistaken; but his constancy and
+disinterestedness shall be tried and proved. I would rather any man
+should cut my throat for money, than marry me for it. A girl of
+fortune, like Midas, turns all who look on her into gold; and I am not
+a gem to attract many lovers, without a very brilliant setting. I have
+a romantic desire to be chosen for myself alone--a vain dream perhaps
+never to be realized, unless young De Lancey prove constant. If not, I
+mean to declare war upon all mankind--to be a perfect Captain De
+Crespigny for flirtations!--to talk to gentlemen, ridicule, mortify,
+and humble them!--to do everything, in short, but love or marry any
+one of them!"
+
+Though Caroline spoke these words in a tone of lively _badinage_,
+there was a tremulous bitterness in her manner, as she turned away,
+and contemptuously threw upon the table a massive gold chain which she
+usually wore, saying, "Lovers! I'll get fifty, and break the heart of
+every one of them!"
+
+When Captain De Crespigny next visited Portobello, during a review
+of his regiment, he was surprised to see the well-remembered windows
+of Rosemount Villa closed, and a ticket suspended over the door,
+intimating that it was "to be sold or let, furnished or unfurnished;
+entrance immediately; rent moderate!" and with a feeling of relief he
+dismissed the whole affair from his thoughts, and the whole family of
+Smythes from his memory for ever, while humming one of his favorite
+airs,
+
+    "It is good to be merry and wise,
+    It is good to be honest and true;
+    It is good to be off with the old love,
+    Before you be on with the new."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Among the companions of Agnes and Marion Dunbar, none was more
+calculated to excite a feeling of enthusiastic tenderness and regard
+than Clara Granville, whom all approached with a feeling of nearly
+romantic interest, occasioned by the etherealized delicacy of her
+lovely countenance and fragile form. Sir Patrick, from her earliest
+childhood, had always mentioned Clara in terms of such exaggerated
+enthusiasm, that Agnes, imagining his taste to be very different,
+believed him to be more than half in jest, though his language and
+manner seemed daily to become more in earnest, while in terms of
+rapture he admired her eloquent and intelligent conversation, so
+different from the flippant nonsense of most girls, and the light
+gracefulness of her step, saying she looked like some beautiful
+apparition, less encumbered with body, and more endowed with spirit,
+than any one who ever before stepped upon the earth. Her pale golden
+hair, falling like a halo round her fair bright countenance, and the
+rare beauty of her large downcast eyes, which were generally veiled
+with a look of deep thought and sensibility, gave a charm so peculiar
+to her aspect, that the eye loved to dwell upon it as upon some lovely
+twilight scene, over which the light of heaven was casting its pure
+and peaceful, yet fading refulgence. None looked at Clara without
+fearing that she could not be long intended for this world, as the
+fervor of her mind and feelings appeared so little in proportion to
+the extreme delicacy of her complexion, which was tinted like a
+rose-leaf on her transparent cheek, the color flitting with every
+passing emotion. It did indeed seem as if the sword within must
+quickly wear out the scabbard; yet Clara enjoyed society beyond
+measure, and mingled in it with a zest which caused Sir Patrick often
+to say she must be stronger certainly than she looked, and there was
+nothing, he thought, more odious in a woman than rude health--a sort
+of rudeness never certainly attributable to Miss Granville.
+
+Agnes's favorite aversion had always been Clara, formerly her
+cotemporary and rival at school, though the rivalship was only felt on
+one side, as Miss Granville would have remained unconscious of its
+very existence, but for the bitter taunts occasionally levelled at
+her, and the tone of evident irritability in which Agnes took it
+always for granted that the jealousy was mutual, attributing thoughts
+and motives perpetually to her gentle companion, of which so amiable
+and well-regulated a disposition was incapable. It may generally be
+observed, that many more quarrels arise from people wilfully taking
+offence, than from people wilfully giving it; and there is quite as
+much ill-temper in the one case as in the other. Clara had suffered
+much on account of her every inadvertent word or action being
+purposely misconstrued; but she very properly viewed the annoyance as
+a salutary lesson in circumspection, before entering the great arena
+of society, and mildly avoided all collision of interests or opinions
+with Agnes, though her whole powers of conciliation on the part of Sir
+Patrick gave his sister reason to apprehend that his affections might
+by possibility be engaged to her. Nothing could be more painfully
+irritating than the tone of contempt with which Agnes "spoke at" Clara
+respecting the art and cunning with which some manoeuvring misses
+endeavored to push their fortune in the matrimonial world, by making
+advances to gentlemen, which she would despise herself for
+condescending to, and that lookers on see more of the game than is
+intended. All this was said in such an accidental tone, and in such
+general terms, that no decided notice could be taken of it by Clara,
+who nevertheless felt so painful a consciousness of what was meant and
+insinuated, that she ceased almost entirely to visit Agnes, or to
+associate with her.
+
+About the time when Mrs. Smythe left Portobello, Sir Patrick returned
+from spending a month at Lady Towercliffe's in Fife, evidently
+laboring under a depression of spirits very unusual with him; and when
+Agnes, perplexed by observing that he did not attempt to throw off the
+cloud of melancholy, tinged very strongly with ill-humor, which had so
+suddenly come over him, tried to guess or discover the cause, she
+found it for some time impossible to gain a glimpse of the truth,
+though she asked as many questions as might have filled a volume of
+Pinnock's Catechisms.
+
+At length, after some miscellaneous conversation one day, Agnes
+inquired for the twentieth time whether the party in Fife had been
+agreeable, when Sir Patrick shortly and drily replied,
+
+"Clara Granville was there!"
+
+"But had you any new beauties?"
+
+"Clara Granville!"
+
+"Pshaw! Well, then! were there any agreeable people?"
+
+"Clara Granville!"
+
+"You are beyond all bearing absurd and tormenting, Pat!" continued
+Agnes, with a contemptuous toss of her head; "but I may at least
+venture with impunity to ask, were any of the ladies well dressed?"
+
+"Clara Granville!"
+
+"That ends my curiosity on the subject of your visit," replied Agnes,
+angrily affecting to yawn. "Never try to persuade me you care for
+Clara. She is the most unflirtable girl in the world! As cold as a
+statue of ice in an east wind! She has the most tiresome style of
+prettiness that can be conceived, with that alabaster paleness, that
+petrifying calmness of manner, and a heart like a cucumber! The very
+style of her dress is wearying, with not a color that one could give a
+name to; and then her long undertoned tete-a-tete conversations about
+nobody knows what, as dull and monotonous as a dinner-bell, never
+enlivened with a bit of gossip, nor spiced with any scandal! There is
+a whole "Society for the suppression of vice" in her eye every time
+she looks at one! She would evidently be terrified for the echo of her
+own voice, and never yet committed the indiscretion of a laugh!"
+
+"Are you done?" asked Sir Patrick, in a tone of concentrated anger,
+which would have silenced any one but Agnes.
+
+"Done! I could speak for two hours without telling you half how little
+I think of Clara Granville!" said she, in a paroxysm of eloquence.
+"One comfort is, however, she will never take!"
+
+"But Clara has already 'taken,' as you elegantly express yourself,"
+exclaimed Sir Patrick, who had been walking vehemently up and down the
+room during this tirade from Agnes, and now stood opposite to her,
+with a look of angry defiance. "Clara is surpassingly lovely! Her
+portrait should be the frontispiece to Finden's next Book of Beauty!
+She has the loveliness of a seraph!"
+
+"Certainly, if you mean that she looks as if the first breath of wind
+would blow her down! like an overgrown geranium, that should be tied
+up to a stick!"
+
+"Clara is delicate and graceful as the first frail blossoms of
+spring," interrupted Sir Patrick. "She has but one fault in the world,
+and that is, being faultless! Clara is worth a whole creation of
+ordinary girls! That look of mild serenity, and those deep, thoughtful
+eyes, looking as serene as the blue firmament above. Her every
+attitude is what a Guido might have delighted to paint. Agnes, there
+is music and rapture in every tone of her voice! At Lady Towercliffe's
+no one was looked at, nor spoken to, but Miss Granville! She stole
+into all hearts, without any man guessing his danger till too late!
+Everybody admired, or, I should rather, say, loved her!"
+
+"You are 'everybody,' then, I suppose, for I never heard of any one
+else, who for half a moment thought her tolerable. All this nonsense
+is merely to tease me, Pat. Do confess it at once, and be serious!"
+
+"That I never am when I can help it!"
+
+"Well, then, let it always be a jest and I have no objection to call
+up a laugh, if it be your humor; but I would engage to walk out of the
+world at once, whenever Clara has a serious, downright proposal from
+any presentable-looking man, such as one would not be ashamed to sit
+in a room with!"
+
+"What do you think of me, Agnes?" asked Sir Patrick, walking straight
+up to her and looking his sister full in the face, with a momentary
+attempt to be facetious, while his countenance betrayed considerable
+agitation. "Would you be much astonished if I had made her an offer?"
+
+"Nonsense, Pat! I would disown you for a brother! Now, do not look
+like an ogre at me! You will say any absurdity in jest!"
+
+"You know, Agnes, I have been a month in the house lately with Clara!"
+replied Sir Patrick, in a voice which sounded by no means like jest;
+"and that month was more than a lifetime in showing me the worth of a
+real and heartfelt attachment. Even I, mercenary as I am, could value
+it more than gold! I date the beginning of my existence from the hour
+I first knew her. There is a depth of mind and heart in the character
+of Clara Granville, utterly incomprehensible to ordinary observers.
+She does everything well, and says everything with a grace peculiarly
+her own. Her manner is the very essence of fascination. Every other
+person seems coarse and vulgar in comparison; and I even feel so
+myself! I know you will treat me to a cannonade of abuse against
+Clara; but that is no matter now," added Sir Patrick, in a tone of
+deep dejection; "perhaps it may do me good!"
+
+"Wonders occur every hour of every day, but this is the greatest of
+all!" observed Agnes, drily. "I never thought you would commit such a
+piece of disinterested nonsense, as to fall in love, gratis, with any
+penniless girl, and least of all with Clara. If you were to choose
+among all the young ladies I know, blindfold, you could scarcely
+choose one more unsuitable! If this indeed be true, Clara may be proud
+of her conquest!"
+
+"She ought!" replied Sir Patrick, glancing at his own magnificent head
+in a mirror; "but being in many respects peculiar, she by no means
+appreciated the honor as you expect!"
+
+"You are possessed by the very genius of nonsense to-day, Pat! but if
+such a catch as you were to fall in Clara Granville's way, I should
+like to see her and all her family, not more than happy on the
+occasion!"
+
+"Well, then! open your ears of astonishment, Agnes! She has actually
+rather refused me than otherwise! I am positively more in love with
+Clara, than language can express! I could pursue her to the very ends
+of the earth! I must, and shall marry her! I would shoot myself
+to-morrow, if I thought there could be doubt of it," exclaimed Sir
+Patrick, vehemently, while Agnes became gradually as grave as night.
+"Clara at first actually accepted me! She was your sister-in-law
+elect, for three long and happy weeks, and I did not think life could
+have given me so much to live for; but she afterwards most perversely
+and unaccountably revoked! What do you think was the reason, Agnes, of
+all reasons in the world!"
+
+"I am bad at guessing absurdities," replied Agnes, who would have
+hurled a more angry answer at her brother, had she dared. "Whatever
+might be the cause, it was very lucky for you, who may, if you know
+your own value, make the first match in the kingdom!"
+
+"Well, then! actually that she thought my religious principles not
+sufficiently serious! That her brother disapproved of my morals and
+conduct! I offered her any terms! To attend chapel with her once every
+Sunday; to refrain from Sunday dinners, and Sunday travelling! Not even
+to ride out on horseback that day; and, in short, to pass Sir Andrew's
+whole Sunday bill in my house; but it did not satisfy her! What would
+they have!" continued Sir Patrick, gnawing his lip with vexation. "I
+gave her a _carte blanche_ to put my name down as a subscriber to as
+many tract, missionary, and slave-abolition societies, as she pleased,
+and asked her how many distressed families she wished me to maintain."
+
+"How excessively handsome!" said Agnes, satirically. "All I need say
+is, it was very genteel!"
+
+"Yet Clara persevered in giving me a plump decline! No wonder you look
+incredulous! I can scarcely yet believe it myself! This shall not
+last, however! I felt piqued at first, and left her. I am always too
+soon, or too late, in all I do; but it must be tried again and again!
+I would rather live without the sun and stars, than without Clara
+Granville! The very repetition of her name is a pleasure! Agnes, what
+can you do to assist me!"
+
+"Assist! I shall do everything in the world to bring you back your
+senses, Pat! Rather than see that grave, priggish, matter-of-fact,
+Clara, my sister-in-law, I would----"
+
+Agnes could not, at the moment, think of any illustration sufficiently
+strong to exemplify her abhorrence of such a catastrophe, and twisted
+her ringlets over her finger for some moments, in dignified and
+portentous silence. At length she said, with an air of supreme
+contempt, "You know, Pat! Clara Granville has not a shilling in the
+wide world!--never had! At school she used to be like a bale of cotton
+from the manufactories; cotton stockings, pink gingham frocks, and
+horrid grey beaver gloves! She once had a silk dress, and it was
+turned, I think, three times!"
+
+"Fiddlesticks and nonsense! So much the better! She will be an
+excellent wife for a poor man; and poor enough I shall soon be! You
+need not argue with a milestone, but put a good face on the matter in
+time, Agnes; for during all the four thousand years that men have been
+falling in love, and marrying, I believe no one ever did so merely to
+please his sister, and I am not the man to begin! In most respects, I
+may, perhaps, be sordidly anxious for money, but in the matter of love
+I have taken the whim of being disinterested. If Clara had the Bank of
+England for her portion, I could not love her more. As for heiresses,
+I hear the only one worth a thought, Miss Howard Smytheson, with her
+million a-year, is bespoke to order for De Crespigny."
+
+"Perhaps he has taken the whim of being disinterested also!" replied
+Agnes, arranging a favorite curl with great complacency at a mirror.
+"His uncle is very arbitrary; and like all uncles, continues for ever
+to think his nephew a perfect boy. He threatened lately to marry
+himself, if Captain De Crespigny declined! That old dot has some
+spirit! He seems not to be aware that there is such a thing in the
+world for himself as a refusal; and certainly, Pat, I can scarcely
+fancy the woman in existence who could refuse you. I hardly know
+whether to wonder most that Clara had the opportunity, or that she had
+the inclination!"
+
+"The whim will soon wear off! She loves me, that is certain; but if
+even she hated me, it would make no difference in my attachment. I like
+her the better for showing some spirit, and great disinterestedness.
+Clara's conduct was like herself, beautiful. Her affections are mine!
+I see it, and no earthly power can tear her from me! I would follow
+her to the very grave."
+
+Sir Patrick did not by any means find Clara's resolutions, which were
+formed upon principle, of such very malleable materials as he had
+prophesied. His own feelings were, on all occasions, like a whirlwind;
+and his eagerness, excited to excess by opposition, became unbounded
+to meet Clara, or to catch the most distant glimpse of her
+shadow,--but in vain. Day after day he contrived to pass beneath her
+window, but she had adopted invisibility; and evening after evening,
+he obliged Agnes, greatly against her inclination, to send the very
+kindest notes of invitation, which he dictated himself, asking her to
+the house; but the polite apology which invariably returned, might
+almost have been lithographed, it became so frequently necessary; yet
+still Sir Patrick persevered and hoped, saying one day, in a voice of
+irritability and depression, to Agnes, "It seems as if we were
+destined never to see Clara again!"
+
+"That would be too much happiness," exclaimed Agnes peevishly;
+twisting Clara's last reply into a thousand shapes and tossing it into
+the fire. "This is all so like you, Pat! You invent a thousand reasons
+for wishing something till it is obtained, and then you care for it no
+more! If Clara Granville consented, you would be, like Sir Peter
+Teazle, 'the most miserable man alive before people were done wishing
+you joy!' Men are all so changeable and selfish!"
+
+"Whether are men or women most selfish, I should like to know?"
+
+"Men, decidedly! From six years old, till sixty, they seem born and
+brought up to think of no one's comfort but their own, and they always
+marry to please themselves!"
+
+"Of course! and very right they should!"
+
+Agnes had now got upon a favorite subject of declamation, the
+selfishness of mankind,--for those who are selfish or ill-tempered
+themselves, live always under the delusion that they are the only
+persons living entirely exempt from such faults,--but her eloquence
+now soon left her "in possession of the house," as Sir Patrick made a
+rapid retreat, followed by that very effective slamming of the door,
+so infallible a receipt for obtaining the last word in an argument,
+and for asserting in undoubted terms, a very decided view of the
+subject in question.
+
+Though Sir Patrick Dunbar had long been known as a Tattersall and
+Doncaster man, yet Clara Granville had little suspected that his name
+was implicated in transactions of rather an equivocal complection,
+while the good-natured half of the world persevered in calling it
+scandal, being unwilling very severely to censure the peccadilloes of
+the handsomest and most agreeable man in their circle of society,
+living only for the enjoyment of the senses and the happiness of the
+present hour, while he thought it too long a look-out to anticipate
+what might happen the day after to-morrow. In respect to Sir Patrick's
+reputation, a vague understanding seemed to prevail that all was not
+right, yet no explicit explanation seemed ever to be obtained.
+
+    Some thing there was--what, none presumed to say,
+    Clouds lightly passing as the summer day.
+
+There are not only faults in the very best characters, but redeeming
+qualities also in the very worst, and with much selfishness, the
+result of a perverted education, the handsome and fascinating Sir
+Patrick had naturally a good temper and excitable affections, though
+these were wound up occasionally to the wildest excess, while his
+fortune was not more recklessly squandered than his attachment in the
+momentary impulse of an hour.
+
+As, therefore, no man is so thoroughly excellent as to be without
+errors, neither is any living mortal so depraved as to be without
+virtues, and the utmost extreme, in one respect or the other, will
+only be perfected in an eternal world. It often seems to an observer,
+as if two opposite beings had been kneaded into one, since qualities
+so contradictory may be traced in the same individual.
+
+Though Sir Patrick Dunbar was eager and rapacious in acquiring money,
+and would incur any meanness to avoid paying it, he seemed,
+nevertheless, lavish, and what some people mis-called generous, in
+squandering what he called his own. Though cold and selfish in
+general, some fine impulses had been in his nature, which proved him
+capable of vehement, persevering, and passionate attachment, where his
+affections, or rather his fancy, had been once engaged; while, at the
+same time, he was more ashamed to testify any feeling than he would
+have been to commit a crime, and endeavored to blind people towards
+that sensibility which was in reality the redeeming point in his
+character, by talking often with the utmost contempt and even ridicule
+of all those for whom he might have been supposed to feel the weakness
+of a real attachment.
+
+Sir Patrick had indeed been, what his companions called, "fairly
+caught," by Clara; and his heart, till now hermetically sealed against
+all real confidence and friendship, was now for the first time
+unclosed, in its inmost recesses, while even his hackneyed mind seemed
+to catch a ray of light and warmth from the sunny freshness and purity
+of Clara's intellectual mind. Her intelligent conversation, enlivened
+by a vein of sly pleasing humor, had completely taken him by surprise,
+being as fresh and gentle as a summer breeze, while her appearance, so
+young, timid, and lovely, caused the eye to rest on her with a
+sentiment of almost melancholy interest. Clara had only emerged from
+school, finally, a few days before Sir Patrick met her at Lady
+Towercliffe's, and her extreme naivete was her first attraction,
+though that was superseded before long by still greater admiration,
+while he became hourly more fascinated by her melancholy songs and
+thoughtful conversation.
+
+To Clara, Sir Patrick had only hitherto been known as a school
+companion of her brother's, but so conscientiously did Richard
+Granville invariably abstain from evil-speaking, that, even where
+justice might have warranted the severest censure, he merely became
+silent. It is observable that, in the wisdom of Providence, nothing is
+made in vain. Even the very weeds that encumber our path have, when
+under proper restraint, their important uses, and in the mind of man,
+the tendency implanted by nature, to discuss and criticize the conduct
+of others, has, when properly exercised, its own advantages, by acting
+as a salutary restraint on the conduct of those who would otherwise do
+evil with impunity, and by also giving a timely warning, and hanging
+out a beacon-light to those who would otherwise trust their interest
+and happiness where such confidence was unmerited, and where all
+contact is dangerous.
+
+Captain De Crespigny's jilting propensities were the less dangerous,
+from their being so generally discussed in society, as few were
+willing that the unwary should suffer, rather than his faults be
+exposed to censure; but Mr. Granville, by not giving his sister timely
+warning against the dissipated extravagance and almost infidel
+principles of his old school-companion, had now, unfortunately exposed
+her to a danger he had not anticipated, as it never occurred to his
+imagination, in its wildest fancies, that the reckless, dissolute Sir
+Patrick, who had long sneered at marriage, and even broken that holy
+tie for others, might find a charm in the pure, calm, high-minded
+Clara, which raised him above his ordinary self, and made him appear
+all she could most like or admire. During their earlier intercourse,
+she saw nothing in his conversation to disapprove, because Sir Patrick
+most unintentionally deceived her into a belief of his being very
+different from what he really was, owing to the respect with which he
+treated all her opinions; and only when he talked to others, did she
+become startled occasionally by the tone of careless defiance with
+which he spoke of all those persons and things which she was most
+accustomed to reverence and esteem. Before long, his attachment had
+become so unbounded, that, conscious he could not obtain Clara's hand
+if she knew his real character, he assumed all that seemed most likely
+to secure her confidence, and, for the pleasure of being with her,
+attended church regularly on Sunday at the village. Clara was
+astonished at his evident ignorance of the forms of devotion; yet
+knowing his education had been finished by a clergyman, she supposed
+he must have imbibed a due respect for the ordinances; while Lady
+Towercliffe, indulging her usual jobbing propensities, was enchanted
+to make up a match of any kind in her own house, and praised Sir
+Patrick as the most immaculate and perfect of men.
+
+Clara's intimacy with Sir Patrick had been continually increasing for
+some time, before his attention became so very obvious as to excite
+her peculiar interest, or to make her conscious of a necessity for
+inquiring into the state of her own heart; but, upon doing so, she
+became instantly aware of the deep hold he had acquired over her
+thoughts and affections. His frank, off-hand, good-humored manner had
+pleased her, his amusing conversation had enlivened her, and at length
+his ardent professions of attachment interested her deeply, being
+expressed with all the eloquence of natural feeling.
+
+Clara, in the gloomy recesses of Mrs. Penfold's school-room, had
+learned nothing of the world, and her heart at once, therefore,
+endowed Sir Patrick with all those amiable qualities which he assumed,
+while she yielded herself to the most pleasing of all earthly dreams,
+that of loving and being beloved by one who seemed to deserve and to
+return her attachment; while her sole hesitation in accepting the
+offer he soon after made of his hand, arose from her doubts, whether,
+in the chief essential to mutual happiness, in religious faith, hope,
+and morality, they were so far of similar mind as to afford a
+well-grounded prospect of happiness.
+
+In almost undoubting confidence of a satisfactory answer, Clara wrote
+to consult her brother, then studying for holy orders at Oxford,
+in whose opinion, on all occasions, she implicitly relied; and it
+was with grief and astonishment, which no words could describe, that
+she received a reply, in which Mr. Granville, with affectionate
+earnestness, reproached himself for not having explicitly laid open to
+her the character of his former companion and _ci-devant_ friend, who
+was, he grieved to say, a ruined gamester--a bankrupt in fame, as much
+as in fortune, dreaded by the most respectable among women, and shunned
+by the most respectable among men, even by his kind, indulgent, but
+high-minded uncle, Sir Arthur,--an open scoffer frequently at the
+decencies of life, and still more at its most sacred duties and hopes.
+"Sir Patrick makes no secret of his profligacy," continued Mr.
+Granville, "showing the most flagrant dishonesty in the only way a
+gentleman can be tempted to do so, by not paying his debts, while many
+poor tradesmen have already been ruined by his extravagance; and he has
+openly entered into a perfect crusade against religion and morality. In
+short, my dear Clara, Sir Patrick is by no means to be trusted with the
+happiness of another, and least of all with yours, being a confirmed
+roue, still pursuing the very wildest career of unprincipled
+dissipation. Many have already had reason to mourn they ever trusted
+him or knew him, for he is the very reverse of all you believe and
+wish. It would be extravagant to waste a hope upon the reformation of a
+reckless libertine, who thus outrages every law of God and man; and
+often have you and I agreed, that it was a thing not to be conceived, a
+woman who rightly valued her immortal soul placing herself under the
+authority and influence of a husband who did not! The risk is too
+great; and how much better to suffer now the sorrow of a separation,
+than to endure the long agony of an unsuitable union, for which your
+own heart and conscience would continually upbraid you. If the
+tenderest affection of a brother can in any degree compensate for the
+sacrifice, you need not be told, my dear Clara, that I shall bestow it
+upon you more lavishly than ever; and it will be my first earthly wish,
+as well as my sacred duty, to render you happier than you could ever be
+with a man of principles--, or rather of no principles,--like Sir
+Patrick!"
+
+Had the grave opened at Clara's feet, she could scarcely have been
+more startled and astonished than by the contents of this most
+unforeseen letter, the first unwelcome line ever received from
+Richard. She could have borne anything but to find her lover
+unprincipled or unworthy; and a wintry chill seemed to gather round
+her heart, while, with a stifled groan which struggled for utterance,
+she covered her face with her hand, and sank back upon a sofa. By a
+powerful effort, Clara preserved herself from fainting--she was
+resolved not to faint, and she did not--but in the secret chamber of
+her heart all was darkness, loneliness, and grief. Visions of earthly
+happiness had glittered for a time, in brightest coloring, before her
+mind; but now they must be blotted out by her tears. They all lay
+prostrate and disfigured at her feet, scorched and blasted as if by
+lightning; and her heart, bewildered by a multitude of thoughts and
+emotions, seemed full almost to bursting.
+
+Clara wept many bitter tears over her letter, and she not only wept
+but acted. Without delay, Clara prepared to return to the relation
+with whom, during her brother's absence, she usually found a home; and
+before her departure, not only wrote to Sir Patrick, stating in terms
+of touching grief, all her reasons for so suddenly and unwillingly
+withdrawing from her engagement to him; but she had a long and most
+afflicting interview with him, vainly endeavoring to convince her
+lover, that their total incompatibility of sentiment raised a barrier
+between them, which forbade the possibility of their union.
+
+Sir Patrick became nearly frantic with vexation, while he could not
+but admire the beautiful grace of her manner, and the sorrowful
+modulations of her voice when she spoke, yet unconscious how
+completely the gentle Clara was ruled by principle as with a sceptre
+of iron, he seemed utterly unable to comprehend why his talking
+carelessly, or even contemptuously of religion, should in any degree
+affect the preference which she had once confessed for him, and which
+he felt assured she still entertained. With passionate vehemence he
+urged the depth of his attachment, and his total indifference to
+everything in life but herself, while he warmly protested that she,
+and she only, could complete the reformation which her own influence
+had already begun.
+
+"You love me, Clara, and would cast me off for ever! Impossible! Let
+us forget all my early indiscretions--my vices, then, if it must be
+so--but why should every leaf of my past life be turned over now!
+Since we met I have been an altered being! I am astonished even at
+myself! If I have deceived you, it is because I deceived myself, but
+now I am entirely in your power. Use it then kindly, and forget all
+but my attachment; I have staked my whole happiness in life on the
+hope of your accepting me. The wish to deserve you shall be a
+sufficient motive to fit me for all the duties of life. Without you I
+shall have no object, no hope, not even a home, for never more shall I
+have one unless you share it. Clara, let me throw myself on your
+compassion, if not on your love."
+
+"Oh no!" said Clara, hurriedly, yet with a look of pale and tearful
+distress, "I dare not hesitate! All must be as I have said. It will be
+most for the happiness of both!"
+
+"Happiness! speak not to me of happiness without you! It is a mockery!
+Every tie to peace or virtue would then be ruptured."
+
+"There are better ties to virtue and stronger," whispered Clara, in a
+faltering voice, while she gasped for utterance, and a glow-like
+sunset was on her cheek.
+
+"No! no! not for me! There may be amusement, frivolity, gaiety, and
+dissipation; but I never understood the real meaning of happiness till
+we met. My whole thoughts, feelings, and character have been
+revolutionized to please you, Clara, but your influence alone could
+snatch me from evil--from myself--from all on which I have hitherto
+wasted my existence. For your sake, and for yours alone, I could be
+all, and more than you wish. Years spent in your society shall prove
+the extent of your influence."
+
+"By trusting to such a hope, many, like me, have wrecked their whole
+peace both now and hereafter," said Clara, trying to speak with
+firmness, but her voice became almost inaudible. "If it were the same
+thing to will as to do, I have not a doubt of your sincerity; but the
+mere resolution to change established habits, unless the power be
+derived from above, is only an air-built castle to which I dare not
+trust. It would be easy still to indulge myself in romantic schemes of
+domestic happiness, such as I have lately anticipated, but these hopes
+could only be blossoms without root or durability, unless they arise
+from firm principles of religion. Without such a cement happiness has
+neither worth nor durability."
+
+"Clara! you have never loved as I do!" exclaimed Sir Patrick
+reproachfully. "I never did, and never can express half what I feel;
+but you do not yet know the heart you so cruelly undervalue! It seems
+now as if you would rather cut off your hand than bestow it on me!"
+
+"Perhaps in future years--" stammered Clara. "We are both young; and
+if, for your own sake, you alter in some respects, we might yet look
+forward to--to----"
+
+"Speak not of delay! that is worse than death! I never in my life
+could endure suspense! No! it must--it shall be now, or never!"
+
+"Never, then," replied Clara, in a low, husky, indistinct voice,
+while, in spite of herself, tears rolled over her face. "It ought
+indeed to be never! Forget me, as if I were already dead! I must only
+consent to pass my life with a confirmed and consistent Christian,
+completely master of himself and of his actions. If we lived for each
+other, I should have a thousand anxieties, regrets, and sorrows, which
+you could neither foresee nor understand! Oh no! I must only love on
+earth one whom I may hope to love hereafter for ever!"
+
+"Must it be my misfortune, Clara, to have known you?" exclaimed Sir
+Patrick, with agitated energy. "Do you not see that with me, to know
+excellence is to love it, and that if we were constantly together, I
+should always be like you. The loss of honor, fortune, or reputation,
+I might endure; but your loss I cannot, and will not. Tell me, then,
+are my whole affections to be buried in darkness, never to see a
+dawn?"
+
+"If my happiness in this world only were at hazard, I would venture
+all for your sake?" replied Clara, in a low, gentle, tremulous voice.
+"I feel grateful for your attachment--more than grateful; but marriage
+is so very awful and sacred a tie! to devote every early thought,
+every feeling, every hope, every hour of my life to one! I could not
+and dare not enter on such a duty, without a perfect and unalterable
+confidence. I feel that to be united in love and duty where I did not
+esteem is a misfortune I could not survive--which I could scarcely
+even wish to survive. In giving you my heart, as I have already done,
+I ventured my all of worldly happiness on that one stake, and have
+lost it; but there are better hopes and higher duties, which bind me
+to follow them, even though death were the consequence."
+
+Sir Patrick clenched his hands vehemently together, while his
+countenance burned, and muttering a curse between his teeth, which
+chilled the blood of Clara in her veins, he walked about the room with
+rapidly-increasing excitement, till at length stopping before her, he
+said, in accents of angry reproach, "You have spoken my doom, Clara,
+and only from your own lips would I have believed it."
+
+Clara buried her face in her hands, and feeling that her high-wrought
+fortitude was giving way, she hurried towards the door; but as she
+tremblingly endeavored to open it, Sir Patrick again seized her hand,
+saying, "You are mine, Clara; you are bound by a promise that must not
+be broken!"
+
+"I shall never give myself to another," said she, still hastening
+away. "Be happy in making others happy. May you yet find one who loves
+you as I have done, and who shall not hereafter find the same reasons
+for giving you up. I shall pray for you, and rejoice in all the good I
+hear. Farewell."
+
+No words could do justice to the silent agony of Clara's young heart,
+when, in solitary grief, she retraced her whole intimacy with Sir
+Patrick, and reflected that she had bid a last adieu to one whom she
+must not esteem, and yet could not but love. All that this world could
+offer she had rejected for conscience sake. A cold frost seemed to
+gather around her spirit, while, trembling and depressed, she viewed
+the desolation of all her lately cherished hopes; and amidst the
+ruined fabric of her happiness, she now seemed like some solitary
+pillar, surrounded by the broken fragments of what once supported and
+adorned it; yet summoning to her aid that Christian firmness, which in
+her amounted to heroism, she gazed on the shattered wreck without a
+wish to restore it at the sacrifice of principle, determined, as far
+as her sensitive nature would admit, to adopt the rule of an aged and
+experienced Christian, "Hope nothing, fear nothing, expect anything,
+and be prepared for everything!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Years having thus rolled on, bringing joy to some, and laying sorrow
+more or less on all, Marion Dunbar, fresh in the spring-tide of
+youthful bloom, had nearly completed her seventeenth year, and was
+hurrying on still in a whirlpool of education at Mrs. Penfold's,
+exerting herself more zealously for the credit of her teachers than
+she ever would have done for her own.
+
+One evening about this time a message reached Marion, desiring that
+she would instantly hasten to Mrs. Penfold's private sitting-room,
+which was, on all extraordinary occasions, that lady's hall of
+audience, and a solemn summons to which was usually of ominous import.
+Marion, however, conscious that her own recent diligence had been
+quite pre-eminent, and her success most distinguished, heard the word
+of command with a flutter of pleasing anticipation, for to her the
+future was always full of hope. Too old now for medals and ribbons,
+she yet indulged in the gay recollection of her former triumphs, and
+remembered with a smile, as she hurried up stairs, how often Sir
+Arthur had formerly declared, while pretending to frown upon her, that
+"he hated to see girls flouncing about with medals, and defying the
+world!" yet how silly, when she one day entered his drawing-room, with
+deepening color and a look of modest consciousness, half concealing
+and half displaying her honors, he had advanced to meet her, wearing
+his own Grand Cross of the Bath, to prove, as he said, that he was
+indeed fit company for so meritorious a young lady.
+
+Humming a favorite air, with a buoyant, joyful step, and radiant
+smile, Marion hastened to the door of Mrs. Penfold's apartment, where,
+after trying to compose her features into a suitable expression of
+sober respect, with dimpling cheek, and still almost laughing eyes,
+she entered, making, as she had been taught, the usual respectful
+courtesy exacted by Mrs. Penfold, such as might have been suitable for
+an introduction at Court, or for a public performer receiving the
+plaudits of a numerous audience, and then, with a bright, speaking
+look, full of hope and vivacity, she paused, to ascertain the object
+of her unexpected summons.
+
+To Marion's astonishment and dismay, Mrs. Penfold was pacing about the
+room, evidently in a state of furious irritation; while in her hand
+she carried that endless bill, the growth of many years, for board,
+education, masters, and sundries, which had so often already greeted
+the unwilling eyes of her young pupil, whose whole inward spirit
+recoiled with shame and apprehension, while she silently measured the
+length and breadth of its contents, every item of which she already
+knew by heart, and could almost have recapitulated without a prompter.
+
+Had Marion herself been a ruined gamester or a spendthrift, she could
+scarcely have felt more guilty and ashamed than now; but after
+standing an entire minute without being observed, and perceiving Mrs.
+Penfold unable to speak, from the effort it cost to restrain her anger
+within decent bounds, Marion, with the frankness natural to her candid
+disposition, came at once to the point, saying, with heightened color,
+and scarcely articulate voice, while her beautiful deep intelligent
+eyes were fixed with an earnest gaze on Mrs. Penfold.
+
+"I fear no satisfactory answer has come this term from my brother?"
+
+"No! nor there never will be!" thundered Mrs. Penfold, in a voice
+that made the gentle Marion absolutely cower before her. "There,
+Miss Dunbar! look at that bill!" added she, flinging it furiously
+into the lap of Marion, who had sunk upon a seat. "How much will a
+shilling in the pound be for that? Four hundred guineas absolutely
+lost--wasted--squandered upon you!"
+
+Unable to speak from consternation, though such scenes were already
+but too familiar to her memory, Marion fixed her eyes on the unwelcome
+bill, apparently examining its contents, while her thoughts were in
+the mean time painfully occupied in devising what would be right for
+her to say or do in this unexpected crisis. A long pause ensued,
+during which Mrs. Penfold seemed resolute not to speak; therefore
+Marion, with a strenuous effort, endeavored to new-string her nerves,
+and say something, while the large heavy tears forced themselves into
+her eyes.
+
+"Mrs. Penfold," replied she earnestly, "you know how ready I would be
+to send my brother another letter of remonstrance, if that could be of
+any avail, but now he never so much as answers me. I seem indeed to be
+quite forgotten by both Patrick and Agnes!"
+
+Marion paused to recover her voice, and to choke back her tears, after
+which she continued in a firmer tone, while Mrs. Penfold listened,
+with a dry, harsh, unmoved expression of countenance.
+
+"You are justly dissatisfied about my brother's payment, but if there
+be the least cause to doubt your being ultimately remunerated, send me
+immediately home. I dare not go of myself, but you have power to
+dismiss me, and let it be done. The sorrow and mortification must all
+be mine, but whatever falls on myself alone, I shall always be able to
+bear."
+
+"Miss Dunbar! you have anticipated exactly what I am obliged to do,
+and what it would have been well for me if I had done sooner!" replied
+Mrs. Penfold, angrily flouncing into a chair, and pirouetting it
+almost round, so as to look Marion full in the face. "I am sorry for
+you certainly, because, though your music is not yet exactly such as
+to do me much credit, and your Italian is sometimes far from
+grammatical, yet on the whole there cannot be a better-disposed girl,
+nor one who has testified a more constant desire to please me."
+
+Marion's heart was melted by even this very slight expression of
+regard, and nothing could exceed the troubled beauty of her eyes, when
+she raised them gratefully to Mrs. Penfold, but conscious that her
+presence was not exactly the place for a scene, as that lady had long
+been considered incapable of a tear or a smile, she averted her face,
+and struggled for composure.
+
+"I have learned for the first time to-day." resumed Mrs. Penfold, her
+voice becoming more stern as she proceeded, "that before your father's
+death, Sir Patrick twice, in the most profligate manner, paid off his
+creditors with a shilling in the pound! In consequence of great losses
+now at the Doncaster races, and having paid what he calls his debts of
+honor to a ruinous amount, Sir Patrick has yesterday fled to the
+sanctuary at Holyrood House for refuge, and the creditors have already
+seized everything. No wonder indeed! it was full time! He is all
+promise and no performance,--for ever feeding us with empty spoons!"
+
+Mrs. Penfold angrily changed her position, and with another indignant
+glance at Marion, continued,
+
+"Even Sir Patrick's large rent-roll would scarcely suffice in a
+life-time to pay the half of us off. Good worthy Sir Arthur too, his
+own uncle, he has cheated, and the property being entailed, we have
+only Sir Patrick's life to depend upon for what he owes us! This is a
+very heavy blow to me, and extremely hard to bear!"
+
+While thus bemoaning herself. Mrs. Penfold forgot, like most selfish
+people, that any one had to suffer besides, though the parted lips,
+the tearful eyes, and the pallid cheek of Marion testified in a
+language not to be mistaken, the depth and intensity of her grief,
+while with astonishment and dismay, she heard this short summary of
+Sir Patrick's history and circumstances.
+
+Long after Mrs. Penfold had ceased to speak, Marion gazed in her face,
+as if expecting more, while her every nerve continued quivering with
+agitation, till at length she closed her eyes in speechless agony,
+bewildered by the sudden transition from joyful anticipation to blank
+despair. Formerly she had heard of difficulties and bankruptcies, as
+she had heard of the plague or the bow-string at Constantinople--things
+dreadful to those who might be affected by them, but quite foreign
+to herself, and now, like a clap of thunder, all had suddenly burst
+over the heads of those who were nearest and dearest to her, with
+apparently destructive effect. She yet felt as if the whole were some
+hideous dream from which it might be possible to awaken,--the voice of
+Mrs. Penfold rang painfully on her ears,--every surrounding object
+faded from her vision,--her thoughts became confused,--a vague sense
+of burning misery was at her heart,--and one only wish remained
+distinctly prominent on her mind--the wish to be alone.
+
+"Indeed, Miss Dunbar," continued Mrs. Penfold, in a monotonous
+complaining voice, "no wonder you are shocked that I who have labored
+so hard to realize a small independence, should be swindled out of it
+in this way by your brother. Lady Towercliffe tells me that among his
+intimate friends he is known by the nick-name of "Sixpenny Dunbar!" on
+account of his having so often already played a similar game, but once
+catch him beyond the bounds of Holyrood now, and he'll never be at
+liberty to try such manoeuvres again. We are to offer a reward of
+£500 for his apprehension!"
+
+"My poor uncle and Agnes!" exclaimed Marion, in a voice of anguish,
+while hot tears fell like rain over her cheek, and a confused
+apprehension of ruin, bankruptcy, and disgrace hovered darkly through
+her mind, though she scarcely yet knew what to think or to fear. "I
+must go home, if I yet have a home! Wherever they are, let me find
+them! I must see my uncle.--Patrick cannot be all you say! oh no! It
+is some dreadful mistake! Whatever happens, I trust and hope, Mrs.
+Penfold, you will be repaid. It shall be my first earthly wish--my
+duty sooner or later, to see it done! Now let me go instantly home!"
+
+Mrs. Penfold most heartily seconded her pupil's desire to depart, while
+one of the heaviest pangs which Marion had to endure on this occasion,
+sprang from the stern angry coldness with which her _ci-devant_
+preceptress appeared about to bid her a last farewell.
+
+A tumult of gossiping wonder and curiosity arose among the pupils,
+when it became whispered that Marion was to "leave" on an hour's
+notice. Many questions were asked, much astonishment was expressed,
+and even a great deal of real sympathy excited, but Marion shrank from
+the clamorous exclamations of her young companions, who could not so
+much as guess the measure and depth of her misfortunes. Often had she
+shared their sorrows, and willingly would she have accepted any
+consolation they could offer, but the worst of her trials could not be
+spoken to mortal ears, and in lamenting for her brother's disgrace,
+she could only bear her wound, like a stricken deer, into solitude and
+silence.
+
+There are insects that live a life-time in an hour, and it seemed to
+Marion as if she had really done so, since the time when sparkling
+with gladness, she flew to Mrs. Penfold's presence. Now, heavy with
+sorrow and anxiety, she slowly retraced her steps, and on reaching her
+room, sank upon her bed in a paroxysm of tears, delivering herself up
+to many painful thoughts, or rather to her feelings, for she could not
+think amidst the tumult of an agitated mind, when suffering thus under
+the most painful of all transitions, from hope to despair.
+
+It was during the unoccupied half-hour after dinner, when Mrs. Penfold
+allowed her pupils a gasp of rest from their labors during the day,
+that they gathered in groups at every window, to criticise a
+hackney-coach and very tired broken-down looking horses in waiting,
+while the pupils all watched for Marion's departure, anxious to catch
+a last glimpse of their favorite companion. She had been shut up
+alone, ever since her interview with Mrs. Penfold, and tried to occupy
+herself in packing up her few possessions, while endeavoring to
+compose her mind, both of which tasks occupied more time than she
+wished or expected. But all now over, and trying to assume an aspect
+of serenity, with pale cheeks and swollen eyes, she entered the
+school-room, carrying in her hand a large and very heavy-looking
+casket.
+
+The young community crowded round to say a thousand affectionate
+farewells, when, for a moment, Marion looked at them all with her own
+beautiful smile, but unable to control her emotion, she turned away
+her head, and burst into an agony of tears.
+
+"Miss Dunbar, my dear! the sooner this is all over the better!" said
+Mrs. Penfold, hastily advancing, with a look of irritable vexation.
+"No wonder you are sorrow to leave us; but what can't be cured must be
+endured. Remember to be diligent in practising your music, as the
+success of my establishment depends on the conduct of all my young
+ladies. The only recompense I am ever likely to receive for my care,
+will proceed from your attention not to do me any discredit. Now,
+farewell, my dear, and try bear up the best way you can!"
+
+"Mrs. Penfold!" faltered Marion, while a flash of bright intelligence
+lighted up her eyes; "allow me, for a single moment, to see you
+alone!"
+
+"No! no! my dear! I hate scenes; therefore let us now take leave.
+I wish you well!" added Mrs. Penfold, in a tone that sounded
+marvellously sincere. "I really do! Whatever has happened is your
+misfortune, not your fault!"
+
+"One single word, if you please," whispered Marion, coloring the
+deepest carnation, and leading the way to an inner room, while Mrs.
+Penfold followed, with an air of royal condescension. "The fault is
+indeed, as you kindly remark, not my own; but for my sake, Mrs.
+Penfold, spare my brother's name in all you say. It gives me pleasure
+to think that I can do something towards settling our account myself,
+and I would think no sacrifice worth a thought, that enabled me to do
+so. My mother's trinkets were divided between Agnes and me; besides
+which my dear kind uncle has been lavish in his gifts. This gold
+repeater cost a great sum, and that locket is set in diamonds."
+
+"Well, my dear!" interrupted Mrs. Penfold, relaxing into a look of
+graciousness, "such honorable sentiments show that you have not been
+under my care in vain; and though these pretty trifles are not
+equivalent to what you owe, yet half a loaf is better than no bread!"
+
+"All that I ever possessed, the gifts or legacies of friends and
+relations, I leave in pledge with you, Mrs. Penfold, as an assurance,
+that if brighter days ever come, I would redeem them at twenty times
+their value. Keep these till then. Whatever ornaments I might ever
+wear, would be a reproach till you are paid. Some debts never can be
+sufficiently discharged, and among these is what I owe to your care
+during many past years."
+
+The bright eyes of Marion were dimmed with tears of sincerity and
+emotion when she concluded; and, placing the casket in Mrs. Penfold's
+astonished hands, she hastened out of the room. Giving a last, long
+look at those inanimate objects to which she had been accustomed, and
+feeling that even to these she could not without regret bid a final
+adieu, Marion threw herself into the carriage, and drove off, so
+overpowered with anguish and anxiety respecting her brother, that she
+scarcely noticed the phalanx of white pocket handkerchiefs, waved to
+her as a last farewell from those beloved companions, among whom so
+large a share of her young affections had hitherto been lavished; and
+thus she took a final farewell of Mrs. Penfold's finishing seminary
+for young ladies, where she was never destined to be finished!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+Marion Dunbar being by no means an arrant novel reader, knew nothing
+of those artificial feelings which too often obliterated the reality.
+Simple as a field-flower, her natural sensibility remained perfectly
+fresh and unimpaired, while now, for the first time, experiencing the
+withering disappointments, and blighting anxieties of life.
+
+As she drove slowly along towards the sanctuary where Sir Patrick had
+taken refuge, the most prominent apprehension on her mind, was that
+of finding him on the eve of imprisonment; but she in some degree
+consoled herself by imagining the services that in such circumstances
+she might perhaps be able to do him, and the privations she could
+endure for his sake. The more proud, overbearing, and arbitrary, he
+had hitherto been, the more touching it appeared to her affectionate
+spirit, that one seemed born to command, should now be humbled; and
+impatiently did she long to prove, that, however all things might
+alter, yet, in prosperity or adversity, in sickness or in health, she
+was unchangeably the same; while her young heart glowed with the
+paramount hope of at last becoming useful to her brother, and
+therefore welcome.
+
+As she proceeded, visions of deep distress and difficulty floated
+dimly through the mind of Marion, who could not entirely close her
+eyes against the iron truths, and stern realities of life, while
+considering how totally unsuited her brother was, to endure the
+privation of a single luxury, and now he could scarcely have enough
+to command the most ordinary necessaries.
+
+In the mind of Marion, immediate starvation, and going out as a
+governess, were the two ideas that most prominently connected
+themselves with the consciousness of being ruined; for her conception
+of bankruptcy was of the most terrifying description.
+
+In the few novels she had ever seen, the heroines could always support
+themselves by selling their drawings; but Marion did not hope to gain
+an independent livelihood by her slanting castles, and top-heavy
+trees, though taking in plain work, or teaching music, suggested
+themselves as possible resources. Marion thought of arrests, bailiffs,
+writs, and of the world come to an end. The sunny hours of her life
+seemed suddenly darkened, and she had grown old in a day! In the
+simplicity of her heart, she imagined that a ruined man of rank and
+fashion, was like a ruined man in earnest; obliged actually to reduce
+his establishment! to dismiss his servants! to dispose of his
+equipages! to make an auction of his furniture! to part with his
+plate! and really to live as if he were in downright matter-of-fact
+earnest, poor! "to exist," as Sir Patrick once contemptuously said of
+Richard Granville, "on twopence a year, paid quarterly!"
+
+The slow-moving hackney-coach stopped at last before the gate of Sir
+Patrick's new residence, St. John's Lodge, a gloomy antique villa near
+Holyrood House, with gabled windows, stone balconies, richly carved
+balustrades, and pointed roof, surrounded by dusty beech-trees, and
+formal yew hedges, clipped into fifty unimaginable shapes. Marion
+was surprised, on hastily alighting, to perceive the whole house
+glittering with lights, and would have supposed she had made some
+mistake, had not the bell been instantly answered by Sir Patrick's own
+man, followed by the usual three yellow-plush footmen.
+
+"Faithful creatures!" thought she, having often heard of old servants
+who insisted on being retained for nothing; "amidst all Patrick's
+distress, this must indeed be gratifying!"
+
+In a tumult of emotion, Marion, throwing off her bonnet, rushed up a
+broad well-lighted flight of stairs, while, wound up to a pitch of
+heroism and romantic self-devotion, she thought only of her brother,
+impatiently longing to fly into his arms, and to express the whole
+fulness of her affection, and the whole depth of her sympathy. While
+her heart sprang forward to meet him, she eagerly threw open a door
+next the staircase, and entered with a hurried and tremulous step; but
+suddenly her eyes were dazzled and bewildered by the sight which met
+her agitated glance, while for a moment she became rooted to the
+floor, like one who had been stunned by a sudden blow. Marion gazed
+without seeing, and heard without knowing what was said, so unexpected
+and surprising was the scene to which she had thus suddenly introduced
+herself!
+
+A murmur of noise and gayety rang in her ears, while the whole
+apartment was brilliantly illuminated, and the first object which
+became distinct to her vision was Sir Patrick, seated at the head of a
+superbly-decorated dinner-table, in a perfect uproar of merriment and
+hilarity. Around him were placed five or six of his gayest associates,
+dressed in their scarlet hunting-coats, and evidently in joyous
+spirit, like school-boys during vacation, while the whole party
+presented a most convivial aspect, laughing in merry chorus, and with
+claret circulating at full speed round the hospitable board.
+
+Marion felt as if her feet had lost all power of motion, while,
+grasping the handle of the door with one hand, and shading her eyes
+with the other, she became transfixed to the spot. It was a shock of
+unexpected joy, and while standing in the deep embrasure of the door,
+her large eyes dilated, and her lips parted, with an expression of
+speechless amazement, she looked like a breathing portrait, which an
+artist might have shown as his master-piece--young, bright, and
+graceful, as the first crescent of the moon, or like the fabled houri
+of an eastern tale.
+
+The gentlemen all instinctively stood up with one accord the moment
+she appeared, giving her looks of embarrassed astonishment and
+admiration, while Marion hastily retreating, in an agony of confusion,
+heard her own voice inadvertently exclaim, "Patrick!"
+
+"Marion!" cried her brother, in a frenzy of astonishment more than
+equal to her own, while the flowing bumper which had been raised to
+his lips remained suspended there, and in an instant afterwards, his
+tone of surprise became changed into angry imperative remonstrance.
+"Marion! what brought you here, child?"
+
+Before she had quite retreated, suspecting the real state of the case,
+and not wishing for any public explanation, Sir Patrick added, in an
+accent of careless good humor, "Agnes is up stairs dressing for the
+ball, so make yourself scarce, and find her if possible. The house is
+not large enough to puzzle any one long, but I suppose you mistook
+this room for hers!"
+
+"Patrick is not ruined after all!" thought the delighted Marion,
+vanishing in a transport of joy, while her brother's jovial companions
+became vehemently energetic in expressing their admiration of the
+beautiful apparition.
+
+"Can that be the darling cherub Marion, who used to call herself my
+little wife? I wish she may do so in earnest now! She is undoubtedly
+the loveliest creature that my sight ever looked upon, her eyes
+glittering like stars beneath that rich cloud of hair! Let us drink
+a bumper to her health!" exclaimed Captain De Crespigny, in a
+spontaneous impulse of enthusiasm, filling his glass, and singing in a
+fine, full-toned tenor, the favorite ballad,
+
+    "I saw her but a moment,
+    And methinks I see her yet,
+    With the wreath of summer flow'rs
+    Beneath her curls of jet."
+
+"That must mean Agnes, for Marion's hair is brown," interrupted Sir
+Patrick, in a rallying tone, yet his manner betrayed the excited
+and exaggerated vivacity of one who evidently forced his spirits,
+endeavoring to banish care by ceasing to think. "Be constant for one
+entire week, and I shall then think Agnes has achieved a wonder
+indeed."
+
+"You do me injustice, Dunbar! I must be allowed to beg your pardon! I
+have not been what is called 'in love' above nine times in my life!
+Well! you may laugh--anybody can laugh, but I consider that smile of
+yours exceedingly malicious!"
+
+"When a man is on the ice, you know his best safety is to keep
+moving," replied Sir Patrick, drily. "People talk of two strings to
+their bow, De Crespigny, but you are never satisfied under two dozen!"
+
+"_Tant mieux et tant pis!_ As Rosamond says, 'Thou canst not tell yet,
+how many fathoms deep I am in love;' how concealment is preying on my
+damask cheek, and what violent heart-quakes I am continually enduring!
+The girl before last that I died for was my idol for an eternity of
+three months' duration. I might have continued most deplorably in love
+yet, if she had not imprudently appeared before me one day in an
+unbecoming east wind, with considerably more color in her nose than in
+her cheek!"
+
+"You are the most observant of men, De Crespigny! If you only pass a
+young lady at full speed on a staircase, you can describe her eyes,
+complexion, figure, and expression, before I could be certain whether
+she has one eye or two! But what is this Irish story I heard about
+you! Some lady with seven brothers, and you threatened to shoot them
+all that she might become an heiress! What were the particulars?"
+
+"You seem to know more than I do, or anybody else!" replied Captain De
+Crespigny, hastily tossing off a bumper to conceal his confusion.
+"There are so many girls whose peace of mind I annihilate, that it is
+next to impossible for me to remember them, but I can think of nothing
+now except my cousin Marion, who always promised to be beautiful, and
+has more than fulfilled her promise. Tell me, Dunbar! when does that
+pearl come out of the shell?"
+
+"If you please, sir!" said a servant, entering, "the hackney coachman
+is waiting to be paid seven shillings for bringing Miss Dunbar from
+Dartmore House!"
+
+"Let him wait all night if he chooses!" replied Sir Patrick, angrily
+frowning away his footman, "as the Irishman said, 'may he live till I
+pay him!' Tell the man to come again to-morrow--and next day--and the
+next--to come back in short, whenever he has nothing else to do!
+Perhaps in a delirium of generosity I may some day think of paying
+him."
+
+"At our usual rate of payment, seven shillings from you would be equal
+to £7!" said Captain De Crespigny, laughing, "let him put it down to
+your account!"
+
+"Yes! I have already more creditors than pence, therefore one more
+less can be of no consequence! That fellow of mine is the most
+officious rascal!--and he begins every sentence the same, 'If you
+please, sir, the plate-chest has been robbed!' or, 'If you please,
+sir, the bay mare is dead!' But I am never pleased to pay when it can
+be avoided, and especially now. This is one of my moneyless days! My
+banker's bulletins continue unfavorable! I cannot raise another
+shilling! The handle of the pump is chained. All my relations have
+made wills in my favor, but not one of them will die! As Falstaff
+says, 'What money's in my purse? seven groats and twopence!'"
+
+"I shall set up a hackney coach, and drive one myself if it pays
+so well!" exclaimed Captain De Crespigny indignantly, "What an
+extortioner the fellow is! up to snuff and a pinch above it! He
+deserves to be executed!"
+
+"Don't speak of executions in this house! we have had enough of them
+already," replied Sir Patrick, forcing a laugh that sounded very like
+a stage laugh. "What brings me here, if I am to be dunned in the very
+sanctuary by a set of rascally creditors! You can take the hackney
+coach home, if the man waits a few hours longer, De Crespigny, and pay
+him off! It would be difficult generally to say which of us is best
+off for ready money, but as Jeremy Diddler says, 'You don't happen to
+have such a thing as ten-pence there, have you?'"
+
+"No! I make it a principle never now to patronize the paper currency or
+bullion _ca m'est egal_. Scotch notes are so atrociously filthy, and
+gold is too heavy for the pocket. I am hastening as fast as possible to
+my last shilling! Money is a bore! As for you, Dunbar, if you wished to
+borrow a glass of water, I shall not be the man to lend it! I would not
+for worlds be included among your 'rascally creditors!'"
+
+"They beset my door so incessantly the week before we came here," said
+Sir Patrick, laughing, "that I played the fellows an admirable trick
+by connecting a strong galvanic battery with the knocker of the door,
+so that the more angrily they grasped it, the stronger was the shock
+they received. I sat with Wigton for an hour at the window in perfect
+fits, when we saw the look of astonishment and terror with which, one
+after another, they staggered away. One impudent rascal absolutely
+succeeded in serving a writ on me for £200, but happening to have as
+much in the house, I thought it best for once to pay him off, and----"
+
+"This is a most remarkable story! almost incredible!" exclaimed
+Captain De Crespigny, laughing; "not so much your being arrested, for
+that might happen to any of us, any day, but your having £200 in the
+house, Dunbar! Excuse me there! I have as much credulity as most
+people, but you should keep to probabilities!"
+
+"If one could pay people off with golden opinions," observed Sir
+Patrick conceitedly, "I flatter myself in that case, that all my
+creditors might be more than satisfied."
+
+"When are those fellows to have their next meeting?"
+
+"I wish we knew, that I might give them a harangue on agricultural
+distress!" replied Sir Patrick, carelessly plunging his whole hand
+into his luxuriant hair. "It gives me no scruple to disappoint the
+shop-keeping world! None whatever! These rascals have not the
+slightest hesitation in making punctual customers pay their bills
+twice, therefore it is quite fair that others should not pay at all. I
+could point out a dozen of my tradespeople who, knowing they risk only
+a sheet of paper by re-sending their bills a year after they are paid,
+make a practice of doing so. If the ill-used customer produces a
+receipt, why then, an angry bow and a sulky apology are all the
+satisfaction to be got; but if the receipt, by good chance, be lost,
+then he becomes perfectly cheatable, and no remedy can be had but to
+pay over again! I have seen the thing happen fifty times, long ago,
+when I really did sometimes pay my debts, and of course never took the
+trouble to keep any receipts."
+
+"On such occasions," said Captain De Crespigny, "the offending
+shopkeeper, when proved in the wrong, should be fined double the amount
+of his bill, to be expended for the benefit of meritorious men like you
+and me, Dunbar, who cannot pay once. The sight of every poor man I meet
+gives me a moral to avoid poverty, _coute qui coute_; but as for you,
+Dunbar, prudence and economy are not certainly to be enumerated in the
+catalogue of your many virtues! As sure as your name is Patrick, if
+£1000 dropped into your pocket now, it would be squandered with the
+liberality of a prince before you walked to the next street."
+
+"Most uncommonly true, De Crespigny!" replied Sir Patrick, ringing to
+order a fresh bottle of claret. "But in these days of bankruptcies,
+revolutions, robberies, sudden deaths, and murders, the only way to
+make sure of enjoying my own is, to spend it immediately. In that case
+there can be no mistake! I long ago discovered that it is impossible
+to be both merry and wise; therefore give me joy at any price.
+Happiness is to be bought, like everything else, if people have only
+the heart to pay for it. In my opinion a long face and a short purse
+are the two great evils of existence, both to be avoided at the risk
+of one's life."
+
+"Perfectly unanswerable, Dunbar! Money is the patent sauce for giving
+a relish to everything! It throws dust in the eyes of all the world,
+till they can observe none of our faults, and yet see all our
+perfections magnified and enlarged, as we see them ourselves. Misers
+make money the end of life, but we make it the only means of enjoying
+existence; a sure ticket to pleasure of every kind and of every
+degree!"
+
+"One of these years, De Crespigny, your grave will be dug with a
+golden spade! You are growing mercenary! But every man living is, in
+one way or other, deranged about money;--those who have much, hoarding
+as if their lives depended on amassing another shilling."
+
+"I wish, Dunbar, you would write a treatise on the art of living well,
+after we have been obliged to calculate that difficult sum in
+arithmetic, 'take nothing from nothing, and nothing remains!'"
+
+"Why, really, as a shillingless spendthrift, I could say enough to
+make all of you misers during life; but for my own part, as long as I
+possess a guinea, the first man who wants it may get the half.
+Hoarding is the only enjoyment which increases, I am told, with
+increasing years; but it is the only enjoyment of life I never intend
+to taste. I mean always to live rich, that I am determined on; and if
+I die rich, I shall out-hospital every fool who ever left a will, by
+endowing a 'Dunbar Dispensary for superannuated _bon-vivants_!'"
+
+"How well the world would get on if everybody were of your way of
+thinking!"
+
+"Thinking! my dear fellow--I never think! What do you take me for?"
+
+"For a strange being, certainly, and for my own particular friend.
+Besides, as the poet beautifully expresses it, in speaking of such
+friendship as ours:--
+
+    "We have lived and _laughed_ together,
+    Through many changing years;
+    We have smiled each other's smiles.
+    And--_and paid each other's bills_."
+
+"Thank you, De Crespigny! I shall send a file of mine to you
+to-morrow! Do you remember the memorable hour at old Brownlow's long
+ago, when my first bright guinea glittered in our hands, while he
+detained us to enumerate all the various uses it might and ought to be
+put to. I never forgot his oration--that is to say, I have thought of
+other things certainly during the intervening ten years; but it has
+often occurred to me, that if I had, as he proposed, hoarded my
+treasure till another came, I should have been a miser for life. I
+did, however, squander it then, with the spirit of a gentleman; and
+ever since, whenever any one lectures on economy, I put cotton in my
+ears. Wigton, the wine stands with you!"
+
+"Capital claret this, Dunbar! My uncle Doncaster would not have
+quarrelled with Crockford, if he had given him such a bottle as this.
+Claret is certainly the poetry of wine, and I should like to have a
+cascade of this pouring down my throat all day and every day! Your own
+importation, I suppose? It does your cellar great credit."
+
+"It has been, at any rate, placed to my credit in Morton's books. I am
+very fastidious now, and owe it to myself to have the best."
+
+"I can't tell what you may owe to yourself," said Captain De Crespigny,
+laughingly turning his dark keen eyes on Sir Patrick; "but you
+certainly owe a great deal to other people."
+
+"Very true, and I owe you a grudge for saying so. I never can forgive
+myself for not having been born to a larger estate! £50,000 a year
+would have suited me so much better than my paltry pittance of twenty!
+These are very hard times! The fellow who supplied this claret might
+have enjoyed my custom for ten years to come, if he would have waited
+as long for payment! It is a man's own fault always when he loses my
+business! The moment he takes to dunning, we part. It is a rule with
+me, and I told him so. He did not take warning!--actually sent in his
+account a second time!--a most ungentleman-like thing to do!--an
+offence I never pardon! So now----"
+
+"He may retire from business at once!" added Captain De Crespigny,
+filling his glass. "Did I not hear that the house had failed next
+morning! We all know what your countenance is worth!"
+
+"Three farthings a-year, paid at sight! We should make it a principle
+to discourage duns; but they do occasionally force their way upon me
+in some unaccountable manner, like a draught of air through the
+key-hole, and then I can look as grand and immovable as George the
+Fourth's statue; but fortune will be in good-humor with us again some
+day, and take me under her especial patronage, when I shall pay
+everybody thirty shillings in the pound, and----"
+
+"Hear! hear! and a laugh! as they say in the House of Commons!"
+exclaimed Lord Wigton. "Well done, Sir Patrick, the Great----"
+
+"The great what? Your speech is a fragment," said Sir Patrick, in his
+liveliest accents; "besides which, it was an interruption to mine,
+Wigton; and I intended to have said something particularly amusing, if
+you had not broken the thread prematurely. It is lost to you for ever
+now! I am dumb as a flounder; and you may pity all the present
+company, as they have really missed a very good thing."
+
+"We shall place it to your credit accordingly, Dunbar," said Captain
+De Crespigny, laughing. "It was rather annoying to have perhaps the
+only good thing you ever could have said in your life nipped in the
+bud. I hate sometimes to see a joke of mine standing with its back to
+the wall, and struggling in vain for existence."
+
+"Dunbar has talked himself into such a fit of parsimony," said Lord
+Wigton, laughing, "that he is ever economizing his words."
+
+"_N'importe_," replied Sir Patrick, gaily circulating the bottles. "You
+are all mistaken, and you particularly, Wigton. I can economize my way
+up the hill of life as well as any of you, and shall yet live upon an
+income of nothing per annum. My plan is, to keep only five hunters--to
+stay but one month at Melton--to feed upon sunshine--to fill my head
+with the rule of three--in short, to become actually quite a pauper in
+my style of life; and, if all things else should fail, I can, as a last
+resource, turn patriot, and subsist upon liberalism and
+mob-popularity!"
+
+"That sounds vastly prudent and proper, Dunbar; but all I say is,
+whatever desperate schemes you arrive at in the way of retrenchment,
+give me the income you spend, rather than the income you have!"
+replied Captain De Crespigny. "I took a fit of arithmetic one day, and
+discovered, upon accurate calculation, that scattering £20,000 a-year
+on an income of ten, gradually drains off the whole!"
+
+"You are a perfect Babbage, my good fellow; but you know I have
+expectations from three uncles in Australia, and one in the West
+Indies!"
+
+"Uncles! except the brave old Admiral, you scarcely possess a relation
+besides myself in the world; but as long as Sir Arthur lives, you have
+something to be proud of. The only thing I envy you on earth is for
+being his nephew. I reverence him. I never pass him, hail, rain, or
+sunshine, without taking off my hat. He is quite a jewel of a man."
+
+"You shall have him very cheap!" replied Sir Patrick, assuming a
+careless tone, to conceal a great deal of irritation. "What will you
+bid? I wish he were 'going! going! and gone!' I never knew such an old
+bore as he is, always interfering about my sisters, and fussing about
+my debts. The world ought to be entirely peopled with uncles, aunts,
+and grandmothers, for they all know so much better how to act than
+anybody else."
+
+"It is setting a very bad example for old people to live very long. My
+uncle Doncaster took a twenty years' lease of his house in Belgrave
+Square lately, and told me afterwards, he thought of having the term
+'extended' to the period of his natural life! I am sure his life is
+perfectly supernatural already! What would the old fellow have!"
+
+"Those superannuated people who outlive themselves have nothing
+else to do but to sit in their arm chairs and find fault! The world
+is good enough if they would only think so; but all their
+world-before-the-flood ideas are picked up in a different state of
+existence from ours. Everything changes in half a century--customs,
+dress, modes of thinking, notions of honor, ideas of pleasure, habits
+of society--all are turned upside down; so there can be no use in your
+uncle or mine prosing about the past and the future. There is neither
+past nor future in my plans of existence now."
+
+"Why, really, if men would neither look backwards nor forwards, there
+is scarcely a moment of any man's life which is not very tolerably
+agreeable. The rule that carries me joyously forward through life, is
+to make the best of everything. We borrow all our annoyances from
+anticipation of the future, which often turns out perfectly
+groundless, or from regret of the past. We cannot alter the stream of
+events; therefore I am for floating along the tide with my arms
+folded, and looking neither to the right hand nor to the left."
+
+"Quite right; and take my word for it, that in this little trumpery
+world of ours, ruined men enjoy the best of it. We have nothing to
+lose--our estates are managed for us--we care not the toss of a
+farthing about politics--we have no fear of a reverse--we are always
+the most liberal of what we have--and in short, it is true enough,
+that '_menage sans souci_ is the _menage six sous_----'"
+
+"I have generally got through all the difficulties of life hitherto
+with a hop-skip-and-a-jump; so I mean always to keep myself in
+practice; but after all, Dunbar, money has its merits, and the best
+profession for a ruined man is to marry an heiress. They always select
+the greatest roue who makes them an offer! Why do you not propose to
+Miss Crawford and her £60,000?"
+
+"I never answer questions in the dog-days! My dear fellow! £60,000
+would not be a breakfast to me! It would scarcely supply copper-caps
+to my gun! Besides which, I cannot make a low marriage, and pick money
+out of the puddle! An heiress at best always seems to me a
+personification of all my creditors! A person one should marry to
+please them! but the only thing on earth I would not sell is--myself!"
+
+"Being beyond all price, of course, Dunbar! I am still insufferably
+bored at Beaujolie Castle to marry that cousin of mine with a purse as
+long as her nose, and both I believe are miraculous, but we have not
+met in the memory of man! Perhaps I may some day yet be obliged to
+welcome gold from whatever pocket it comes, but I am not very
+impatient to see Miss Howard at the head of my table!"
+
+"My dear fellow! you would be sitting at the bottom of her table, if
+Miss Howard Smytheson accepted you! It is unlucky that a fairy-like
+fortune and a fairy-like person are so seldom united in one
+individual."
+
+"I have no objection to marry for money as soon as they are. Love among
+the roses would not be in my line at all, but when I see gold in a
+beautiful enough casket, then '_les beaux yeux de sa casette pour
+moi_!' 'Mammon wins its way, where seraphs might despair!'"
+
+"But if we must choose between them, give me love, and let money take
+care of itself!"
+
+"Splendidly said! you are growing magnanimous, Dunbar. What has
+happened to you since we met last? Did I not hear some romantic tale
+of true love lately, connected with yourself and Granville's pretty
+sister, Clara! 'a portionless lass wi' a land pedigree!' I vehemently
+contradicted the whole affair, as Lady Towercliffe's entire story was
+so very unlike you, but----"
+
+Captain De Crespigny paused suddenly--filled his glass--averted his
+eye--and pushed the bottles hastily round, for he had observed with
+astonishment that Sir Patrick's under lip became violently compressed,
+his white forehead became visibly paler, a bright flash was emitted
+from his eye, and his agitation became so obvious to every one around,
+that a deep silence fell over the whole party, which soon after
+dispersed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+One of the greatest pleasures in life is derived from the
+unexpectedness of events, without which existence would lose much of
+its interest, and finding herself thus emancipated from school,
+settled at home, and relieved from her worst fears respecting Sir
+Patrick, Marion no sooner escaped from her unexpected glimpse of the
+jovial party in the dining-room, than, lightly carolling some snatches
+of a popular song, she flew up stairs the happiest of the happy, to
+find the scene of Agnes' toilette, whom she discovered at last all joy
+and flutter at the prospect of a ball at Lady Towercliffe's in the
+palace.
+
+The softening effect of happiness on stern and rugged natures has been
+often remarked, but selfishness never slumbers, and the reception
+Agnes bestowed on Marion partook more of astonishment than of
+pleasure, and was mingled much more with censure than with
+approbation. Still, after expressing more wonder than the occasion
+called for, what could possibly have brought her home, and the most
+unbounded censure of Mrs. Penfold for her "unjustifiable conduct" in
+sending her, Agnes, having no one better, or rather no one else to
+talk to, though not violently delighted at the unexpected meeting,
+gave some fragments of her attention to Marion, whose deep tender eyes
+were sparkling with affectionate pleasure on again seeing her sister,
+while her countenance, from recent agitation, looked like an April
+face of smiles and tears.
+
+"What a storm in a tea-cup you have had at Mrs. Penfold's! tiresome
+old cat! I am glad it teased her! Dixon! pin that wreath more to the
+right:--not quite so far! there!--oh! how perfect!" said Agnes, gazing
+with exultation at her own extraordinary beauty. "Pat must find out
+some other school for you, Marion! It would never do to stay idling
+here! Dixon! never shew me that dress again! Wear it yourself or burn
+it, but blue always looks vulgar! I have lucky and unlucky gowns! Some
+in which I meet with all the friends I wish to meet, and dance with
+all the partners I prefer, but that dress is a happy riddance. I
+remember once being obliged, when wearing it, to dance three times and
+go to supper with stupid, tiresome Lord Wigton! Dixon! fetch my
+bouquet! not that withered old thing, but the one Captain De Crespigny
+brought me to-night. Fetch it from the drawing-room."
+
+"So that horrid Dixon is still with you!" whispered Marion, as soon as
+the abigail's last frill disappeared. "I very seldom dislike anybody,
+Agnes, but she is very odd. There is a strange gleam about her eyes,
+which look so sharp and penetrating, they have prongs that pierce when
+they are turned on me."
+
+"Yes!" said Agnes, laughing, "she does sometimes look through me till
+I feel myself nailed to the wall."
+
+"Moreover, she has such a flattering, fawning, cunning manner, that I
+wonder you can tolerate her for an hour," continued Marion. "We know
+so little of her, too, that she is like a person fallen from the
+clouds!"
+
+"Oh! there you are wrong, for Lady Towercliffe says she is 'a perfect
+treasure!' Consider, too, what low terms she accepts, merely from her
+desire to serve me! I never saw a creature so preternaturally anxious
+to be taken, and now, after two years' practice, she really is
+excellent. Do you remember at the time I engaged Dixon, what a perfect
+romance her history was! Pat did not believe a word of it; but to do
+her justice, she made it very entertaining. I hope, at least, the
+greater part was founded on fact!"
+
+"Why does she wear widow's weeds,--she did not mention at first having
+ever been married!"
+
+"No more she did! how strangely beautiful she looks in them, like the
+abbess of a convent! Her husband, if ever she had one, which I doubt,
+is said to have died, abroad, and her only wish is never to see
+strangers. Pat insists she has had some _affaire du coeur_, but I tell
+him it must positively have been with old Sir Arthur, for she started
+so visibly one day long ago, and became redder than red, when I said he
+was coming to dinner."
+
+Seeing Agnes in so unusually gracious and communicative a mood, Marion
+ventured now to inquire into the state of her brother's affairs,
+saying, she supposed he must inevitably sell his estate, go abroad, or
+retrench, as the expedient of planting half-pence, to grow into
+guineas, had not yet been brought to perfection, even by Sir Patrick,
+though it had so long been a subject of wonder how he contrived to get
+on.
+
+"This has been a horrid business!" exclaimed Agnes peevishly; "as for
+Pat himself, he will do very well! Trust him for taking care of that.
+He has always money enough and to spare for his own amusement, though
+sometimes he would hardly even pay the postage of a letter to save my
+life. Only think of his bringing me here, out of everybody's way,
+during the most beautiful years of my existence! Our friends will
+scarcely imagine that I think it worth chair hire to travel from this
+burying-place to the inhabited world! What can one do. We shall give
+some quadrille parties ourselves, but scarcely a living soul is within
+reach except the Towercliffes, and those odious Granvilles!"
+
+"The Granvilles!" exclaimed Marion, in a blaze of joy and
+astonishment; "dear Clara! is she here."
+
+"Yes; but she cuts this house entirely, and we are hardly on speaking
+terms, therefore let me beg you not to attempt any violent missyish,
+boarding-school friendships in that quarter. I cannot enter into
+particulars, but rest assured that the less you see of Clara the
+better for me,--and the better, too, for Patrick. Never, for your
+life, mention her name before him."
+
+"Why?" asked Marion with a look of bewildered disappointment. "Agnes,
+I cannot give up Clara Granville!"
+
+"Perhaps, then, she may give you up! She abhors the whole family now!
+If I must not veto her without rendering a reason, let me tell you
+that there is a very awkward pecuniary quarrel between Mr. Granville,
+Pat, and Mr. De Crespigny. It is merely one of their madcap tricks,
+but extremely annoying. You have often heard Sir Arthur tell of three
+Yorkshire baronets, who signed a mutual contract sixty years ago, that
+the first of them who married should forfeit £10,000 to both the
+others."
+
+"Yes; and not one of them ever ventured to dispose of himself at so
+great a sacrifice."
+
+"Well! some years afterwards, the subject was discussed one day in
+public conclave, at the Harrowgate ordinary, and what should the late
+Mr. Granville do, in company with Major De Crespigny and our father,
+but, like a set of madmen, as they must have been at the moment, drew
+up, for a frolic, precisely such an agreement for themselves, which
+they signed and sealed, making some of the 150 strangers present act
+as witnesses. The whole affair had been long forgotten, when Mr.
+Granville married some fright of a girl, all nose and freckles, merely
+because of her being amiable, or some such whim. She lived long enough
+to make saints of the whole family, and died after her son and
+daughter were only a few years old."
+
+"Then how is your quarrel with Clara tacked on to this affair, I
+cannot quite trace the connexion."
+
+"Why! Pat has been very angry at Mr. Granville lately about some
+unexplainable affront; so, having accidentally found the old Harrowgate
+document, and being very hard up for money, he and Captain De Crespigny
+are threatening to levy the fine of £10,000 due to each of them, and
+poor Mr. Granville is, as you may suppose, rather indignant, having
+been all his life stringing halfpence together, to pay off his father's
+debts, though no one could legally oblige him. As Pat says, 'more fool
+he!' You know our brother's favorite expression of contempt is, to
+describe any one as 'the sort of man who would lock up his money!'"
+
+"What a shocking affair!" exclaimed Marion, coloring with shame and
+indignation. "As uncle Arthur says, Patrick would do anything for
+money short of a highway robbery! Surely, Agnes, he cannot be in
+earnest."
+
+"Pshaw! never mind being amiable now," replied Agnes impatiently; "we
+need not act to empty benches! I am already aware that you, Marion,
+are on the exact pattern of what Mrs. Hannah Moore would bespeak to
+order for a sister or daughter; but with all you learn at school, pray
+learn to keep that goodyism out of sight, for I can fancy nothing more
+intolerable than a young lady turned out on the model of those horrid
+sententious books, filled with advice to young ladies. Mrs. Ellis
+writes to the 'Women of England,' but she luckily leaves the 'Women of
+Scotland,' to their own devices, without troubling us to be
+exorbitantly amiable."
+
+"I shall be in no hurry to see Clara now!" continued Marion,
+dejectedly. "I suppose Patrick will be cut by all gentlemen for such
+unjustifiable conduct."
+
+"Oh dear, no! Nobody is ever cut for anything now as long as he has
+money! I can scarcely tell the thing upon earth, except cheating at
+cards, that a man of £10,000 a-year may not do, and yet be as well
+received as ever,--and ladies ditto! Any woman who can afford a court
+plume, and many even who cannot afford, may fit on her ostrich
+feathers, and go to court with as proud a step and as lofty a
+carriage, as either you or I. Your uncle, Sir Arthur, complains that
+there is no such as 'moral indignation' in the world now, and so much
+the better. What good would it do to anybody? If a gentleman once gets
+into a fashionable club, he is made for life, and may ever afterwards
+defy the world to look askance at him."
+
+"Then nobody takes any notice of Patrick's affairs?" asked Marion
+doubtfully.
+
+"No; except uncle Arthur, who makes himself quite absurd about them;
+refuses to dine here; turns his back on Patrick at the club, in a most
+un-uncle-like manner; and performs all sorts of antics to testify his
+annoyance; but we are both rather glad he no longer comes prosing to
+this house, and that we need never enter his. The Admiral is a fitter
+companion for those old pictures round the wall than for us. Do not
+look at me with that hair-standing-on end expression! I can't help
+what Patrick does, and you will soon get accustomed to such things."
+
+"Oh no, never! I hope never! but Patrick cannot surely push that claim
+in earnest against the Granvilles. He will refund the money, will he
+not, Agnes?"
+
+"Perhaps, when all his other creditors are paid off. Now spare the
+whites of your eyes, and do not look at me as if I had five heads, but
+pray attend to my injunction, and avoid Clara, who is only fit to be a
+saint in a niche at her brother's chapel. You may know her at any
+distance now by her five-year-old dresses and country-cousin bonnets.
+Richard Granville has taken orders at last, and become a most superb
+preacher. In short, the Granvilles are good, worthy, dull, respectable
+people as ever lived, though the very last upon earth that would suit
+us."
+
+"Do you mean to be severe, Agnes? I hope you are mistaken!" replied
+Marion, humbled and depressed by all she had heard. "I have sometimes
+felt, when with Clara, as if goodness were infectious, and never hear
+of any people better than myself without wishing at least to be in the
+same room with them."
+
+"Take my word for it, Marion, these enormously good, sagacious persons
+are better to look at than to converse with. They may be admired at a
+distance, but the greater the distance the better; and pray never
+set-up in that line yourself, as nothing is more unpopular. Clara
+invited me, when we first arrived here, to one of her tea parties!
+some horrid Granville-ish affair, I have no doubt! But I knew my own
+value better than to go. Fancy me, Agnes Dunbar, at a good party!"
+
+"I hope you might not be so very much out of place, Agnes!" replied
+Marion, with an arch and pretty smile. "Whenever I give 'good parties'
+you shall be the very first person invited!"
+
+"Then take my apology now,--previously engaged! Indeed, I may perhaps
+consider myself an engaged person in every sense, Marion. Captain De
+Crespigny has already almost proposed several times, and makes no
+secret of his attachment. Oh, never mind Dixon! She knows who sent me
+this bouquet and all about it. Captain De Crespigny tells me he has
+planted all my favorite flowers at Kilmarnock Abbey, and often says
+what a resource they will hereafter become to me! Here are all the
+letters of my name grouped together, Anemone, Geranium, Narcissus,
+Everlasting, and Sweet William."
+
+"Very ingenious," observed Marion, smiling.
+
+"I promised not to mention whose device it was; therefore, Marion, as
+I am exceedingly particular about keeping my word, if any one guesses
+where I got this, remember to recollect that I did not tell. But,
+Dixon, what is the meaning of this? the geranium is broken and these
+flowers are so withered, they have not surely been in water."
+
+When Marion looked accidentally at Dixon, she was startled to perceive
+that a mortal paleness had overspread her features, which bore a
+strange bewildered expression, while her hand, in which she held the
+flowers, trembled visibly, but she said nothing, and Agnes, in the
+triumphant gaiety of her spirits, rattled heedlessly on.
+
+"One of the rooms at Beaujolie Castle, which Captain De Crespigny
+already calls 'my _boudoir_,' opens into a conservatory filled with
+rare exotics, but he says I shall be the brightest flower of the whole,
+though never born to blush unseen, if he can help it! How very droll he
+is, paying compliments often that would make one feel beautiful for a
+year. He said this morning, when Patrick complained of the room being
+hot, that he wished I would fan it with my eyelashes, and asked for one
+of them to wear as a feather in his Highland bonnet! Yesterday, when I
+showed Captain De Crespigny this new pearl hoop, he said I spoiled the
+symmetry of my hand with rings, as there was not a jewel in the world
+fit for me to wear, and only one ring that ought ever to be placed
+here! You should have seen his sentimental look on the occasion, which
+might have done for twenty proposals!"
+
+"One would have been enough," said Marion, smiling.
+
+"What he said was quite sufficiently explicit, and I only wish he
+would appear a little more diffident, as his look was most provoking
+self-satisfied, when he added, 'how fortunate will be the happy man
+who places a ring on that finger!' When speaking of the Admiral, too,
+he always now calls him 'uncle Arthur!' and yesterday, at taking
+leave, he said in his half jocular, half serious tone, 'I shall live
+upon the Bridge of Sighs till we meet again!'"
+
+"Then, pray, let him stay here till he is a little less confident,"
+replied Marion, laughing. "You should teach diffidence in three
+lessons, Agnes; he has no right to seem sure of success till he has
+obtained your consent point blank. You have many admirers to choose
+among."
+
+"Squadrons of admirers, but not so many lovers as you think, Marion!
+The race of marrying men is becoming extinct in the world, so I must
+not be severely discouraging to poor diffident Captain De Crespigny,
+who has been setting his mustachios at me so long. Your notions about
+keeping people in suspense are quite of the old school, when ladies
+used all to be upon stilts, but '_nous avons change tout cela_.'"
+
+"I am sorry for it. We should all have been born when Sir Arthur was,
+and I wish everybody were like him."
+
+"Spectacles, grey hair, and all! Thank you, Marion, but I am not
+particular, and feel quite satisfied to be a contemporary of Captain
+De Crespigny. If you could but have heard him this morning when he
+sang the 'Pirate's Serenade,'" said Agnes, warbling the words to
+herself,
+
+    "This night, or never, my bride thou shalt be."
+
+While Agnes continued singing _sotto voce_ for some minutes, her whole
+heart and thoughts occupied with agreeable retrospections, the eye of
+Marion again accidentally wandered towards Dixon, and she was startled
+out of a reverie into something almost approaching alarm, by observing
+her attitude and expression. With features as pale and rigid as those
+of a corpse, she gazed at Agnes, and there was an intensity in her look
+perfectly unaccountable, while a dazzling and terrible light glittered
+in her eyes. Marion with difficulty suppressed an exclamation of
+astonishment, when she perceived the extraordinary change in Dixon's
+countenance, but with a private resolution to watch more narrowly than
+before, what such evident agitation could mean, she determined as yet
+to make no remark, but allowed Agnes to rattle on undisturbed, while
+her own thoughts were filled with perplexity and surprise.
+
+"Yesterday, Marion, Captain De Crespigny actually made me read over
+with him that proposal scene in the new novel, 'Matrimonial Felicity.'
+I nearly died of confusion when he doubled down the page, saying, he
+hoped this was not the last time we should study it together. The story
+has but one fault, that the hero makes rather a low marriage, and of
+that Captain De Crespigny expressed an utter abhorrence. I remember
+ages ago, his making me laugh so excessively with a description of some
+school-boy attachment he had in Yorkshire. Such a burlesque upon love!
+It was exquisite! The silver thimbles and wall-flowers he presented to
+a fair damsel in prunella shoes, and no gloves, while his _gages
+d'amour_ were accompanied with verses borrowed from the Irish Melodies,
+and passed off as his own. I forgot always to ask what became of the
+poor deluded girl at last--probably married before this time to some
+fat farmer or thriving shopkeeper, but for my own part, the misery of
+an unrequited attachment is what I never can know. Captain De Crespigny
+really is the only person one could possibly have fancied."
+
+A loud and startling crash at this moment interrupted Agnes'
+delightful reminiscences. Marion instinctively sprang from her seat
+with alarm, and looked hastily round, when she perceived that Dixon
+had tripped over and thrown down a table covered with china ornaments,
+on which Miss Dunbar had frequently squandered half her income, even
+at times when she could scarcely afford a dress. The etiquette being
+now established that all young ladies, of whatever means, shall
+cultivate a passion for china and hot-house plants, Agnes had made a
+collection of second-rate vases and third-rate tea cups, interspersed
+with stunted hyacinths and drooping camellias, at so great an expense
+that Sir Patrick often recommended her to take a wing of the bazaar
+and sell off all her trumpery again. The whole assortment now lay in
+fragments on the floor, while Agnes delivered herself up to agonies of
+lamentation, scolding, and wondering, over the ruin of her hoarded
+treasures, while she pointed out with consternation how nearly the
+table had fallen with its edge upon her own foot, which might have
+lamed her for life. The "fall of china" is a proverbial trial of
+temper, and that of Agnes did not prove on this occasion invulnerable,
+while the epithets, "awkward wretch!" and "stupid idiot!" were audibly
+lavished on the offending abigail.
+
+Marion appeared exclusively occupied in gathering up the scattered
+fragments of china, and arranging them together, but her eye was
+secretly observing Dixon, the strange wild expression of whose
+features filled her with indefinite apprehension. In her countenance
+there gleamed, certainly, for an instant, a dark smile of malignant
+satisfaction. Marion felt sure that it was so. Could the poor
+creature's mind be shipwrecked? Was she insane? Her look had become
+fierce and haggard, her forehead of a deadly paleness, and when she
+caught the eye of Marion earnestly fixed upon her, she started up,
+with a frown of angry defiance, and hurried out of the room.
+
+"This is a most calamitous catastrophe!" exclaimed Agnes,
+disconsolately. "How could Dixon be so intolerably stupid?"
+
+"Are you quite certain it proceeded from stupidity? The accident is
+altogether very strange," observed Marion, going close up to her
+sister, and relating all she had observed during that evening in the
+very lowest whisper, for Marion felt a nervous consciousness that
+Dixon was not far off, and might attempt to overhear them. A stealthy
+step was heard on the stair after she concluded, but Marion,
+thoroughly engrossed with the subject, reiterated once more her
+conviction that there had been something more than common in the
+manner of Dixon, whom she advised Agnes to watch very carefully, if
+she did not part with her soon.
+
+"You were always prejudiced against Dixon, poor stupid fool that she
+is, Marion. I wish I had sent her adrift before she broke all the
+china, but it is very unlike you to be so severe! How can you fancy
+the creature did it on purpose? That is too bad, when you might have
+seen how ghastly pale she became!"
+
+"I did see, Agnes! and that makes me wonder only the more! No one ever
+looked like that surely, for breaking a few china gewgaws!"
+
+"Marion! speak respectfully of my treasures! But you are in a most
+censorious mood this evening: very different from common, when you are
+generally a knight-errant in all our conversations, defending
+everybody. But nothing pleases you to-night. My admirer first, then my
+maid, my china, and even Patrick, who certainly behaved exceedingly
+ill to-day, in not asking me to preside at his party. The pretext was,
+that we had no chaperon, but I had the greatest mind, in a fit of
+offended dignity, to leave his house."
+
+"Your dignity would have been rather put out of countenance, by having
+to borrow my carriage if you did go!" said Sir Patrick, who had
+laughingly entered the room unobserved. "Lady Towercliffe may perhaps
+receive you in time for her six o'clock breakfast to-morrow morning,
+Agnes, but unless you make more haste, the supper and dancing will be
+quite out of the question. Past twelve o'clock, and a rainy night!"
+
+Sir Patrick was a good-natured, selfish man, willing that everybody
+should be happy, provided it put him to no personal inconvenience, and
+when Marion took this opportunity to explain the circumstances of her
+very unexpected return, he merely bestowed a contemptuous whistle on
+the description of Mrs. Penfold's wrath, laughed at Marion's evident
+anxiety about his embarrassments, and then desired her to set about
+being happy at home the best way she could, as he thought she might
+make the rest of her life a holiday now. "And," added he, in his usual
+gay rallying tone, "forget for ever all your grievances at Mrs.
+Penfold's, or rather, Mrs. Tenfold's, on account of the breadth of her
+person and the length of her bills!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+Sir Patrick, like most men who are gifted with more head than heart,
+disbelieved in all such generous emotions and exalted affections as he
+had not himself experienced. With a lively defiance of received
+opinions, his vivacity was unchecked by the fear of giving pain or of
+causing offence, being perfectly reckless on that score, provided only
+he could enliven the dull routine of ordinary society. Marion's
+mingled expression of shyness and animation, her light laughter and
+ardent feelings, were refreshing to a mind so hackneyed as his, and
+though he often checked her sensitive spirit in its full flow of
+affectionate confidence, by a retort courteous, or rather
+discourteous, he was nevertheless vain of the admiration she
+invariably excited, and read, in the eyes of others, the value he
+ought to place on her beauty and talents.
+
+Agnes' whole mind was so frothed over with folly, and encrusted with
+selfishness, that unless the wheel of fortune touched upon her
+personal comforts, she was as impervious to all external impressions
+as a tortoise beneath the shell, and it was a useless waste of
+generous sentiments and kind emotions, whenever the heart of Marion
+was laid open to her. Agnes, who had long since adopted a company
+manner, and even a company voice, persuaded herself that Marion also
+had very cleverly "got up" a character on some imaginary model of
+excellence, which she acted over to the very life. It seemed to her a
+naked certainty that the refinement and delicacy natural to Marion's
+mind were in reality artificial; and though the radiance of her
+intellect, and the sensibility of her eye, were but in harmony with
+her actions, all testifying disinterested self-denial and invariable
+affection, still Agnes convinced herself that Marion lived "for
+effect."
+
+If Marion ever acted a part at all, it was only in concealing from
+those who might have ridiculed her, the unfathomable depth of her
+feelings, since she might as well have asked for sympathy from an
+ice-berg as from Agnes. Knowing that every evidence of sensibility
+would be received with scepticism, she silently and hopefully waited
+till some scope might be afforded her for testifying that all which
+she might have wished to profess was nothing to what she would do or
+suffer for those she loved; and if ever Marion repined at any one
+circumstance in her lot, it was, that she might perhaps pass through
+life unknown to those she loved the best, because she dared not
+express, even by a few insignificant words, that affectionate
+attachment to Agnes and Sir Patrick, which she would have thought any
+sacrifice a pleasure, to evince in its full and heartfelt measure.
+
+One privilege of friendship Marion enjoyed in unbounded measure with
+both her brother and sister. She became the usual depositary of their
+many grievances and disappointments. Marion had the art,--or rather
+the instinct, for to her all art was unknown,--of listening in
+perfection. If Agnes received a dress from her London milliner which
+did not fit, or if Sir Patrick did not obtain an invitation to some
+jovial party which he had expected to enliven, Marion became of
+immediate importance. The annoyance he felt on such occasions could
+scarcely be exceeded--the death of his nearest relation, or of all his
+relations together, would have been nothing to it; but Marion could
+always administer some gentle anodyne to the irritated sufferer, and
+displayed a wonderful ingenuity in turning up the best side of
+everything, for the advantage and comfort of others. Nothing melted
+Marion's heart so entirely as to see Sir Patrick for a moment
+depressed, as the very pride and haughtiness of his spirit rendered
+it, in her estimation, the more affecting when he seemed at all
+subdued, and on the evening of Lady Towercliffe's ball, she could not
+but fancy, before he set off with Agnes, that there was a forced
+vivacity in his spirits which she had never perceived before, and that
+the tone of his voice had a melancholy modulation when he bid her good
+night, accompanied by an unusual degree of kindness, always the very
+worst indication of Sir Patrick's spirits, the consciousness of which,
+and a thousand conjectures respecting its cause and extent, dismissed
+her to bed with an anxious mind and a prayer, even more fervent than
+usual, for his happiness.
+
+In one house, Marion was understood and loved as she wished to be, and
+all her young enthusiasm found its best refuge and welcome in the aged
+heart of Sir Arthur, who felt refreshed and cheered by the
+companionship of thoughts and feelings as fresh and natural as the
+flowers in spring, while they reminded him of the time when his own
+had been as buoyant and untrodden, as hopeful and gay, as full of kind
+intentions and generous wishes.
+
+The morning after Marion's arrival at St. John's Lodge, she arose by
+the peep of the day, intent on surprising her uncle with a visit
+during his early breakfast, and gayly anticipating the look of joyful
+surprise and perplexity with which she would be welcomed, while she
+rehearsed in her own happy mind, how best to increase Sir Arthur's
+astonishment. The day was indeed one of matchless beauty, the sunshine
+perfectly superb, and all around resplendent with light, gayety, and
+happiness, the white clouds skimming along like swans on the blue sky,
+the air perfumed with blossoms, every leaf spangled with dew, the
+painted butterflies, like winged flowers, hovering over the meadows,
+and the country people exhibiting looks full of mirth, hilarity, and
+good humor, as they hastened past to their tasks of daily toil,
+enjoying those common gifts of a bountiful Providence, the light
+breeze, the balmy sunshine, the music of birds, the perfume of
+flowers, and the joy of natural, unfevered spirits.
+
+    "And now, while bloom and breeze their charms unite,
+    And all is glowing with a rich delight,
+    God! who can tread upon the breathing ground,
+    Nor feel Thee present, where Thy smiles abound?"
+
+The whole air seemed full of incense and poetry when the light-footed
+Marion, with a bounding and elastic step, set forth on her solitary
+walk towards Portobello, joyous as a bird in spring, pleased with the
+whole world, and admiring everything with a lightness of heart that
+cast its sunshine on all she saw. Marion delighted in a wild sense of
+liberty now, when she contrasted it with her long years of endurance
+at Mrs. Penfold's; and equipped in exactly such a pink gingham dress
+as Agnes had censured on Clara Granville, with the free air, like
+liquid sunshine, playing about her glowing cheek, and her light
+ringlets fluttering in the breeze, the excitement of her spirits
+became such that she could have run with pleasure across the daisied
+meadows, and, "glad as the wild bee on his glossy wing," longed to
+reach the craggy heights of Arthur Seat, or to linger beneath the old
+thorns already fragrant with blossoms, and steeped in dew.
+
+Marion had picked some flowers as fresh and blooming as herself, while
+she hurried through the more inhabited parts of the sanctuary, but
+when passing beneath the palace windows, her steps were arrested for a
+moment by hearing the sounds of mirth and music. "Can it be!" thought
+she, in astonishment, "Lady Towercliffe's ball is yet at its zenith!"
+
+Pitying the dancers much more than she envied them, Marion looked at
+the scene of glorious beauty around her, and was hurrying forward,
+humming a light barcarolle in concert with the thousand birds in full
+chorus on every side, when suddenly a loud shout caused her to start
+and turn around. Marion now perceived with astonishment that a window
+of Lady Towercliffe's apartment had been hastily opened, and Sir
+Patrick stood on the balcony waving his handkerchief impetuously for
+her to stop, and a moment afterwards she saw him eagerly running after
+her across the fields without his hat.
+
+"Marion! you lucky girl! stop there!" exclaimed he with breathless
+animation. "We are all at breakfast, and require one lady more to make
+up a last quadrille, so come along; you are my prisoner! What makes
+you look so aghast? Who ever heard of a girl not liking her first
+ball?"
+
+"Patrick, you are certainly mad!" said Marion, unable to help laughing
+at the almost delirious eagerness of his manner. "Pray consider! I am
+not in a ball dress! I am not invited! I shall look like a
+house-maid!----"
+
+"Nonsense! I wish everybody looked half as well! All these reasons,
+and fifty more, go for nothing. I have set my heart upon it, and you
+shall not stand in your own light, like the man in the moon. No,
+Marion! you are to be published immediately under my auspices. You
+have often expressed a willingness to die for me any day, but that is
+not necessary just at present. All I ask is that you shall dance for
+me! Now, fling that bonnet off, shake your little forest of ringlets,
+and come along. You will pass muster very well without Cinderella's
+god-mother to make a metamorphosis."
+
+Unable to resist the outburst of her brother's extravagant mirth, yet
+shrinking and abashed, almost ready to cry with vexation, Marion was
+unwillingly led, or almost dragged by her laughing persecutor into the
+drawing-room, where, with a look of _naivete_, and an aspect lovely in
+the first blush and freshness of girlhood, she gazed in mute
+astonishment and almost with dismay at this her first peep into the
+great world of fashion, wishing for her own part that she could have
+adopted invisibility, and enjoyed the scene as if she were in a private
+box at the theatre, for as yet her feelings were "_trop pres de la
+peine pour etre un plaisir_."
+
+A bright sunshine streamed into the room, while the gas lamps still
+dimly glared over the breakfast table, at present surrounded by three
+or four hot, flushed, dusty-looking young ladies, with exaggerated
+colors, soiled dresses, torn gloves, withered bouquets, and
+exceedingly disordered ringlets, falling in dishevelled masses over
+their naked shoulders. These ladies, assuming forced spirits, and an
+appearance of over-done gaiety, kept up a rattling, flippant dialogue
+with about twice or three times the number of gentlemen, some in
+glittering uniforms, padded and stuffed to the very chin, and others
+in plain clothes, but all over-heated, over-excited, and
+over-fatigued, while, in spite of parched lips and blood-shot eyes,
+they were still endeavoring, with all their might, to be fascinating.
+
+To Marion's unaccustomed eye the whole party seemed like a set of
+second rate actors from the theatre, not calculated, by their aspect,
+to elicit very rapturous applauses, and she privately wondered they
+were not ashamed to look each other in the face when in so ridiculous
+a plight. Even Agnes, her own beautiful sister, looked very unlike
+Agnes! and she felt astonished to find that it might actually be
+possible to spend an hour in her company and not be admiring her, but
+in Marion's very private opinion, her appearance was now as if some
+sign post painter had done a resemblance of her sister in the very
+coarsest coloring, and in the most overdone style of dress and
+expression.
+
+Agnes had a great deal to say, and no diffidence to prevent her saying
+it all, therefore she was now plunged into the midst of a very
+animated dialogue with Captain De Crespigny, talking with a look of
+conscious beauty and conscious success, in the only style she could
+talk, nonsense, and making a lavish expenditure of smiles, attitudes,
+and exclamations, to give herself the appearance of vivacity. Her hair
+was in a most disastrous state, and her complexion everything but what
+it should be, while her dress had so completely fallen off at the
+shoulders, that she might appropriately have sung her favorite air,
+"One struggle more and I am free."
+
+The expression of Agnes' countenance became at once perfectly natural,
+when she turned round, and for the first time observed, with a start
+of genuine astonishment, that Marion was beside her, looking at the
+moment like some being of a better world, or like some graceful water
+lily rearing its pure and beautiful head above the turbid pool.
+
+Marion glanced at her sister in a state of smiling embarrassment, as
+if desirous to claim her protection amidst a scene so new and strange,
+and taking possession, with a confiding look, of Agnes' arm, joy
+seemed rushing out of her bright animated eyes, and dimpling in her
+cheeks, when, under her sister's protection, she gazed around with an
+expression of timid amusement and curiosity.
+
+"Marion, what mad freak is this?" exclaimed Agnes, with a hot red
+blush of angry surprise; "Patrick, do take her home!"
+
+"Not till she has been my _vis a vis_ in this quadrille, and then we
+must all disperse," replied Sir Patrick, with a boyish mischievous
+laugh, while noticing a haughty flash pass swiftly over the brow of
+Agnes; "I had difficulty enough in getting Marion to come at all, so
+she shall not escape me now. De Crespigny, have you engaged a partner?"
+
+"If I had I would have strangled her!" replied Captain De Crespigny,
+with an admiring glance at Marion, who stood with her downcast eyes
+shaded with their long deep fringes, while an arch young smile played
+round her mouth, and dimpled her cheek.
+
+"Will you then take the very great trouble of dancing with Marion?"
+
+"I shall be too happy," replied he, throwing a world of expression
+into his fine animated eyes. "I shall do so with all my heart!"
+
+"Marion, your old friend and cousin, Louis De Crespigny. Did you ever
+see such an ugly fellow?"
+
+"That is the very thing I pique myself upon! I am like the Skye
+terriers, admired chiefly for my surpassing ugliness," said Captain De
+Crespigny laughingly, observing the smile and the blush with which
+Marion listened. "You think me plain; but I wish you saw my uncle!"
+
+"Wear a mask, De Crespigny, if you ever become as hideous! But in
+respect to looks, the most unendurable of all living beings is a
+handsome vulgar man, like the description I hear of that creature
+Howard, Sir Arthur's pen-and-ink man. I could forgive his vulgarity,
+if Marion did not tell me that he presumes to be handsome, which
+renders him utterly insufferable! I wish somebody would put him to
+death!"
+
+"The fellow has never yet shown himself to me," replied Captain De
+Crespigny, carelessly. "Now, Miss Dunbar, allow me the honor of the
+next quadrille with you; and if there be a dozen more," added he, with
+his most ineffable smile, "so much the better! I consider any other
+gentleman who asks you to-night as my personal enemy!"
+
+Marion stole a frightened glance at Agnes, while timidly accepting the
+offered arm of Captain De Crespigny; but her sister had turned away
+with a look of superb disdain, and was engaged in lively conversation
+with Lord Wigton, a tall stripling, who seemed as if he was never to
+be done growing, and who copied Captain De Crespigny in everything,
+from the pattern of his watch-chain to the choice of his partners.
+
+Agnes felt invariably more astonished at any deficiency of attention,
+than at the most devoted assiduity, having accustomed herself to
+believe that she was always the first object of interest to every
+gentleman in the room, though diffidence or caution might cause them
+to exercise their self-denial for a time, by keeping aloof; and it was
+with more commiseration for Captain De Crespigny's privation in losing
+her, than for her own, that she accepted the school-boy Peer as a
+partner, while secretly amused and flattered by the ludicrous
+expression of awe and admiration with which he usually offered
+himself. Having talked, flirted, and laughed, through one quadrille
+and several reels, the clock struck eight. It was an unspeakable
+triumph to Lady Towercliffe, that her ball had thus been kept up the
+latest of any during the season; and now the whole prepared for
+retiring to their fevered pillows.
+
+Captain De Crespigny, after uttering, as usual, in his most
+ingratiating manner, a million of absurd nothings, took a sentimental
+leave of Marion, saying, with his very best smile, and a sigh
+to correspond, "I shall always remember this evening with
+pleasure--always! Ten minutes of unmixed happiness are something in
+this world to be thankful for. Life has nothing more delightful."
+
+These words were said in his usual gay, off-hand tone, while Captain De
+Crespigny felt perfectly charmed to think what an impression they must
+be making on the heart of his young and unsophisticated partner. He was
+at the same time astonished himself, to find on this occasion how much
+more his heart was on his lips than it had ever been before. Marion was
+the only girl Captain De Crespigny had yet seen whom he did not feel a
+wish to trifle with; for during the last half hour, he had been not
+only amused, but deeply interested, by discovering in her conversation
+a degree of matured reflection, of _naivete_, humor, and good sense,
+accompanied by a brightness of expression in her deeply-speaking eyes,
+much in contrast with what he had ever been accustomed to before.
+Nothing is so rare in manner as to be perfectly natural, without a
+_soupcon_ of affectation; and to this charm was added another, quite
+as new and unexpected to Captain De Crespigny, though by no means so
+acceptable, as he became not only astonished, but piqued, at the gay,
+indifferent carelessness with which Marion heard, as words of course,
+not more belonging to her than if they had been addressed to any one
+else, his well-turned compliments and insinuated admiration.
+
+Not to be met half-way was new and astonishing to Captain De Crespigny!
+It seemed perfectly unaccountable, little as he knew how long his
+character for a ruthless flirt had been placarded before the eyes of
+Marion, who no more credited the sincerity of his professions now, than
+if he had been an actor performing on the stage. She considered that it
+was his part for the evening to scatter civilities indiscriminately
+around him, while his real feelings were, she believed, privately
+consecrated to one, and to one only. Marion's own heart was in armor,
+protected by the belief of Captain De Crespigny being her affianced
+brother; and therefore she received his _adieux_ with a quiet, demure
+look, succeeded by an arch smile, as the idea crossed her mind how
+completely she was in the secret of his attachment, and how little he
+seemed to guess that she was.
+
+When Captain De Crespigny observed Marion's good-humored, careless
+manner in taking leave of him, he began to fancy it just possible she
+might still be quite indifferent to his attentions; but he rather
+indignantly resolved that this should not continue long. It would be a
+distinction, he knew, to follow in the train of a young beauty so
+admired as he saw that Marion must be; for a hundred tongues were
+already talking around him of her matchless loveliness, while he alone
+had yet enjoyed an opportunity of discovering that much as she was to
+be admired by those who saw her, she was still more to be loved by
+those who knew her; for she seemed to unite in herself all that he had
+ever praised in a thousand others before, though he carried no plummet
+in his mind fitted to measure the depth of hers. Captain De Crespigny
+had been accustomed, hitherto, always to feign more than he felt; but
+now, for the first time, he found it necessary to conceal, even from
+himself, the extent of his feelings; for it seemed as if the last few
+hours had rendered Marion perfectly known, and for ever dear to him.
+Slowly strolling homewards, therefore, he gave vent to his thoughts,
+by singing, in a voice like moonlight, soft and clear, the words of a
+favorite song:--
+
+    "And fare thee well, my only love
+    And fare thee well a while!
+    And I will come again, my love,
+    Though it were ten thousand mile."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+Marion had a genius for being happy, and much as the unexpected ball
+had amused her, she hurried along the road to Portobello, her cheek
+dimpling at the recollection of all that had passed, while she
+confidently anticipated one pleasure yet to come from it, the
+amusement she knew Sir Arthur would derive from her adventure; for
+never did two individuals, when together, seem to converse more in
+accordance with Dr. Johnson's rule, than Marion and her uncle, that
+"the aged should remember that they have been young, and the young
+that they must yet be old."
+
+As Marion arrived within sight of the cottage, her step became more
+buoyant, and her thoughts more joyous, when, seeing Sir Arthur at his
+open window, she waved her handkerchief to him; and Henry, leaping out
+from a height of about ten feet, ran laughing to meet her, his rich
+brown hair waving in the wind, his color heightened by the exercise,
+and his eye sparkling with the joy of this very unexpected meeting.
+
+While Marion poured out the tea, and poured out, at the same time, a
+whole flood of recollections and circumstances connected with the
+ball, Sir Arthur equalled her utmost hopes, in being amused and
+enlivened by the description, while he said, in a rallying tone,
+looking fondly at her bright, happy countenance, "My dear Marion, you
+will never get on in the fashionable world! You look too pleased and
+happy, like a girl in the Christmas holidays. That will never do. It
+is the fashion to be exceedingly fastidious and discontented. You must
+positively give yourself some airs, or I shall have to be angry at
+you."
+
+"You, uncle Arthur! Do let me see you angry! I cannot fancy such a
+thing. But pray, publish a volume of advice to young ladies on their
+first coming out. It would be a great pity for the rising generation
+not to benefit by your remarks," said Marion, gaily seating herself at
+the window. "I feel this morning as cheerful as that view of yours
+from the window, where the waves are dancing in sunshine, the ocean
+one liquid diamond, the sands all sparkling with gladness, and the
+white-winged vessels gliding joyfully along."
+
+"External things take their expression from the feelings with which
+they are looked at," replied Sir Arthur, with sudden emotion. "That
+wide desert of sand seems to me this morning boundless as human
+wishes, and barren as their reality. I would not willingly throw a
+cloud over your happy face, Marion; but it must be! How strange, that
+even you, young and joyous as you are, must be doomed, like all the
+children of man, to sorrow! The delight of seeing you here, my very
+dear girl, had banished all care from my mind for a time; but it is on
+your account, far--far more than my own--that I feel anxious and
+melancholy."
+
+Marion put her arm gently within that of Sir Arthur, and looked
+affectionately, but silently, in his face, while he continued, in
+accents of manly regret and indignation, while there was a mournful
+tenderness in the look he turned on his niece,
+
+"You have not heard, Marion, that the little I ever had has been made
+less by a mean transaction of my nephew's. For my own part, this
+matters little, as it is not in the nature of things, that with all my
+accumulated infirmities, I should live as much as a couple of years.
+My sight has almost entirely failed, my general health is equally bad,
+and my long-faded spirits owe their best support to religion, and to
+the affection of yourself and Henry."
+
+Marion silently and tearfully kissed her uncle's check, and pressed
+his hand more closely in her own, while he proceeded, in accents of
+increasing emotion,
+
+"My boy here wishes, as he ought, to pursue a profession, and Henry
+will be an honor to any one he enters. He has never cost me an anxious
+thought, nor a single shilling. I trust his anonymous annuity will be
+always continued, and that on his account I need not lament my
+impoverished circumstances; but my chief earthly care is for you,
+Marion. Though Agnes, too, shows me little attention, and no kindness,
+I cannot forget whose child she is, nor think of her future life
+without anxiety. I had hoped to have the means of being useful to both
+of you while I lived--to have offered you a shelter here, in case, as
+I expect soon, there should be no other for you--and to have left you
+both at last above absolute penury, when I am at rest in the grave. It
+is for your sakes only that I would now cling to the tattered shreds
+of my worn-out existence; but this is a difficult world for
+unprotected, portionless girls, in which to buffet their way onwards.
+Remember, dear Marion, it is my misfortune, not my fault, if death now
+overtake me before I can do anything for my brother's children."
+
+Marion clasped her arms round Sir Arthur's neck, and wept in silence.
+There was a weight of grief in all he had said, for which she was
+totally unprepared, and which she felt in every fibre of her heart.
+Sir Patrick's disgraceful conduct, and the impending departure of
+Henry, so long her companion and friend, were afflictions for which
+she was in some degree prepared; and they seemed as nothing, compared
+with what her venerable uncle said, for the first time, of himself. He
+was a strong-minded man, unwilling to obtrude his infirmities and
+feelings on the notice of any one, anxious always rather to borrow
+cheerfulness from those around, than to cause anxiety or grief; but a
+sense of its absolute necessity had induced him to show Marion, in
+some degree, her real position, and in doing so, had obliged him for
+once to speak of his own pecuniary losses and growing frailty. Long as
+the Admiral had been threatened with blindness, brought on by the
+pernicious climates in which he had served, the apprehension of
+actually losing him had hitherto been so far from Marion's thoughts,
+that she frequently pleased herself with anticipating the time when
+she might herself supply, by reading to him and walking with him, the
+place of that gloomy and spectral-looking Mr. Howard, one of the few
+people in the world whom Marion disliked, at the same time that she
+almost envied him for being so constantly in the society of Sir
+Arthur, and for being so indispensably useful to him.
+
+Marion felt that all the world would be cold and bleak to her indeed,
+as if the sun had left the firmament, if she lost the warmth of
+affection and kindness to which, from infancy, she had been
+accustomed, in the house of her beloved uncle, the only parent she had
+ever known. If such a misfortune were to come, who would then advise
+her--who would then be interested in her feelings--who would believe
+in the sincerity of her affections--who would be happy when she
+appeared, and grieved when she departed? All this rushed upon Marion's
+young mind when she arose to depart, while bitter tears coursed each
+other down her cheeks, and large drops stood in the nearly blinded
+eyes of Sir Arthur, which he endeavored to hide, as he affectionately
+embraced her, saying, in a tone of dignified, but melancholy
+composure,
+
+"Come back soon, my dear girl! Let me see that face often, while I can
+see at all! You are the ivy giving life and cheerfulness to a blasted
+tree."
+
+"Let me remain with you always!" whispered Marion, in a tone of the
+deepest earnestness, "dear uncle Arthur! It is impossible to tell how
+happy I could be with you, but I have an abhorrence now, not to be
+expressed, of my present situation. It seems little short of swindling
+even for me, to live as I do, with all our debts unpaid. When I sit
+down at my brother's table, or wear the dresses he gives me, I cannot
+but feel myself an accomplice. It is degrading to my very heart, and I
+would not willingly do it. Take me home, dear uncle, to the best home
+I have ever known. Let me read to you, write for you, walk with you,
+and we shall be so happy--so very happy together."
+
+"It may come to that too soon, dear Marion, and when it does, no
+parent ever received his own child with more pleasure than I shall
+welcome you. Even with all my shame and sorrow, then, for your
+brother, my very heart shall rejoice to see you, but not yet. Patrick
+is your guardian--a most unfit one certainly;--but while he is able
+and willing to receive you, which cannot probably be long,--it would
+ill become me to interfere. In remaining with him, you fulfil your
+father's will, who bequeathed you to his care,--a trust he has but
+little deserved. Remain with him, however, at present, and do not feel
+answerable for his actions or circumstances, over which you have no
+control."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+Marion's walk back from Portobello was of a very different aspect from
+her gay outset in the morning, and nature seemed to have suddenly gone
+out of tune as she gazed around, with an altered eye on the sombre
+massy hills with their giant shadows, throwing into mysterious
+obscurity the tall ancient buildings of the doleful Canongate, which
+looked like the ghost of a departed city; and the melancholy
+magnificence of Holyrood reminded her of greatness in adversity, while
+she reflected that the royal houses of Stuart and of Bourbon had there
+found a dismal refuge in their utmost destitution. But more
+immediately connected with herself, and more interesting still to her
+thoughts, though rather a sinking in poetry, was the consideration
+that there her own brother had been driven by his folly and
+indiscretion, and that her father's family, so long respected in
+Scotland, seemed now about to be finally extinguished in penury and
+disgrace. It was a misfortune without remedy, for Marion knew the
+limit of her influence with Sir Patrick to be less than nothing, and
+she believed that not a living being possessed more. She had never
+heard a surmise of his attachment to Clara, or deep and unconquerable
+as it was, she might have entertained some hope that the love of
+virtue and goodness in others, might lead to a respect for it in
+himself, though none can doubt the melancholy truth, that, as fevers
+are infectious, but health is not, so moral evil is far more
+contagious than moral good.
+
+After a hurried walk, Marion reached home in some trepidation, lest
+she might be too late to dress for dinner, an offence which Sir
+Patrick always visited with his utmost indignation; but on entering
+the house, she was alarmed and surprised to hear, from the butler,
+that Agnes had been seized with sudden illness very soon after her
+return from Lady Towercliffe's ball, and that she was unable to leave
+her bed.
+
+Marion flew, rather than walked up stairs, and entered her sister's
+room with the most affectionate solicitude, but great was her
+astonishment to find Agnes stretched almost insensible on the bed, and
+evidently in an agony of suffering, pale, cold, and languid. Her
+spirits were evidently in the lowest depression, and, for the first
+time in her life, she seemed to consider herself a mere mortal like
+other people.
+
+Dixon, in the mean time, watched over the invalid with an air of
+excessive, almost exaggerated solicitude, emitting a series of very
+ostentatious sighs, while she kept her place close beside the bed, so
+as to exclude every one else, and made eager signs to Marion when she
+entered, to leave the room without speaking, and not approach her
+sister, or agitate her in any way.
+
+Without heeding any such signals, however, Marion approached the
+bed-side with noiseless steps, and quietly assuming the place which
+had been occupied by Dixon, gently took hold of Agnes' hand, which
+felt so cold and clammy, that she started with a degree of alarm,
+greatly increased by the sight of the invalid's altered aspect.
+
+"Have you called in a doctor?" said she, anxiously. "Surely Patrick
+does not know how very ill you are, Agnes?"
+
+"Dixon says he thought nothing of it, and recommended me to put off my
+illness till after the assembly: unfeeling wretch! when I shall
+perhaps never recover. Since then he is gone hunting," added Agnes,
+with a peevish look at Marion, as if it were her fault, "and he will
+not return home before night!"
+
+"Who said Patrick had gone out hunting? It is not the case. I met him
+in the passage, and he had been told you complained only of a slight
+nervous headache!" said Marion, glancing at Dixon, whose countenance
+wore an expression so sinister and peculiar, that Marion felt the
+color rush to her face with surprise, but turned away instantly to
+conceal how much she had been startled by it, though determined
+privately to watch Dixon's face more narrowly than before, while
+feeling a vague apprehension of she knew not what.
+
+"Miss Dunbar must be kept quiet," observed Dixon, in a harsh sulky
+voice, "she ought not to speak. It only fatigues her, and she should
+see no one!"
+
+"Who ordered that?" asked Marion with a scrutinizing look at the
+abigail's averted face. "I shall remain here, Dixon, therefore leave
+the room yourself at present."
+
+While she angrily and slowly prepared to obey this authoritative
+command, Agnes turned her pallid face towards Marion, saying, in a
+faint voice, and with a look of extreme lassitude,
+
+"Dixon says I have been in a delirium. She is probably right, for I
+could have been certain that when the shutters were closed, I heard a
+voice in the farthest corner of my room. It sounded like muttered
+curses, and a dark figure crossed the fire-place. Could it be a dream?
+I was too weak to move--my hand trembled, so that I could not reach
+the bell, but surely I heard a low, strange, unearthly laugh. It was
+horrible! but a moment afterwards Dixon appeared, and she says I was
+in a deep sleep, evidently dreaming some horrible dream!"
+
+"It is impossible sometimes to distinguish between a dream and a
+reality, especially when we are ill," said Marion soothingly, for she
+was alarmed at the look of terror and perplexity with which Agnes
+mentioned these circumstances, and privately determined, as soon as
+possible, to communicate on the subject with Sir Patrick. "I must be
+allowed, Agnes, to sleep in your room to-night."
+
+"Dixon maintains that this is all mere fatigue, after the excitement
+of Lady Towercliffe's, but I was never yet wearied with being
+flattered and admired! This morning, however, strange to say, my
+spirits are dreadfully depressed. Nothing gives me pleasure. I can
+scarcely imagine any earthly thing that could interest me. Though the
+ball turned out pleasanter than any ball ever was before, and Captain
+De Crespigny seemed, as usual, the most lover-like of men, yet this
+morning, if he proposed to you, or even to Dixon, I should scarcely
+care. Everything seems a blank. I feel a sort of depression and horror
+not to be described or imagined."
+
+"I desired you, Dixon, to leave the room," exclaimed Marion,
+astonished to perceive her still lurking about the bed. "Go
+instantly," added Marion in a more peremptory tone, for there was
+something that terrified her in the woman's look. "What do you think,
+my dear Agnes, can be the cause of this very sudden illness? Did you
+eat any supper?"
+
+"Nothing; I Jephsonized completely; tasted not a morsel, and drank
+still less! That good creature, Dixon, brought me a cup of tea from her
+own breakfast, on my return home, merely to lay the dust in my throat,
+but, _entre nous_, I tossed the greater part out of that window
+clandestinely, as it had an odd, disagreeable taste, like
+stuff-petticoats! Poor Dixon would be mortified if she knew what I
+thought of her 'delicious mixture' at, probably, 3s. 6d. the pound. It
+is a pleasure to see any human being so attached as she is to me."
+
+Marion's color deepened at the tone of reproach in which these last
+words were spoken. It was impossible, she thought, that they could be
+seriously considered applicable to her, and yet both the look and
+accent seemed to say so, and the ready color flushed her cheek when
+she felt that no attachment could have equalled her own, had she dared
+to express it either in word or deed.
+
+As Agnes declined sending for a doctor, and seemed already better,
+though unable for more exertion, Marion took up a book, and remained
+silently by her side, watching, with anxious solicitude, every
+variation of her countenance, and, with affectionate ingenuity,
+anticipating all her many wants, the most troublesome of which
+appeared to be a craving and intolerable thirst.
+
+After some time the door opened, and Dixon was about to enter with a
+tray containing Agnes' dinner, but on seeing Marion still there, she
+started and seemed about hastily to withdraw.
+
+"Come in," said Marion, looking with astonishment at the abigail's
+countenance, which was flushed and inflamed, as if she had been
+intoxicated. "Come in."
+
+"When Miss Dunbar is ill, she always likes her dinner alone," said
+Dixon, pertly. "This is only a plain pudding, so I shall keep it warm
+below."
+
+"My sister will not like it the less for my helping her," said Marion,
+affectionately turning to Agnes. "You may leave it with me, Dixon."
+
+Marion was surprised to see the woman visibly change color when she
+said this. The abigail instantly compressed her lips as if to prevent
+their quivering, fixed her wild glaring eyes on Agnes, and then gave
+an anxious glance at the dinner tray.
+
+"This pudding seems excellent," continued Marion, helping Agnes; "but
+surely there is rather too much sugar scattered on the top! Sugar!"
+added Marion in accents of astonishment, when she had put it to her
+lips; "this is not sugar! stop, Agnes! stop! I charge you not to taste
+it!" exclaimed Marion, hastily dashing the spoon out of her sister's
+hand, as she was raising it to her mouth. "What can this mean? There
+is something here I do not understand. It must be explained!"
+
+Bewildered and amazed, Marion looked round, and beheld a dark scowl of
+rage and fear, like insanity itself, never afterwards to be forgotten,
+which disturbed the countenance of Dixon for a moment, and then she
+became of a livid, unnatural whiteness, when, in a low, subdued voice,
+she uttered,
+
+"I know nothing about it; the cook seasons Miss Dunbar's dinner; if
+this is not to her taste, I can take it away."
+
+"Marion, what is the matter? I hate all this fuss. Pray do not make a
+scene when I am so ill. Dixon manages for me without half this
+trouble. The pudding seems good enough."
+
+Marion trembled visibly as she got up, but without saying another word
+she rang three times for the cook, who expressed the greatest
+astonishment when the pudding was shown to her, saying, in a tone of
+pique, as she supposed her skill was in question,
+
+"I put none of that there powdering on; sure it be something very
+queer; neither sugar, salt, nor mustard! It would be of little use in
+a kitchen, with no taste? I declare," added she, suddenly changing
+color, "to my thinking, it be nothing better nor worse than arsenic!"
+
+A stifled cry of astonishment and consternation escaped from Marion
+at these words, while she hurriedly exclaimed, "Stop Dixon; do not
+let Dixon leave the house! Send for an apothecary. Where is Patrick?"
+
+The powder, on being analyzed, proved, indeed, to be arsenic, which
+Dixon bought on the previous evening, on the usual pretext of
+poisoning rats; but while Marion was raising an alarm, the culprit
+herself absconded, carrying off all Agnes' trinkets and money, which
+she must previously have secreted; and notice of the robbery was
+immediately sent to the police. Among her valuable collection of
+jewelry, Agnes bestowed the most audible lamentations on a splendid
+locket set in diamonds with her brother's hair; but her secret regrets
+were the deepest for a crystal scent-bottle, with a gold top set in
+turquoises, which Captain De Crespigny had presented on the previous
+evening, pretending he had lost it to her in a bet.
+
+"One would fancy," said Agnes, in her usual rallying tone, the first
+time she saw Captain De Crespigny after her recovery, "that Dixon had
+been some old admirer of yours. Not a vestige is left of anything I
+ever received from you! The last year's annual which you gave me, the
+music which you copied for me, even my withered bouquet of the night
+before, all gone at one fell swoop, leaving not a wreck behind!"
+
+Captain De Crespigny colored violently, and strode to the window in
+evident confusion, which Marion could not but remark with astonishment
+and perplexity; but Agnes, quite unconscious of his agitation, rattled
+on with increasing animation.
+
+"I always now put my money and everything valuable in the most
+conspicuous part of my room, to save anybody the trouble of murdering
+me for them. I have a perfect horror of being murdered! It never
+occurred to me, however, that the treasures which for certain reasons
+I value most, were in any danger, being of no intrinsic value to other
+people. I really would have died in defence of my little
+scent-bottle."
+
+Captain De Crespigny had recourse now to the poker, an inestimable
+refuge in all cases where the concealment of emotion is an object, as
+his heightened color could excite no reasonable surprise after the
+exertion of lifting it, and the noise he made afterwards seemed
+equivalent to a reply.
+
+"It was, after all, a most terrifying escape!" continued Agnes, rather
+delighted than otherwise by the importance she had acquired by this
+adventure, and holding it up continually in every light that she
+could. "That horrid Dixon! she always had a half-crazed look! You must
+remember my telling you so, Marion?"
+
+"I remember it perfectly it was I who said so to you!" replied her
+sister, laughing,
+
+"Ah! that is exactly the same thing!"
+
+"Not in the least," persisted Marion, good-humoredly smiling. "All
+great discoveries occasion disputes about the originators. Watt and
+Bell about steam, and you and I about this poisoning affair!"
+
+"Well, it was clever of you, Marion! I shall do as much for you
+another time. That ungrateful creature! The arsenic would probably, at
+the very least, have spoiled my teeth, and perhaps made my hair grow
+grey! That I never could have survived!"
+
+"The strangest thing of all is, that there seems to have been so much
+malice in the whole business," continued Marion. "She might easily
+have carried off all the plate, or Patrick's gold dressing-case! What
+could ail Dixon at you, Agnes? You were kindness itself to her."
+
+"This is an odd world, and very remarkable things happen in it,"
+observed Sir Patrick, with a yawn. "But you may talk till you are both
+in your coffins, without making anything new of this business. Your
+affair has been the wonder of the house for two entire days, Agnes,
+without a single new fact having come out, and there is De Crespigny
+strolled into the garden to escape being wearied to death. I really
+think two days long enough to discuss any one subject, and the less
+you annoy yourselves about it the better. If the culprit is above
+ground, the police will ferret her out; and my advice to both of you
+is, to eat your puddings for the next month without sugar!"
+
+Agnes assumed a look of majestic ire at this very cavalier allusion to
+her adventure, and threw herself back in her arm-chair, with an
+exceedingly ill-used aspect, heaving a succession of indignant sighs,
+which continued most provokingly unnoticed till they amounted at last
+almost to groans of suppressed anger, while Sir Patrick, taking up the
+"Times," concluded, by saying, in a tone of absent, careless
+indifference,
+
+"One has no leisure now to be happy and sorry about everything that
+occurs. I remember once seeing a very impudent, forward-looking
+actress perform Juliet at Covent-Garden, when De Crespigny whispered
+to me, in his droll way, 'Depend upon it, this is not the first lover
+whom that young lady has met on a balcony!' and you may depend upon
+it, Agnes, this is not the first poisoning experiment your abigail has
+attempted: I hope she will never try her skill on me! What would you
+say if she were to administer a dose of zinc some day, and turn you
+blue! I often wonder that no jealous woman ever wreaked her vengeance
+in that way! It would be a capital joke!"
+
+Agnes had been greatly flattered, and if any attention to herself
+could have surprised her, she might have been astonished at the
+intense interest almost inadvertently betrayed by Captain De
+Crespigny, in the mysterious circumstances of her lately discovered
+danger. When the particulars were first mentioned, he turned as pale
+as death, and asked with startling eagerness, for a minute description
+of the abigail's appearance, to which he listened with almost
+breathless attention. From that moment he became indefatigable in his
+efforts to trace out the fugitive, in which he seemed most truly and
+heartily in earnest, writing advertisements himself for the
+newspapers, to offer a reward for her apprehension, and never seeming
+to tire of hearing all that could be remembered or related, respecting
+the period of her being first engaged by Agnes, her dress, manner,
+age, and appearance, while his color varied visibly from red to pale
+several times during the narration.
+
+"It is altogether most flattering to me!" observed Agnes next day,
+when pointing all this out to Sir Patrick. "Captain De Crespigny has
+been sometimes most maliciously accused of insincerity towards young
+ladies; but when he is in earnest you see how very much in earnest he
+is! It would be impossible for him to be more deeply interested and
+agitated on the occasion, if his own life, instead of mine, had been
+endangered. I wish everybody else had shown as much feeling!" added
+she, glancing angrily at Sir Patrick, who was carelessly whistling a
+tune, and beating time with a riding whip on his boot. "Well!"
+exclaimed Agnes, getting more and more irritated, "if I did not see
+that one person at least cares more for me in the world than you do, I
+would be ready yet, without giving Dixon the trouble, to poison
+myself! I would spend my last shilling on a dose of arsenic!"
+
+"I am not sure that poisoning in such a case would be the best plan!"
+replied Sir Patrick, describing circles on the carpet with his whip,
+and speaking in a tone of most provoking _nonchalance_. "In the first
+place, if people are so very indifferent, it might be no great
+punishment to them; and besides, I do not exactly see how poisoning
+would improve your own prospects, either in this world or the next! In
+respect to my friend De Crespigny, it is quite a catch for any idle man
+like him, when something occurs that he can be interested in, for he
+was dying of too much leisure; but as for his ever falling seriously in
+love with any young lady in the creation, let me warn you, Agnes, once
+for all, that there cannot be a more hopeless hope invented or dreamed
+of."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+Marion found it more and more difficult every day, to account for the
+bitter, angry contempt with which Agnes spoke of Clara Granville, her
+dislike to whom never seemed for an hour to lie dormant, as she was
+perpetually making allusions to her, which caused very frequent
+irritation between herself and Sir Patrick, who sometimes angrily left
+the room, and yet occasionally joined in her invectives against the
+whole Granville family, in a tone of reckless, angry derision, which
+was to Marion completely perplexing and unaccountable. If Agnes felt
+dull or out of spirits, she complained of being excessively
+Granville-ish; or if Sir Patrick were observed for a wonder, in any
+single instance, to economise, she called him a Granville-ist; but if
+her brother either laughed, or flung himself out of the room,
+according to the humor he was in, it was in a fit of Granville-ism;
+and Marion became surprised to perceive that the mention of that name
+was never, even by chance, like that of any other name, a subject of
+indifference; and conscious that some secret was connected with it,
+not imparted to her, she carefully avoided all allusion to Clara.
+
+Agnes one day jestingly announced to Sir Patrick that the Granvilles
+had taken out perpetual tickets at the Charitable Soup Kitchen, and
+meant to dine there every day on broth; and the next morning she
+rather inconsistently found fault with them, because at least twenty
+poor people assembled at their lodgings every day, to be fed, as if it
+were a House of Refuge.
+
+Marion observed that all the innumerable books for charitable
+subscriptions, which were circulated from door to door, Agnes liked to
+examine, for the gossiping amusement of ascertaining how much was
+given by each or her friends, though never for the purpose of adding
+her own name, as her purse was a complete valetudinarian, always
+complaining of exhaustion, yet always capable of any exertion dictated
+by inclination; and Sir Patrick also, though he generally swore an
+impatient oath or two, when he saw the succession of dingy looking
+books brought into the drawing-room, sometimes amused himself with a
+supercilious glance at the contents.
+
+Whenever the object was judicious, the Reverend Richard Granville's
+name, and that of his sister, appeared for a small sum, such as they
+might be able to afford; and Marion felt convinced there was much
+single-hearted goodness, and courageous disregard of mere appearances,
+when beneath the pompous £5 5s., of Lady Towercliffe, she saw the
+modest unobtrusive ten shillings, or half-a-crown of Miss Granville.
+It was probably all Clara could give, and she did not feel ashamed to
+proclaim the very small amount, though Agnes, like most persons who
+are mean themselves, in respect to giving, was splendid in her notions
+for others, and exclaimed outrageously against the absurdity of
+bestowing a paltry trifle at all.
+
+"Five shillings to the Infirmary! did ever anybody hear such nonsense!
+as if an Infirmary could be supported on five shillings! It is so like
+Clara Granville's trumpery ideas! I daresay she thought the fortune of
+the institution made by such a donation! It will scarcely buy a packet
+of James' powders for one of the invalids!"
+
+"But when Clara spares five shillings, are we to give nothing!" asked
+Marion, seeing Sir Patrick's pompous butler, as usual, carrying away
+the book untouched.
+
+"Better give nothing than make ourselves ridiculous, like the
+Granvilles. Nobody will guess that this book was brought here! I wish
+Clara had given her superfluous money towards the better equipment of
+their own one solitary man-servant,--the merest attempt at a footman I
+ever beheld, with such a lodging-house look! Like the waiter from some
+second-rate inn! Did you ever see anything so ugly, and out of taste,
+as that little yellow cottage of the Granvilles', standing close to
+the old palace, like a kippered salmon nailed to the wall!"
+
+An angry flush burned upon the cheek of Sir Patrick, who did not trust
+his temper with a reply to Agnes' tirade; and Marion hastily withdrew
+her eyes from his countenance, on perceiving that he had bit his lip
+till the blood seemed ready to spring, while his eyes flashed fire. In
+a moment afterwards, he whistled half a tune, threw open the window,
+and finally hurried out of the room, while Agnes looked mysteriously
+at Marion, and said nothing, though the expression of her eye plainly
+told that something was wrong.
+
+Sir Patrick never entered a church; but Sunday being a day of impunity,
+when he might go to his club, and become a gentleman-at-large, without
+the possibility of being arrested, he invited a weekly supper party to
+meet him at Douglass' Hotel, every Saturday night, punctually at
+twelve o'clock, which held together till so late an hour on Sunday
+mornings, that once having carried a candle to the door, when letting
+out Captain De Crespigny, the day-light flashed in upon them, and they
+saw the congregations passing along every street to church.
+
+Sir Patrick's life had now become one continual subterfuge. '_Il jurait
+bien, mais il payait mal_;' and he was heard frequently to declare,
+that he could not but fancy it might be, to an old experienced fox, a
+great amusement, when he afforded a good day's hunting to sportsmen,
+from the strange delight he felt himself in baffling duns and teasing
+bailiffs. He cared for nothing, not even for his debts and creditors,
+but over-reached everybody, paid nobody, and treated all mankind in
+different styles of insolence; but his favorite diversion was, nearly
+to out-stay the hour of twelve on Sunday night, knowing that his
+ill-treated creditors had offered a reward of £500 for his capture, and
+that the whole way along the High Street, emissaries were ambuscaded,
+in the eager hope that some fortunate night the clock might strike
+Monday morning before he was safely sheltered within the sanctuary.
+
+Once Sir Patrick had indeed lingered several minutes too late; and
+when he approached the ditch, forming a line of demarcation between
+the debtor's refuge and the world in general, a rope was drawn
+completely across the street, while two men like constables, in large
+loose duffle coats, and hats slouched over their faces, had taken
+their station, each holding it resolutely at opposite ends, in the
+certain expectation of entrapping him, though the courage of both
+seemed for a moment to waver, when they saw the tall, well-knit, and
+finely-proportioned figure of Sir Patrick, as he strode onwards, with
+his usual military bearing and commanding aspect. After exchanging a
+look, however, they tightened the rope, and were about, with a rapid
+manoeuvre, to coil it round him, when Sir Patrick, seeing their
+intention, rushed forward on the nearest, and levelled him to the
+ground with a single blow, saying, "You dastardly rascals! do you
+suppose that a dozen such fellows could be a match for any gentleman!"
+
+"I'm a better gen'lemen than you, Sir!" said the other, in an insolent
+blustering tone. "Every guinea in your pocket, Sir, there's ten men in
+the world have a better right to than you have! I think a gen'leman
+born means a gen'leman as pays his debts!"
+
+"Then here is what I owe to you!" replied Sir Patrick, flinging him
+almost across the street, with a violent blow on the head. "Only dare
+to stand in my way again, and every joint or bone in that miserable
+carcass of yours shall be fit for the surgeons. I intend to keep this
+rope till the day you are hanged!"
+
+Agnes made her Sundays literally a day of rest, by remaining most of
+the morning in bed, to recover the fatigues of the previous week; and
+even in the afternoon, a "Sunday shower" often kept her at home. She
+had been taught at Mrs. Penfold's, to consider the most superficial
+attention to religion, as being little short of angelic, and to
+believe that the utmost extreme of rational devotion, if she wished to
+be inordinately pious, would consist in going once every Sunday to a
+pew in some fashionable chapel, where the stream of the preacher's
+eloquence might be permitted to flow in at one ear, and out at the
+other, without there being any occasion for her to analyse or
+understand what he said, satisfied that her duty was more than done by
+appearing there at all,--besides which, she occasionally read prayers
+at home, in a careless mechanical way, which was anything but
+praying--she had a magnificently bound bible on her toilette, more for
+ornament than for use--she wore all her dresses for the first time at
+chapel, dined on roast beef every Sunday, and spent the evening in
+writing letters or in reading, or rather in sleeping over some volume
+of religious poetry or tales--what Sir Patrick laughingly called "a
+half-good book."
+
+Both Agnes and her brother spoke with unmitigated and indiscriminating
+reprobation of Methodists, Roman Catholics, Unitarians, Independents,
+or any other sect of whom they knew the name, because, having always
+belonged nominally to an orthodox chapel, they considered it a matter
+of course, when thinking about the matter at all, that they must be
+orthodox too; though, if Agnes had been obliged to give a summary of
+her own doctrines, it would have been a confused medley, containing
+many of the heresies she reprobated by name, without knowing their
+nature. Thus sailing down on the stream of her own inclinations,
+without effort or reflection, Agnes would have been indignant and
+astonished beyond measure to be told, that she was not performing in a
+most commendable manner "The Whole Duty of Man," or at least more than
+the whole duty of woman, while she looked upon all those who evinced a
+greater reverence for religion as mean hypocrites or fanatical
+enthusiasts--being very much of opinion with the divine, who said that
+orthodox meant his own opinion, and paradox other people's.
+
+Marion silently, and very unobtrusively, pursued the even tenor of her
+own way, with that deep and ardent devotion of spirit which had first
+been awakened to life by the happy instrumentality of Clara, whose
+apparent estrangement from her family now she deeply deplored, while
+many an anxious conjecture frequently crossed her mind, whether she,
+along with her brother and Agnes, must share in that alienation which
+she could neither fully understand nor in any degree diminish; and on
+the Sunday morning after her arrival at St. John's Lodge, before
+setting out for chapel, she had been surprised and mortified to
+observe, that Agnes' occupation in bed consisted in tearing up, to
+make matches, a numerous collection of notes from Miss Granville, all
+containing apologies for not accepting various invitations to St.
+John's Lodge. "What can this all mean?" thought Marion, in agitated
+perplexity, as she pursued her way to chapel. "It is very unlike Clara
+to be so repulsive! and equally unlike Agnes to be importunate! I fear
+something is greatly wrong; but Clara is too just and too good to
+mingle me in any quarrel of which I do not so much as know the cause.
+When we meet I shall at once ask Clara for an explanation. We must all
+yet be reconciled and happy, as in former days."
+
+There is nothing which extravagant people grudge so much as paying for
+a pew in church; and those often who squander money upon everything
+else, meanly evade subscribing this just and necessary tribute for the
+maintenance of religion and good order in society. It is astonishing
+how many who pay their way with lavish liberality during the interval
+to concerts and balls, will stand, week after week, like paupers, in a
+chapel-aisle, begging for a seat, rather than hire one for the season;
+and on this occasion Marion, finding that neither Sir Patrick nor
+Agnes had ever imagined any necessity for providing themselves with a
+local habitation of their own, followed a stream of people into
+chapel, and stood for some time near the door, in that most awkward
+and conspicuous of all situations, waiting for the chance of being
+shown into a seat by some compassionate pew-opener.
+
+The street had been crowded by a dense mass of carriages, while Marion
+felt almost bewildered by the loud crash of equipages driving up and
+driving off, breaking the line and backing out, as if they had been
+assembled on the benefit night of some popular actor, while a flood of
+pedestrians crowded along the foot-path, as if their lives depended on
+being first. She was astonished also at the unprecedented concourse of
+people already assembled in chapel, with looks of eager excitement and
+flushed expectation. Every aisle appeared filled to excess, and the
+staircase seemed one solid mosaic of faces, while the congregation
+were all crushing, elbowing, and pushing forward, in impatient haste.
+Voices were heard, at length, speaking aloud, in angry contention, for
+places--a sound which grated strangely and startlingly on the ear in a
+sacred edifice; and when at length the heat became unbearably intense,
+a loud crash was heard, of persons breaking the window for air.
+
+Marion, intimidated at having ventured alone into so dense a crowd,
+and at a loss to guess what could occasion so much excitement, would
+have made her way out; but the pressure behind rendered it as
+impossible to retreat as to advance. On few occasions do people betray
+so great a want of kind consideration, and even of hospitality, as
+when comfortably ensconced in an extensive pew at church, occupying
+room enough for three or four others, and carelessly staring at those
+who are vainly waiting, with hesitation and confusion such as
+Marion's, in hopes of being obligingly accommodated with a place. Her
+color deepening every moment, and her veil drawn closer, Marion shrank
+from notice, while one person after another elbowed his way forward,
+and closed the door of his pew, with the authoritative, self-satisfied
+air of a proprietor, heedless how others might be situated; and still
+Marion anxiously glanced around her in vain, for the obscurest nook in
+which to subside unseen.
+
+At length, when the first loud peal of the organ had sent forth its
+solemn tones, summoning every heart to devout attention, Marion felt a
+gentle touch given to her arm, and on looking round, her hand was
+clasped for a moment with a look of heartfelt affection by Clara
+Granville, who silently led her to the seat, at some distance, from
+which she had followed her, and giving one more affectionate pressure
+of the hand to Marion, she composed herself into a look of devout and
+fervent attention, forgetful evidently of all but the important
+services of the hour, while Marion's heart beat with rapture to find
+herself once more beside her most beloved friend, and that friend
+unchanged.
+
+The prayers were not merely read, but prayed--not in the every day
+matter-of-course tone, so common in the pulpit, nor in a pompous,
+self-sufficient, commanding voice, but with deep thrilling solemnity,
+and in a manner calm, graceful, and dignified, by a young clergyman of
+most intelligent and serious aspect, who evidently felt all he said,
+and became so utterly absorbed in his duty, that it appeared as if he
+almost imagined himself alone, and visibly present with the Divine
+Being whom he addressed.
+
+The young preacher's appearance was singularly striking and
+prepossessing. His dark Spanish-looking complexion, and rather foreign
+features, were animated by an expression of the brightest
+intelligence, while in his eye might be traced the calm dignity of a
+highly cultivated intellect, and the benevolence of a Christian who
+hoped all things and believed all things, judging others as he would
+himself be judged. In preaching, he avoided the arena of controversy,
+but his arguments were clear and comprehensive, his eloquence
+irresistible, as much by the fire and splendor of his genius, as by
+the depth and solemnity of his reflections, while the attention was
+enthralled, the judgment convinced, the heart awakened, and the inward
+feelings touched in their most secret recesses. Without a thought of
+affectation, he was simple, dignified, full of earnestness,
+self-conviction, and fervent devotion, while there were passages of
+grandeur when he alluded to the solemn mysteries, and higher truths of
+revelation, which might have made a mere philosopher feel as if the
+wing of his imagination had been broken in attempting to follow; and
+yet there were thoughts and illustrations so clear and comprehensible,
+that any ignorant child from a charity school might have understood
+them.
+
+Amidst the brighter scintillations of his genius, it was evident that
+he understood the whole alchemy of human nature, and while almost
+insensibly revealing the magnificent proportions of his own mind, he
+understood and sympathised with all the trials, temptations, and
+sorrows of human nature, and considered the whole art of happiness for
+man to consist in unreserved and heartfelt submission of his own will,
+his own hopes, wishes, and affections to the will of his Maker,
+desiring to have nothing, to be nothing, to do nothing, and to expect
+nothing, but according to His wise and holy decrees--to let the stream
+of events run on, seeking to extract the best happiness from them as
+they occurred, without one rebellious wish that they had been
+otherwise, but only with a fervent prayer that they may, and a firm
+belief that they shall, carry him forward, though the course be rough
+and perilous, to a calm, bright haven of ceaseless and unutterable
+joy.
+
+When the congregation had dispersed, with a degree of silence and
+solemnity very different from their noisy and irreverent entrance,
+Marion walked for some time, leaning on the arm of Miss Granville, but
+so entranced that she was unable yet to break the chain which had
+carried her mind and feelings captive to another and a better world.
+She had never before felt so deeply impressed with the transitory
+nature of all around her, the insignificance of those joys and sorrows
+with which she was encompassed, and it seemed to her but a day or an
+hour, till the curtain of eternity should rise, and the glories of a
+great hereafter become visible to her sight.
+
+"You have been deeply interested by all we have heard?" said Clara, in
+an accent of gentle interrogation, but with an expression of peculiar
+meaning in her countenance, which Marion was at a loss how exactly to
+interpret.
+
+"Interested!" exclaimed Marion, with youthful enthusiasm. "If all the
+sermons I ever heard were compressed into one, they could scarcely
+equal what has been said to-day!"
+
+"Do you remember the preacher?" asked Clara, coloring and smiling.
+"But no! how could that be possible, when you never met before! Here
+he comes! Allow me to introduce you, then, to my very dear brother
+Richard. You know each other already, by the description of one who
+loves you both!"
+
+Mr. Granville advanced to Marion with frank and prepossessing
+kindness, but though his manner was most ingratiating, his countenance
+wore an expression of pre-occupation and fatigue, while he walked
+hurriedly past, after cordially shaking Marion by the hand, who
+observed to Clara with surprise, that his hand felt as cold as ice.
+
+"That is always the case with Richard after preaching," replied Miss
+Granville. "The solemn feeling of responsibility which he has on
+entering the pulpit, often agitates and overawes him to a degree you
+would scarcely credit. The extravagant enthusiasm with which he has
+lately been followed, makes him still more anxious to use rightly
+while it lasts his influence with others, though, as he says, nothing
+is so transient in this transitory world as the popularity of a
+preacher, and his chief solicitude is to remind men that it is the
+word preached, and not the preacher, which they are come to hear, and
+always to preserve the simplicity of his own mind, unadulterated by
+any inordinate wish for applause."
+
+"I am sure his words and thoughts have all the force of genuine
+feeling," said Marion, earnestly. "He preaches from heart to heart,
+which is the only way to strike a light between them. It seemed
+to-day, as if he were steering us through an ocean of immeasurable
+thought."
+
+"But," replied Clara, "Richard is deeply impressed with the danger to
+a preacher himself, arising from the adulation with which he is
+followed by crowds in search of novelty, who give that respect to the
+mere ambassador delivering his message, which he wishes to claim
+solely and entirely for his Divine Master. He quoted to me yesterday a
+quaint old author, who says that God humbles men in this life, that He
+may exalt them forever; but Satan exalts men in this life, that he may
+cast them down for eternity. It is a solemn truth, and Richard feels
+the danger as he ought."
+
+"Then it is a danger no longer, if seen and rightly avoided," replied
+Marion. "He already lives, I have heard, in a better world, while he
+acts in this, but so much applause must be apt sometimes to draw down
+your brother's thoughts from heaven to earth, if he hears all that is
+said and thought. Lady Towercliffe remarked, as we came out, that his
+eloquence does him immortal honor."
+
+"Yes! as Richard himself once observed, 'immortal honor for
+twenty-four hours, or perhaps a week;' but that is no object of
+legitimate ambition to a preacher of immortality. My brother is
+blessed with one Christian attainment almost in perfection, and that
+is an actual dread of worldly applause. No penny trumpet could be more
+insignificant in his estimation than the enthusiasm of a few excitable
+young ladies, and I have seen him often carefully avoiding those, who
+would be 'frothing him,' as he calls it, with preposterous praise. He
+compares popularity to the sails of a windmill, raised to the clouds
+one minute, and down below zero the next; but fashionable notoriety
+has no attraction for one who aims at real usefulness. If he did not
+despise it, he would despise himself. He is engrossed with the
+fervent, heartfelt hope of doing good according to his opportunity,
+and in perfect simplicity performing his duty to God and man."
+
+"How mean and low in comparison do those appear who are living only
+for the opinions of men, and the trumpery tinsel of this world, yet
+how difficult it must be to rise above earthly ambition," said Marion.
+"No patent of nobility could confer half the distinction on your
+brother that he enjoyed to-day, surrounded by a multitude all aroused
+to enthusiasm by his words. A mere author writes in solitude, and
+never knows the full influence of what he has written; but an orator
+reaps an immediate harvest of honor, and sees it before his eyes,
+which must be ten thousand times more apt to intoxicate him with
+success."
+
+"Yes," replied Clara, "no enthusiasm can rival what is felt at the
+moment for a popular preacher. His eloquence rouses feelings stronger
+than in any nature, while men become conscious that it would be their
+highest honor and best safety to encourage such thoughts as he
+suggests. You would smile sometimes to see how Richard's steps are
+beset as he leaves the chapel, by crowds anxious to catch a glimpse of
+his countenance, to request an introduction, to express their warmest
+thanks, to entreat he will print his last sermon, or to beg for an
+autograph."
+
+"It is taking pains to destroy what they most admire, when people
+throw such temptations to vanity in a clergyman's way," said Marion.
+"Even I could not but perceive, as he passed, the reverential glances,
+and the whispered announcement of his name on every side, as he
+hurried onward, looking neither to the right hand nor to the left; but
+he sets an example of what he teaches, to live for high and holy
+purposes. It is only by carrying a light himself, that a clergyman can
+give light to others."
+
+"Yes, Marion! it was not in mere words, of course, or of sacrilegious
+presumption, that Richard declared, on being ordained, his own solemn
+conviction that he was specially called to be a minister of the
+church. Unlike the Jews, who had Christ in their Bibles, but not in
+their hearts, his whole spirit was imbued with the pure holy faith and
+morality of the everlasting Gospel, and he considered it the highest
+of earthly honors to be consecrated for that solemn office."
+
+"I was often told formerly," said Marion, "that your brother had
+talents which would have raised him to eminence--or rather to
+pre-eminence--at the bar, and in the House of Commons--or, as Pat has
+always said, meaning the greatest compliment of all--on the stage;
+but, dear Clara, how different, and how greatly superior, to feel, as
+he must do, with an approving conscience, that all his abilities,
+time, and strength, are consecrated to an object, which his heart,
+without one momentary feeling of doubt or self-reproach, may delight
+in--that all his studies, duties, and occupations increase his own
+fitness to be happy for ever; while, at the same time, they are for
+the good of all mankind, and for the glory of God. Your brother most
+truly said to-day, that a sinner is 'the drudge of Satan;' but if
+there be real greatness upon earth, I think it is that of an honored
+and useful minister in the Church of Christ, whose character is
+modelled upon the Holy Scriptures, as some insects take their hue from
+the leaf on which they feed."
+
+"True, Marion! Richard's profession is, indeed, in the way he fulfils
+it, 'twice bless'd,' as a means of both giving and receiving
+happiness. It is with him a labor of love, in which every duty is a
+pleasure, and his object is, to keep us in mind of our individual
+importance in being believers; for as the glory of the sun is
+reflected in a single drop of dew, so may the character of Christ be
+represented in that of the humblest Christian; and like a stone in an
+arch, each atom has a place to fill, which must be conscientiously
+kept, whether more or less important and conspicuous, with unswerving
+steadiness, for in no other can it be so advantageously situated."
+
+"I am entirely convinced of that," said Marion. "As your brother said
+to-day, Christians must never feel themselves raised above the homely
+duties of every-day life, nor give mere moralists occasion to say that
+their faith is not evidenced by their works."
+
+"No," replied Clara, "let the ravens croak while the eagle pursues his
+steady flight towards the sun, heedless of all but his high
+destination. Yet, as Richard says, Christian mothers should instruct
+their own children, wives should find their first earthly duty in
+associating with their husbands, the heads of houses should watch
+conscientiously over the belief and conduct of their servants, a
+clergyman's vocation is within his own parish, and every family should
+be a little kingdom in itself, ruled and governed by the law and the
+Gospel of Christ, so that, as benighted wanderers in the dark are
+often cheered and guided by seeing, as they hurry onwards, the light
+and warmth gleaming round the hearth of a stranger, the sinner, also,
+in his dark and dreary course, when he beholds a passing glimpse of
+that peace and joy which are to be found in a Christian household, and
+there only, might be tempted and encouraged to go home and do
+likewise."
+
+"I wish it were so oftener," said Marion, while her thoughts reverted
+sorrowfully to St. John's Lodge.
+
+"It is in speaking with single-hearted simplicity of home duties and
+home affections, that Richard always excels himself," continued Clara,
+warmly. "There he preaches as he practices, for he cultivates
+happiness to diffuse it all around him, and he is, in reality, all
+that other men wish to appear. He deprecates, in general, pulpit
+oratory, as men are often apt to mistake mere excited feeling for true
+devotion; and he considers that attention in church at most to be
+depended on that which does not require to be pampered with novelty.
+Eloquence has so often been perverted to such evil purposes, both
+moral and political, that Richard sometimes tells me, he thinks, on
+the whole, this world would have been a better world without oratory
+at all, because brilliant talents and enthusiastic tempers usurp so
+often the place due only to principle."
+
+"It often occurs to me," said Marion, "that half the actual history of
+our own lives is unknown to us now, but will be probably revealed
+hereafter;--in what respect, for instance, our circumstances in life
+would have been altered, had we on various occasions acted
+differently--how near we may have been to meeting with great events
+which never actually occurred--what impression has been made on others
+by our conduct and actions--who really loved us, and what is the
+extent of good or evil which our conversation or our writings may have
+done in the world. To your brother how many interesting discoveries
+would such revelation probably disclose!"
+
+"Richard's own endeavor is generally to maintain a calm, rational, and
+argumentative style of reasoning with his congregation, and yet he is
+carried away irresistibly by his feelings, sometimes into such a burst
+of eloquence as we heard to-day," added Clara; "you would sometimes
+fancy, even in conversation, that Richard's mind, like some great
+volcano, was undergoing an overwhelming eruption, while he pours forth
+in resistless torrents, the burning lava of his thoughts and
+feelings."
+
+Marion listened with increasing interest to Clara's remarks, and
+watched with affectionate sympathy, the kindling brightness of her
+friend's expressive eyes when she spoke of that brother so tenderly
+beloved, and so unspeakably respected, of whom, from his earliest
+boyhood, she had heard nothing but praise, for none had ever measured
+the stature of his mind without finding it higher than they
+anticipated. Marion felt an unenvying happiness in the happiness of
+Clara, and yet a tear suddenly started into her eyes, and a pang of
+unutterable sorrow struck upon her heart when she reflected, that, not
+many years ago, her own brother, Patrick, had been the friend and
+companion of this highly-gifted man, but that now they were friends no
+more, and becoming every day less suited to be companions.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+From that memorable Sunday when Marion first renewed her friendship
+and intimacy with Clara, her fair young countenance brightened into
+its sunniest smiles, while day after day she carried her work to the
+little "cottage of contentment," where Clara generally received her in
+what she called her summer drawing-room, a small bowling-green in the
+garden, bright and shining as an emerald, beneath a grove of
+overhanging lilacs and laburnums. There Mr. Granville frequently
+brought out books, which he read aloud and discussed, developing the
+lofty aspirations of a mind fitted to be high among the highest in
+learning and intellect, while his thoughts were like a well-tuned
+instrument, from which every chord sounded to the praise of their
+Divine maker, and his conversation was, as Pascal said of the Holy
+Scriptures, even more addressed to the heart than to the head.
+
+When reading aloud, Mr. Granville evinced so much interest, with so
+quick a consciousness of the author's meaning, and so true a sympathy
+in his sentiments, that it seemed as if he must himself have composed
+every line; and when he occasionally lent Marion any volume that she
+particularly liked, she found his favorite passages marked, and the
+margin enriched by so many interesting notes, that she followed with
+delight the course of his mind, while at the same time storing her own
+memory with high thoughts and refined sentiments.
+
+There was a degree of soul and spirit in the countenance of Mr.
+Granville, which marked him as no ordinary man, and an indefinite
+charm in his grave and courteous manner, suited to his holy
+profession, and displaying the calmness and polish of one accustomed
+to good society. He had an energy of expression irresistibly
+influential, while illustrating with an eloquence peculiarly his own,
+all the highest and holiest principles which can occupy the human
+heart. His master mind conversed of Milton, Spenser, Cowper,
+Montgomery, and of all the pious authors dear to every lover of nature
+and of highly-wrought genius and devotion, while the most phlegmatic
+must have been roused, and the most passionate become subdued, by the
+indisputable dominion of a great mind, for his genius appeared to look
+upon the trifles of existence with the passing glance of an eagle in
+its lofty ascent.
+
+Marion and Clara were often entertained by Mr. Granville when he
+related characteristic anecdotes of pious and literary men with whom
+he had associated, enlivened by original remarks, shewing strong
+powers of observation, and displaying the best side of human life; yet
+his wit and humor were evidently chastened and subdued by a thoughtful
+estimate of existence, and by a continual consciousness of his high
+vocation, while Marion scarcely knew whether to be most astonished at
+the versatility of his talents, or at the extent of his information.
+No subject seemed strange to him, no country unknown, no science
+unstudied, no book unread,--while with ready memory and practised
+judgment he spoke as he thought, betraying no reserve or affectation:
+and religion still, like a golden thread, was to be traced running
+through his whole conversation.
+
+Marion's was a heart which required something in those she loved to
+reverence and look up to; but here she had found that in its fullest
+measure, and under the happiest auspices, among friends with whom she
+had never spent an hour without feeling the happier and the better for
+it. Now for the first time she discovered that there is an aristocracy
+of conversation, which avoids everything low or mean in its origin,
+while a new world of ideas opened upon her, in listening to sentiments
+of high honor, and to feelings of universal benevolence. The genius of
+Agnes for conversation lay only in the line of scandal, and she was in
+the habit of sweeping away characters like cobwebs, at a single
+stroke, by remarks full of flippancy, and often using her talents as a
+mimic, while with tricks almost amounting to buffoonery, she rendered
+the best and most estimable of her friends, though above the reach of
+censure, at all events ridiculous. Ill-nature was to her conversation
+what fuel is to the flame; and Agnes piqued herself on her penetration
+in discovering the motive of others for all they did, while invariably
+tracing it to something mean or contemptible; but with Richard and
+Clara an equal ingenuity was shewn in tracing it to good; and while in
+the one house every individual discussed was brought down to the same
+level of absurdity or selfishness, it was cheering and gratifying to a
+heart like Marion's, that at Mr. Granville's, the characters and
+feelings of every one living were respected and elevated.
+
+At St. John's Lodge, when Marion heard Sir Patrick and Agnes discuss
+their acquaintances, she could not but wonder sometimes where all good
+or commendable people had hid themselves, as it seemed as if they must
+have fled from the face of man, or have closed their hearts in disgust
+from all association with the mean and paltry world of fashion and
+frivolity; but now at last she had discovered some whom malice itself
+could scarcely criticise; and in thus associating intimately with the
+"excellent of the earth," she felt an increasing ambition to resemble
+them.
+
+None were more fitted than Clara and Richard to appreciate the
+single-hearted excellence of Marion's disposition, her utter
+disregardlessness of self, her anxious desire to please, her gay
+spirits, brilliant without effort, her heart generous without guile,
+and her thoughts fresh and unsophisticated as the gentle summer breeze
+from the mountains. No one could look at Marion, and not wish to be
+her friend.
+
+There was a tone of frank and entire confidence in her manner, which
+instantly gained that of others in return--a softened sensibility in
+her expression--a deep fascination in her smile--and in her voice a
+tone of joyous hilarity, indicative of her sunny mind, though, like her
+countenance, it was capable of intense expression, and deepened
+sometimes, now, into a tone of reflection and feeling beyond her years,
+while before long it appeared evident, in Clara's opinion, that she had
+become all and everything in this world to Richard, and Richard to
+her--that her amiable, single-hearted _naivete_ of disposition had at
+once carried all the outworks of Mr. Granville's affection, and that
+already she was established not only in his friendship, but in
+something more.
+
+Unsuspicious of Mr. Granville's increasing preference, Marion smiled
+and talked in his society with unembarrassed vivacity, or in their
+graver moods replied to his remarks as she might have done to those of
+any aged clergyman. The perfect harmony of their tastes, and the
+sympathy of their feelings, produced that gradual communion of thought
+which is the essence of friendship, while heart answered to heart, as
+if each had a telegraph instantaneously to reveal all that passed
+within. The highest qualities of Mr. Granville's mind, as well as the
+deepest feelings of his nature, were brought into visible exercise,
+while he who had hitherto lived only for others, now felt that there
+was not a link in the chain of human sympathies and affections which
+had not become sacred and dear to himself. There was even something
+that might be considered romantic in his feelings--a poetry of the
+heart, which led him to believe that a refined and sanctified love,
+such as men read and write of, but seldom feel, might yet exist on the
+earth--such love as could survive the lapse of time, the withering
+influence of prosperity, the chilling blast of adversity, and the
+growing infirmities of age, till at length, nourished and perfected by
+every vicissitude of sunshine and storm, it should be transplanted in
+renewed holiness and beauty to another and a better world.
+
+Marion's character was rapidly matured and developed by her
+intercourse with Mr. Granville, who raised in her ardent mind the most
+enthusiastic interest; and while with timid pleasure, but increasing
+confidence, she joined in the conversation, her voice dwelt on his ear
+long after she ceased to speak, her looks were imprinted on his memory
+in his most solitary hours, and to Marion a new degree of interest and
+of happiness had suddenly become known, when with a vivid blush, and a
+beaming smile of pleased emotion, day after day, she thought over all
+that had passed, though ignorant yet of the extent to which her heart
+and feelings were already engaged. How much of life's most interesting
+emotions now passed through her mind during a few weeks, the heart of
+Marion alone could testify; while the attachment of Mr. Granville was
+concealed from common observation, to be only the more ardently
+testified towards herself; and their happiness being the result of no
+precipitate impulse, they became attracted together by that love of
+excellence, which is the only permanent source of mutual attachment.
+
+Marion's mind had always a propensity to admire, and whether in nature
+or in art, she found it more congenial to her feelings ever to seek
+for beauties rather than defects, therefore now she was delighted to
+associate with one who not only appreciated everything as she did, but
+pointed out unexpected excellencies in all the objects of animated
+nature, in all the books she read, and even in many of the companions
+with whom she associated. With Richard and Clara she first visited the
+abodes of poverty; and in attending to the sufferings and sorrows of
+others, she saw that Miss Granville found the best relief from a
+depression of spirits, under which Marion could not but see with
+surprise and regret, that her friend had recently suffered. Clara's
+piety was testified in deeds much more than in words, for good actions
+she evidently considered as the necessary embellishments of that holy
+faith which alone can render any mortal acceptable in the eyes of his
+Divine Maker, while salvation by the cross of Christ is the pivot on
+which all depends--the crowning stone to the arch, giving stability
+and grace to the whole fabric of Christian hope.
+
+Miss Granville gave not only her time and money, but her feelings and
+sympathies to the poor; while it evidently cheered her very heart when
+she could do a kind action; and though ever ready, heartily and
+gratefully, to acknowledge the Divine goodness to herself, whether in
+joy or in sorrow, yet nothing appeared so keenly to stir up her
+gratitude as any opportunity allowed her of doing a benevolent or a
+friendly action, as she considered that the knowledge of religion,
+without active exertion, testifying our love to God by our love to our
+fellow-creatures, was worse than useless. "The most depraved of
+sinners," as Mr. Granville said, "could repeat the creed, but a
+Christian only can believe and follow it like Clara."
+
+    Graceful and useful in all she does,
+    Blessing and blest wher'er she goes.
+
+Marion, on returning one day over the hills and through the fields,
+with Mr. Granville and Clara, from a tour of interesting visits to the
+abodes of chilling poverty and agonised wretchedness, such as she had
+never even imagined, could not but contrast the smiling aspect of
+nature in all the sunny joy and verdure of spring, with the mournful
+lot of man as she had so recently witnessed it.
+
+"How strange," said she, "to take a bird's-eye view, as we do this
+evening, of that great city, all glittering in sunshine, and every
+window illuminated with a flood of light, as if nothing but festivity
+and joy were there, and yet to know what a world of anxiety, and fear,
+and pain, and sorrow, are all fermenting within its walls! Silent as
+the whole scene appears, yet, for every window we can look upon, there
+is probably some living being full of schemes, hopes, and fevered
+wishes, dissatisfied with his own lot, and envying that of another!
+What an awful world this is to be born into, when, amidst its many
+pleasures and its many beauties, we yet consider all its solemn
+responsibilities and fearful trials!"
+
+"Yes," replied Mr. Granville, in that voice, the deep melody of which
+was like no other voice, "we are placed here in a great theatre; and
+while, as interested spectators, we admire the decorations, let us
+remember, in respect to the actors, that nothing is either ours or
+theirs, but each has his part to perform, for which he is responsible,
+and all shall then be swept away to take an abiding place, according
+as we are fitted for it, in that real and unchangeable scene for which
+here we are only rehearsing our parts. If actors on the stage were to
+become actually and permanently for life, the great characters they
+represent, provided only they supported the part well for a night, the
+stake would be nothing in proportion to what a Christian shall gain if
+grace be given him to fulfill his allotted part in this short and
+transitory life, which is but a final rehearsal for eternity."
+
+"Very true," said Clara; "this world is a mere preparatory school,
+where, like wayward children, we become surprised and irritated at the
+slightest correction, being most unwilling to acknowledge that it is
+either required or deserved."
+
+"Yet," added Mr. Granville, "nothing brings out the best qualities of
+man like suffering. It is a hard rub given to gold, which becomes only
+the brighter; and I often think how much interest and dignity is
+bestowed on every event of our short lives, by thinking that we are
+trained and disciplined as a part of a mighty plan which has been
+going systematically on from the beginning of time, and must be
+continued to the very end."
+
+"As you observed yesterday," replied Clara, "we are woven into the web
+of human life which is passing on daily into eternity, carrying us
+along on its surface with irresistible speed. We have no choice
+allowed either in coming into the world, or in going out of it; but
+the existence thus given to us leads on to an eternity of joy or of
+insufferable misery, according to the state of preparation in which we
+are found at last. It often occurs to me, as a solemn reflection, that
+the two principles of good and evil are, as long as we live, to
+continue at war in our minds, but that, like fire and water, one of
+these will finally extinguish the other, and that, when death
+overtakes us, we shall then become either entirely holy or entirely
+reprobate."
+
+"It is a solemn truth," said Mr. Granville, with his usual tranquil
+dignity of manner. "The tide of this world's history rolls on, while
+generation after generation, like the successive billows on a troubled
+ocean, rises and swells into momentary importance, till it be dashed
+in pieces and followed by another; but one great Omnipotent power
+directs the whole, and watches over each insignificant atom as it is
+hurried along. He, by whom the very hairs of our head are numbered,
+ordains for our good and for His glory, all events and circumstances,
+whether great or small; and if our wills are implicitly conformed to
+His, we shall see the trifles of this life through a blaze of
+religious light, which will display us their importance as a means of
+attaining good, but their insignificance if pursued as an end."
+
+"Even now," observed Clara, "the very occupations and habits essential
+to a Christian life, in themselves confer a degree of happiness which
+the world cannot give, and does not know--a faint but pleasing emblem
+of what is promised in a better state."
+
+"It appears to me," said Mr. Granville, "that those who live for mere
+amusement, are no wiser than if they embarked for a voyage round the
+world, in a little pleasure-boat, dancing lightly on the billows, with
+its white and flowing sails glittering in the sunbeams, rather than in
+a strong and sturdy vessel, cutting its dignified way with deep,
+steady and undeviating course, in gladness and in safety, through
+tempest or calm, whether the breeze be adverse or favorable. Life is
+one long struggle, where the Christian must learn to hate much that he
+naturally loves, and to love much that he naturally hates, continually
+steering his course against nature, to advance in grace."
+
+"I have heard it said," observed Marion, "that Paris is the place, of
+all others, where men can most easily do without happiness, because if
+any one can entirely forget himself in mere pleasure, it is there."
+
+"How often have I pitied those who squandered their years abroad on an
+aimless, amusement-seeking life," said Clara. "What a weight of _ennui_
+they must endure! What a sense of utter worthlessness they must feel! A
+fever of delirious pleasure is probably the best they occasionally
+enjoy! I have sometimes been astonished lately, when in confidential
+conversation with the gayest, and apparently the happiest of my
+companions, to find that they were actually laboring under the deepest
+depression of spirits."
+
+"You need never be surprised by such discoveries, for I meet with them
+continually in my clerical visitations," replied Mr. Granville. "The
+bright sun above our heads was not created to look down on scenes of
+merely selfish enjoyment. It cannot be; and if a thermometer could
+visibly display the relative degree of cheerfulness enjoyed through
+life by the slave of amusement, who consults only the impulse of his
+own passions, or the servant of God who obeys the dictate of reason
+and revelation, how astonished most men would be at the measureless
+disparity of actual felicity. The one wrapped up in selfishness, yet
+anxious to escape amidst a wild uproar of amusement, from his own
+thoughts; the other retiring often, voluntarily, to the companionship
+of his reflections, while his heart expands to embrace the true
+interests of all mankind; the one rich in everything but real
+happiness; the other poor, perhaps, in respect to wealth, but yet
+possessing great riches."
+
+"I am more and more convinced every day," said Clara, "that no living
+creature has a sufficient portion of happiness for himself, unless he
+shares that of others, while imparting his own; and that no kind of
+traffic brings so large a return to all parties, as that of giving and
+receiving the sympathy and good offices of Christian kindness. It is
+twice, or rather thrice blessed!"
+
+"I often think," said Marion, "if we could step into the chamber of
+any person's mind, and look around us there, how astonishing it would
+be to survey even that of our most intimate friend! Many would appear
+large and spacious, bright, well furnished, and in good order; while
+others that make a tolerable appearance in society, because they need
+only show a few samples in the window, would turn out to be filled
+with rubbish, narrow, gloomy, and disordered."
+
+"Some minds," replied Mr. Granville, "resemble a show-house laid out
+for display, where strangers are brought to envy, admire, and exclaim;
+but home-feelings are the real ornaments of life, which I covet for
+myself, and for those who are dearer to me than myself."
+
+"It would be curious," observed Clara, smiling, "if every human being
+might choose the sort of happiness which, in a future life, he wishes
+to enjoy! There would be a strange diversity of inclination! I suppose
+a foxhunter, who now finds his best enjoyment in riding six hours
+a-day, would then bespeak a horse which was never, in a long course of
+ages, to tire, accompanied by a fox ready to be killed every three
+hours. A gourmand would ask for a perpetual dinner, and a perpetual
+appetite; and Captain De Crespigny would wish for a continual
+succession of young ladies, all living on his attentions, and dying of
+broken hearts when he disappointed them."
+
+"Only ask yourself in respect to any earthly pleasure, if you would
+wish it to be continued for ever, and that will convince you more than
+anything, Clara, that this world is not our home," said Mr. Granville.
+"There is never a moment of our lives in which we could hear with any
+satisfaction that what we then enjoyed was to continue throughout
+eternity. No! there is a mighty vacuum in our souls, which can only be
+filled by that which 'eye hath not seen, nor ear heard,' and which it
+hath not entered into the heart of man yet to conceive."
+
+There is a free-masonry,--a sort of electrical connection between
+those who suffer and those who sympathise. It was evident to Marion
+that, beneath the look of calm, deep, and chastened composure, which
+might be traced in the large lustrous eyes of Clara Granville, there
+was the heavy aspect of one who had suffered, as well as thought much.
+The high arched forehead, in which the meanderings of the smallest
+blue vein was visible, and the ethereal transparency of her alabaster
+cheek, gave an almost poetical, but very melancholy expression to her
+countenance, and there was a subdued tenderness in her voice and
+manner, most touching to the heart.
+
+She seemed like a lily blighted in the storm, and often did Marion
+wonder what that sorrow could be, which shunned all notice, and seemed
+to bury itself beneath a multitude of thoughts and occupations for the
+good of others.
+
+Once, and only once, Marion observed an alteration in the settled
+composure of Clara's manner, the occasion of which caused her
+considerable surprise. Hitherto, when she inadvertently mentioned Sir
+Patrick, the Granvilles insensibly changed the subject almost
+immediately, but without the slightest appearance of dislike or
+resentment, while Marion could not but silently blame her own
+forgetfulness of her brother's conduct to Mr. Granville, which she
+thought might well render his name unacceptable in their family
+circle. One day, however, her eyes were accidentally fixed on Clara,
+when she mentioned that Sir Patrick had escorted her to the chapel
+door on the previous Sunday, and seemed more than half inclined to
+enter, but had suddenly burst away in a most unaccountable paroxysm,
+and hurried out of sight.
+
+A deep and sudden blush overspread the pale cheek of Miss Granville,
+who hastily looked up, and meeting Marion's eyes, the color rushed in
+torrents over her face, arms, and neck, and her long eye-lashes became
+heavy with tears, while her emotion growing evidently uncontrollable,
+she threw down her work, and glided out of the room.
+
+"Clara dislikes him for his rapacious conduct to Mr. Granville. Why can
+I never learn to avoid Patrick's unlucky name," thought Marion. "It
+comes in _a propos_ to everything or to nothing. I am unaccustomed to
+think before I speak, but this will make me remember to forget him in
+future. I could not have believed that Clara would feel that affair so
+very acutely."
+
+Marion's thoughts now reverted with some anxiety to her brother and
+sister. They were either ignorant of her renewed intimacy with the
+Granvilles, or indifferent to it, but which might turn out to be the
+case, however important to her own happiness, she scarcely dared to
+investigate, and day after day passed on finding her almost
+domesticated with her newly-restored friend, and scarcely missed
+apparently by Agnes. Marion was truth itself, and would have abhorred
+any clandestine engagements, but after having mentioned the first few
+times that she was going to call on Clara, the intimation being
+received by her brother and sister in solemn silence, she thought it
+unnecessary to make a repetition of the announcement; yet, as her
+feelings became more deeply and engrossingly interested, her anxiety
+became the greater to know what Sir Patrick might say or think on the
+occasion; and to Marion's experience it became true as to that of the
+poet,
+
+    "Love's first step is on a rose; the second finds a thorn."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+It is the greatest height of wisdom to be happy, but the happiest
+periods of existence are the most difficult to describe; and from this
+time forth, within the domestic circle of Mr. Granville, Marion was
+introduced into a scene of such refined and intellectual enjoyment,
+that it seemed to her as if she had hitherto beheld the picture of
+life, painted only by some inferior artist, coarsely daubed over with
+glaring hues, and vulgarly discolored; but it now appeared to her in
+all the graceful symmetry, subdued harmony, and exquisite coloring of
+a great master.
+
+Marion's natural taste had revolted from the mean, reckless,
+exaggerated caricatures of happiness, which had been exhibited to her
+in Sir Patrick's riotous revellings, and in her sister's feverish
+excitement; while Agnes wasted her heart and feelings in building up
+romances for herself, very much in the Minerva press and
+Adela-de-Montmorency school; but now the morality appeared in all its
+true fascination and inestimable worth to Marion, when she saw real
+felicity formed upon that divine model, which she had before imagined,
+but never seen.
+
+While sharing the pure joys and peaceful happiness of Clara and
+Richard, scarcely a thought of Marion's heart remained unspoken,
+except her secret and increasing consciousness of the wide disparity
+between that home, where she found nothing but a heartless desolation
+or neglect of her best feelings, and the beautiful exemplification of
+domestic felicity to which she had now been introduced. Every
+occupation or amusement in which she engaged with her friends, became
+enhanced in pleasure and importance, by the consciousness, that beyond
+the mere gratification of the moment, it was consecrated to a higher
+and better aim; that it might be remembered hereafter without remorse,
+and that it was but a link in the bright chain of eternal happiness
+for which they were all preparing, and which they expected all to
+enjoy together, by the light of that sun which never sets, but shines
+beyond the grave.
+
+The Christian friendship of a brother and sister for each other, is
+perhaps the purest and happiest of all earthly attachments, for there
+is not an hour of life from childhood to old age, in which they have
+not experienced the same joys and the same sorrows, known every
+vicissitude of existence together, acquired the same habits, wept for
+the same sorrows, rejoiced in the same prosperity, and cherished the
+same hopes. The affection of Clara and Richard was not the transient
+union of two individuals thrown together by the accident of birth,
+united by mere instinct, living in contact for convenience, and
+expecting to be finally separated by death; but it was the deep,
+strong, heart-felt attachment of a Christian family, linked together
+for mutual support in sunshine or shadow, tenderly to assist each
+other along the difficult path of life, happy in the blessings that
+were given them now, and happier still in the expectation of those yet
+to come in that "new heaven and new earth, wherein dwelleth
+righteousness."
+
+As Mr. Granville's character became more known to Marion, and the
+interest with which he listened to her thoughts and feelings
+perceptibly increased, she could not but secretly indulge sometimes in
+the thought, presumptuous though it seemed to herself, how different
+life might yet become, if the preference already so obviously
+testified were by any "strange impossibility" to increase, till he
+became allied, to her by the strictest tie of perpetual friendship,
+and their lives and affections were mingled into one. Marion's young
+heart glowed with emotion when she thought how her feelings would all
+then be understood, her affections appreciated, her happiness cared
+for, and every trivial incident of her life rendered doubly important,
+because it belonged to another as well as to herself--to one who would
+share all her thoughts, direct all her actions, and mingle with every
+Christian motive to exertion, the desire to please him in her own
+happy home.
+
+The attachment of Agnes for Captain De Crespigny was like that of a
+child for its rattle, compared with the ennobling sentiment of which
+Marion's heart was capable, for there a mine of undiscovered
+affections lay buried and unknown, while every deeper emotion had
+hitherto been repelled or neglected by all around, except her uncle,
+and she could not but tremble to think, if her affections were ever
+warmed into life by reciprocal attachment, how inconceivable must be
+the misery or the happiness which would ensue. She indulged in no
+fallacious expectations of life, no romantic dreams of never-ending
+happiness and never-dying love, which originate in unreasonable
+expectation, and too certainly end in bitter disappointment; but, to
+be the object of Mr. Granville's unchangeable confidence and
+affection, his companion in sickness as much as in health, the sharer
+of his sorrows as well as his joys, a participator in all his duties,
+and, most of all, to testify her gratitude for his preference, by
+devoted attachment on her own part, not bounded within the perishable
+limits of a mere earthly tie--these were the silent, unspoken wishes
+of Marion, which glanced through her mind often, as she hurried home,
+late and unwillingly, to St. John's Lodge, and which caused her bright
+eye to beam with additional lustre, or brought the color in a richer
+carnation to her cheek.
+
+Events always happen when least expected, and if there be a day in
+life when any one in this world of change can feel peculiarly certain
+that nothing remarkable shall occur, that is probably the period when
+the most remarkable events take place. Marion had gone with Clara and
+her brother to spend a quiet day among the romantic glens of Roslin,
+when, finding herself alone with Mr. Granville, in one of the most
+beautiful parts of the rocky glen, she was suddenly astonished by his
+making her, with manly frankness, and yet evident diffidence, an
+explicit declaration of his attachment. He said, on the occasion, all
+that could be said by such a man, with the eloquence of deep emotion;
+and, encouraged by the timid pleasure with which Marion evidently
+listened to his words, Mr. Granville laid open the whole depths of a
+heart in which all that was ennobling in nature had become embellished
+by all the purifying influences of religion, while she, with tears and
+blushes, heard thus unexpectedly what promised her the utmost sum of
+human felicity, and she attempted not to conceal how highly, beyond
+all expression, she appreciated his preference and attachment.
+
+There is a language of the heart which words cannot
+express,--thoughts, feelings, and affections too deep to be told, but
+revealed only in the eyes and voice, when with sincerity of emotion,
+such as Mr. Granville's, a long concealed attachment is at last
+declared.
+
+"I have asked myself a thousand times whether I could make you happy,
+and if I believed," said he, "that there lived a man upon the earth
+who could love you more, or make you happier than myself, I would
+endeavor to resign all hope; but I know the lasting nature of my
+attachment, which time itself cannot alter, nor death finally
+extinguish; and if such affection as mine, with nothing else to offer,
+can make you happy, it will be a new motive to exertion on my part,
+and a new source of thankfulness to the Divine Giver of all good. Your
+brother knows better than most men the pecuniary embarrassment in
+which a long-continued law-suit has plunged me, and that my future
+income may not perhaps be large, but consult him,--and my very dear
+Marion, as I must for once be allowed to call you, consult your own
+wishes and your happiness. Before giving me a final answer, take some
+days to consider----"
+
+"Not an hour,--or a moment," replied Marion, frankly, but with a
+faltering voice and glistening eye, while a vivid blush dyed her
+cheek, "I need only consider whether my own heart be worthy of you! I
+have thought sometimes,--I have dreamed of such happiness as ours
+shall be, but little did I hope ever to see it more than realized
+now!"
+
+Love is with lovers an endless subject, and hours appeared like
+moments, while they conversed together on the past and the future
+with new feelings of confidence and joy, and the whole beautiful
+scenery around seemed as it were haunted by the spirit of thought
+and of enjoyment, while it was with a thrilling emotion of deep
+gratification that Marion now felt undoubtingly conscious that she
+had become indeed an object of preference to Mr. Granville, that she
+would be thought of always by one whom she could never forget, that
+she knew the whole story of his heart and affections, and that these
+were devoted,--ardently devoted to herself; and now resolutely
+discarding every apprehension of future difficulties or sorrows, all
+around took the color of her happiness, and she lived only in the joy
+of the present hour. Nothing required concealment between them, and
+it seemed the sole object of both to open up the most secret recesses
+of their minds, comparing opinions and feelings, while before long it
+appeared strange to Marion that a time had ever existed when their
+hearts were unknown to each other. No caprices, no misunderstandings,
+no jealousies could arise between them, for there seemed to be but
+one heart and one mind in common, from the moment when Marion
+whispered her confession, that their attachment was reciprocal.
+
+    Oh! there are looks and tones that dart,
+    An instant sunshine through the heart,
+    As if the soul that minute caught,
+    Some treasure it through life had sought.
+
+At length they were warned to return homewards, by the golden light of
+a setting sun, which yet looked in glowing majesty over the distant
+hills, and sprinkled its glory on the highest tops of the trees, till
+they were tipped with fire; but Marion paused, in delighted
+admiration, on the centre of a rustic fairy-bridge, like a spider's
+web, thrown across the narrowest and deepest part of the swollen
+stream. Among rock and moss, tufted with weeping birch, the
+overhanging cliffs here formed themselves into two sides of a natural
+arch, in which nature had apparently omitted the key-stone, though art
+had supplied the deficiency, by a slight bridge, underneath which the
+sparkling waters boiled and thundered on with bewildering rapidity,
+like a stream of light, bounding and leaping, with a clamorous
+brawling uproar, along the rocky channel, and disappearing behind a
+bold promontory, over-grown with tall pines, and twisted with the
+knotted and gnarled roots of many an ancient oak.
+
+The country seemed indeed clothed with a prodigality of beauty--the
+wild confusion of rocks--the feathered branches of a hundred
+trees--the sparkling sunbeams, sprinkled like scattered leaf-gold on
+every object--the shadows interlaced upon the verdant grass--the
+yellow broom, glowing with its sunny hues--the groups of
+well-conditioned cattle ruminating on the meadows--and the stream, now
+murmuring in wild music over its rocky bed, and dimpling into smiles
+beneath the sunshine, while the mind and conversation of Mr. Granville
+travelled into the highest regions of thought, and Marion compared the
+bright gay aspect of all around to her own happy feelings.
+
+"It is a pleasure to think," said Marion with animation, "that the
+poorest and most destitute of human beings might enjoy the beauties of
+nature as we do now, and all the pleasures, too, of confidence and
+affection, if they but knew how to value them. God gives all that is
+most precious to his creatures in common; and how little of our real
+happiness in life is derived from the mere vulgar display of wealth,
+equipages, jewels, and external splendor. It is not the materials of
+our happiness which are so important, as the way in which we build up
+the fabric."
+
+"I have sometimes been ready to regret," answered Mr. Granville, "that
+in offering you my hand and fortune, I offer you so little; but I
+never desired wealth for myself. No man living cares less for luxury;
+and we may trust that my devoted affection shall succeed in shielding
+you from the thousand inconveniencies of a very limited income."
+
+"It is the heart I value," whispered Marion. "With all my faults, the
+love of money never was one. We shall be rich in happiness, and in all
+that Providence gives to the most favored of those who trust in Him."
+
+"Yes! such mutual confidence as ours, with Christian contentment and
+cheerfulness, are the real elixir of happiness," replied Mr.
+Granville. "It is by closing our eyes against the pure enjoyments
+prepared for us by the God of nature, and opening them to the
+artificial wants invented by man, that we lose all the simplicity, and
+most of the real felicity of life. One can scarcely wonder, in a scene
+like this, that many Christians think this beautiful earth, in a
+purified state, shall hereafter become the place of our eternal
+happiness; but wherever the presence of God is, that, and that only
+will constitute heaven."
+
+"And who could wish for more?" said Marion. "That should in itself
+excite all our gratitude and joy."
+
+"Yet this noisy turbulent stream, rushing wildly past in its angry
+career, is like the troubled course of human wishes, thoughts, and
+speculations, with which we are continually disturbing that calm,
+unruffled state, in which our minds would best reflect the light of
+heaven," answered Mr. Granville. "No one ever had a plummet long
+enough to measure the depth of that love to man, which has placed us
+as probationers in our sin-blighted world; and even if we had no
+futurity of glory promised us, and were finally to perish at death, we
+have cause to be thankful for seeing so much natural beauty, and so
+much intellectual enjoyment, while permitted to remain here."
+
+"Yes!" replied Marion, "considering that we have forfeited every
+blessing, I think any man who has enjoyed life as he ought to, might
+give a receipt in full, as having received a thousand mercies to which
+he had no claim."
+
+"But who can imagine the magnificent expansion of mind hereafter, when
+the whole scheme of nature, of providence, and of grace, shall be
+fully revealed, and our capacities enlarged, to comprehend and
+appreciate the mighty plan," continued Mr. Granville. "Now, even the
+wisest and best of Christians must be satisfied with the intelligent
+ignorance of knowing that he knows nothing; for even angels,
+travelling on the wings of thought for thousands of years, cannot yet
+understand the whole counsel of God; but our present business is to
+study and practise here the temper and manners of that celestial city
+in which we hope hereafter to reside, that our attachment, begun
+indeed now upon earth, may be blessed and perpetuated throughout
+eternity."
+
+_C'est bien d'etre avec les gens qu'on aime--leur parler, ne leur
+parler pas._ The eye of Mr. Granville now gazed in delighted admiration
+on the whole circumference of earth and sky, with a keen perception of
+their beauties, and an intelligent recollection that while the eternal
+sky and the decaying earth form an apt emblem of soul and body, all the
+works of nature may be brought beautifully to exemplify the works of
+grace. Marion and he long stood still together in that companionable
+silence, which became so soothing and delightful to their spirits, that
+neither seemed willing to break the spell.
+
+Both Marion and Mr. Granville delighted in devoutly contemplating the
+glories of creation--nature's system of divinity--those "elder
+Scriptures writ by God's own hand"--the majestic display of Almighty
+wisdom, power, and goodness, in the grand theatre of human life, as
+well as in the minutest events of their own existence.
+
+    This is religion--not unreal dreams,
+    Enthusiastic raptures, and seraphic gleams;
+    But Faith's calm triumph--Reason's steady sway--
+    Not the bright lightning but the perfect day.
+
+Thus musing together, in silent, speechless happiness, Mr. Granville
+was suddenly roused, by observing a young lady approach with agitated
+and disordered steps, leaning on the arm of a more elderly female, and
+walking at a pace of such unusual rapidity, that it almost amounted to
+running. They both glanced frequently and hurriedly behind, as if under
+great alarm, while so remarkable an expression of terror was evident in
+all their looks and movements, that Mr. Granville, without a moment's
+hesitation, stepped forward, and courteously volunteered his services,
+while Marion with delighted astonishment, recognised her friend and
+companion, Caroline Smythe.
+
+"You seem alarmed! Allow me to offer my assistance!" said Mr.
+Granville. "Shall we accompany you?"
+
+"No! no! I am safest alone!" gasped the younger lady, in accents of
+wild alarm. "He carries pistols! He is perfectly insane! Stop him if
+you can! Oh! stop him! Do not let him follow! Direct him wrong! Do
+anything! Try, if you possibly can, to detain him!"
+
+Mr. Granville glanced swiftly round, and observed, with surprise, not
+far from the bridge, and turning the sharp corner of a projecting rock,
+the figure of a tall, powerful young man, of rather gentleman-like
+appearance, wrapped up to the chin in a large cloak, who instantly, on
+perceiving strangers, muffled his face closely in his handkerchief, and
+drew down his hat, but approached with rapid strides and violent
+gesticulations, apparently speaking to himself, and muttering curses
+with terrifying vehemence. Not a moment was lost in hesitation, before
+Marion assisted the elder lady in supporting Caroline onwards, who
+evidently suffered under a mortal terror, while they rapidly dragged
+her across the fragile bridge, on which Marion and Richard had so
+lately enjoyed some brief and happy moments.
+
+Mr. Granville, in the mean time, approached the stranger so as to stand
+directly in his path, and necessarily to impede his progress, while he
+steadily fixed his gaze upon the blazing eye of the madman with a calm
+and commanding look, which testified an unflinching determination to
+obstruct his onward career, and a steady resolution not to be
+intimidated by the air of scowling defiance with which he was met.
+
+"Stand back!" exclaimed the stranger, in a tone of maniacal fury. "Life
+and death are at stake! stand back! delay me one moment, and you die!"
+
+"Is the bridge secure?" asked Mr. Granville, catching hold of the
+madman's arm when he was rushing past, and instantly stooping down as
+if to examine the foundation, when, by a powerful effort of strength,
+he suddenly hurled the whole fabric into the eddying stream, which
+washed the shattered fragments in a moment out of sight.
+
+With a cry of almost fiendish rage, and setting his teeth till it
+seemed as if they would be ground to powder, the maniac sprang like a
+tiger on Mr. Granville, and would have collared him; but with great
+agility he eluded the madman's grasp, and fixed his eyes with an
+expression of stern resolution upon his frantic antagonist, till his
+face cowered beneath that steady gaze, when he said in a calm, slow,
+resolute accent,
+
+"Those ladies shall pass on unmolested. It is base and cowardly to
+terrify timid females whom we are bound with our very lives to protect.
+Go back as you came, and beware of touching them or me."
+
+A wild and hideous laugh was the maniac's only reply, and his eyes
+gleamed more and more fiercely, while he gnawed his lip with rage, but
+at length suddenly bursting with irresistible fury past Mr. Granville,
+he took a long, quick run to where the bridge had formerly stood, and
+instantly, with a single bound of marvellous agility, leaped across.
+Richard Granville was for half a moment bewildered with astonishment at
+this unexpected achievement, and saw with consternation and dismay that
+it would be vain to attempt impeding the infuriated maniac, who turned
+a deaf ear to his loudly vociferated remonstrance, and deliberately
+fired a pistol in the air, while he held up another in a menacing
+attitude towards Mr. Granville, and then replacing the deadly weapon in
+his breast, he hastily disappeared along the same path which had been
+so recently pursued by the ladies.
+
+Richard, heedless of any danger to himself, became now most seriously
+alarmed for the safety of Marion and her companions, therefore he
+delayed not an instant to scramble across the stream where it was
+fordable, and to follow at his utmost speed. In the impetuosity of Mr.
+Granville's career, the ground receded beneath his feet, and as he
+rushed onward a band of iron seemed to restrain his breath, for the
+road became steeper and more solitary, while long grass and weeds had
+grown over the wheel tracks, and the way was impeded by wild straggling
+hedges, which threw their sprays of brier and thorn almost entirely
+across the way. At length meeting a couple of countrymen, he hurriedly
+explained his apprehensions, when they mentioned having met a strange,
+wild-looking man, proceeding with long strides in an opposite
+direction. To Mr. Granville's great relief, however, they seemed to
+think that no ladies could have gone in that way, and after prevailing
+on the two laborers, with a bribe, to assist him in capturing the
+maniac, he resolutely and fearlessly pursued his course.
+
+Marion, meantime, had accompanied the two ladies in their most
+unexpected flight through the forest, at a pace which precluded the
+possibility of speaking, except that now and then an ejaculation of
+terror, or an expression of fervent thankfulness was wrung from them
+when they glanced around, giving a fearful idea of instant danger.
+Caroline's pallid lips were parted, her eyes straining forward with
+impatient apprehension, and every limb nerved for exertion, while she
+silently pursued her way, though her feet seemed to herself as if they
+had become lead, in her vehement efforts to fly onwards; and the
+countenance of her aunt expressed scarcely less terror.
+
+Without speaking, Marion did all in her power to accelerate their
+progress, but at length Caroline's footsteps faltered, her eye became
+dim, and she staggered back, faint with fatigue, seeing which Marion
+silently pointed to a large empty barn which stood beside the road, and
+having supported her within the door, Caroline fell helplessly on the
+floor, covering her face with her hands, and trembling visibly in every
+limb.
+
+Marion brought water, rubbed Caroline's temples, and tried by every
+means to soothe her with the hope of being safe, but in vain--her
+tongue grew parched, her eyes became glassy, her features almost livid,
+and she faintly pointed towards the door, which Marion barricaded to
+the best of her ability. Caroline threw herself back on a heap of
+straw, and covered her face with her hands in a helpless agony of fear.
+Several minutes afterwards elapsed in breathless silence on the part of
+Marion and Mrs. Smythe, when Caroline at length started up, eager to
+pursue her course towards the nearest village, now scarcely a mile off,
+while her companions earnestly entreated her to rest rather, and
+compose herself.
+
+"He has lost the track! he cannot be following us now," said Marion, in
+accents of trembling alarm, the agitated tone of which belied her
+words, while an icy chill had crept through her veins. "Let us rest
+here, we are safe now! He will hurry past! He will not think of
+searching for us in this place!"
+
+"He will! he will! when the fit is on nothing escapes him," replied
+Caroline, who felt a choking sensation in her throat which impeded her
+utterance. "Oh! think of the fearful past! that dreadful night when he
+first became insane! Why did I believe him when he promised never to
+terrify me more! a horrid dread is upon me! a strange ringing in my
+ears! a weight of lead upon my heart!"
+
+"How wonderful that he never can be traced! that he always finds us
+out! that if there ever be a moment when we feel peculiarly safe from
+his presence, he comes!" whispered Mrs. Smythe, in an under tone, as if
+afraid that the very walls might re-echo her words. "We must leave this
+neighborhood, we must take new precautions till he can be found and
+shut up."
+
+Before Caroline could utter the affirmative, which trembled on her
+lips, her eyes became stony with a look of sudden fear, her hands were
+faintly clasped together, her parched and livid lips were parted, and
+with a half uttered shriek she threw herself behind Marion, riveting
+her arms closely round her waist, when, the next minute, a window of
+the barn was dashed in with a violence which nothing could resist, and
+the maniac, giving a wild cry of malignant triumph, began to clamber
+in, clinging to the window-sill with his long bony fingers, while
+concealing his face, so that nothing could be seen but his eyes, which
+burned like living coals.
+
+"You have deceived me once, but you shall deceive me no more!" said he,
+in hoarse, deep accents, and with a ghastly look, while the terrified
+girl seemed to wither beneath his glance. "I cannot breathe while you
+live! I have shed blood before now, and none can tell who did it! You
+may call, but there are none to help--you may weep, but I cannot
+pity--you may fly, but there is no escape! My heart is turned to stone!
+My blood is liquid fire! Strange figures are gibbering behind me!
+Unearthly voices are whispering in my ear! I will do it! Yes! when I
+stand on the scaffold to be executed I shall not be nearer death than
+you are at this moment."
+
+Marion, conscious that the madman's fury was not directed at herself,
+and feeling the courage which arises from desperation, resolved, at
+whatever cost, at least to delay, if possible, any catastrophe which
+she might not be able finally to prevent, and anxious, even for an
+instant, to take the maniac's eye off the trembling girl beside her,
+she now walked resolutely forward to the window, though trembling as
+much as if she were about to throw herself beside a wild beast in his
+cage. Her teeth chattered with terror, and the words seemed to stiffen
+in her throat as she uttered them, but still she persevered, saying in
+a gentle, soothing accent:
+
+"You are a gentleman, and cannot want money! What would you have? Who
+has injured you? Tell me why you pursue us? Think for one moment how
+many years you have to live, and how miserable you may be for ever, if
+you do a rash act now! Pause and consider, for the curse of God and man
+will be upon you!"
+
+The madman gazed for an instant at the pale countenance of Marion,
+every feature in which quivered with emotion; he seemed almost ashamed
+of his own fearful violence, and was about, in a calmer tone, to reply,
+when the barn door was suddenly burst open by the two countrymen, who
+entered with Mr. Granville.
+
+"He shall die!" muttered the maniac between his clenched teeth, "Both!
+all! all! The power of life and death is here!"
+
+Marion heard a sound of terror close beside her--it was a click, as of
+a pistol being cocked, the muzzle of which was directed towards Mr.
+Granville, while the maniac deliberately took his aim; but with a
+sudden impulse of desperation, she threw her arm upwards, and struck
+the fatal weapon, which instantly went off with a report that stunned
+her senses.
+
+Nearly blinded by the shock, Marion staggered backwards as if about to
+fall, yet strained her eyes, in speechless agony, to ascertain if Mr.
+Granville were saved. There was blood upon his cheek, but he rushed
+forward at once, and pinioned the madman's arms within his own, while
+the two countrymen assisted; and after a severe scuttle, the maniac,
+perfectly mastered, lay panting on the floor, while he glared on Mr.
+Granville with a frown of baffled malignity, uttering execrations both
+loud and deep, so dreadful to hear, that Marion's heart quailed within
+her at their awful import, though unable to look round, while occupied
+in applying restoratives to Caroline, who had sunk, with a heavy groan,
+perfectly insensible on the floor.
+
+After more than ten minutes, during which not a pulse could be felt,
+Caroline was carried into the air by Mr. Granville, when the wind,
+playing on her cheek, brought on a gradual restoration to life--a
+slight fluttering was perceived at her heart, a faint color tinged her
+cheek, and with a deep-drawn sigh and a bewildered look, she suddenly
+started up, as if about to renew her flight.
+
+"Dear Caroline!" said Marion, calmly, "all is safe! Do not agitate
+yourself. We have had, indeed, a wonderful escape."
+
+Miss Smythe embraced Marion in a transport of joy and gratitude, after
+which she turned to Mr. Granville, uttering the warmest expression of
+her thanks, while he, with an evident desire to conclude a discussion
+obviously so agitating to the two ladies, proposed, after amply
+remunerating the two countrymen, his assistants, to hurry forward and
+send conveyances from the neighboring inn. With one anxious look at the
+pale, exhausted countenance of Marion, Mr. Granville hastily
+disappeared, meditating, as he hastened along, with deep interest on
+his recent adventure, and with pleasing emotion on the happy
+_eclaircissement_ which had that morning taken place with Marion,
+binding them to each other by the strong ties of honor, principle, and
+affection.
+
+Half an hour afterwards, Richard returned with two carriages, in one of
+which he placed the ladies, whom he met advancing along the road; but
+after proceeding forward with the other, to secure his prisoner, he was
+startled and astonished to discover that the maniac and his two keepers
+had entirely disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+"Well! I do declare! some people have the most marvellous good
+fortune!" exclaimed Sir Patrick next morning turning to Marion, with a
+newspaper before him. "Here is an account of Granville--Richard
+Granville--being engaged in a splendid adventure. I might live for
+ever, and not meet with such a thing. He has rescued Miss Howard, the
+heiress, from that mad cousin who haunts her with some love-and-murder
+threats, and who will positively some day assassinate her, like the
+Miss Raes and Miss Shuckburghs of former times. These very good people,
+like Granville, who profess to be quite above the world, are all very
+fond of money. Ten to one, Granville marries Miss Howard in a month."
+
+"So the young lady is to be murdered first, and married immediately
+afterwards!" said Marion, laughing to see her brother's impetuosity.
+"The heroine of that story is, after all, only my old school companion,
+Caroline Smythe. She has been persecuted by this man, she tells me,
+ever since her childhood, but now he must be put in confinement for
+life; and--and--as for Mr. Granville,--Patrick,--with your leave, I
+have a very private and particular reason for believing he
+is--previously engaged."
+
+A brilliant blush mounted to Marion's temples, while her brother might
+have almost heard her trembling; but a smile of conscious happiness
+played round her mouth, while her long eyelashes drooped over her
+burning cheeks when she spoke these words in an accent of pleased but
+tremulous emotion; and Sir Patrick, after gazing in her countenance for
+a moment with an expression of angry perplexity, suddenly started on
+his feet, crumpling up the newspaper in his hand, with a fiery
+exclamation of rage, saying,
+
+"Speak again, Marion; tell me what this means. The most uncommon thing
+in this world is a direct answer; but your blushes are like no other
+person's, for they betray everything. Girls, from the very beginning of
+time, have always found out the very last man on earth they ought to
+like, and live in a state of romantic misery till they can marry him.
+But it shall never be! I hate and detest Granville! He has injured me!
+He has caused all my recent sufferings. He shall feel what I have felt.
+I have the power now, and the will to be revenged. In his sacred
+profession he dare not and cannot marry you without my consent--and
+never! no never, shall he have it. Marion, you are a mere child yet!
+you do not know your own value, and would let yourself go at a mere
+pepper-corn rent! Granville would become a perfect beggar if he loses
+our law-suit. You ought to be offered the first match in Scotland."
+
+"So I am," replied Marion, in a low and gentle voice. "Mr. Granville
+scarcely has his equal in the world."
+
+"Pshaw! nonsense! I have other views for you! Marion, you have not an
+idea of the sensation you make. My friends are all raving about you. I
+never understood till now why you cared so little about any of them.
+Let Agnes look to her laurels, for I am in more than one secret already
+that would astonish her. Granville must be allowed to follow up his
+adventure with the heiress. Never mention his name to me again. You may
+depend upon it, in a month he will be ready and willing to marry Miss
+Howard."
+
+"Let your consent depend upon Richard's constancy, and then I shall be
+secure," answered Marion, with a playful smile. "He shall be at liberty
+to change his mind on a moment's notice; but, in the mean time,
+Patrick, I have a great idea that he will continue always the same; and
+be assured that I certainly shall."
+
+"Pshaw! nonsense, Marion! You never could be satisfied with the stupid
+sort of happiness to be found in a hum-drum parsonage. Give me no more
+of your love-in-a-cottage ideas, when I know you have a chance of--of,
+no matter who! somebody worth a dozen Mr. Granvilles, and who could buy
+him up a hundred times over."
+
+"One Mr. Granville is quite enough," replied Marion, smiling. "If he
+were like the Emperor of China, cousin-german to the stars, and uncle
+to the moon, I could not think more of him. Riches are only to be
+valued for the use people make of them, but he is 'more bent to raise
+the wretched than to rise.' Very little is essential, Patrick, 'when
+humble happiness endears each scene;' and nothing more is indispensable
+to me than to be so loved by one who is deserving of my love in return.
+How much rather I would live with a poor man who is liberal, than with
+a rich man who is avaricious; and Richard's wealth, though not great,
+is furnished with wings to fly away on a thousand embassies of mercy
+and liberality."
+
+"I wish mine had wings to come, instead of to go; but say what you
+will, it bores me to hear of Granville, he is so absurdly different
+from everybody else."
+
+"So much the worse for everybody else," observed Marion, with a
+good-humored smile. "Is that the blackest count in your indictment?"
+
+"And bad enough, too! I'm told there's not a garret nor a dingy
+cellar-full of misery in the city, where Granville is not upon visiting
+terms. He is a perfect Humane Society in himself. I daresay he will
+receive a public dinner and a piece of plate from the beggars at last."
+
+"Let me entreat, Marion," said Agnes, who had entered during the
+discussion, "that you will not be running about with those Granvilles,
+in search of typhus fever or small-pox. You really ought to be
+fumigated every time you return from these houses, where the people are
+all dying of dirt."
+
+"When Lady Towercliffe recommended her husband's old castle in the
+country to me once, for the shooting, she finished the catalogue of its
+many perfections, by saying, 'and we have such very pleasant beggars!"
+observed Sir Patrick, laughing. "I should certainly have been tempted
+to bag a few brace of them! The Irish fellow whom you may remember
+besetting my door so long in Edinburgh, without extracting a _sous_,
+came up to me lately, in the coolest manner imaginable, and said, 'you
+must find another beggar, Sir Patrick, for the situation here is not
+worth keeping!' I gave the rascal half a sovereign for his humor, and
+never saw his face again."
+
+"It is all very well, if beggars find us out, to give a trifle, and so
+get rid of their importunity," said Agnes, in her most benevolent
+accent, "but the idea of setting out on a crusade to find them out, is
+rather too amusing. I am immensely charitable, however, in referring
+cases of distress to my friends, but benevolence is the most expensive
+of all virtues to set up for."
+
+"Better do too much than too little," replied Marion. "We must not
+suppose every man in want is either a knave or a fool, and no
+remembrance will last so long in our minds as the good we have done, or
+left undone, for we gain the highest happiness to ourselves by
+dispensing it to others. Yesterday, Mr. Granville relieved a poor man
+from actual starvation, nearly ninety years old."
+
+"Was he an orphan?" asked Sir Patrick, in a rallying tone. "What could
+the old fellow be doing in the world so long! but if I might be allowed
+to give an opinion, which I never do, it is, that you should avoid
+those dens of infection and filth."
+
+"There is no absurd romance in their benevolence, and Clara is never
+permitted by her brother to visit anywhere, till he has personally
+ascertained that there is no contagion of either the scarlet, yellow,
+or typhus fever in the house," continued Marion; "but we accompanied
+him last week to see a poor woman who was in a darkened room, with her
+face muffled up, and yet I could not but fancy the tone of her voice
+familiar to me. I was on the point of telling her so when the door
+opened, and who should come in but my uncle's clerk, Mr. Howard, who
+seemed so caught! One seldom can know who are charitable and kind in
+this world, for I never suspected him of being a good Samaritan. He
+said it must have been a mistake about my ever having heard the poor
+creature's voice before, as to his certain knowledge she has been
+bedridden these ten years; therefore, Clara and I gave her all we could
+spare and came away. There was only one seat in the room, and nothing
+else but the naked walls!"
+
+"How very indecent!" said Sir Patrick, taking up the newspapers, "those
+_pauvres honteuses_ have a sad life of it! You will positively draw
+tears from my eyes!"
+
+"Nothing will do that but a mouthful of mustard," replied Marion, with
+a brilliant smile. "It would be more to the purpose if I drew a
+shilling from your purse! You have no idea, Patrick, how many starving
+people there are in the very houses that you see from these windows!"
+
+"Well, really! I wish everybody had £5,000 a year," observed Agnes,
+yawning. "If we could build an addition to the world it would be a
+great convenience! There certainly are too many of us!"
+
+"That is a most original and interesting remark of yours!" exclaimed
+Sir Patrick, laughing. "We have certainly more cats than can kill mice.
+I did hear that it was very seriously debated at the Speculative
+Society lately whether the creation of the world had been on the whole
+an advantage to Ireland or not! How the question was decided I forgot
+to ask!"
+
+"No doubt the existence of every living being must be an advantage, if
+rightly used," observed Marion, in a gentle, diffident voice, "but if
+not, then certainly it were better never to have been born."
+
+"That is your last new importation of Granville-ism," said Agnes,
+satirically. "Well, I would much rather, Marion, that you took the
+typhus fever, than that you became a methodist!--Pray do not infect me
+with either the one or the other."
+
+"There is always more contagion in what is evil than in what is good,"
+replied Marion. "Fevers are infectious, but health is not. Most of the
+illness I have seen lately arises from bad food, or rather from no food
+at all."
+
+"It occurs to me," said Sir Patrick, throwing down his newspaper, "that
+as all rivers are formed of drinkable water, it is most unlucky that
+the ground is not formed of eatable bread! What a world of trouble it
+would save about the corn laws!"
+
+"But in such a case," replied Marion, laughing, "no man would work, and
+the stones on the road might have to break themselves!"
+
+"If the weather, too, were permitted to be regulated by act of
+Parliament, how droll it would be to read a petition from the farmers
+of Mid-Lothian against the late excessive rains, or from the hackney
+coachmen against a long continuance of fine weather. How I should like
+to see the summer with which any one of my tenants would be satisfied!"
+
+"Of course it is their business to complain, or you would increase
+their rents. If a farmer came to your factor in ecstacies with his
+crops, and wishing a renewal of his lease, what terms would satisfy
+you? We are all like buckets in a well--what raises one depresses
+another, _ainsi va le monde_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+Marion was no miser of happiness to hoard it all up for her own use,
+and most willingly would she have imparted a share of her present
+joyous feelings to Agnes, but in vain did she look for any
+encouragement to the frank, confiding, and sociable nature of her own
+disposition, from a sister who had no desire to share in the hopes and
+fears, the joys and sorrows of a disinterested attachment, such as she
+could neither understand nor approve.
+
+"Perfect happiness and a hut in the country!" said Agnes,
+contemptuously, while the warm blood mantled into Marion's cheek, but
+instantly putting her features in order to look composed and
+indifferent, she turned the conversation to no particular subject.
+
+Too happy to be silent, Marion next selected for her _confidante_ the
+very last person upon earth whom it would have occurred to most young
+ladies to entrust with the progress of a love affair, while, from Sir
+Arthur, she received the deepest and most affectionate interest in
+return for all she told him, though he acted like a perfect incendiary,
+by adding fuel to the flame, inviting Mr. Granville to his house
+whenever he could come, and praising him whenever he departed.
+
+With daily increasing solicitude, Marion's elderly confidant listened
+to all the simple romance of her thoughts and feelings, delighted with
+the overflow of a heart which had nothing to conceal. Neither
+overvaluing nor undervaluing the gifts of fortune, Sir Arthur felt
+unspeakable comfort in the belief that Marion would now be better
+protected and cared for through life, than could have been hoped, from
+the few years that remained to himself, or from the heedless
+indifference of her brother, who had never shown her much regard till
+now, when he testified his care in the way least acceptable to Marion,
+by an angry, resolute opposition to her marrying and settling, as he
+persisted in saying, "upon ninepence a-day."
+
+The difficulty increased every week, of joining that happy circle where
+her most delightful hours had been passed, and a thousand impediments
+were now contrived by Sir Patrick to prevent Marion from visiting even
+at Sir Arthur's; while the young Baronet filled his house at St. John's
+Lodge with so many of his friends, that the Admiral laughingly observed
+one day, while he seemed possessed by the very spirit of raillery and
+good humor, "I think, Marion, your brother is actually laying siege to
+you now--or rather, it is turning into a blockade! I suppose he expects
+some of those half-witted blockheads fluttering about the house to
+eclipse Granville, which is of course extremely probable! Now, for the
+twentieth time to-day, let us discuss my nephew elect. He seems--rather
+amiable!"
+
+"Seems! dear uncle Arthur! he is all that he seems, and a hundred times
+more! He is--need I say what he is?"
+
+"No! no! I remember to have read novels long ago, and know all about
+it! Marion, you may well feel proud of being admired and beloved by one
+who is himself admired and beloved by all! I cannot think," added Sir
+Arthur, with a sly smile, "what in all the world Mr. Granville sees to
+fancy in you!"
+
+"That is exactly what puzzles me! I often wonder why he likes me!"
+
+"Because, I suppose, somehow or other, he cannot help it. Now, Marion,
+you have the worst of memories I know, for what Mr. Granville says; but
+do try if you can recollect a few of his last conversations to
+entertain me with. You will have so many lovers soon at St. John's
+Lodge, that it may perhaps become impossible to distinguish Granville
+from the rest, or one from another!"
+
+"No! that can never be! Patrick's friends are scarcely my
+acquaintances, and not at all likely to become admirers. I feel and
+fully appreciate my own happiness now in being chosen and preferred by
+one whose thoughts and wishes are all such as my own may be ready and
+willing to echo--who can lead my thoughts upwards as well as onwards,
+whose attachment is founded on the purest sentiments--and, not the
+least of his attraction, dear uncle Arthur, who loves and honors you as
+I do!"
+
+"Merely because I am your uncle! Depend upon it, all my great merits
+are eclipsed by that one! Well! I must put up with it, till he knows
+better! I need not send to the circulating libraries for a romance now,
+as there are so many to interest me at home!"
+
+These words of Sir Arthur's referred not merely to the growing
+attachment of Richard and Marion, but Caroline Smythe, who was about
+soon to depart for England, had in the meantime become a constant and
+prominent member of the gay little circle at Seabeach Cottage, where
+her friends exerted their utmost endeavors to restore the tone of her
+nerves and spirits, which were still much affected by her recent alarm,
+and none succeeded so well in diverting her thoughts, and beguiling her
+time as the lively, animated Henry De Lancey, who became himself daily
+more entranced with the happiness of being in her society. His
+preference for Caroline was testified in the way most truly flattering,
+being more betrayed than professed, yet his whole heart was visible in
+every word and action, while he evidently became every day twenty times
+more deeply in love than at first, and the interesting countenance of
+Caroline grew more interesting from the additional depth of expression
+to be traced there. Sir Arthur, happy in the happiness of others,
+appeared to cast aside all care, while sunning himself in the joyous
+smiles of those who had so long been the dearest objects of his
+solicitude, and day after day the intimacy and mutual affection of all
+parties appeared to be riveted by fetters which never could be broken,
+though it sometimes crossed Marion's mind as a cause of surprise that
+Sir Arthur, who did nothing without reflection, should appear never
+once to apprehend the difficulty into which Henry's attachment would
+evidently plunge him.
+
+There was something irresistible in the fascinations of young De
+Lancey's character, the warmth of which seemed as if it must have been
+nurtured beneath a brighter sun than that of others, while there was an
+irresistible captivation in his joyous, youthful aspect, his frank and
+graceful carriage. Mr. Granville, who had a genius for making society
+agreeable, as well as improving, treated him with the confidence and
+companionship of a brother, almost insensibly developing the graces of
+a heart fitted to awaken the deepest interest, and drawing forth a
+power of mind and character in Henry, of which he could scarcely before
+have deemed himself capable, while leading him often away from the
+common-place nothings of the passing hour, to the highest regions of
+thought and to the brightest aspirations after future distinction,
+after immortal wisdom and undying happiness.
+
+"We must live and act for others," observed Mr. Granville one day in
+his usual tone of energetic animation. "The miser who collects useless
+hoards which are lost to him at death, is not more absurd in his vain
+pursuit, than the mere philosopher who lays up stores of knowledge to
+perish with himself. The good or the evil which may be done by the most
+insignificant individual both now and to generations yet unborn, is
+incalculable; and the only important question we can ask of ourselves,
+in which no other can be concerned, is, 'What shall I do to be saved?'
+That, each man must seek to ascertain for himself; and who would not
+say that the greatest fool on earth is he who forgets to ask it at
+all,--or who asks it with indifference!"
+
+"I am more and more convinced," said Henry, "that religion is the
+greatest support in life, and the only one in death. On our hearts it
+is like the calm serene light given by the moon when she soars vividly
+along the heavens amidst clouds and darkness, pouring celestial light
+upon the earth in pure and holy splendor, beautiful and sublime, yet
+often how melancholy and solemnizing,
+
+    'Thoughts of immortal beauty spring to birth,
+    And waft the soul beyond the dreams of earth.'"
+
+Henry scarcely ventured to tell his own heart how deeply and
+engrossingly he had become attached to Caroline, while in secret he
+remembered every word or look which had endeared her to him, with a
+pleasure and emotion till now unknown, and which could not but be most
+painful in his solitary hours of reflection, when he considered the
+uncertain tenure of his own situation in life, and his ignorance
+respecting that of Miss Smythe, though he felt soothed and comforted by
+the consciousness, that to her he was evidently not indifferent, and
+that Sir Arthur either seemed blind to their increasing preference, or
+pleased to witness it.
+
+Henry had seated himself one morning in a small ante-room, repairing
+his fishing tackle, and though voices became audible in the
+drawing-room, in animated conversation, he continued perfectly heedless
+of what was passing, till at length his own name, spoken in accents
+always dear to him, irresistibly enchained his attention. Sir Arthur
+was requesting Caroline to sing one of his favorite melodies, and she
+gayly resisted his entreaties, saying, in her liveliest accents, "No!
+no! wait patiently till the evening. That was copied for me by Mr. De
+Lancey, and I promised he should be present the first time it was
+performed. I can refuse you nothing, Sir Arthur, so I must seek safety
+by flight!"
+
+Nodding and smiling, with one of her archest looks, Caroline tripped
+lightly into the room, where Henry sat, so shaded by the
+window-curtain, that he was perfectly invisible, when a moment
+afterwards she was followed by Mrs. Smythe, who said in an excited tone
+of angry remonstrance,
+
+"Is there no end, Caroline, to this extraordinary intimacy of yours
+with young De Lancey! It really is becoming absurd! Sir Arthur is very
+much to blame in giving it any encouragement! A youth without
+prospects! without so much as a name!"
+
+"With no seat in Parliament! no diplomatic appointment! no family
+living! no title!" pursued Caroline, laughing. "You know, my dear aunt,
+I never centered all good in birth and station!"
+
+"Neither did I suppose you would dispense with both!" replied Mrs.
+Smythe, in a tone of increasing bitterness, and hurrying towards the
+door, evidently so irritated, that she dared not trust herself to
+remain. "Rather than have my niece united to a nameless outcast, living
+upon the bounty of Sir Arthur Dunbar, or of connections who are
+probably disgraced by his existence, I would prefer seeing you married
+to the Twopenny Postman, for he at least is independent, and has
+something."
+
+A glow like fire rushed through Henry's frame at these words, and
+before Mrs. Smythe had closed the door, the hot blood seemed boiling in
+his veins with agonized shame and sorrow. Pale and red by turns, he
+leaned his head on his hands in solitary desolation, and quivered in
+every nerve with grief and self-reproach. The whole harvest of his
+happiness seemed blasted at a single breath; his mind was a wild chaos
+of conflicting emotions; and one only thought rose paramount to all,
+that he had been held up to ridicule and contempt, perhaps deservedly,
+in the eyes of that one beloved being, the object of his dearest,
+first, and only attachment, He wreathed his hands together, and bent
+his head in a tempest of emotion, while the whole rich treasure of his
+affections and hopes lay mouldered into rubbish at his feet; for he
+felt and knew that all Mrs. Smythe had said, was but too painfully
+true. A dark extinguisher had fallen over every earth-born wish. He
+felt that it had been unpardonable even to desire that the happiness of
+another should be linked with his uncertain fate; and he struggled
+long, though vainly, for composure, while contemplating the destruction
+of that one hope which had contained the sum of all his earthly wishes.
+
+"I will yet deserve her or die!" thought Henry, overleaping
+impossibilities, or, with the sanguine feelings of a young and ardent
+mind, not even seeing them. "My pleasing dream has ended for the
+present; and how could I ever expect it should be otherwise! but I
+cannot and will not blot out from the picture of my future life, that
+form which embellished every hope of my existence! Days and nights of
+laborious exertion shall be as nothing, if I can but prove myself
+worthy of Caroline,--if I can but, at the remotest period of time, call
+her my own. Were it not for such a prospect I should become
+indifferent even to myself!"
+
+Henry's musings were disturbed by a slight noise near him, and when,
+with a flashing eye, he started and looked up, the very object of all
+his thoughts, hopes, and regrets was beside him, and he beheld
+Caroline, her cheeks suffused with the deepest emotion, and her
+downcast eyelashes sparkling with tears, while in hurried accents of
+extreme agitation, she spoke to him almost inaudibly:
+
+"Is it the affairs of the nation you are so deeply meditating on, Mr.
+De Lancey, or your own affairs?"
+
+"My affairs!" exclaimed Henry, in a tone of deep depression, while his
+dark lustrous eyes became dim and glassy with emotion. "I have no
+affairs! a creature of charity,--of the most generous and noble-minded
+benevolence,--but still a dependent on the bounty of others! In your
+presence I could forget the mystery and bitterness of my lot,--but I
+forget it too much! I am not answerable for my feelings, but I am for
+my actions; and I must leave you for ever! I can never know the rapture
+of a requited attachment; but why should I not acknowledge the feelings
+of admiration that must be common to all in your presence. I am a
+nameless outcast; but pardon my folly and infatuation in having loved
+you, without a hope of return. My mother perished, as you know, under
+fearful circumstances; and who can tell whether my father may not have
+died like a felon! My worst enemy can say, or suspect nothing worse
+than I sometimes fear; and I deserve all I suffer for having one moment
+forgotten the dark mystery of my lot."
+
+"You were here, then, Mr. De Lancey, some moments ago," said Caroline,
+in hurried accents! "You overheard all that my aunt so imprudently
+said! you! you!--you--what must you think!"
+
+"I dare not trust my lips with the expression of half what I think and
+feel," replied Henry, in a low, deep, broken voice, and fixing his
+troubled eye on Caroline. "Let me speak for once to you on that subject
+which another began! Let me for once relieve my heart, by saying how
+entirely,--how unchangeably I love you. What bright visions of hope
+have flitted before my fancy, all blighted now for ever! I know the
+utter despair that ought to attend my attachment. Love, to others a
+blessing, must ever be to me a curse; yet I would rather love you
+without a hope of return, than gain the hearts of a thousand others. I
+neither ask nor expect encouragement; only believe and pity me! In the
+long absence which awaits me from home, let me be consoled by thinking,
+that I am not utterly despised and forgotten,--that when time and
+distance have separated us, I may still preserve a place in your
+memory, though not perhaps remembered, as I shall remember you."
+
+Caroline listened with deep delight to this renewed confession of
+Henry's long-cherished attachment. It seemed as if she could have
+listened for ever, but was unable to reply during several minutes of
+agitated silence, till at length, with a strong effort, she said in
+faltering accents, yet with some of her usual vivacity--
+
+"You said this once before, and I never forgot it. You were very dull
+not to read my heart long ago. If I felt less I could say more. Be
+constant for two long years, and we may be happy! I need then consult
+no one's wishes but my own. Sir Arthur knows all. He has been entrusted
+with my thoughts from the first moment, when you told me that--that our
+attachment was reciprocal!"
+
+"Can it be!" exclaimed young De Lancey, in accents of the wildest joy,
+while, in a transport of emotion, he clasped her hand in his own, and
+those words were at last spoken between them, which pledged Henry and
+Caroline to each other for ever. "I am not then doomed to pass through
+life alone and uncared for. You will accept a heart that never has
+loved, and never can love another! I am now afraid only of being too
+happy! The tide of my whole existence is changed! The two years you bid
+me wait shall not be wasted. For your sake I shall strenuously seek to
+become the architect of my own fortunes, to throw off the trammels of
+obscurity, to carve out for myself a name which you shall not be
+ashamed to hear. The world is before me, where, with buoyant hopes and
+resolute will, surely I may achieve something, when my ardent aim and
+eager hope shall be to enjoy honor first, and love hereafter. For years
+I have not known a moment of solitude, as your image has been my
+perpetual companion, and now there is no futurity of life to either of
+us, in which we shall not both be interested, for, believe me, no one
+on earth was ever loved with greater depth and constancy of attachment
+than yourself."
+
+The feelings of a lifetime are sometimes concentrated in a single hour,
+and so it was with Henry and Caroline, who talked of the past and of
+the future with buoyant hopes and entire affection, but not yet with an
+entire confidence; for it was evident that Miss Smythe, in speaking of
+her own connexions and prospects, became agitated and reserved, while
+she concluded the conversation abruptly, by saying,
+
+"I shall feel proud and happy to think that the motive for all your
+exertions is derived from a generous and disinterested attachment to
+myself; and whether success or failure be the consequence, we shall at
+last share it together, for better or for worse. All real happiness
+must spring from the heart. I care neither for splendor nor
+amusement--they are the mere outside crust visible to the vulgar eye;
+but friendship and--and attachment, founded on religion, these are the
+jewel in the casket, outweighing all else."
+
+"Without them, none can know the greatest joys or the greatest sorrows
+of this world," said Henry, with emotion. "For your sake I have now a
+thousand ambitious desires that never would have occurred to me for
+myself alone. If there be anything in me deserving your regard, I wish
+it were ten times redoubled, and that, besides, I had fortune, talents,
+estates, and friends, beyond the utmost desires of all your
+connexions."
+
+"Then," replied Caroline, with a penetrating look at Henry, but in a
+careless, off-hand tone, "if we are to suppose a shower of fairy gifts
+called down upon us by our own wishes, I shall, perhaps, ask to become,
+for your sake, very beautiful, very fascinating, and, above all, very
+rich."
+
+"You have everything already, except the wealth," said Henry, warmly;
+"and I should abhor an heiress! I would not sacrifice my independence in
+life to any woman--scarcely even to you! A man's office is to confer,
+not to receive."
+
+"Men of even very large fortune seem, in these days, to feel
+otherwise," observed Caroline, smiling. "They have a sort of mercantile
+idea on the subject of marrying, that it would be very presumptuous in
+a young lady, without sufficient capital, to expect a partnership in
+their house."
+
+"I have little, indeed, to offer, and even that little based upon a
+mysterious uncertainty," replied Henry. "Yet unless I could bestow
+something besides myself, and something more than I ask in return, I
+never would marry. It is a mean, degrading position, for any man to be
+a pensioner on his wife, when even the very gifts which his affection
+might induce him to give her must be purchased with her own money. No!
+dearest Caroline, we shall be contented on very little, and we might be
+miserable on a great deal. Your happiness shall be my first, almost my
+only consideration. Our affection will be riveted by the sacrifices we
+daily make for each other, till it becomes woven into our very being;
+while, come what may, we are above adversity, and equal to prosperity,
+strong in mutual attachment, and in one common hope for time and for
+eternity."
+
+"May we live to realize all you say," replied Caroline, with tears
+starting to her eyes, while a smile was on her cheek. "The picture is
+drawn by a masterly hand. In this world the sun itself has many dark
+spots, and I do not expect or hope that we shall be without our share
+of difficulties and sorrows; but our happiness is rooted in a soil that
+cannot fail, for we shall advance together, in social and unlimited
+confidence, through the land of fleeting shadows, to the land of bright
+and permanent realities, of unimaginable and unceasing enjoyment."
+
+"How different is the happiness of the Christian from that described by
+the poet," said Henry.
+
+    "My hope, that never grew to certainty,--
+    My youth, that perish'd in its vain desire;
+    My fond ambition, crush'd e'er it could be
+    Aught save a self-consuming, wasted fire!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+Captain De Crespigny continued to visit at St. John's Lodge almost
+daily, having now adopted a quite-at-home style, dropping in at all
+hours of the morning or evening, partly in the character of a cousin,
+partly as a convivial friend of Sir Patrick's, and solely, in the
+estimation of Agnes, as her devoted admirer; but not one of the
+motives which ostensibly brought him there was the real one. He kept
+up long, animated, horse-and-dog conversations with Sir Patrick, and
+love-and-nonsense conversations with Agnes; but his whole thoughts and
+attention were secretly devoted to Marion, to so engrossing an extent,
+that he became astonished even at himself. She was always exceedingly
+busy about something when he called--more frequently out of the room
+than in it, while he staid, and so constantly sat down to write letters
+or notes while he talked to Sir Patrick, that one day, in a tone of
+pique, he said, writing at such a rate, she would soon be several
+volumes a-head of Sir Walter Scott; but still Marion continued as much
+pre-occupied in his presence, and as good-humoredly indifferent as
+before. She treated him, as the friend of Sir Patrick, almost like a
+brother, and was not in the slightest degree agitated, when he flew,
+with fascinating _empressement_, to light the taper for her, to open
+the door, or to pay any of the ten thousand little attentions with
+which he was accustomed to dazzle and delight the hundred and one other
+young ladies among whom he had hitherto divided himself. It was
+absolutely insufferable to see her so perfectly self-possessed and
+conversible, without a thought of being admired, always ready with a
+reply when he spoke to her, and amused with his jests, but not
+sufficiently interested by his presence, to attempt being either
+attractive or repulsive. Seeing him approach the table one day several
+times while she was writing, Marion said at last,
+
+"Is there anything here I can give you? anything you want?"
+
+"Yes!" said Captain De Crespigny, in a low, agitated voice. "I do want
+more than I dare ask; more than I shall perhaps ever obtain."
+
+Marion at these words glanced with astonishment towards Agnes, and
+privately thought her sister's lover must require very great
+encouragement indeed, if he were not satisfied with all he got; but
+unwilling to interfere in any differences that might have arisen
+between them, she calmly resumed her employment, unconscious that the
+eyes of Captain De Crespigny were fixed upon her with a look of
+disappointment and pique, because she had not so much as favored him
+with a conscious blush.
+
+Nothing surprised and amused the young mind of Marion half so much, as
+the light raillery and gay persiflage, which continually passed between
+her brother and Captain De Crespigny, whose conversation was enlivened
+with sallies of good-humored malice against each other, and lively
+satire, which sometimes approached the verge, and often even passed the
+verge of civility, while each seemed to have conferred on his friend
+the royal privilege of saying or doing no wrong, so that the pointed
+arrows they levelled at each other became feathers before they reached
+their aim.
+
+
+"I must give the Abbey people a ball!" exclaimed Sir Patrick one day,
+after whistling for some time with his back to the fire. "The Children
+of the Abbey, as we gentlemen in difficulties are called! A dance of
+ruined people! What a capital hit!"
+
+"Like Holbein's dance of death!" observed Marion. "Our creditors would
+all come, I suppose, and take out a dividend in cakes and ices! You
+are, of course, not serious, Patrick!"
+
+"Why not? You are always ready with an opinion, like a lawyer expecting
+a fee; but remember, Marion, the attorney waits at least till he is
+asked! I am as serious now as I ever am about anything. Let me make the
+neighbors and the neighborhood expire with envy and admiration! You
+know the last kick of a dying horse is always the strongest. Agnes,
+fetch your visiting book, and we shall get up a splendid impromptu, to
+be paid for with my surplus income! Ah! here comes De Crespigny, as he
+always does, at the very moment we were wishing for him."
+
+"Because there is never a moment, I suppose, that you are not wishing
+for me!" replied he, fixing his expostulating eye on Sir Patrick. "I
+owe myself to society, and make a duty of paying visits from pure
+benevolence, because in every house I find people perfectly dying for
+my arrival. If I had three hands to shake, I would divide them equally
+amongst you; but I have only one to offer," added Captain De Crespigny,
+with lively emphasis, as he extended his to Agnes, who stood nearest
+him.
+
+"You belong, I believe, to the Modest Assurance Company," said she,
+with a blush and a smile. "But after this little outbreak of vanity, we
+really do want your advice."
+
+"That is a thing I never either give or take. The word should be
+drummed out of the English language."
+
+"Then," added Sir Patrick, "pray lend us your opinion."
+
+"No, Dunbar! I lend you nothing! Remember our agreement. Can't afford
+bad debts! Better give you half-a-crown than lend you a shilling."
+
+"De Crespigny, your wit is as sharp to-day as that American scythe, the
+shadow of which cut a man's leg off! I owe you one for the last hit!"
+
+"Ten to one you never pay me! I have serious thoughts of taking rooms
+in the sanctuary myself soon, because it displays beauties and
+attractions beyond any other part of the world. Positively, I see no
+place like it, and no people like its inhabitants."
+
+Sir Patrick's hearty laugh rang through the room, while Agnes smiled
+with conscious triumph; and Marion, who had been for several minutes
+planning an escape to the Granvilles, thought this a favorable
+opportunity to steal off unobserved, and had safely reached the door,
+when Sir Patrick hastily summoned her back.
+
+"Marion! where are you shying off to so hastily? Are you under a vow of
+solitude? There is no keeping you in the room for a minute now."
+
+"Never mind me!" said Captain De Crespigny, assuming a tone of
+good-humored conceit, to disguise a great deal of real pique. "I am not
+so bad as I look."
+
+"No!" replied Agnes, laughing. "That is exactly what the keeper at the
+Zoological Gardens says of the ourang outang!"
+
+"Don't be put out of countenance by her, De Crespigny! you'll do," said
+Sir Patrick. "I've seen worse looking people in the world! I knew a
+gentleman once, much plainer than you are, who got on very well!"
+
+"Sir Patrick Dunbar, for instance, or some other, with no pretensions
+whatever! Really, old fellow! I am much the best looking of the two, if
+people would only think so. It is astonishing the sort of men who pass
+themselves off upon the world for being handsome--quite an imposition."
+
+"Quite!" replied Sir Patrick, and the two gentlemen laughingly glanced
+at each other. "I am quite obliged to you for that remark; but as I see
+the watch of your wit is wound up for a reply, pray let it strike."
+
+"No, I am not revengeful! As somebody said to somebody, some day when
+they were talking about something, I have 'a soul above buttons.' But
+positively," continued Captain De Crespigny, gazing around, as if he
+had made a sudden discovery, and letting his eye rest upon Marion, "to
+do ourselves justice, Dunbar, we in this room are a remarkably good
+looking party."
+
+"To be sure we are! You never said a truer thing!" replied Sir Patrick.
+"So obvious, indeed, that it was scarcely worth remarking. I remember
+the time, De Crespigny, when you used to copy me--to imitate the
+inimitable; and positively, with such tolerable success, that I very
+nearly bowed to myself one day for you."
+
+"Well, Patrick!" said Agnes, "I do think you are like nobody else, and
+like nothing human I ever saw; and yet I have a great turn for finding
+out resemblances. How very like Wednesdays are to Thursdays!"
+
+"Astonishingly so!" replied Captain De Crespigny, adding, with one of
+his most indescribable looks, "but I see not the slightest resemblance
+between your sister and you."
+
+Agnes smiled one of her brightest smiles at what must, she thought, be
+intended most unquestionably as a compliment; but though the difference
+appeared obvious enough, the superiority, judging from the direction
+and the expression of Captain De Crespigny's eyes, was not by any means
+so decided a point as Agnes seemed willing to believe.
+
+"De Crespigny!" said Sir Patrick, with one of his most satirical looks.
+"Do you really now, in serious earnest, call yourself dressed? It is
+very well as a joke; but you are surely not got up in that style for
+the day? In the name of all that is hideous, who is your tailor, that I
+may avoid him? Does he call that thing you wear a coat?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Then, pray, what does he call it?"
+
+"A surtout! and such a one as you never had since you wore a cap and
+cockade! It is a real original Dodds! I could bet the amount of your
+bill, whatever that may be, probably with several years' interest--a
+few hundreds--that you will never be half so well fitted. If you want a
+coat--a real undeniable, irreproachable coat, fit for a gentleman to be
+seen in--employ my tailor in St. James' street; he will make a man of
+you!"
+
+"From a certain cut of tigerism in the collar, I guessed he lived in
+Cheapside or the Strand! Never employ him again! I would not allow him
+to dress me if he offered to do it for nothing! Have more regard for
+yourself, De Crespigny, and never be betrayed into trusting him again.
+He is totally incapable of his business! You might as well expect a
+Whig Ministry to form a tolerable Administration. The thing is not upon
+the cards!"
+
+"Pray, attend now to my cards!" interrupted Agnes. "If you are got upon
+politics, there will be no slipping in a word edgewise about my ball;
+and the joy of planning it quite turns my head."
+
+"You turn every other head, so it is but fair that your own should
+share the same fate!" observed Captain De Crespigny, with a light and
+careless laugh; but what he said was neither lightly nor carelessly
+received by Agnes; for the color rushed in vivid brilliancy to her
+cheek, while she bent her head to conceal a smile of pleasure; yet when
+Marion looked up suddenly from her drawing, the eyes of Captain De
+Crespigny were again fixed on herself, as he added, "I wish those I
+admire the most had a few imperfections to make them human."
+
+"I should not think any one thoroughly liked me who saw them," observed
+Agnes, in a tone of gratified vanity. "And now for business, Pat! Here
+is a correct list of our acquaintances!"
+
+"But I want an incorrect one!" replied Sir Patrick, jocularly seizing
+the catalogue of names. "I hate anything correct! Let me see! Here are
+some tolerable people enough! This is not a bad world, after all, if
+one could pick out those who are ornamental, and pass an act of
+extermination upon all who are objectionable in manner, appearance,
+circumstances, or disposition. In such a case, it might really become
+fit for a gentleman to live in!"
+
+Agnes' visiting-book was now carefully revised, while the party seemed
+to think they had met only to pass sentence on all their acquaintances.
+No subject appeared so exhaustless as the faults and follies of their
+particular friends; their poverty, wealth, avarice, or extravagance;
+while the liveliness of their conversation, instead of emanating, like
+that of the Granvilles, from the gay fancies and spontaneous sparklings
+of their own minds, was almost entirely derived from the follies and
+personal defects of others; and Marion could not but remember with a
+smile the country clergyman, who said once from the pulpit, that
+"people should never speak ill of their neighbors,--except among a few
+friends!"
+
+"Let us invite only the tolerable-looking girls in each family, and no
+chaperons with turbans and large caps to overshadow the room," said
+Captain De Crespigny, drawing a broad dash of his pen through the name
+of Lady Towercliffe. "Her large, featureless face, looks like a wax
+doll which had been put before the fire till it melted; and she is as
+dull as a dormouse."
+
+"We did enough for her in going to that heavy turn-out of a ball,"
+added Sir Patrick. "I very nearly 'struck work,' on finding myself
+expected to dance with one of those plain, elderly daughters. Lady
+Charlotte is quite a _laide ideal_."
+
+"I was pressed into the service, too!" continued Captain De Crespigny,
+in an injured tone, "and did not recover the annoyance till--till my
+last quadrille!" added he, glancing expressively at Marion. "If one
+must dance with plain girls at their own parties, I wish they would
+wear veils."
+
+"Poor Lady Charlotte's figure is a perfect pyramid, narrow at the
+shoulders, and becoming thicker to the ankles," observed Agnes,
+laughing. "She got no partner the first half of the night, but being
+very fond of dancing, she stood near the corner of every dance, and was
+turned sometimes by mistake!"
+
+"Very good for an impromptu, Agnes! The old girl gets a partner once
+a-year, I believe," added Sir Patrick. "If people will not be beauties,
+I can't help it; but I wonder at any one who had such a foot as Lady
+Charlotte's, would wish to live. It is so enormous that the eye cannot
+take it in all at once! The gout is nothing in comparison! De
+Crespigny, if you are ever shipwrecked at sea, you could desire no
+better boat than one of her shoes, and a paddle!"
+
+"Her hand, too!" exclaimed Captain De Crespigny, shrugging his
+shoulders, and admiring his nails. "Mine is ashamed to look so
+insignificant beside it! Positively I awoke one forenoon, after my hand
+had been stung by a wasp, and seeing something so large, red, and
+swelled, I never recognized my own, but seized hold of it in the most
+friendly manner, saying, 'Ah, Lady Charlotte Malcolm!----'"
+
+"I have heard," observed Marion, "that the celebrated Hogarth often
+lamented how completely his sense of the ridiculous had destroyed his
+sense of the beautiful; so that even in the face of an angel he could
+not avoid observing something to caricature; and I think some of us, if
+we do not take care, will soon be in danger of a similar calamity."
+
+"Well!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, eagerly, "Let me enjoy a jest to-day,
+even if I were to die for it to-morrow."
+
+"You, gentlemen, are both too bad!" said Agnes, lazily extending her
+own beautiful foot on a footstool. "Charlotte Malcolm has already a
+whole tier of double chins; her throat must have once belonged to a
+flamingo, and her complexion is like the models we see from abroad in
+terra cotta; but then, to do her justice, she dresses to perfect
+desperation; and," added Agnes, in her most amiable voice, for she
+always assumed the affectation of extreme candor in discussing other
+young ladies, "I am told Charlotte is very good tempered; at least so
+Lady Towercliffe says."
+
+"And pray, what does that signify to me!" exclaimed Sir Patrick,
+contemptuously. "If there is nothing better to be said for your friend,
+then, Agnes, for ever hold your tongue. Amiable qualities are quite at
+a discount in general society! What does it matter to a man dancing a
+quadrille with any girl, that she is miraculously amiable, if she be
+miraculously ugly too! She may be a perfect termagant at home, for
+anything I care, provided she bring plenty of small talk into the
+ball-room; and I would not give a single sous to know whether her
+milliner's bills be paid, provided only she is well dressed. I would
+not take such a looking girl as Lady Charlotte Malcolm for my fifth
+wife!"
+
+"You have quite burned her in effigy, now," observed Marion, looking up
+from her work. "Suppose we start some person, for variety, whom
+everybody must admire and praise!"
+
+"That should be yourself, then!" said Captain De Crespigny. "Who else
+could answer the description?"
+
+"I remember visiting at old Vivian's last summer, where the girls were
+all terrifyingly plain; their faces, like the dairy-maid, and their
+figures like the churn," said Sir Patrick. "One day I could not resist
+asking their old governess, in confidence, what could be the reason why
+the fourth daughter invariably took precedence of all the others, when
+she whispered in a confidential tone, 'because she once had a
+proposal.'"
+
+"If young ladies take precedence on such grounds," observed Captain De
+Crespigny, with a glance towards Agnes and Marion, "I know who ought
+soon to leave all others behind! My cousins here have the game in their
+own hands; four by honors and the odd trick."
+
+"Young ladies had much better gain precedence by accepting offers than
+by refusing them!" said Sir Patrick, whistling himself off to the
+window. "She's daft to refuse the laird o' Cock-pen!"
+
+"I once saw a man who had been refused!" said Captain De Crespigny. "He
+should have kicked himself out of the world after such an adventure!
+From that day to this I have lived in a nervous horror of being
+rejected! I am the most marrying man in the world, but I never can
+venture to make an offer. I do wonder how people set about it! The
+author who published a complete letter-writer, should give us a
+complete manual of proposals for all occasions! I am so horribly
+diffident! Even coming into a room you have no idea how much I suffer
+from shyness!"
+
+"It is astonishing, then, what a good face you manage to put upon it,"
+said Marion, dryly. "I never guessed you were at all shy!"
+
+"No! nor that I am a lover out of place, in want of a situation! Would
+it be a good plan, Miss Marion Dunbar, to advertise? You, being pen in
+hand already, shall write the advertisement. Describe me as made of
+every creature's best! How would it do to make a raffle of me? Twenty
+thousand tickets at one guinea each. How many will you take?"
+
+"I have no money to waste," replied Marion. "But perhaps some young
+ladies with more, if they could be quite sure of a blank, might venture
+on one ticket, out of charity, hearing you are so anxious to go off."
+
+"I do wonder if anybody would take me," continued Captain De Crespigny,
+in a tone of careless conceit. "I have the greatest mind to try Lady
+Charlotte Malcolm! Do you think, Miss Dunbar, I might have any chance?"
+
+"Not the slightest!" replied Agnes, laughing. "I could bet my longest
+ringlet that she would reject you at once. Charlotte complained to me
+long ago how forward gentlemen are--always proposing, on the slightest
+encouragement."
+
+"Remarkably true! I am positive that nine out of ten were refused last
+winter. We are a most unfortunate set of old fellows, Dunbar. Nobody
+appreciates us. I had made myself a promise to go off this season!
+positively my last appearance. But," added Captain De Crespigny,
+dropping his voice into a low tone of apparent feeling, "the more I am
+desirous to recommend myself, the less I succeed. If it were possible
+for either of you ladies ever to see me indifferent about pleasing,
+then you would be astonished at my success. Did Dunbar never mention,
+that in the company of those I do not care for, I am quite another
+man?"
+
+"No!" replied Agnes, blushing and smiling. "Patrick is aware that we
+always judge of people's merits for ourselves."
+
+"What would I not give to hear that verdict pronounced! If you have
+tried me by a court-martial, you may at least let me know the
+sentence!"
+
+"It would do you good, De Crespigny, to hear those girls discussing
+your demerits! Your vanity requires lowering a peg or two!" said Sir
+Patrick, with a mischievous laugh. "You owe me countless thanks for
+putting in a word of defence now and then to protect you, for
+positively they are too bad. On the score of conceit and extravagance,
+I undertake to be your champion. Such faults are like the spots upon
+ermine, rather ornamental than otherwise; but if any one says you dress
+ill, I have not a syllable to say. Let me advise you, as a friend, to
+discard that tailor. He is atrocious. It would be the utmost stretch of
+my friendship to be seen with you anywhere to-day, except in some rural
+parts of the country; so now for our walk."
+
+"Dress as you may, Dunbar, you will never look like me!" replied
+Captain De Crespigny, as they lounged off together. "It was a problem
+of Euclid, which we settled at Eton long ago, and may demonstrate now,
+that A B C can never be equal to D E F. Good morning, ladies! _au
+revoir!_ we must fly. In your society I resemble the gentleman we used
+to read of in our school books, whose wings were melted because he
+ventured too near the sun."
+
+The more Marion saw of Captain De Crespigny, the more astonished she
+became at the multiplicity of his talents for conversation, and at his
+universal craving to be admired, while all the _petits soins_ which he
+lavished on herself, she, as a matter of course, set down to his
+extraordinary vanity, which could not allow the most insignificant of
+mortals to escape his fascinations; but to have supposed his attentions
+to be indications of love, she would have considered as absurd a
+blunder as to mistake an oyster-shell for an oyster.
+
+Captain De Crespigny sketched caricatures with inimitable humor, sung
+with taste, and with every appearance of feeling, and his versatility
+of powers in talking were almost incredible. He discussed science
+occasionally with any blue-stocking, like a philosopher--looked dismal
+upon politics with members of Parliament--talked agriculture and fat
+cattle with country gentlemen--could describe the state of New Zealand,
+as if he had visited the country, to old ladies, with large families of
+enterprising sons. He was musical with the musical, sentimental with
+the sentimental, and apparently at home equally in poetry or
+metaphysics. With a smile for one, a sigh for another, and a jest for a
+third, his small-talk for young ladies might be minced into the
+smallest grains of sense or nonsense; while at the same time he could
+even get up a very plausible religious conversation, on the most
+approved model, when in company with any one like Marion, to whom he
+thought it might render him more acceptable. The true secret of Captain
+De Crespigny's almost universal popularity, lay in his appearing so
+flatteringly interested by whatever occupied the attention of others;
+and whether it were the last snowstorm, or a newly discovered star in
+the firmament--an old pedigree or a new bonnet, he seemed equally ready
+to follow the lead of any young lady, being sufficiently delighted in
+his own private mind, to imagine how every word he said, and every look
+he looked, would be afterwards treasured and remembered by those whom
+he had no particular intention of remembering himself.
+
+Marion observed narrowly and anxiously Captain De Crespigny's conduct
+to Agnes; but even her discernment, quickened by the most affectionate
+solicitude, could bring her to no conclusive decision respecting his
+intentions, though she could not but feel sanguine at one time, and
+justly indignant at another, according as the thermometer of her hopes
+and fears rose or fell; yet she strongly suspected that Captain De
+Crespigny was but indulging his own ambition--that he wished to be
+thought of and talked about--to become devotedly loved--to be necessary
+to the happiness of another--to constitute that happiness for a short
+time, and then to destroy it as a useless toy, which had amused him for
+an hour, and might be broken without remorse. "How different! oh! how
+very different from Richard Granville!" thought Marion, with a glowing
+smile. "To him the peace of no living mortal is insignificant; and when
+loved or trusted, who ever was so considerate, so totally unselfish, so
+free from vanity and caprice! No Christian can doubt that happiness and
+principle are one."
+
+The name of any individual more than commonly interesting is apt to
+occur often in conversation, _a propos_ to everything or nothing;
+and Captain De Crespigny's penetration very soon discovered, that
+the Granvilles were never heard of or mentioned by Marion with
+indifference; therefore being anxious to fathom her secret, and to
+ascertain the extent of her intimacy with them, he tried the experiment
+one day, by professing an enthusiastic admiration for the extraordinary
+eloquence of "Dick Granville!" in whom he appeared suddenly to have
+discovered a thousand new and unheard-of good qualities, while with
+humorous pertinacity he defended him from all the satirical cuts with
+which Sir Patrick tried to lower his importance in the eyes of Marion;
+but Captain De Crespigny, unconscious of the lead which he was expected
+to follow, rattled on in his accustomed way,
+
+"Granville always was one whom nothing could spoil! So different from
+young Meredith, who used one short month since to go about with a quiet
+country-curate look, but since he has become rather popular in the
+pulpit, he enters a room with his chin in the air, and all the
+self-confidence of a great lion. Weak heads are easily intoxicated."
+
+"And people here do all in their power to ruin those they most admire,
+by very overdone adulation," added Agnes. "It would be a very strong
+fortress of humility that could withstand all the absurd mobbing which
+Mr. Granville has to undergo."
+
+"As Lady Towercliffe said to me yesterday, in her usual slip-slop style
+of talking, 'Mr. Granville is so very eloquent, so benevolent, so
+learned, so pious, and has such a neat foot!'" continued Captain De
+Crespigny, laughing. "Really, Dunbar! if you and I quarrel with
+everybody better than ourselves, we shall find no one left to associate
+with! I have but one weak side on earth, Miss Marion Dunbar, and it is
+that of always standing up for the absent."
+
+"They very often require it; and whether in jest or earnest, I am glad
+you do," replied Marion, finding herself obliged to speak, while her
+look of agitated consciousness, occasioned a thrill of jealousy in the
+heart of Captain De Crespigny, which brought a sudden flush into his
+countenance; but he assumed a careless tone, to conceal his real
+feelings, and turned to Sir Patrick, saying, "_a propos_ of absence,
+the Granvilles are never here now! I remember the time when that pretty
+sister and my cousins were like the three graces, perfectly
+inseparable!"
+
+At these words, Sir Patrick colored to the very temples; and instantly
+afterwards becoming pale as marble, he stooped to pat his dog, and then
+impatiently whistled Dash, along with himself, out of the room first,
+and finally out of the house; while Marion's eye was turned towards
+Agnes, with a deep and searching look of enquiry and astonishment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+Nothing had ever surprised and annoyed Captain De Crespigny more than
+the unadmiring indifference with which, week after week, Marion
+received his visits. Her easy, good humored courtesy of manner was
+unpardonable! No peculiar consciousness became visible in her manner,
+when he addressed her; no accession of sensibility in her voice; no
+agitation in her smile; no increase of her natural timidity; no desire
+of captivation, nor the slightest coquetry in displaying her own
+fascinations.
+
+To be thus treated like a cousin or a brother was mortifying in the
+extreme, and appeared to him perfectly unaccountable, because he little
+guessed the contrast which incessantly presented itself to Marion's
+mind, between the low, every-day tone of his thoughts, on all the
+essential objects of existence, and the elevated sentiments or generous
+feelings, to which she had lately become accustomed in the society of
+Mr. Granville. Captain De Crespigny's conversation always diverted her
+on account of its eccentricity; but in the selfishness and vanity he
+inadvertently betrayed, she saw how little he could know the real
+nature and value of that happiness springing from principle and
+affection, which alone could satisfy her heart.
+
+Formerly, Captain De Crespigny would have gloried in surmounting
+difficulties, if he had ever found any difficulties to conquer; and now
+he was determined not to become discouraged, though he felt, if such a
+thing could be possible, almost humbled. His eye followed Marion
+wherever she turned, and he was now for ever by her side, though she
+evidently made it her continual business to avoid him, as she had
+latterly become more aware than before of his assiduity.
+
+Fortified by the consciousness of her own secret engagement, and by the
+knowledge that Agnes had a well-founded belief in his attachment to
+herself, Marion's countenance, which told every transient emotion of
+her heart, never betrayed a thought of love; and it seemed to Captain
+De Crespigny as if her heart must be of granite, so cold and hard
+beneath a smiling stream. She was long of even suspecting the worst,
+and would not fully believe when she did, that his volatile fancy had
+really changed; yet a spell seemed over her, that she could not escape
+from Captain De Crespigny's society, without giving offence to Sir
+Patrick and Agnes, who both, for different reasons, insisted on her
+being present when he called, though, unlike her sister, who would have
+sacrificed every one to herself, she would have sacrificed herself for
+every one, and only thought with considerate affection, how she could
+best spare the feelings of Agnes, and at the same time escape from
+occasioning any jealousy, the fear of which now haunted her like a
+perpetual night-mare.
+
+One morning, when Agnes was seated in a state of exceedingly full-blown
+satisfaction, expecting Captain De Crespigny's usual visit, and
+considering him as much her own property as either her reticule or her
+work-box, she observed Marion, who had occupations for every hour of
+the day, hastily gather up her drawing materials, and glide towards the
+door, evidently anxious to escape without observation, but in vain.
+
+The barometer of Agnes's countenance had become exceedingly stormy,
+while watching Marion's progress; and being one who rather enjoyed the
+excitement of a quarrel than otherwise, she asked Marion in a voice
+raised an octave higher than usual, which sounded as sharp and cutting
+as an east wind, where she was about to go, adding, in her most
+sarcastic tone,
+
+"Pray inform me, Marion, why I am to be left in solitude here, when
+everybody knows that in a place like this I cannot possibly receive
+visitors alone. One would suppose that you wished to prevent me from
+seeing Captain De Crespigny this morning."
+
+"By no means, Agnes. But is there any occasion for me to remain, when
+Patrick of course accompanies him here as usual?"
+
+"Nonsense, Marion. You know perfectly well that Patrick may or may not
+be here, for that all depends on whims like your own, and nothing
+renders it correct to receive gentlemen in the morning, except there
+being two of us at home. I expected more friendship and consideration
+from you; but people never will think of any one but themselves!"
+
+"You are like a Hebrew scholar, and always read me backwards, Agnes. I
+have only to know your wishes in order to comply with them," replied
+Marion, good-humoredly re-seating herself, and adding, with a beautiful
+timidity of manner and voice, "I cannot but think that, until you are
+actually engaged, it would perhaps be better if--if--Captain De
+Crespigny's attentions were not to--to be at all divided."
+
+"Divided!" exclaimed Agnes, looking perfectly sublime in her anger.
+"What can you mean?"
+
+"Excuse me, Agnes," replied Marion, trying to steady her voice, and to
+hide her confusion. "I mean that Captain De Crespigny has the
+reputation of being a confirmed flirt; that I hope and trust, if it be
+really for your happiness, he is, as you think, irretrievably attached
+and engaged to yourself; but if a housemaid enter the room, he cannot
+resist attempting to look handsome, and to attract her admiration;
+therefore you cannot but suppose he will endeavor to waste some of his
+fascinations occasionally upon me, and till he is my brother, I would
+rather avoid any such absurdity."
+
+"Your meaning is plain enough now, and requires no interpreter!" said
+Agnes, with an angry toss of her head. "Every one must see and know,
+that Captain De Crespigny is exclusively and entirely devoted to me."
+
+"That is a point, Agnes, of which no third person can be an adequate
+judge," replied Marion, evasively; "but I am as anxious to believe it
+as yourself."
+
+"If you entertain any fear of causing me a disappointment, make your
+own mind perfectly easy, as mine is. If Captain De Crespigny could
+hesitate a moment between us, I should scarcely think him worth living
+for, and still less worth dying for. Be assured I shall never endure a
+moment's uneasiness on your account. Here he comes, regular as the
+rising sun, and quite as welcome."
+
+After all the lively badinage of Captain De Crespigny's first reception
+was over, Marion quietly retreated into the deep embrasure of a window,
+where her work-table stood, and busied herself with answering some
+notes, while almost entirely shaded from observation; yet still Captain
+De Crespigny's eye incessantly wandered to the place where she sat,
+for there was something unintentionally _piquante_ in the total
+indifference with which she thus secluded herself from his attentions
+and civilities. Observing, at length, that Marion had begun carefully
+pruning the dead leaves from a bouquet of rather drooping flowers,
+which seemed still vainly affecting to look fresh and gay, he broke off
+in the middle of a sentence from Agnes, and clandestinely approaching
+the table when Marion was looking in another direction, he stole them
+all away, and substituted one so fresh and fragrant that Marion uttered
+an exclamation of rapturous admiration. She neither blushed nor looked
+down, however; but as if it were no more than an every day civility,
+held it up to Agnes for admiration, and endeavored to attract her
+towards the table by the perfume of her beautiful flowers.
+
+"Nothing withered or blighted should ever be here," said Captain De
+Crespigny, in his most sentimental tone. "I should like, in one
+respect, to resemble flowers, which give nothing but pleasure to all
+who see them. Are you writing prose, or is this Poet's Corner? If I had
+the pen of Moore, I could find one subject for my muse more beautiful
+than any he ever wrote upon, and feelings more deep than he ever
+expressed! My eyes have ached for the last half hour with trying to see
+you; and half my eye-strings are cracked with looking from so great a
+distance."
+
+Marion was now seriously annoyed, and a glow of indignant vexation
+mantled upon her cheek; but Captain De Crespigny, mistaking her blushes
+and silence, began to flatter himself that the fortress was not so
+impregnable as he had feared. A scrap of paper lay on the table, which
+Marion had carelessly flung aside, after trying a pen, by writing down
+several times her own Christian name, and Captain De Crespigny having
+picked it up, laughingly added to it the name of De Crespigny.
+
+"How does this look?" asked he, showing her the signature of "Marion De
+Crespigny," while a gleam of light shot through his dark eye-lashes.
+"This is a valuable autograph, which I shall certainly preserve. The
+signature is not yet a common one, but I hope it may become so, as no
+other looks half so well to my eye--or to my heart."
+
+"There may be another that I should very much prefer," replied Marion,
+decidedly, while the bright carnation mounted to her cheek, and she
+turned her large eyes towards Agnes, who stood at some distance placid
+and secure, in the certain belief that her own supremacy was
+established, and that the conversation probably related to herself.
+"Give me back that paper, Captain De Crespigny, for it contains a
+mischievous forgery--a name that can never exist upon the earth."
+
+"But it may in fairy-land, and it shall!" replied he, with undaunted
+pertinacity. "The fates are perpetually weaving people together, and
+may do something for me! When we are unwillingly separated for a short
+period, sometime hereafter, I shall every day see this name appended to
+the most interesting accounts of your garden, your lap-dog, and----"
+
+"And my sister!" added Marion, coldly. "She is always the first object
+of interest to me. Agnes! do come here and admire the last few stitches
+I have added to this bible-cover."
+
+"How well it will look at Beaujolie Park!" muttered De Crespigny,
+almost inaudibly, in that low musical voice which had been
+irresistible, and with a significance of manner which Marion seemed not
+to remark. "I hope one day to see it there."
+
+"I intend it as a present to Agnes," replied Marion, dryly.--"That and
+the prayer-book are both for her dressing-table."
+
+Captain De Crespigny, assuming a look of respectful despondency,
+examined the volumes during several minutes in silence; but having
+accidentally opened the service of matrimony, he smilingly pointed it
+out to Marion, saying, "he hoped this might be considered a good omen,"
+and doubling down the page, he placed the prayer-book opposite to her,
+saying, "Let me request you will study that till we meet again, as I
+wish to ask your opinion of it."
+
+Before Marion had time to reply, or to hurry away, as she had been for
+some time projecting, Agnes advanced with an air of exceedingly forced
+vivacity, while there was a perceptible flutter of anger in her tone,
+and Marion felt as much confused as if she had been guilty of a real
+indiscretion, when she saw that her sister's face had become as white
+as the wall, her eyes glassy, and her manner unusually excited, though
+she tried to assume a careless tone, saying:
+
+"What is all the world talking about here? Captain De Crespigny, you
+must have learned the whole mysteries of worsted work by this time!"
+
+"I was merely showing your sister that most interesting of all
+compositions, the marriage service," replied Captain De Crespigny,
+throwing as much meaning into his voice as it could carry, "and
+mentioning that the fashionable blacksmith for these occasions now is
+my cousin, the Dean of Chester."
+
+Agnes looked down with an interesting blush, and Marion looked up with
+a start of astonishment, at the hardened intrepidity of manner in which
+Captain De Crespigny carried on his double game, adapting his tone
+equally to suit either or both of his companions; and it was with a
+sensation of extreme relief that she saw him at last rise to take
+leave, looking most charmingly distressed; but he had glanced at his
+watch, "never being able to measure time at St. John's Lodge," and an
+unlucky engagement obliged him to depart.
+
+"All engagements are unlucky," observed Agnes, impatiently. "I never
+made one yet, without afterwards finding it a tyrannical restraint."
+
+"There is only one engagement I ever wish to make," replied Captain De
+Crespigny, in a sentimental voice, but carefully looking at nobody. "I
+hope soon to make an engagement for life!"
+
+"What is all this!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, entering the room. "Can De
+Crespigny not be persuaded into remaining with you two or three hours
+longer, girls?"
+
+"We have not yet tried the experiment," replied Marion, seeing Agnes
+unwilling to speak. "I intend to be busy this morning reading your
+favorite character in Shakespeare, Malvolio. He had the very common
+fault of over-estimating himself."
+
+"To some people that is impracticable!" replied Captain De Crespigny,
+with a self-satisfied smile. "The world really spoils me for one."
+
+"Perhaps," observed Sir Patrick, "you flatter yourself, and that is the
+most dangerous of all flattery."
+
+"Not to me! I only wish it were possible for me to think as much of
+myself as every body else does."
+
+"I hear old Doncaster is likely to make a die of it soon; therefore
+wait till you are established at Beaujolie Park, and then you shall see
+how much we all think of you!" replied Sir Patrick, laughing. "I hope
+you mean to be the most hospitable Marquis in the whole peerage of
+England?"
+
+"Most undoubtedly! Hospitality is my weakness, if I have any! Dunbar,
+my very dear friend, I make a point of your coming to dine with me once
+a-year at Beaujolie Park! I am sorry it will not be in my power to
+offer you a bed; but the Highflyer passes my door at nine every
+evening. I wish for a very long visit from you! We are old friends, my
+good fellow! so I must really stretch a point! I am quite serious!
+therefore come by the early mail for breakfast, and take the evening
+one for your departure! I always was, and always shall be the most
+hospitable man upon earth! Have you half a moment to spare to-morrow? I
+want you to help me in my bargain for a bay horse with Duncombe of
+ours. He has the prettiest sister in the world, if that will be any
+inducement to come. I wish he would throw her into the bargain! Good
+morning! I could not stay a minute longer to save all your lives!"
+
+"How I do sometimes hate Captain De Crespigny!" exclaimed Agnes, with
+angry vehemence, after he had made a very conceited exit from her
+presence, accompanied by Sir Patrick, while she watched him from the
+window, as he sprang upon his horse, and galloped out of sight. "I know
+he is perfectly devoted to me! I cannot allow myself to doubt it! My
+whole happiness in life is cast on that die, and must not be lost! No!"
+continued she, speaking to Marion in a tone of unwonted perplexity, "it
+would indeed be a disgraceful triumph, to awaken in my heart affections
+which, if they must die, I shall die with them. My hopes and feelings
+appear all frozen into icicles this morning; yet I can scarcely tell
+why! A sensation of utter discouragement torments me! What is man, and
+what is woman that trusts him? If all my happiness is now torn up by
+the roots, I shall never again incur the grief of forming any earthly
+plan! I shall continue for life a bankrupt in hope and peace! Do not
+speak to me, Marion! Do not look as if you believed the worst! I will
+not hear it! I know you wish to say and do all that is kind; but I
+detest sympathy! I abhor being pitied! and I will not be advised."
+
+Even after she had retired to the gloomy solitude of her lonely room,
+Agnes buried her face in her hands, as if she would hide herself from
+the whole world, and struggled to banish thought; yet the suspicion
+would force itself into her mind, that Captain De Crespigny intended to
+treat her as she had seen him treat others; and though formerly she had
+often laughed at the credulity of those girls who believed half the
+rubbish he talked to them, now she repeated to herself all his
+professions of admiration, his looks, smiles, innuendoes, implied
+flattery, and openly expressed interest, till her cheek regained its
+bloom, her eyes their brightness, and she looked into her mirror with
+perfectly restored self-complacency, and with renovated confidence in
+the truth, honor, and sincerity of Captain De Crespigny.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+One of the best receipts for happiness in this world is, to make the
+utmost of small pleasures, and the very least of small vexations, which
+was the plan on which Marion invariably lived; and it often seemed as
+if all the duties of affection and friendship were written with a
+sunbeam on her mind. She now resolved, with characteristic kindness and
+good sense, that as her presence at St. John's Lodge could do no good
+to her sister, it should at least do no harm; therefore she determined
+if possible to obtain leave of absence for a few weeks from home, and
+to explain in writing to Agnes, her own opinion of Captain De
+Crespigny's conduct, and the reasons on which it was grounded; being
+convinced that in all the important affairs of life, perfect frankness
+between friends is, however painful, an imperative duty, and that no
+one, on any occasion where he has to act or to feel, should be left in
+the dark as to his own actual position.
+
+With a somewhat tremulous voice, and heightened color, Marion proceeded
+next morning into her brother's private sitting-room, where, surrounded
+by a perfect armory of rifles, double-barrelled guns and pistols, she
+found him selecting his weapons for a pigeon-match to "come off" that
+day, between himself and Captain De Crespigny, of whose arrival he was
+in momentary expectation; and he seemed by no means inclined at first
+to lend her much of his notice.
+
+"I came to mention, Patrick, that if you have no objection, it is my
+wish to spend a fortnight now, with uncle Arthur," said Marion. "We
+have met very seldom of late, and Henry De Lancey is going off soon to
+join the army. Did you hear that a commission in the same corps as
+Captain De Crespigny, has been sent to him lately by his unknown
+friends. The regiment is going soon, I am told, to Canada, but he is to
+join the depot for some months at Portsmouth."
+
+"Well! but what does all this matter to you! I shall not give my
+consent if you ask me till midnight!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, peevishly;
+for he felt by no means disposed that his house should lose the
+attraction of Marion's resplendent beauty. "If Sir Arthur in his
+dotage, chooses to make himself ridiculous about this anonymous youth,
+is that any reason why the whole family should go wild about him?
+Besides, Marion, you confessed long ago, that Mr. Granville visits at
+our uncle's; and I am determined that you shall learn to know your own
+value better than to take him! What has he to offer you but that
+trumpery little cottage, like a Tunbridge-ware work-box, a kitchen
+garden stocked with cabbages, or gooseberry bushes, and to live upon
+brown bread and water. But I begin to suspect, Marion, that you are one
+of the very few people in this world who like their own way; therefore
+it is my duty to keep you here out of danger."
+
+"I wish to escape a danger, rather than to encounter one," replied
+Marion, with an ingenuous blush. "You know, Patrick, that I consider
+Agnes almost engaged to Captain De Crespigny. It would be a very great
+disappointment to me, and I think to yourself, if, after all that has
+passed, he become merely general in his attentions--showing no
+preference to one of us more than for another. You always wish me to be
+in the room when he calls,--and--and----"
+
+"Oh! I understand!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, fixing his hawk's eyes on
+Marion, and trying to conceal a smile beneath a look of stern
+interrogation. "Agnes is jealous!"
+
+"No! not in the very least! I trust she has no reason--that she never
+can have any. It seems like vanity in me to mention the subject even to
+my own brother in confidence, but I will be perfectly honest. You know,
+Patrick, I saw no society at school. I am not at all aware what is
+customary; but your friend often says things to me that I am sure he
+would not like Agnes to hear."
+
+"You are young and green in this old world, Marion, if you fancy that
+Agnes is ever to catch such a will-o'-the-wisp as De Crespigny. _Il
+s'aime, et n'a point de rival._ He plays with hearts as if they were
+shuttlecocks; and indeed some hearts are little better. It is an absurd
+affair of vanity on both sides, and the sooner the thing goes off the
+better. I know you are a perfect coward in giving pain, and that Agnes
+considers herself sole proprietor of De Crespigny's attentions; but who
+made her so? That bubble will burst ere long; and if he is inclined to
+try a little harmless flirtation with you, what occasion is there to go
+off in a tangent about that, I should like to know! I must insist,
+Marion, on your doing all that is possible to make this dull,
+out-of-the-way house of mine, agreeable to my friends, for it is
+impracticable to exist here without society, which is the best weapon
+to kill time with. I shall take it as a mark of your sisterly kindness,
+to receive De Crespigny as all other young ladies receive him
+everywhere. If he only opened his mouth wide enough, I know at least a
+dozen girls who would jump down his throat, and '_il faut jouer le jeu,
+selon les regles de la societe dans laquelle vous etes force de
+vivre_.' My deepest resentment shall rest on either Agnes or you,
+Marion, if my most intimate companion be banished from our society,
+either by the one liking him too much, or the other too little."
+
+"But, Patrick! if you think Agnes lays too much stress on Captain De
+Crespigny's very marked attentions, and lover-like language, why do you
+not warn her against becoming really attached to him?"
+
+"Pshaw! nonsense! She will come to her senses soon, if she has any
+senses to come to. Agnes' hopes are all certainties; and she expects by
+shutting her own eyes, that everybody else shall become blind; but she
+or any one might see with half an eye, that De Crespigny cares no more
+for her than the poker does for the tongs. Agnes has been given to
+expecting impossibilities from childhood, when she used to be angry at
+her wax doll for not answering her when spoken to. If she did not
+flatter herself so egregiously, the flattery of De Crespigny would do
+her no harm. His love affairs flame up and go out again like a
+lucifer-match box."
+
+"Yet, Patrick," replied Marion, trying to steady her voice, and to look
+excessively firm, "I must make a point of going for one week to uncle
+Arthur. If Agnes is to be disappointed, let me not have any part of the
+blame, either from her, or from myself."
+
+"My good Marion! what trash you talk! It puts my mustachios out of curl
+to hear you! Agnes is no more engaged to De Crespigny than I am to Mrs.
+Penfold! There is no necessity on that score for your becoming a
+porcupine, and setting up your quills at my friend. _Il n'a fait, que
+remplir son role de jeune homme._ Agnes thinks every partner at a ball
+would gladly become a partner for life, and if any one of them were to
+mention the ring of Saturn, she would consider it a proposal; but her
+lovers all drop off like nine pins at last. Many a time she has seen
+the 'decline and fall' of her empire already, and it will be the same
+thing now in De Crespigny's case. 'Old birds are not caught with
+chaff.'"
+
+"You mean that the chaff is Captain De Crespigny, of course," replied
+Marion, with reproachful gravity. "But the subject might have been
+illustrated with a more graceful allusion to Agnes' lovers."
+
+"As for Agnes' lovers, no one can tell who they are; yet depend upon
+it, De Crespigny is not in the number. As usual, she is always flirting
+with the wrong man! Agnes has about as much chance of him as the man in
+the moon!" continued Sir Patrick, with increasing vehemence. "She might
+as well attempt to overtake last year! Open the door of your
+understanding, Marion, and listen to me: De Crespigny will no more
+propose to her than you will to the Archbishop of Canterbury! Anybody
+may see he is merely amusing himself!"
+
+"Then he deserves to be hanged!" replied Marion, indignantly. "Surely,
+Patrick, you should not have allowed this to continue so long, and to
+go so far, under your own eyes, unless you really believed that Captain
+De Crespigny was as much attached to Agnes as she is certainly to him."
+
+"Or at least to his future title and estates! My dear friend, one would
+suppose you had swallowed a whole circulating library this morning! Are
+you a believer in broken hearts? My good Marion, they were exploded
+long ago, like ghosts and witchcraft! Nobody now dies of love except on
+the stage. You do not actually suppose Agnes will expire with the
+disappointment! She knows better. Why, Marion, you must expect to go
+through half-a-dozen such affairs before you get safe into the harbor
+of matrimony."
+
+"I hope not! My heart would not stand quite so much breakage," replied
+Marion, coloring and laughing, while she added, in a lower tone,
+"besides which it is already in very safe keeping. I have given it
+away, you know, Patrick, once for all."
+
+"Pshaw! Marion, none of your sentimental vagaries! Your attachment is,
+of course, to be a _chef d'oeuvre d'amour_; but nothing lasts for ever
+now. If there were no disappointments in such a love-in-a-cottage
+affair as yours, what would become of poets and novel readers! Agnes
+understands the game of life better than you do. In her estimation, it
+is like a rubber at whist, where hearts are trumps, and the prize a
+good establishment in common with the first partner who offers. De
+Crespigny knows all this, and cannot be expected to place any great
+value on a second-hand heart, much the worse for wear. The intimacy
+between them has chiefly arisen from our relationship, he being her
+cousin only once removed."
+
+"I wish he were removed altogether. Captain De Crespigny ought to
+suffer all the bitterness of disappointment himself, when his
+insatiable vanity inflicts it so heartlessly on others."
+
+"Suppose you take that method of revenging Agnes," replied Sir Patrick,
+with a penetrating look. "He is the best catch going, and very civil to
+you. De Crespigny's attentions are an honor to any one, and would be
+quite a feather in your cap."
+
+"So he seems to think; but I have no desire for such feathers. I make
+it a rule," said Marion, archly, "never to refuse any gentleman till he
+has proposed; but the honor of making him miserable for life never can
+be mine, though he so well deserves it. I suppose, being a Roman
+Catholic, he has bought an indulgence for deceit, or I should rather
+say falsehood."
+
+"What old-fashioned bread-and-butter ideas you have, Marion! Everybody
+has been ill-used by somebody, and nobody minds it now. Agnes will
+continue incurably heart-broken, til some new lover pays his devoirs,
+and then you will understand her better, Marion. _On garde long temps
+son premier amant quand on n'en pas un second._"
+
+"I judge of her by myself; and if once so cruelly deceived as she is,
+Patrick, my heart could never venture on any second attachment--never!
+Once awakened from such a dream, I neither could nor would attempt to
+dream it over again. My ideas of mutual attachment are not borrowed
+from novels or poems, because I never had time to read one at Mrs.
+Penfold's, but from conceiving what it might be to have a companion for
+life, from whom no thought should be concealed, and all my happiness
+derived. Who could ever place such trust in Captain De Crespigny, if he
+has really, as I may say, swindled Agnes out of her time, thoughts, and
+affections, without intending amply to repay them with his own? I am
+rapidly disliking him, Patrick; and the longer we talk, the more
+anxious I become for your leave to be out of his way entirely. Depend
+upon it, I shall be excessively rude to your friend the next time we
+meet. So, pray, let me go to-morrow."
+
+Hearing a slight noise, Marion looked round, and she would have felt it
+rather a relief at the moment if the floor could have opened under her
+feet, when, with a gasp of consternation, she beheld Captain De
+Crespigny standing in an attitude of perplexity and irresolution near
+the door, evidently, for once in his life, feeling almost awkward, and
+very nearly abashed, though a moment afterwards he regained his usual
+matchless intrepidity of countenance and manner; when Sir Patrick
+advanced, with extended hand, to welcome him, saying,
+
+"Ah! De Crespigny! is that you?"
+
+"The same and no other," replied he, bending his riding-whip till it
+nearly broke; but assuming an Irish accent to conceal his annoyance.
+"The top of the morning to you both. How is every inch of you?"
+
+"Very tolerable, indeed! It always does me good to be astonished, and
+certainly your apparition came rather unexpectedly. It made my
+mustachios perfectly stand upon end; and Marion will not require a
+stroke of electricity for some time after this! She seems rapidly
+petrifying into stone!"
+
+"Miss Marion Dunbar! if my presence be unwelcome, I wish it were
+possible to dissolve away in the likeness of a sigh!" said he, with a
+comic smile. "Shall I invite myself to sit down, or will any one else
+do so?"
+
+"If you are so exceedingly ceremonious, perhaps Marion ought to reach
+you a chair," replied Sir Patrick, while his face became perfectly
+crimsoned with trying to suppress a burst of laughter, when he observed
+the graceful timidity of Marion's manner, contrasted with the easy
+assurance of Captain De Crespigny's, who looked at her with undisguised
+admiration. "I had been inwardly betting with myself for the last half
+hour that you would drop in exactly as you did. Here is an undeniably
+fine day, so that ends all discussion of the weather, and now for our
+pigeon-match."
+
+"Any match you please in this house. I have been sitting for the last
+ten minutes tuning your sister's guitar, and she sent me here for the
+strings. How much her dog Darling has improved in the tone and
+expression of his barking."
+
+"Agnes is perfectly dog mad since you gave her that pert ill-tempered
+little animal. As Lord Byron said, 'nobody need want a friend who can
+get a dog.' She wears a lock of his hair set in gold--has got a supply
+of sheets and towels for him, marked with his name--helps him before
+any of us at dinner--teaches him to bark Toryism--and says dogs have
+all the good qualities of mankind, with none of the evil. I wish those
+who preach sermons against cruelty to animals, would also say a little
+against over-indulging them, especially in the case of lap-dogs."
+
+"It is an amiable weakness," observed Captain De Crespigny, in a tone
+that sounded very like contempt. "I suppose your sister would scarcely
+be outdone by Queen Henrietta Maria, who rushed through a shower of
+bullets to save her favorite lap-dog. I envy the whole canine race.
+They have, like ourselves, fox-hunting and grouse-shooting for
+amusement; and moreover, they are such favorites with the ladies!
+Horses are slaves and drudges from youth to age, bearing a yoke from
+which nothing can deliver them except death; but dogs generally meet
+with some return for their attachment, and are always believed to be
+sincere in what they profess. What do you say, Miss Marion Dunbar? Have
+I not reason to envy your estimation of Darling?"
+
+Marion colored to the very temples, embarrassed by the consciousness
+of all that Captain De Crespigny had evidently overheard, and after
+saying a few inaudible words, she would have hastened out of the room;
+but on looking round, Sir Patrick, who privately thought that on the
+present occasion there might be one too many, had strolled off to the
+drawing-room, and as Captain De Crespigny continued speaking, she could
+not, without actual rudeness, withdraw. A blush is one of the most
+beautiful phenomena in nature, and so thought Captain De Crespigny,
+when he perceived Marion's color flitting like an aurora borealis,
+while for a moment she remained completely abashed, and then, with a
+look of apprehensive timidity, re-seated herself.
+
+"Excuse me, Miss Dunbar!" said he, in a tone of unwonted gravity and
+respect, while his usual self-confident audacity seemed entirely to
+have forsaken him. "I became inadvertently a listener to-day, when my
+name was mentioned by you in terms of which I must entreat an
+explanation. You will think me perhaps rather too much of the
+free-and-easy school, if I take this liberty; but the value I place
+upon your good opinion and cousinly regard is such, that I shall
+neither eat nor sleep till you have enlightened me respecting the
+offences for which I am to be thus condemned unheard."
+
+"Pray forget all that was said! I am unaccustomed to--to conceal my
+thoughts!" replied Marion, trying to look particularly firm; but seeing
+that Captain De Crespigny still waited with an obvious resolution to
+obtain something more explicit, she felt herself urged on to say what,
+under ordinary circumstances, she would have sunk into the earth rather
+than utter; therefore assuming a certain haughty dignity of manner
+quite unusual with her, she added, "If I did not almost consider you a
+brother, I should not remain in the room now; but I do most sincerely
+regret that your name occurred in our conversation at all, and
+particularly in a way for which I ought to apologise."
+
+"As for my name, Miss Dunbar!" replied Captain De Crespigny, in a
+rallying tone, "make any use of it you please. Take it yourself, or
+give it to your dog, and I shall feel honored; but pardon me for being
+desirous that you, more than any other person in the world, should
+understand how perfectly unfounded is the idea of my being engaged
+to--to any lady."
+
+"From all that has passed, Captain De Crespigny, and from what I have
+myself heard you say, I could scarcely have believed it possible that
+there could be any mistake," replied Marion, indignantly. "I shall
+never pardon myself for having betrayed such unfounded expectations;
+but let it be understood, that I spoke only my own thoughts, in which
+no other person is implicated."
+
+"And the misapprehension was most natural--perhaps unavoidable, Miss
+Dunbar, considering how little you are yet accustomed to the
+_persiflage_ of every-day society," replied Captain De Crespigny,
+looking perfectly irresistible. "But allow me the privilege of a
+cousin, to give you some little knowledge of the world as it is."
+
+"You have done that already," replied Marion, coldly; "and I mean to be
+as long as possible of learning more. It certainly does not improve
+upon acquaintance."
+
+"We have all much to complain of, undoubtedly! If the gossiping world
+here had its own way, I should be married to as rapid a succession of
+young ladies as the Sultan in the Arabian Nights. Reports grow here
+like hops. Old women round a tea table make up their budget of scandal,
+without giving due allowance to the altered customs of society, and my
+name is for ever going about the world like a cricket-ball. Every
+gentleman asks his partners to dance now, as nearly as possible in a
+tone as if he were engaging a partner for life, and says all that words
+can express, without attaching any permanent meaning to it, provided he
+has never asked that one conclusive question, which I have never yet
+ventured to put, though most anxious soon to do so, if I had the
+slightest encouragement from one whom, above all others, I
+admire,--Madam, will you marry me?"
+
+Captain De Crespigny said these last words very much as if he meant
+them now to be serious, and fixed his eyes--eyes accustomed to do
+wonders--on Marion, who felt the color rushing painfully into her
+cheek; but angry at herself for blushing, she turned away in silence,
+while he added more energetically than before,
+
+"I would not, for all the worlds upon earth, lose one iota of your good
+opinion. That really is precious to me. Allow me, irritated as you
+evidently are, in some degree to justify myself respecting my cousin
+Agnes. Strike, but hear me. She knows the world, having already smiled
+on hundreds of admirers, and blushed for dozens; therefore I am but one
+in a crowd, who, like the kings in Macbeth, 'come like shadows and so
+depart,' being scarcely missed in the rapid succession which follows;
+and, to use a vulgar proverb, 'there are some ladies with whom one
+shoulder of mutton very soon drives down another.'"
+
+Captain Be Crespigny paused; and had Marion been less agitated, and
+less anxious to terminate the interview, she could have smiled at this
+unusual fit of humility, which made him willing, for once, to suppose
+that his attentions could be insignificant; but seeing that she was now
+about to make a hasty exit from the room, he rapidly continued, with a
+slight relapse into his ordinary tone of conceit:
+
+"I am vain enough to think that I deserve to be preferred for something
+better than the mere accident of birth and fortune, with which the very
+meanest of mankind may be endowed; but there are ladies--observe I name
+nobody--who, if they were informed that a gentleman waited in the next
+room ready to marry them, with double my income, rank, and property,
+would ask no other question, but put on a veil, get up a fit of bridal
+hysterics, and proceed to chapel. Such intimacies as mine with your
+sister are like a tread-mill, always apparently getting on, but never
+advancing, while neither of us ever dream of going a step beyond it.
+Agnes is formed to be gazed at with wondering admiration--to make
+conquests, but not to keep them. I would no more think of being
+seriously in love with her, than with a piece of Dresden china in a
+shop window. She should be shut up in a glass case, to be admired and
+forgotten every day. It is not the mere symmetry of form or features
+that could permanently interest me," continued Captain De Crespigny,
+looking a million of things; but Marion's eyes were fixed on the door,
+while her whole countenance was in a glow of indignant vexation, and he
+continued to speak with increasing ardor. "There is beauty in an
+icicle, and beauty in a sunbeam; but how different. Can you wonder--can
+you blame me--that I see the disparity in mind as much as in appearance
+between yourself and your sister. She is like an amusing book,
+destitute of interest, to be taken up with pleasure, but laid aside
+without regret. She might beguile a weary hour; but you would prevent
+the possibility of any hour ever becoming so."
+
+"Captain De Crespigny, I know not what the _persiflage_ of society
+entitles you to say, and it would be well for the happiness of others
+if they understood your ideas upon that subject as well," replied
+Marion, with restored firmness--and never had she looked so tall. "You
+forget the confidence that subsists between sisters, and that I am
+aware you generally express very different feelings, which I must still
+hope, for your credit, are the real truth, otherwise nothing you can
+say shall ever convince me that Agnes is not extremely ill-treated. I
+only wonder very much that she cares for you at all. I have been
+betrayed into speaking on this subject--I shall regret having done so
+as long as I live--but I must be true to my sister now, in saying what
+I think of your conduct, that it has been most heartless and most
+unjustifiable. Let me request you never again to speak to me as you
+have done to-day."
+
+"No! not till the next opportunity. You should be angry often, Miss
+Dunbar, for it becomes you, and is the only thing that can bring you to
+the level of an ordinary mortal; therefore, let me detain you by the
+right of cousinship, if by no other, even against your wishes, one
+moment longer to propose terms of peace. I am going next week to do
+penance at Beaujolie Park with my very long-lived and not very much
+respected uncle, who insists on my escorting him to Harrowgate. He may,
+perhaps, be unreasonable enough to detain me two months, during which
+it would have amused me beyond measure could I act the invisible
+gentleman and observe your sister; but what I cannot do myself you may
+and must. If Agnes does not flirt in a young-lady-like manner with
+every man she meets, then I make you a very safe promise, that the rest
+of my life shall be devoted to her, and nothing you ever read in a
+romance shall exceed my devotion and constancy; but you must be honest,
+and if the day after my P.P.C. cards are left, you perceive her quite
+as happy to see Captain Digby, or Lord Wigton, or Sir Anybody Anything,
+as ever she was to see me, then I am to be honorably acquitted; and you
+will consider me entitled," added Captain De Crespigny, with one of his
+most expressive looks, "to seek for happiness where I could be sure of
+finding it, if only fortunate enough to be thought deserving; but,
+unless a preference be reciprocal, the expression of it is little
+believed or valued."
+
+"Captain De Crespigny," replied Marion, looking a thousand ways to
+avoid meeting his eye, "whoever you may hereafter prefer, I can wish no
+greater happiness to any one than I enjoy myself, being engaged to one
+in whom I can place the most perfect reliance. My brother has probably
+told you already, what I am always proud to acknowledge, that your old
+friend Mr. Granville, is attached to me, and we await only Patrick's
+consent to our marriage, having fortunately obtained my uncle's."
+
+The color mounted in brilliant hues to Marion's cheek when she spoke,
+for it was evidently a strong effort to do so at all, and her eyes were
+fixed on the ground, or she would have been astonished and shocked at
+the effect her words produced on Captain De Crespigny, who bit his lip
+till the blood nearly sprung out, while his face became for a moment
+pale as death; but, after fixing a long scrutinizing look on Marion's
+countenance, to read its expressions, he said, in a voice so altered
+from his usual tone of gay hilarity, that she could scarcely have
+recognised it:
+
+"Dunbar will never consent. Impossible! He knows your value better. It
+cannot be. A parson with nothing but his pulpit! I never dreamed of
+such a thing--never. A life of Sunday schools and clothing societies in
+that bauble of a cottage. Pshaw! No girl ever ends by marrying the
+first man she likes, and no more will you. I shall make you prefer me
+in a month."
+
+"Probably not, as I rather dislike you now," replied Marion,
+suppressing a smile.
+
+"That will wear off. It is best, as Mrs. Malaprop says, to begin with a
+little aversion. You will at last like me beyond any one in the world."
+
+"Extremes meet sometimes; but I must explain myself once for all now,
+Captain De Crespigny, that no one may ever be led into a mistake. My
+brother wishes us to be responsible for making this house, as far as we
+can, agreeable to his friends, but only as Patrick's friend can I ever
+now have pleasure in seeing you here, as, in another respect, I
+heartily disapprove of your conduct, and I will not appear for one
+moment to participate in the sort of farce you would carry on here with
+myself,--and with others. Let us be on terms of cousinly civility for
+the future, and never on more."
+
+"Well, then, I am satisfied to be received on your terms," replied
+Captain De Crespigny, with an exceedingly dissatisfied look. "Let me be
+welcomed on your brother's account, until I can make myself welcome on
+my own. As for constancy in this world, it is all very right and very
+desirable, but, as I hope one of your admirers may soon discover,
+
+    "Rien n'est plus commun que le nom,
+    Rien n'est plus rare que la chose."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+Captain De Crespigny remained in his sitting-room till a late hour the
+following night, looking over papers and preparing for his departure to
+Yorkshire, after which he seated himself before the dying embers of his
+fire to muse, for the twentieth time, on all that had passed between
+himself and Marion. More in love with her than he had ever believed it
+possible to be with any one, he recalled again and again to mind the
+thrilling tones of her voice, and the matchless loveliness of her
+countenance, till at length his attention being roused by the clock
+striking two, he looked at the candles burning dimly in their sockets,
+and prepared to wish himself good night.
+
+When about to rise, his attention was suddenly arrested by a rustling
+noise behind. The shadow of a figure became visible on the opposite
+wall; it was distinctly outlined, and began slowly to move, when,
+springing to his feet with an exclamation of astonishment, Captain De
+Crespigny's eye fell on the tall figure of a woman enveloped in dark
+draperies, who stood like a phantom close by his side, without speech
+or motion. While his eyes were riveted in silent consternation on this
+mysterious apparition, gradually the cloak was thrown aside, the veil
+dropped, and a countenance became disclosed so white and rigid, so
+soul-stricken in sorrow, so utterly without life or motion, that it
+seemed as if nothing on earth could have looked so supernaturally
+wretched. No moisture flouted over her large dilated eyes, which were
+glassy and fixed, her parted lips were livid as death, a mortal
+paleness was on her forehead and cheek, and not a sound became audible,
+for the grave itself was not more silent. With her emaciated hands
+riveted together, she stood the very image of woe; while nothing human
+appeared in her face but its expression of mortal anguish.
+
+Captain De Crespigny gazed at this mysterious apparition, unable to
+believe the evidence of his senses. A vital horror thrilled through his
+heart; his eyes closed as if he would willingly have closed his vision
+against a sight which blasted him; but at length, by a strong effort
+compelling himself to speak, he said, in a low, doubtful tone, "Mary
+Anstruther! Impossible! I was told long ago you were no more."
+
+A few quivering, inaudible murmurs, were for some moments her only
+reply, as if unable yet to command herself, till at length, in a tone
+so low, hollow, and concentrated, that it seemed scarcely human, but
+resembled a dreary echo from the tomb, she said, fixing a ghastly look
+on Captain De Crespigny,
+
+"No wonder you disown the wreck! I scarcely know myself in mind or
+body. Ages of misery have made me the creature I am! Not want, nor
+suffering, nor humiliation, though these are what you consigned me to,
+but the bitter agony of being despised and forgotten by yourself,--by
+you for whom I steeped my very soul in guilt! You start!--You would
+deny this; but when the Abbe Mordaunt, to gain possession of his
+niece's fortune, wished me to assist in getting her driven from the
+house, was it to serve him that I did so? Was it for his offered bribes
+that I lent my aid to that guilty work! Oh no! but her child stood in
+your way, and therefore I consented. You never knew what I had done for
+your sake; but was it not one of the many promises that you have
+broken, that sooner or later you would declare me--even me, the
+wretched Mary Anstruther, your wife. Madness and despair drove me on! I
+slandered her to Lord Doncaster--got her driven from his house--made my
+brother believe she had misrepresented me--that she had caused our
+disgrace and banishment--and you know the fearful end of all. I never,
+never thought of blood! Oh never! He was mad then! He has been mad ever
+since; and who can wonder! Her cry rings for ever in my ears, the
+sharpest on earth--a cry for life. It haunts me night and day! Go where
+I will, the shadow pursues me. A shapeless horror is on my mind! The
+fear of discovery follows me like a spectre! A whispering sound is in
+my ears, desolate and dreary thoughts, and fearful dreams, darkness,
+poverty, and solitude; my pillow is a pillow of fire; my brain is
+scorched,--wherever I turn, dead eyes are staring in their sockets at
+me. Oh! if rivers of tears could restore that murdered being, I might
+have peace!"
+
+The wretched creature's words poured out like the rushing of a mighty
+torrent, while her very reason seemed stretched to it utmost verge. She
+leaned against a table, which quivered beneath her trembling form,
+while her dragged and ghastly features were turned towards Captain De
+Crespigny, and she fixed on him, with a look of dismal meaning, the
+blackest eyes that ever vied with night. Vainly he endeavored to
+withdraw his gaze from that wild and haggard countenance, or to shut
+his ears against the tempest of her words; but there was a compression
+at his heart, till his very breath seemed difficult to draw, while he
+listened to her almost frenzied ravings. At length, in a voice of deep
+and solemn import, he addressed her, while the color fled from his very
+lips with agitation, and a cold shudder crept through his frame:
+
+"Tell me, Mary, I adjure you, what all this means! I have sometimes
+suspected that Henry De Lancey might be the natural son of my uncle;
+never till this moment did I fully imagine that the murdered woman was
+actually married. I must know all. Rather than remain in this suspense,
+I will ask Lord Doncaster himself. I am not a man who would inherit one
+acre unjustly, or sit tamely down under the suspicion that I might be
+swindling another out of his rights. Vague apprehensions have sometimes
+crossed my mind; but give me only a certainty one way or other. If
+beggary itself be the consequence, I shall act like a man of honor, and
+let the law take its course."
+
+"Ask nothing! suspect nothing! The dark and dreadful story is buried in
+her grave, never to be heard of more. It rests upon the Abbe Mordaunt's
+conscience, and on him be the curse! Look here!" cried she wildly
+throwing off her cap, while her hair, which streamed like a long banner
+behind, was perfectly white and silvery. "This was the work of a single
+day, and my heart is no less changed. The world itself has altered! Oh!
+who can tell the unimaginable wretchedness that surrounds me! You
+believed that I was dead! Would that it had been so! I wish it, and
+well may you!" A strange smile gleamed upon her features for a moment,
+and vanished. "When shall I become like the dust I tread on? When shall
+I find beneath the green turf a chamber of darkness, of silence, and
+perhaps of peace! Often, often do I ask myself why I consent to live,
+when there are a thousand ways of escaping to my only refuge,--death!
+It is a horrid thought, but it will come. There is no future in my
+life! Houseless, friendless, penniless, and without hope,--a fiery
+anguish is at my heart, as if hell itself were there!"
+
+"Mary Anstruther!" said Captain De Crespigny, in a hurried tone of
+great agitation, "I wronged you once. I acknowledge it with sorrow and
+remorse. We were young indeed then, and you had no cause, surely, to
+complain of my liberality. I offered you----"
+
+"Yes! yes! yes!" replied she, with frantic vehemence, while her eyes,
+glazed, and without moisture, were darkened by the shadow of deep
+despair. "You offered me everything but what you had promised, and what
+alone I would accept. You took from me every blessing of life, and
+offered me money! I hated you for supposing me mean enough to accept
+it. I would rather die in the street, or perish on a dung-hill, than
+receive your alms. My name branded with infamy, not a roof to cover me,
+and not a friend in all the earth to pity me; my brother now a terror
+and a reproach to all who know him; crazed myself in mind and heart,
+aloof from all earthly sympathy, branded and alone--what remains for
+me? Yet I would rather die in an hospital than owe the very air I
+breathe to you."
+
+"Why, then, do I see you here?" asked Captain De Crespigny, endeavoring
+to steady the tremulousness of his voice. "I would serve you yet, if
+possible. I cannot entirely forget former times!"
+
+"Former times!" exclaimed the miserable being, with a heavy sob, while
+a rush of agony poured itself out in her voice, and clasping her hands
+over her burning eyes, tears, such as she had not shed for ages, fell
+like rain over her face. "Who talks of former times! You! who made my
+whole life, past, present, and future, one long agony of suffering! Do
+you remind me of former times! Oh! bring them back--those days which
+now seem like a dream, when I was young, innocent, and happy! Who so
+gay then as I--whose step so joyous--whose eye so bright--who so
+admired; and," added she, her voice changing to a low, deep tone of
+anguish, "who so loved? It was the delirium of an hour, and what am I
+now? Of all the wretched outcasts on earth, the most wretched; while he
+who has made me so thinks it degradation to waste a thought upon one so
+lost."
+
+There was a pause for some moments, and she added, in a deep,
+sepulchral voice,
+
+"A wide gulph separates us now. I know and feel that. I do not even
+wish it otherwise. You are courted and admired in every house, while I
+wander like a solitary ghost upon the earth! A furnace of guilt and
+horror burns within me! No language is dark and dreadful enough to
+express what I endure. The fresh green turf, and the blue sky above, I
+dare not look upon; for they speak of days that are for ever past--of
+that short summer filled with hope and joy, which has been followed by
+this dreary, endless winter----"
+
+Captain De Crespigny's eye quailed beneath the look of chilling despair
+fastened upon himself. The hurricane of her feelings had been
+exhausted, but there was an unearthly fixedness in the eye of Mary
+Anstruther. In her voice, too, a cold, calm, almost spectral solemnity
+of tone had succeeded to the wild expression of her manner. Her
+expression was that of a lull after a storm, the ground-swell that
+follows the hushing of a tempest; and she again stood as at first, pale
+as death, still and motionless as a corpse, while the long drapery of
+her cloak hung as a winding-sheet around her wasted limbs.
+
+"If there be any thing on earth I can do for you, speak but the word,
+and it is done," said Captain De Crespigny, with undisguised emotion.
+"My purse, if you will yet accept it, is yours; but remember your very
+life is at stake in coming here. I have shut my eyes already too long!
+I cannot conceal from my own mind that the man who calls himself
+Howard, and lives with Sir Arthur Dunbar, must be your brother. He has
+hidden himself always from me, and I should scarcely even know him if
+we met, but this shall not last. Tell him he must go! Once,--and once
+only, I may for your sake connive at his escape from justice, but let
+Ernest cross my path again, and no earthly power shall induce me to
+neglect the sacred law that bids us deliver up the murderer to justice.
+You also at St. John's Lodge, would once have followed the example of
+your unhappy brother's crime. You escaped on that occasion, and I have
+tried to convince myself it could not be,--that you were already in
+another world,--but I will not, even for the sake of our early days, be
+made a participator in crime. Go, then, to some distant country
+together. The sword of the law is suspended over both your heads. Fly
+for your very lives. The means shall not be wanting,--and tell your
+guilty brother, as I tell you, that if he delays, cost what it
+may,--and I know the cost to me will be great indeed, justice shall
+have its course."
+
+"Let me then drink my cup of sorrow to the dregs!" replied Mary, in a
+low deep whisper. "He will not go! No earthly power can rule him,--no
+terror in life intimidates him. For myself; I dread nothing now but a
+prolonged existence. The sooner it is ended by any hand but my own, the
+better. Yours is indeed the fittest. That will only complete the work
+which you began. Give us up then to justice. In remembrance of those
+days when among the green lanes of England you promised to love me,--me
+only till death,--deliver us up now to the rope and to the scaffold.
+Yes!" added she, with a look of fevered anguish, and a frightful
+hysterical laugh, "This is as it should be; cheated of innocence,
+blighted in affection, blistered in heart, trodden down with contempt,
+driven almost to madness, and delivered up to death. Such be the fate
+of all who ever trust in man."
+
+"Leave me! leave me!" said Captain De Crespigny, visibly shuddering.
+"If you desire vengeance, the sight of you, Mary Anstruther, such as
+you are now, is more than I can bear. Leave me!"
+
+"Vengeance!--No!--It was for a good purpose I came, and let me not
+forget it," said Mary, in a low, broken, bewildered voice, while a
+gleam like sun-light on the stormy wave seemed for a moment to restore
+the softness and beauty of youth to her countenance. "I would save you
+from death. My wretched brother long ago suspected that you were the
+author of my ruin. That secret he never could wring from me, and he
+never shall. Oh, no! I ask no revenge on you. I am grieved, even once
+to have reproached you; but it is done, and my tongue shall be silent
+in the grave before you hear it again. Ernest swore an oath,--a deep,
+deep oath, that if you had indeed deceived me, nothing should screen
+you from his vengeance. Already he was irritated, believing you wished
+to marry Miss Howard, and on that subject you know how long he has been
+crazed. Ernest never forgives, and never forgets. He lives but for
+revenge. He would make you drink a cup bitter as his own. On that fatal
+night to which I never dare to look back, the knife he used was
+yours,--yes! it was stolen for the very purpose, and you know its
+peculiar form. He intended, if detected, to accuse you as an accessary
+to the murder. His plans are skillfully laid, and he threatens thus to
+hurl you from the eminence on which you now stand in society----"
+
+"Impossible! absurd! Nothing but derangement could make your brother
+imagine any mortal would believe a fabrication so atrocious and
+improbable!"
+
+"It will at least excite interest, and his plans are but too well laid.
+My story might then become public; and little as the world thinks in
+general of such sorrows as mine, there are some who would pity me.
+Ernest has the cunning of madness; and he thinks if you and Henry De
+Lancey were removed, he must succeed to Lord Doncaster. If I live, his
+strange and deadly scheme of revenge shall be circumvented; yet beware
+of Ernest! Your life is not safe for an hour! Night and day,--alone or
+in company, at your table or in your bed, wherever you turn, and
+wherever you go, beware; for none but myself can tell what his love or
+his hatred are. I would prevent mischief for his sake, and--and even
+for yours."
+
+A dark convulsion passed over the unhappy woman's countenance,--she
+gazed for several moments at Captain De Crespigny in silent, disastrous
+wretchedness, and with the livid smile of a broken heart, she
+disappeared.
+
+Captain De Crespigny scarcely slept that night,--the moaning of the
+wind sounded dismal as the cry of departed spirits in his ears, and
+when at last his eye closed in feverish, restless slumber, he suddenly
+started up, thinking his name had been called out with a shriek of
+anguish in accents to which he had long been a stranger, and unable to
+tell whether it had been a dream or a reality, he watched for some time
+in agitated silence, and towards morning fell into a deep repose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+When Captain De Crespigny called two days after this at St. John's
+Lodge, to take leave before setting out for Yorkshire, he looked so
+absent and so agitated, that Agnes became quite elated and flattered by
+what she attributed to his unconquerable regret at being obliged to
+take so long a leave of herself. She even forgave him for enquiring
+almost immediately what had become of Marion, and answered with
+careless vivacity, "She is gone to her favorite home at Portobello.
+Marion perfectly idolises her uncle. I should require to attend a
+series of lectures on naval tactics, and to take a course of nautical
+novels for a month, before I could get on with the Admiral as she does!
+My sister talks about the battles of Trafalgar and Camperdown, as if
+she had fought at them herself, but really somehow or other, I never
+can find a word for good, worthy sir Arthur!"
+
+"And yet," observed Sir Patrick, "you never seem very much at a loss
+for conversation, Agnes, when I have the pleasure of seeing you! It is
+years, countless years, since I have entered his house, or since he has
+entered mine; but suppose we go down together some day, and cut out
+Marion at once, by doing the agreeable in our very best and most
+fascinating style!"
+
+"If my uncle Doncaster were such a man, I should certainly make up to
+him greatly!" said Captain De Crespigny, in a tone more than commonly
+in earnest. "It would be well worth your while to try."
+
+"Sir Arthur has nothing to leave! you are quite mistaken there!"
+replied Agnes, inadvertently. "When we were perfect children, and all
+on the very best terms, he used to say that it would be quite enough
+for an old sailor like him, if he could bequeath us his watch and
+enough to bury him! As Pat says, he might make his will on his
+thumb-nail. Oh! rest assured he has nothing to leave!"
+
+"I did not suppose he had," continued Captain De Crespigny, gravely. "A
+small income in his liberal hand has done more good than the very
+largest in any other person's. It is an odd phenomenon in nature, that
+the lightest purse always is the most open to others, while the heavier
+a purse grows the more its mouth becomes contracted! A sort of
+spasmodic affection, I think!"
+
+"I wonder if it will ever be engraved on people's tomb-stones how much
+they die worth?" said Agnes. "That would be all the good many people
+can ever get by their wealth, and what they are much more proud of, in
+this mercenary world, than of any personal good qualities."
+
+"Young ladies are for ever working me purses, and I have nothing to put
+in them!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, throwing his own up in the air, and
+catching it again. "Sir Arthur and I are both fighting under the banner
+of poverty now; and that one word expresses in a small compass all
+earthly annoyance."
+
+"Oh, no! There are many things worse!" exclaimed Agnes magnanimously.
+"What a vulgar, low, mercenary idea! so like you, Patrick!"
+
+"Thank you, Agnes! If your good opinion were worth a farthing, I should
+grudge to have lost it!"
+
+"But Dunbar! _revenons a nos moutons_," interrupted Captain De
+Crespigny, trying to look indifferent. "Surely there is no just cause
+or impediment why we may not ride down to Portobello this morning, and
+call on good, worthy Sir Arthur together. It is a perfect disgrace to
+us both that we never go near his house, much as I always have
+respected him, and always shall."
+
+"This is a very sudden fit of cordiality! When did you feel the first
+symptoms coming on?" asked Sir Patrick drily, while Agnes began
+vehemently winding some skeins of silk. "Let me feel your pulse, De
+Crespigny. I am ready to bet your uncle against mine--and the odds are
+considerable--that half an hour since, you would no more have thought
+of paying a P.P.C. visit to old Sir Arthur, than to Lord Nelson's
+monument. My dear fellow, I know you--and you ought to know me better
+than to suppose me capable of paying a dull, penitential visit there!"
+
+"Well, be it so! This is no time for me to recommend disinterested
+attentions, Dunbar, as I am on wing for Yorkshire, obliged during a
+whole long dreary month to play the amiable! Did you ever try that
+experiment, Miss Dunbar?"
+
+"Of being amiable? no, never! I am not come to that yet! Whenever
+people mention a young lady as being amiable, you may depend upon it
+she has nothing better to recommend her. I leave mere hum-drum good
+qualities to such people as Clara Granville."
+
+"Omit her in your conversation altogether, Agnes! I told you already,
+that she must never be named here," interrupted Sir Patrick, with angry
+vehemence. "Why will you continually intrude that family on our
+conversation?"
+
+"I do not, Patrick. I beg leave to deny the honorable gentleman's last
+assertion! It is three days at least since I have so much as named
+Clara Gran----"
+
+Before Agnes could finish her sentence, Sir Patrick, always afraid to
+trust his temper when irritated, as he knew the hurricane to be fearful
+if allowed to rage, had strode to the door, and burst out of the room,
+as if the very house were scarcely large enough to hold him. This
+_denouement_ Agnes had confidently anticipated, being perfectly aware
+that her brother never withstood a second repetition of Clara's name,
+therefore she had artfully tried the experiment of producing an
+explosion, which might at any hazard expel him, and secure to herself a
+_tete-a-tete_ leave-taking with Captain De Crespigny, from whom she
+now confidently anticipated a formal declaration.
+
+When Sir Patrick's angry footsteps died away in the distance, it was
+not without some real agitation, therefore, and a great deal more
+assumed, that Agnes allowed her long, dark eye-lashes to droop over her
+cheek, and called up a rather ostentatious blush, while she sat for
+several minutes in silent embarrassment; but though Captain De
+Crespigny assumed his most fascinating expression, he seemed resolute
+not to begin the dialogue; and while affecting to be considerably
+embarrassed himself, an arch smile nevertheless glittered in his eye,
+and played about his mouth.
+
+"Is it true," asked Agnes, at length, in a subdued voice, and without
+looking up, "that you are actually going for some months to-morrow? I
+must tie a knot on my pocket handkerchief, not to forget you during so
+long an absence."
+
+"I would much rather tie a knot of a different kind," said Captain De
+Crespigny, in his usual rallying tone. "But necessity has no law.
+Going, going, gone! Positively the last time! Knocked down to Miss
+Dunbar. A great bargain. The best article on hand."
+
+"You are an admirable auctioneer, and shall dispose of me next," said
+Agnes, laughingly selecting a rose-bud from her bouquet. "I must give
+you something to take away, very beautiful, and which I am sure you
+will like."
+
+"That must be yourself, then," replied Captain De Crespigny, looking
+most cruelly charming. "I hear the young ladies are all to wear black
+crape on their left arm after my exit. I did expect a public dinner
+from them, but that is too common-place. My tailor received one lately
+on removing from one street to another, and the waiter at Carlisle on
+retiring from his profession. I wonder nobody ever voted me a
+testimonial. My speech on the occasion would be exquisite."
+
+"Patrick thinks you very much addicted to make speeches," replied
+Agnes, with sly emphasis. "I suppose, as you are setting out so
+suddenly, that Lord Doncaster is seriously ill now. A number of old
+people have died off lately. He must be two hundred at least, for I
+have heard of him so long! I remember three years ago hearing that his
+memory had failed."
+
+"Not at all--not in the very least. He thinks himself younger and
+handsomer every year. He is actually addicted still to flirtation in
+all its branches. He told me the last time we parted, that many ladies,
+if he chose, would prefer him to me. Perhaps they might. I dare say he
+was in the right. We never grow old in our family--never! and we have
+all excellent memories," continued Captain De Crespigny, fixing his
+dangerous eyes on Agnes. "Mine will be stored with many never-to-be
+forgotten recollections of the last few months, 'remembered,' as public
+orators say, 'till the latest moment of my existence.' Memory has put
+all these scenes in her pocket for me, to be enjoyed hereafter; and how
+delightful would a life-time be, made up of such hours as I have spent
+in this house! I feel myself striking root in it, like a cutting of
+geranium!"
+
+"Indeed!" replied Agnes, smiling most benignly; "geraniums are very
+great favorites of mine--very great, indeed--so I wish you were
+metamorphosed into one."
+
+"If all the events of life could be modelled on a plan of my own, what
+a pleasant little place the world would be!" said Captain De Crespigny,
+admiring the polish of his boots. "I might then continue here some time
+longer, as a volunteer in the corps of your victims, who are as
+numerous now as a disbanded army. Do pray let us call over the
+muster-roll of your admirers and count them. I could die in my chair
+with curiosity to know how many they are!"
+
+"Not above three or four cases of life and death!" said Agnes,
+laughing. "But you jest at scars who never felt a wound."
+
+"I most heartily sympathize with them all," replied Captain De
+Crespigny, with an extra-sentimental sigh. "I have gone through every
+sorrow of life myself--outraged affections, and all that sort of thing.
+You cannot conceive, Miss Dunbar, how like we victims are sometimes to
+the frog in the fable, inflated with empty hopes."
+
+"I must shut my eyes to that."
+
+"Your eyes should never be shut. They are much too beautiful! With
+respect to your admirers, they might say, like the weather-cock to the
+wind, '_Si vous ne changez pas, je suis constante!_' The whole world
+has been pulling caps for you all winter, and you pretend to have
+limited yourself to three or four victims! Impossible! You are
+concealing the half of them! Forgetting Captains A----, B----, C----,
+and D----. I have as many young ladies as that dying for me. Now, do
+let us run over an authentic list of their names. Show me all your
+court-yards at once. I could bet the finest camellia at Loddige's, that
+you do not name them all."
+
+"Who shall I say?" exclaimed Agnes, getting up an extempore blush, and
+her archest smiles. "I have a most inhospitable memory for bores, and
+shall forget two-thirds of them. Captain Digby, slightly wounded;
+Colonel Meade, pierced through the heart; Captain O'Brien, slowly
+recovering; Mr. Deveril, despaired of; Lord Wigton,----"
+
+"Killed outright!" interrupted Captain De Crespigny. "You mention him
+in rather a more relenting tone than the rest, like Bonaparte, when he
+wept over one wounded man, alter condemning hundreds to death. But you
+are come to a period already. Is there no other worthy of remembrance?"
+
+"Only one, whom I cannot name!" replied Agnes, turning away. "Last, but
+not least."
+
+"Ah! some poor fellow with nothing, I suppose--waiting, perhaps, for
+the death of a rich relation; but those tiresome old bores always live
+for ever, and a day besides. Whoever he is, let me advise you not to
+think of him; a man should as soon ask the sun in the hemisphere to
+wait for him, as a young lady in the full blaze of her beauty and
+attractions. No, no, Miss Dunbar, take my advice. Be like time and
+tide. I have a real cousinly interest in your welfare, and should be
+delighted, on my return, to find this room fragrant with cake, and
+glittering with favors. I shall come down on purpose, if you ask me! I
+positively shall!"
+
+If a look could kill, Captain De Crespigny must have withered away
+beneath the glance of Agnes' eyes, which streamed with indignant
+flashes of anger and surprise; but unconscious, apparently, of being
+otherwise than most agreeable, he continued, in his most captivating
+manner.
+
+"I must be off now to Macleay's. Half a dozen friends are dying to
+obtain a likeness of me, and a deputation of ladies made me promise
+lately to sit for them. I wonder what can induce me to take so much
+trouble," added he, with a gay, triumphant laugh. "The painter is quite
+afraid he shall be robbed and murdered for it."
+
+"Humility is not certainly your cardinal virtue," said Agnes, with a
+look of angry scorn, which few could have withstood. "You cultivate an
+extensive acquaintance."
+
+"Very! I must really see whether people can be induced to cut me, for
+it is exceedingly troublesome. I know sixty-four families with three
+young ladies in each. It would puzzle the calculating machine to make
+out how many that amounts to. But, meantime, I must unwillingly say the
+most hateful of all words--farewell. I have been putting off time here,
+expecting Dunbar for the last half hour, though little able to afford
+so many minutes. My idiot of a watch must surely be too slow, or your
+brother would have been back about the sale of mad Tom. I have twenty
+minds to buy him, if Dunbar did not ask so very long a price."
+
+"You are intending, I believe," asked Agnes, "to enter him for the--the
+Chiltern Hundreds?"
+
+"Not exactly! but the Doncaster St. Leger. He would be the first horse
+in that line, though asses are perfectly accustomed to them. Good
+morning! _au revoir!_ I mean to Londonize for a few weeks, then go to
+Paris, and afterwards disperse myself over every corner of the
+uncivilized globe. Can I do anything for you anywhere? Geneva velvets?
+Parisian bonnets? Swiss muslins? I am at your service in every quarter
+of the world. May I beg my very best regards to your sister."
+
+So saying, Captain De Crespigny bowed himself out of the room, with
+very much the air of a popular actor who expects three rounds of
+applause, and Agnes having, with a face as unmoved as if it had been
+enamelled, coldly given him her hand, with an ill-supported smile on
+her quivering lip, wished him a pleasant journey, and turned almost
+haughtily away; a bolt of ice seemed to have fallen upon her heart, and
+in that small moment was comprised the agony of ages; but the greatest
+wonder in nature is the entire self-command given to many, and
+especially to women, by means of which they can hear what involves the
+happiness of a life-time, and yet betray no visible emotion.
+
+The strongest feelings on earth never are discovered. Feeble minds can
+conceal nothing, but those who have strength of mind to suffer most
+deeply, are those who have strength of mind also to hide what they do
+endure. On slight occasions, Agnes was a most accomplished fainter; but
+now, having stood, with a specious smile on her countenance, till the
+door had finally closed, she rushed to the privacy of her own room, and
+closed the door, then seating herself, in all the luxury of solitude,
+she meditated with silent astonishment on all that had passed.
+
+No coroner's inquest can be summoned on a deceased flirtation, and
+whether it die a natural death or a violent one never can be known, as
+it may be caused merely by some trifling oversight, perhaps by the
+cruel aspersion of an enemy, or simply by whim and caprice, as in this
+case seemed the most probable, and to Agnes the most mortifying.
+Wounded in all her most sensitive feelings, a crowd of angry and
+depressing thoughts crowded into her brain, while she could not but
+feel that the arrows which had struck her were most cruelly barbed and
+most skilfully aimed. It was harrowing to her vain, proud spirit, to
+imagine that Captain De Crespigny could really be indifferent. It
+seemed, indeed, almost impossible! Could his carelessness be all
+assumed! Had he, indeed, an honorable scruple of engaging her upon the
+uncertainty of his uncle's demise. It might be so. Agnes felt that
+entire despondency would come soon enough, if come it must; and anxious
+to believe in Captain De Crespigny's attachment, she seemed now
+resolved to keep up the farce with herself a little longer. She felt
+certain that he had cast back a look of regret on leaving the room,
+which spoke volumes, and these volumes she filled up according to her
+own imagination. The parting had, perhaps, been as painful to Captain
+De Crespigny as to herself, but what could he do if Lord Doncaster
+always continued to be the "undying one," standing in the way of their
+mutual happiness. Agnes now lived over every scene which had passed
+between herself and her supposed lover. She could not imagine those
+feelings expressed to any other which seemed created by herself alone.
+She recapitulated all his civilities to herself, remembered how his
+last sigh had been sighed, how his last look had been looked; and,
+after a glance at the mirror, which proved as usual an effectual
+safety-valve to any feelings of mortification, she became at last
+restored to the agreeable conviction, that the most considerate,
+self-denying, and constant of lovers was Captain De Crespigny.
+
+"And," exclaimed Agnes, with another triumphant glance at the mirror,
+"as he said only yesterday, '_on peut fuir sans oublier_.' Let him
+admire any other if he can!"
+
+    I'll still believe that story wrong,
+    Which ought not to be true.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+The intellectual powers and literary acquirements of Henry de Lancey
+were first-rate, and feeling a consciousness of ability, he ardently
+longed to coin them into fame and distinction. Full of high
+aspirations, there was something grand in the outline of his head, and
+in the expression of his speaking eyes, while animated by his desire to
+render himself worthy of Caroline, and to reward the care of Sir Arthur
+by his own exertions. He longed now to run the race of life with
+others--to be useful among men--to win for himself a place in
+society--to write his name perhaps in the records of time--but above
+all, to promote the cause of truth, religion, and holiness. He had
+learned in the society of Mr. Granville to believe that true happiness
+is not to be found in the temple of fame, nor in the temple of pleasure
+or of fortune, but in the temple of God; and at one time his thoughts
+and studies were turned towards the church, with a fervent desire to
+take orders, till the tide of his plans became entirely changed by the
+unexpected arrival of a commission in the 15th Huzzars, then quartered
+in Canada, which he felt bound, from whatever hand it came, to accept.
+
+Henry had been deeply affected when first told all the peculiar
+circumstances of his own history, but Sir Arthur accustomed him from
+the first to discuss the subject confidentially, that every
+recollection might be preserved which he yet retained of those earlier
+days, now involved in impenetrable mystery, which none but himself had
+witnessed, but the secret of which Sir Arthur still entertained a
+sanguine hope of at last developing, while often, when gazing with
+almost parental affection at his promising young _protege_, he
+prophesied that his unnatural connections would yet be forced or
+persuaded to acknowledge him.
+
+Though lines of deep thought were already riveted on the youthful
+countenance of Henry, yet his manner became full of life and animation;
+and in personal courage he was the boldest of the bold, displaying a
+fearless energy of character, which caused the Admiral to express, on
+the night when they were about to part, a confident hope that, though
+the service of his country had not been his choice, yet he was well
+suited to his profession, and his profession to him.
+
+"Let me only become another Sir Arthur Dunbar, and my utmost ambition
+will be gratified!" exclaimed Henry, warmly clasping the hand of his
+benefactor. "Often--oh, how often! I shall look back upon the only
+home, and the best friend I have ever known!"
+
+They were to meet no more, as young De Lancey had engaged his place in
+the earliest coach next morning, and Marion saw, by the paleness of his
+cheek, and the compression of his lip, that though for worlds he would
+not have compromised his manhood by weeping, yet, moved as much by Sir
+Arthur's evident grief as by his own, he had the utmost difficulty in
+suppressing a burst of tears.
+
+The aged Admiral grasped his young friend's hand in silence, and
+leaning for some moments on his arm, he walked up and down the room
+with heavy measured steps, his eyes cast down, his noble forehead
+clouded with care, and his brows knit as in deep and painful thought.
+He too seemed to dread the greatness of his own agitation, being little
+fitted now to bear any, yet it seemed to Marion as if a tear had forced
+its way into his glazed and nearly blinded eyes, though carefully
+screening it from observation, and evidently unwilling or unable to say
+a word. After several minutes had elapsed, Henry broke the long
+silence, exclaiming, in a low, tremulous tone of incoherent agitation,
+
+"Before my voice fails, Sir Arthur, I must speak!--I must say
+something, to tell you what I feel----"
+
+"No! no! my dear boy! I know it all! I will believe more than you say,
+but spare yourself and me," interrupted Sir Arthur, in a tone of calm
+and serious affection. "We know each other, Henry."
+
+"But once--only once let me say all that has been treasured in my heart
+for years! Can I leave the happiest home which ever blessed a son with
+his father, and not remember that but for you I should have been a
+friendless outcast! Every act of kindness you have shown me, every
+smile of regard, every token of confidence, crowds upon my memory now,
+and increases the store of obligations which it is my pride and my
+happiness to owe you. If you could but read my heart, Sir Arthur, I
+need not speak; for there you would see love without bounds, and
+gratitude which it shall ever be my delight to cherish! If I am better
+than the brutes that perish, you are, under Providence, the cause; and
+I shall be worse than the worst of them, if I ever for one hour
+overlook what I owe to you, or forget the principles of honor, duty,
+truth, and piety that you have taught me."
+
+Henry paused in speechless emotion, he clenched his hands together, the
+youthful fire of his eye became dimmed, and he hurried to the window
+for several moments, where, having in some measure recovered his
+composure, he turned round, and saw, for the first time in his life,
+tears rolling down the face of Sir Arthur--the tears of a good and
+venerable man, of all sights upon earth the most affecting; and
+overcome with emotion, Henry took his benefactor's hand in his own,
+with an expression of the deepest solemnity and respect, saying, in
+rapid but tremulous accents,
+
+"It might soothe the very bed of death, for you, Sir Arthur, to
+remember what you have done for me!--more than almost any man can ever
+do for another. The first of earthly blessings is to be loved; and yet,
+but from your kindness to me from childhood, no eye would ever have
+saddened at my departure, nor brightened at my return! With not a
+friend upon the visible earth but yourself, the child perhaps of shame
+and misery, I must have become lost indeed! The thought of this will be
+nearest my heart when it ceases to beat! If I perish abroad--or if--if
+we meet no more on earth, take all I can offer, Sir Arthur, my fervent
+prayers that you may be rewarded."
+
+Sir Arthur mournfully held out his hand to Henry, who kneeled down and
+kissed it with the profoundest reverence; then starting hastily up, he
+seemed about to rush out of the room, when he was arrested by the deep,
+solemn voice of the Admiral, whose eye had now become calm and steady,
+while in a low and impressive voice he said,
+
+"It is true, Henry, we shall probably meet no more! I know, and so must
+you, that this is our last interview on earth; but long after I am at
+rest in the grave, may you remember, and may you deserve the fervent
+blessing I now give you, trusting that both my children, yourself and
+Marion, may hereafter enjoy as bright a destiny as any child of earth
+can know in this suffering and sin-blighted world. In speaking of the
+past, Henry, do not suppose that the obligation is all on your side!
+No! your dutiful affection has more than re-paid me. It is something to
+know that my aged years have not been spent in vain--that I leave a
+record in your heart, where my name will be respectfully and
+affectionately remembered! No man living can endure the thought of
+being utterly forgotten; and to you, my young friends, I commit my
+memory. The earth will lie lighter on my grave for the belief, that you
+have loved me so well, and will so truly lament me. Your young spirits
+have cheered my heart--your welfare has deeply interested me; and I
+know that one day or other, my young soldier will do me honor in his
+profession, and not forget to shed a tear over my remains."
+
+Many were the tears of both Henry and Marion at these words; but Sir
+Arthur calmly continued in a firmer voice,
+
+"When I called you back, my dear Henry, it was not for any vain attempt
+to express my feelings,--that would be impossible,--but to mention how,
+in all probability, you may one day be able more than to return the
+little I have done. It is easy for men to wrestle through the
+difficulties of life, and with such talent and enter-enterprise as
+yours, to conquer them all. For other reasons, too, I have no doubt of
+your at last being most happily settled for life, but many anxious
+thoughts beset me respecting Marion. The uncertainty of Richard
+Granville's prospects, and the certainty that my nephew will refuse his
+consent to her marriage, weighs heavily at my heart. I do trust that a
+long life of happiness awaits you both; but if my worst anticipations
+were ever to be realised--if your brother, Marion, a bankrupt already
+in fortune and character, were hereafter to desert you--if your sister,
+heartless and vain, should throw herself away, and leave you in bleak
+and sorrowful loneliness,--then remember, Henry, my solemn and last
+injunction is laid upon you, to act as a brother towards Marion,--much
+may then be in your power--more than you now expect--and you must then
+protect her, as I would have done myself, considering all that you may
+ever do for her, as done for me."
+
+"It would be something to live for, if I had a hope of being useful to
+Marion, Sir Arthur! Under any circumstances that would have been a
+pleasure; but now it has become ten times more a sacred duty than ever.
+Your injunction shall remain with me till my dying hour!"
+
+In the solitude and silence of his own apartment, Henry gave ample vent
+to his long-suppressed anguish, while mourning over the sad conviction,
+that he had now seen, probably for the last time, that generous and
+noble-hearted benefactor, whom he loved with an enthusiasm to which no
+words could do justice. Though every action of his life had been
+actuated by grateful attachment, he now felt as if his existence had
+been wasted without sufficiently testifying his ardent affection, and
+he wondered to think that any opportunities were ever formerly
+overlooked, of conversing with Sir Arthur, and attending on him. Henry
+thought of his growing infirmities, of his solitary home, of his high
+spirit, and of his resolute mind, now enervated by advancing years, and
+mourned to think that in sickness, or even at the hour of death, he
+himself must no longer be at hand, to console and support his
+benefactor.
+
+Exhausted nature at length needed repose, and amidst the stillness and
+darkness of a night which had already seemed interminable, Henry felt
+himself slowly sinking into the calmness of slumber, when suddenly he
+was awakened to consciousness by a slight rustling sound from beside
+his bed, and the noise of some one breathing, as if trying in vain to
+suppress it. Uncertain what this might be, he opened his eyes, and lay
+perfectly immoveable; but gradually his heart almost ceased to beat,
+and quailed with a feeling of supernatural apprehension, when the
+curtains were slowly opened, and a dark form cautiously stooping over
+him, gazed into his face, till he felt the warm breath upon his cheek.
+
+In the dead hour of the night, Marion was startled out of a dull,
+heavy, unrefreshing sleep, by a sharp shrill cry for help, which seemed
+to proceed from Henry's room, and was succeeded by stifled cries, and
+the sound of a violent scuffle. Springing out of bed with an
+instantaneous decision, Marion flew towards the spot, calling loudly
+for assistance, and the instant she opened the door, some one, uttering
+a wild and fearful shriek, rushed violently out, striking her what
+seemed at the moment a severe blow on the arm, but an instant
+afterwards she became deluged with blood.
+
+Henry was in the act of eagerly pursuing the rapidly receding figure,
+when, seeing Marion stagger backwards, he caught her in his arms,
+supported her to a chair, and hastily bound up her wound, which was
+bleeding profusely.
+
+"Leave me! I am well! Look to my uncle," cried she, eagerly. "He must
+have been alarmed! How was it, Henry? Are you hurt? Is Sir Arthur safe?
+Oh! there he is!" exclaimed she, rushing into her uncle's arms, and
+bursting into tears.
+
+"Here is Mr. Howard too!" added Henry, turning round, as that gentleman
+entered with a calm but rather anxious look, while the paleness of his
+cheek was almost startling. "You seem, Sir, to have dropped ready
+dressed from the clouds!"
+
+"I seldom retire early to bed," replied he, with a quick, sharp,
+scrutinizing glance at Henry. "Hearing a tumult in the house, I--I----"
+
+"You gave it time to subside before attempting to interfere," added
+Henry, with a thrilling emphasis in his voice, while closely observing
+Mr. Howard's countenance. "There is a strange and fearful mystery
+here!"
+
+"There is!" replied he, gnawing his nails to the very quick, while he
+shot a momentary glance of rancorous detestation at young De Lancey,
+after which, his features became as passionless and immoveable as if
+they had been fixed in a vice. "The whole affair is mysterious--very----"
+
+"What! you already know all!"
+
+"I do!--I--I met the man rushing out of the house," answered Mr.
+Howard, with the air of one outfacing an accusation, but his voice
+became low and suffocated. "I attempted to stop him, but----"
+
+"I am glad you did!" observed Sir Arthur, looking anxiously at Henry,
+and then gazing intently on the sallow countenance of Mr. Howard, which
+became gradually dyed with the deepest hectic; his lips were now
+closely compressed, he raised his tall figure to its full height, and
+closed his eyes, as if wishing thus to exclude some fearful spectre
+from his mind, but after a momentary struggle, he became once more calm
+and resolute, with a singular serenity of look and manner.
+
+"You met some one in the passage! The assassin must have escaped long
+before!" muttered Henry, in a vague and dreaming tone; but his brow
+grew darker, and there was an anxious intensity in his look and voice,
+when he added in a tone of resolute determination, "Let me be plain
+with you, Mr. Howard! Your expression of countenance when I saw you
+last night, filled me with astonishment--almost with apprehension; it
+was a look never to be forgotten! Your manner now perplexes me! There
+is something amiss which I cannot understand, but for your sake as well
+as my own, this very strange affair must be fully investigated!"
+
+"You suspect me!" exclaimed Mr. Howard, with a sudden laugh of terrible
+mirth, and in a voice elevated into accents of indescribable fury,
+while his eye throwing off the torpor in which it had been shrouded,
+glittered with the fearful brightness of delirium, his veins became
+swollen, and his figure dilated beyond its ordinary height, assuming an
+aspect of rage and of almost supernatural strength, such as insanity
+alone can give. "You suspect me, and you have dared to confess it. Many
+a word lightly spoken carries weight. The arrow has been shot at
+random, but you are right. Lightning rushes through my brain! I would
+be destructive as a whirlwind to you, De Lancey, as I once was to your
+wretched mother. She stood in the way of my advancement, as you may yet
+do,--she accused, betrayed, and ruined my sister," continued he in a
+rapid voice, insupportably shrill and piercing. "You too have injured
+me, and you shall suffer for it as she did--she died!"
+
+With the spring and the strength of a tiger, he rushed toward Henry,
+and a knife which he had plucked from his sleeve, gleamed like
+lightning in the air, when suddenly Sir Arthur placed himself so as to
+intercept the madman's career, and fixed upon him his commanding eye,
+with a look of calm, stern, and lofty composure, while Henry vainly
+strove to advance before him, and Marion, with frantic vehemence,
+called for help.
+
+"Take my life, if you must have blood. I have trusted you,
+Howard,--shown you kindness when no other hand was stretched out in
+compassion, and through my heart only shall you reach that boy!" said
+Sir Arthur, firmly. "I am old, and ready to die, but he is a son to me,
+and shall not perish in my sight."
+
+"Your life! no! not yours," replied the maniac, in accents of vehement
+horror, yet still fastening his glaring eyes on Henry, with looks of
+deadly malignity. "May my hand wither before it injures one hair of
+your venerable head! May my life be sacrificed first, and my limbs be
+manacled in chains! But for him, his days shall be few! He bears a
+charmed life, or he must have died long ago! I would extinguish all
+mankind!--the whole human race, if I could; but there are two whom I
+have sworn to destroy, and he is one! I have said it! The will and the
+power are mine! I cannot fail! His life shall be hunted by night and by
+day! This knife shall be plunged to the very hilt in his blood! I have
+said it. One blow--one mortal blow, and it is done!"
+
+Having said these words, with gestures of outrageous madness, he
+bounded towards the door, broke through every impediment with a
+strength which ten men could scarcely have mastered, and giving a loud
+delirious cry of insufferable wildness, he instantaneously vanished.
+
+Before long, the neighborhood was aroused, lights gleamed and reddened
+in the opposite windows, shouts arose among the assembling crowd, and a
+rapid search was made for the frantic and mysterious criminal, but not
+a trace of any living being could be discovered, and when they paused
+to listen, not a sound broke the stillness of the night.
+
+"This is my second preservation from a violent death!" said Henry, in
+once more taking leave of Sir Arthur. "And most forcibly do all these
+circumstances bring to mind the horrors of that fearful night which
+first threw me on the care of my benefactor. It is exactly such a
+shadowy form bending over me in the silence of midnight, which has
+often from that hour haunted me in my dreams. I am ready, I trust, to
+brave any danger in the open face of day; but there is something
+terrible to me, I confess--something vague and appalling in the
+stealthy, mysterious, death-like approach of an enemy evidently insane,
+who has pursued me with remorseless hatred from childhood to the
+present hour, breaking upon me in the darkest hours of midnight, and
+invading me amidst the moments of helpless repose; but I am under the
+care of one who slumbereth not, nor sleepeth, and to Him I confidently
+commit myself."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+Every man should be considered accountable to Providence, not only for
+diffusing as much enjoyment around him as he possibly can, but also for
+being as happy himself as is consistent with the many gifts bestowed on
+him individually; and it is a duty to look back with self-reproach on
+any hour of existence, which, on account of our ill temper or
+discontent, has been less enjoyed by ourselves or by another, than it
+might have been; yet it is an obvious truth, that all men might be
+happier than they are, if mankind would but make the best of life for
+themselves and others. Never had this remark appeared so undeniable to
+Marion as now, in the case of Agnes, who alienated Sir Patrick more and
+more by her peevishness, though the arrows of her satire had more
+poison than point in them, and he was always ready enough to enter on a
+skirmish in the diamond-cut-diamond style of conversation, while it
+often blistered the very heart of their gentle sister, to hear the
+bitter taunting remarks and repartees which they levelled at each
+other.
+
+One day, Agnes, in a magnificent fit of ill-humor, had seated herself
+at that universal refuge for idleness and discontent, an open window,
+complaining that the dulness of Edinburgh was quite maddening; while it
+became evident that the needle of her temper pointed in the most stormy
+direction. It was a favorite doctrine with Agnes, that _ennui_ is
+peculiar to intellectual beings, and that those who never suffered from
+it were like cows or sheep, scarcely to be considered rational. On the
+present occasion, therefore, she was relieving the intolerable tedium
+which oppressed her, by delivering her opinion to Sir Patrick, in no
+measured terms, on the unutterable cruelty of his leaving her stranded
+in Edinburgh, while she understood he was going soon to amuse himself
+abroad.
+
+She seemed inflated with ill-humor, like a spider, bursting with its
+own poison, and her countenance had assumed not the most amiable
+expression in the world, while Sir Patrick snatched up a newspaper,
+which he began intently reading upside down. Having successfully and
+distinctly proved that she was a martyr to the injuries which "patient
+merit of th' unworthy takes," and her brother being apparently on the
+point of falling asleep before her face, Agnes suddenly rose from her
+seat, with an exclamation of annoyance and astonishment, saying,
+
+"I do believe here is that old formality, Sir Arthur, going to call!
+Getting slowly and with difficulty out of a ragged, ruinous-looking
+hackney coach, as frail as himself! I had no idea he was become so
+aged and infirm! What a bore! I do wish we might enjoy the privilege,
+after being grown up, of choosing our own relations. _J'ai pitie de
+moi-meme!_"
+
+"What can bring the old fellow here?" exclaimed Sir Patrick, crumpling
+up his newspaper, and approaching the window with an angry whistle. "He
+looks, in those glittering spectacles, like a post-chaise, with the
+lamps lighted. I must be grown quite respectable when the Admiral
+honors me with a visit. Has anybody paid my debts?"
+
+"I declare," said Agnes, "Sir Arthur gropes his way along as if he came
+from the Blind Asylum, and his dear, puckered old face looks as dry and
+cracked as an old picture!"
+
+"Suppose I stay in the room _incog._, to hear all the civil and
+agreeable truths our worthy uncle will say of me," said Sir Patrick,
+laughingly throwing himself into a large arm-chair, in a distant corner
+of the room. "I should certainty realize the old proverb about
+listeners hearing no good of themselves. Sir Arthur is so blind he will
+never see me, and it is certainly no bad joke for a rainy day."
+
+"I think it would be a very bad joke, indeed, Patrick," said Marion,
+coloring. "But I am sure you would not play upon our uncle's
+infirmities, and I shall certainly ask you some question the moment he
+enters, to betray your ambuscade."
+
+"Marion! for a young lady who professes timidity, you exhibit a
+tolerable share of decision!" replied Sir Patrick, looking with
+surprise at the glowing countenance of his sister, whose voice quivered
+with agitation. "However, since you are determined to make a scene
+between Sir Arthur and me, I shall be off, not feeling in the humor for
+one of his lectures to-day! He will be a whirlpool of rage at this
+raffle I am making of the family plate and pictures. Perhaps he means
+to take a ticket! Do not mention, for your lives, girls, that I am in
+the next room, unless he be come on a matter of life and death! Exit
+Sir Patrick in haste!"
+
+When Sir Arthur entered the room, there was a look of unwonted care in
+his fine countenance, and less firmness in his step than usual. He
+silently but cordially shook hands with Agnes, while a look of almost
+compassionate kindness beamed in his countenance, and Marion, with
+girlish delight sparkling in her eyes, and dimpling in her cheeks, led
+him to a chair, on which he sat down for some moments without speaking,
+apparently fatigued and agitated, while she filled up the pause which
+ensued, by taking his hat and stick, placing her arm within his when
+she seated herself by his side, and showing a thousand demonstrations
+of her heartfelt affection and respect.
+
+"Uncle Arthur!" said Agnes, observing him at length glancing round the
+room. "You have never been in this house before?"
+
+"No! nor I never expected to enter it!" replied he, in a tone of
+profound sadness. "Never!--urgent duty brings me now! This then is the
+family residence to which the Dunbars of Dornington are at last
+degraded! Is your brother at home?"
+
+"No!" replied Agnes, with the most perfect intrepidity of countenance.
+"You must have met him in the Park."
+
+"I did not perceive him, and it was as well," answered Sir Arthur with
+melancholy sternness. "The seldomer we meet the better. It is a
+disgrace to be in the room with Sir Patrick."
+
+"Uncle Arthur! you are growing angry and personal," interrupted Marion,
+in a beseeching tone, while she shook his hand caressingly in her own.
+"That is the harshest thing you ever said of our brother!"
+
+"May he never deserve more, or he shall have it," continued the
+Admiral, with angry vehemence, while his neckcloth seemed growing too
+tight for him. "Sir Patrick is, without meaning to flatter him, about
+the greatest scamp I know. His last step in the regiment was purchased,
+I am told, over the head of a young officer from whom he gained the
+money at play! but, Marion, my dear girl, I am not come to quarrel with
+you, the dearest niece in the world--nor with Agnes, though I could
+wish that she came sometimes to see me."
+
+Sir Arthur held out his hand to both his nieces, and added, in a tone
+of hurried agitation, "If you had witnessed, Agnes, the many long years
+during which your father and I associated together on terms of more
+than brotherly confidence, you could not wonder that now, living in an
+empty world, the grave of all who started in life beside me, amidst old
+remembrances, vanished pleasures, faded health, and lost affections, I
+cling to whatever reminds me of him, and that nothing can make me cease
+to love you all--all without exception--even that disgraceful scoundrel
+your brother. I would close these eyes in death, only once to see him,
+the man his father's son should be; but I might live for ever if I wait
+till then!"
+
+Marion was grieved and alarmed to perceive her uncle's increasing
+agitation, while he hastily turned away to hide it, but the breeze
+which had ruffled his mind soon passed away, and though his hand still
+shook with emotion, he added in a calmer tone of deep-rooted anxiety,
+
+"I have been told this morning, that Sir Patrick intends to cut his
+stick, and take flight immediately to the continent, therefore I am
+here to ascertain, my dear girls, what is to become of you?"
+
+"I scarcely know indeed!" replied Marion, in a tone of irresistible
+depression. "Patrick seems to have no settled plan. He did talk of
+hiring a lodging for us, and engaging some old lady for a chaperon."
+
+"And for such a scheme, my dear Marion, where in all the wide world is
+he to get money--or even credit? Not in the name of Sir Patrick
+Dunbar!--a name that, in my brother's time, stood proudly forward as a
+warrant for everything honorable, soldier-like and generous!--a name,
+till now, never sullied by dishonor."
+
+Sir Arthur's voice faltered, a hectic color burned on his cheek, he
+remained silent for several minutes, and then continued, after a strong
+effort to recover himself,
+
+"It is no matter! Patrick adds a nail to my coffin every day, but I am
+the last wreck of an old generation, and have already outstaid the
+period intended for man! My head is whitened by the frost of more than
+eighty winters--my heart seared with the wear and tear of life--my very
+existence a perpetual miracle! It would people a city if all could be
+revived whom I have intimately known in those days when the dearest
+ties of life were clustered around me, but now I am a scathed and
+solitary ruin. How truly has it been said, that the remembrance of
+youth is a sigh, yet all has been ordered as it should be, and that
+wind is ever the best which will carry us most safely to the end of our
+voyage."
+
+Sir Arthur paused with a look of solemn and inexpressible emotion, and
+Marion pressed her uncle's hand affectionately, hot tears coursed each
+other down her face, and she gazed earnestly at his countenance, while,
+looking at her with his usual expression of benignity and kindness, he
+continued, "You are the chief, or rather the only objects of my care,
+for all my wishes and hopes on my own account might now be contained in
+a nut-shell. I am a stranger in this altered world, soon--very soon to
+depart. There is one heart in my brother's family, Marion, that feels
+as his child ought to feel, and one eye that will be dimmed with sorrow
+when I am no more. For your sake, and yours only, need I wish to live!
+Well may the young weep for sorrow--they have long to endure it, but
+for me, the end of all earthly things is at hand. Many a warning bell
+has reached my ear already, and I would wish only to see you launched
+under safe protection in the stormy ocean of life. With no guardian but
+a brother worse than nobody, and an old, infirm uncle tottering into
+the grave, my dear girls, what are you to do?"
+
+Marion glanced at Agnes, who tried to preserve her usual air of
+consequential indifference, and pulled her _bouquet_ to pieces, with
+an expression of silent and majestic impatience, but she neither looked
+up nor answered.
+
+"While I live, you can always confer a pleasure by taking shelter with
+me," continued Sir Arthur, in the warmest tone of kindness; "and all
+that an old man can do to make you happy shall be done, though that, I
+fear, is little or nothing."
+
+Agnes, evidently not much delighted at this unexpected proposal of
+being located at what she always called "the Admiral's humdrummery,"
+now assumed a pre-engaged look, while practising a particularly
+graceful attitude in the opposite mirror, and drawing out her long
+glossy ringlets with a cold, artificial smile, she answered, "Thank
+you, Sir Arthur! I am sure we are most excessively obliged. Probably
+now that Marion is so well disposed of, my brother may take me with him
+to Paris!"
+
+"Reckoning without your host, Agnes!" whispered Sir Patrick, entering
+with a look of assumed bravado, but of evident embarrassment. "Wishes
+cost nothing; but how could such an idea ever enter your ingenious
+head? Pray strike a light and look for your senses! Ah! Sir Arthur! A
+hundred thousand welcomes. I am happy not to have missed your kind
+visit!"
+
+"That would have been a mutual misfortune!" replied the Admiral, drily,
+and drawing himself up to his full height, while Sir Patrick bowed and
+smiled with an air of sarcastic gratitude. "Certainly, for some years
+past I am not owing you many visits."
+
+"Why, no! I hate to see people running themselves into debt; therefore
+believing you might find it inconvenient to return my cards, I have not
+been very troublesome in the way of calling; but," continued Sir
+Patrick, stealing a look of laughing condolence at Agnes, "my sisters
+are exceedingly delighted by your very considerate offer of a home
+during my absence. The plan will suit admirably! They both want
+sea-bathing, and--society, Agnes?"
+
+"In respect to society I can promise nothing. I would raise a regiment
+of beaux if possible, but my house is a mere Greenwich Hospital for
+years past, visited only by a few veterans as aged and broken as
+myself."
+
+"I wish they had all gone down in the Royal George," muttered Agnes,
+whose face now looked like a thunder cloud. "A set of resuscitated
+mummies, with scarcely a complete set of limbs and features amongst
+them. I would rather live in the moon, where there is at least one
+entire man to be seen."
+
+"We instituted a club lately," continued Sir Arthur, "in which no
+member was eligible who had not been deprived of one limb at least in
+the service of his country. With many of my friends all is lost but
+honor! That is what a man should die rather than lose! It was long a
+hereditary heir-loom in our family, Patrick! entailed upon you, Sir!
+handed down untarnished from father to son, generation after
+generation! And where is it now? Lost in the kennel, the race-course,
+the stable, the gambling house, and every receptacle of infamy and
+shame, while I live to see the Dunbars of Dornington utterly ruined,
+as well as utterly disgraced!"
+
+"Not as long as you live!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, advancing with sudden
+emotion, and grasping his uncle's hand. "Your name, Sir Arthur, will
+shed a lustre over our house after mine has been blotted out for ever
+from the memory of man!"
+
+"Why should it be so?" asked Sir Arthur, speaking in a tone of deep
+vehemence and solemnity, while his noble and serious countenance
+assumed an expression of that affection which nothing could extinguish.
+"Patrick! it is long lane that has no turning! Be like your father in
+mind, as you are in person, and let me leave you my best blessing at
+last!"
+
+"Too late! too late!" replied Sir Patrick, walking hurriedly up and
+down the room, and then suddenly resuming his usual tone of reckless
+gayety. "No! no! as Joseph Surface remarked, 'too good a character is
+inconvenient!' You are unadultered gold, Sir Arthur, but I must only
+set up for being a genuine Bristol farthing."
+
+"Yet, Patrick! even if honor were like truth, at the bottom of a well,
+it is worth diving for; and the best throw on the dice is to throw them
+away."
+
+"Your whole nature and mine are different, Sir Arthur! A wasp may work
+his heart out, but he never can make honey," replied the young Baronet,
+hurriedly. "I have neither wishes, plans, nor hopes for myself! Already
+I am older in heart than you, and neither know nor care how short a
+time I have to exist! _N'importe!_ It would not certainly be convenient
+for me at present to fly off like a kite, with both my sisters at my
+tail, therefore we are all most grateful for your kind invitation to
+them, and shall accept the honor you offer with pleasure."
+
+"Be it so then," replied Sir Arthur, in a calm, dignified, but mournful
+voice. "If my nieces will be content with little, they may be as happy
+as if we had much. I am most anxious to invent anything which might add
+to their enjoyment, and Lady Towercliffe tells me, Agnes, that your
+whole heart is bent on spending a month at Harrowgate! If that would
+really be any pleasure or advantage to you, tell me so, and I shall
+endeavor if possible to go there myself, though now, in my old age,
+very like Punch, who could act only in his own box."
+
+"Oh! not for worlds would we ask you to go, dear uncle," exclaimed
+Marion, venturing in her eagerness to speak before Agnes, and shocked
+at the idea of a journey, the fatigue and expense of which she knew the
+Admiral was so little able to incur. "We shall be more than happy at
+home! do not think of such a thing!"
+
+"But if I may be permitted to have an opinion, being the person
+consulted, Marion, let me say that nothing on earth was ever more
+enchanting than this delicious proposal. You have made me the happiest
+person alive, Sir Arthur!" exclaimed Agnes, for once condescending to
+look perfectly pleased. "I must endeavor not to go mad with joy! You
+are our very best friend! My dear uncle, all I can say is, YOU ARE A
+GENTLEMAN!"
+
+"Well, Agnes! That being the case," replied Sir Arthur, smiling, "how
+soon can you be ready to start?"
+
+"To-night!--this minute!--wait till I put on my bonnet!" exclaimed
+Agnes, in accents of the liveliest glee. "I am quite impatient to set
+about forgetting Edinburgh!"
+
+"Well done, Lady Towercliffe! Harrowgate was a capital hit!" cried Sir
+Patrick, laughing satirically. "Before taking a voyage to India, there
+is no place like it for young ladies! Why, Agnes, it is a perfect
+emporium of _beaux_! You will live there at the rate of twenty new
+victims a-day! A down-pour of marriages takes place at the end of every
+season. Several jewellers have made large fortunes at Harrowgate,
+merely by providing wedding rings! and a confectioner is kept at each
+hotel, with nothing else to do but to make marriage cakes! Sir Arthur
+must take a dozen lessons in match-making, from some of the manoeuvring
+mammas and aunts."
+
+"An unmanoeuvring uncle is all we shall require," answered Agnes,
+looking daggers at Sir Patrick, in all the dignity of having been
+extremely ill-treated. "In my humble opinion----"
+
+"Humble, Agnes!" interrupted Sir Patrick. "Did I hear aright? Where did
+you ever learn the meaning of that word?"
+
+"As for manoeuvring or match-making, I leave all that sort of thing
+to such persons as Lady Towercliffe," observed Sir Arthur. "She and
+other old ladies have such an intense curiosity about weddings, that I
+do think, even when laid in their graves, they would like to be told
+who are going to be married. In such affairs I would be out of my
+element, like a bear in a boat, not knowing how to proceed,--but at my
+age----"
+
+"Your age, uncle Arthur! You are no age at all," interrupted Agnes,
+in high good humor. "You are not a day older since we were first
+acquainted! As Harrowgate is the greatest marriage manufactory in
+Britain, I should not wonder if you were to pick up a wife there
+yourself! Indeed, no single man ever escapes, and I shall make it my
+business to get you off!"
+
+"By all means!" replied the Admiral, entering good-humoredly into the
+jest. "I have no doubt some young lady will fall desperately and
+hopelessly in love with me! Are those new spectacles becomingly put on?
+My eyes are so fine, they must be kept under glass! My hair has had
+rather too much of the bleaching liquid lately, but do you recommend a
+wig, Agnes, or the vegetable dye?"
+
+"I would not alter a hair of your head, uncle Arthur," said Marion,
+smiling. "And I am sure you will have more admirers at Harrowgate than
+any of us. I should like to know," added she, after the Admiral had
+departed, "out of the prodigious incomes enjoyed by thousands of
+persons in Britain, how much is spent during the year in really
+generous actions,--in actions of such disinterested liberality as our
+dear kind uncle's, when putting himself to all this expense and
+inconvenience for our sakes,--for ours, who never can make him the
+smallest return."
+
+"To say the truth," replied Agnes, laughing, "I merely go to Harrowgate
+for Sir Arthur's good. It will renew his youth to be forced into balls,
+beguiled into pic-nics, and enlisted into dinner parties. A diet of ice
+and lemonade is excellent for old people."
+
+"You are lucky girls!" exclaimed Sir Patrick. "A month at Harrowgate!
+why! you might be married five times over in that time! It is not the
+most impossible thing in the world that I may come there myself, to
+meet De Crespigny! The matrimonial horizon looked rather dark and
+unpromising in this quarter, Agnes; but your extraordinary merit is
+quite unknown as yet in the English hemisphere. The world shall see
+you, and you shall see the world now, under Sir Arthur's auspices. Good
+worthy old soul! his very walking-stick is respectable!"
+
+"Then I wish you were like it," said Agnes, in her most stinging
+accent. "Sir Arthur's respectability might be divided among a dozen of
+people whom I know, and each would get a share larger than he had
+before."
+
+"You will perfectly canonize him, now that he can be made useful!
+Agnes! you jumped at Sir Arthur's offer as an ex-minister would jump at
+a seat in the cabinet! You showered down thanks on the Admiral's
+devoted head, like _bon-bons_ at the carnival!"
+
+"No wonder!" said Marion. "Think of dear uncle Arthur leaving his old
+friends, his old habits, and his old home for us, when he has said and
+thought so often, that his next journey would be that long and last
+one, which we must all travel, never to return."
+
+"It is vastly kind, as you say, Marion!" added Agnes, flippantly.
+"Leaving that old fireside, where he has so long been spinning
+interminable yarns, spoiling old servants, reading old magazines,
+dozing over antiquated newspapers, letting himself be cheated by
+beggars, and getting convivial over very weak negus."
+
+"Agnes, how long is it since you lost your senses!" asked Marion,
+indignantly. "Nothing short of that could account for your holding up
+our venerable uncle to ridicule, even with no one to hear you but
+ourselves, who know his inestimable worth and kindness."
+
+"Well, girls, the best reward you can give him, is to look delightfully
+with all your might, and to waltz and quadrille yourselves into
+husbands immediately!" said Sir Patrick, in a tone of lively
+exultation. "Now, tighten the drums of your ears and listen, for I am
+about to give you a popular course of lectures on the important subject
+of match-making. Marion, you are a flower that has bloomed in the
+shade, and must now be displayed in the sunshine; therefore you ought
+to know that fortune is like a game at blind man's buff, where the
+timid and retiring are forgotten, while the bold and forward alone put
+themselves in the way of receiving her favors. Agnes has frittered away
+her time only too long already on the mere minnows of society, danglers
+and detrimentals of the younger species; but I must tell you
+plainly,----"
+
+"Never tell me anything plainly," interrupted Agnes, laughing. "But you
+are altogether mistaken, for I have often wished that people would get
+rid of their younger sons now, as Tom Thumb's father wisely did, losing
+them in a forest and leaving them to starve."
+
+"Then take my advice, and never dance with any. I warn you against
+fashionable huzzars, all spurs and gold lace, with more bullion on
+their jackets than in their purses; _attaches_ who are not to be
+attached, ready to fall into flirtations but not into love; Honorable
+Edwards and Honorable Fredricks, who never are, but always to be rich,
+investing their whole fortunes in white kid gloves, and offering,
+perhaps, to share their starvation with you; and," added Sir Patrick,
+with a glance at Marion, who blushed deeply, but said nothing,
+"remember, above all, I forbid reverend divines, young or old,
+especially those who have no living and no prospect of a mitre. You
+should each knock down a coronet for yourselves, and avoid the most
+detestable of all poverty,--genteel poverty; at the same time, do not
+gamble too deeply in life. Ascertain well, '_sur quel pied a danser_.'
+In a sickly season, even a fifth son is not to be despised. Take a
+smaller certainty rather than a greater possibility, and lose no time,
+or the bridge may break down before you run across it."
+
+"Your advice to me is perfectly superfluous," replied Agnes, looking
+very superb, and giving a contemptuous toss of her head. "I detest
+economy, and abjure all penny weddings, having no genius for turning or
+dying silk dresses,--putting servants on scanty allowance,--driving
+about in hackney coaches,--locking up jellies,--counting out eggs,--or
+measuring small beer! I am sworn at Highgate always to prefer the best
+partners, and generally have them."
+
+"How would you like," said Marion, "to have been the young lady long
+ago in London, who could not dance with the King of Prussia, because she
+was previously engaged to the Emperor of Russia?"
+
+"That would suit me exactly. I should like to carry my head as high as
+the Pope's tiara. But I have reason, as you know, to expect hereafter
+one of the proudest coronets in Britain; and shall certainly not remain
+a day longer than I can help dependent, Patrick, on the most singularly
+generous, liberal, and considerate of brothers,--with the one only
+fault of caring for nobody but himself. If I were drowning, you would
+scarcely stretch out your little finger to save me, in case it might
+become wet."
+
+"Quite right, Agnes, not to depend on me, or you would have little to
+depend upon. My pockets are to let unfurnished now! I shall perhaps go
+to Australia,--or probably measure the depth of the Serpentine some
+evening; though, in the mean while, I may put up with life a little
+longer, bad as it is. Now, therefore, Agnes, hear my last advice. You
+have the world upon a string, and shall see a large assortment of
+admirers to choose among. When torrents of proposals are pouring in
+upon you, as they will and must do soon, get safely into the haven of
+matrimony, or you will be shipwrecked for ever. Accomplished misses are
+quite a drug in the market now; but you ought to be ashamed, Agnes, of
+missing that little pigmy peer, Lord Bowater, two years ago, when you
+had three days the start of every other young lady in making the
+acquaintance. He treated you shockingly, to fall in love at first sight
+with that paltry Miss Gordon. As for any other coronet you are ever
+likely to wear, I know of none that even a telescope could give you the
+most distant prospect of. Now wait till I am out of the room before you
+faint!"
+
+"Marion!" said Agnes, yawning outrageously when her brother had
+departed, and looking unspeakably forlorn, "How often I have laughed
+ready to die, at the case of other girls, without ever dreaming it
+could in any degree resemble my own! Every year that worthy, old,
+respectable Lord Towercliffe, as fond of home as uncle Arthur or any
+garden snail, suddenly breaks up his comfortable establishment in the
+country, and comes to town with the declared intention of giving
+Charlotte and Maria 'proper advantages!' The poor girls, then, see
+their father obliged to undergo the wretchedness of frequenting a club,
+to form suitable acquaintances, and suffering hourly martyrdom in being
+absent from his farm, his stud, his improvements, and all that
+interests him in life, while our active, energetic friend, Lady
+Towercliffe, plunged into a wilderness of blond and feathers, rushes
+eagerly from house to house, followed by her flock of disposable
+daughters, whom she is perpetually puffing off, like Robins the
+auctioneer. Then follow dinner parties, given at an expense which the
+young ladies know to be ruinous, balls, soirees, flirtations,
+disappointments, and at last the family coach trundling slowly back at
+a funeral pace to St. Abbsbury, where the lodge-keeper despondingly
+counts heads as they pass, to see whether their numbers continue still
+undiminished! It is altogether horrid, and perfectly laughable, too!"
+
+"Not very laughable!" said Marion, coloring; "whether Lord Towercliffe
+takes the affair good-humoredly or otherwise, it must be most degrading
+and humiliating for the young ladies. I can fancy nothing more odious!"
+
+"A grand skirmish ending in defeat!" added Agnes, ironically. "I
+remember formerly, when these Malcolm girls were in their school-room,
+the chief bugbear hung over them, if they neglected the arts of dress
+and fascination, was, that they would inevitably die old maids. They
+were educated for the profession of matrimony, and were each taught to
+expect a husband of rank and fortune, at the very least, equal to their
+father's."
+
+"Yes," said Marion, "Lady Towercliffe would consider any one of her
+very plain daughters as perfectly disgraced, either to marry in a grade
+the least degree below her own, or not to marry at all, therefore they
+are allowed no alternative. The position of young ladies during the
+present time seems far from enviable. In these days of clubs,
+money-making, and old bachelorism, not a third of those who grow up now
+will be married at all, and perhaps not a third of those who do marry
+will be happy! It seems to me strange and unaccountable that parents
+who have any consideration for the happiness of their daughters,
+inculcate no ideas into their minds and hearts unconnected with
+matrimony, and, like Lady Towercliffe, drive them forward to the public
+view, a mark for censure, gossip, and ridicule, till they find shelter
+in some other home, where it is five to one that they will be
+miserable."
+
+"Yes, miserable indeed," added Agnes, indolently, "men are all so
+selfish. Husbands expect the whole time, thoughts, and affections of
+their wives in return for the very little they choose to spare from
+their horses, dogs, and clubs. On these their whole income is to be
+squandered, while they keep to that favorite rule--'What is yours is
+mine, and what is mine is my own.' The ladies must be invariably in
+good humor and lively spirits at home, perfectly well dressed, with a
+cheerful fireside, and a luxurious table; but, at the same time, we are
+never to ask for money or to have any bills! our servants are all to be
+first-rate on the very lowest wages, and our children in the best order
+without ever being punished or thwarted!--a fairy's wand could not do
+the half of it."
+
+"I am often amused now," said Marion, "to hear people say of the
+dullest and most unprepossessing old bachelor in the world, 'I wonder
+he never takes it into his head to marry!' while they observe, in
+discussing any girl more beautiful and fascinating than another, 'How
+very surprising that she has never got married!' when, at the same
+time, there is not perhaps a single year of her life since she was born
+that she might not have been established if she chose. I believe that
+the vulgar consideration of money makes all the difference; for if
+ladies had the fortunes, instead of gentlemen, they would be quite as
+uncertain and capricious, off and on, about marrying or not marrying,
+as--as even Captain De Crespigny!"
+
+"One of the last times he called here," said Agnes, "when lamenting, as
+he often does, his unmarriageable state of poverty at present, Captain
+De Crespigny said, in his droll way, that he would some day bring a
+bill into Parliament, ordaining that every old bachelor who could
+maintain a wife for himself and will not, shall be obliged to support
+one for somebody else, who wishes to marry and cannot afford. Now,
+Marion, let us put all our Harrowgate irons in the fire, and prepare to
+be admired by all admirers next week at the Granby!"
+
+"You know, Agnes, though I do not tease you or Patrick by often
+alluding to what you call my sentimental vagaries, that there is only
+one person in the world by whom I have any ambition to be admired;
+though our engagement must be postponed, till Richard is in
+circumstances to marry with prudence. Without reference to that,
+however, in respect to Harrowgate society, it is said to be more like a
+low farce than a genteel comedy!"
+
+"A little of both! but we shall be in the best set. I hope Sir Arthur
+will not be teasing us with any of his world-before-the-flood ideas,
+about late hours, waltzing, and all the other enormities of fashionable
+life! It is my duty, really, to give him a few presentable ideas now,
+for he lived in the dark ages, when old Queen Charlotte used to keep
+the ladies all so preternaturally precise and decorous. Most of the
+Admiral's notions he had from his mother, who lived, I believe, with
+Queen Elizabeth!"
+
+"But Agnes! even the prejudices of our uncle should be attended to. He
+shows us greater kindness than we ever have known, or can know from any
+body else, and the whole wealth of his affection is devoted to us."
+
+"Well, then! I wish his love could be turned into money! I often think
+if our skins were made of gold, that Patrick would flay us alive! Of
+course I shall not fly in Sir Arthur's face upon every trifle, for we
+must humor him sometimes! One day, long ago, I took him in
+delightfully, by saying that if he disapproved of waltzing, I hoped he
+would not object to a galope! At Harrowgate, the military men will all
+fortunately be out of uniform, therefore Sir Arthur need never guess
+who or what they are, as he has a most inconvenient dislike to my being
+so intimate with the army list, and one really cannot do without a few
+tame officers running about the drawing-room."
+
+"But, Agnes! as Patrick says, you cannot live upon fried epaulettes,
+therefore it would look much better not to be surrounded by so great a
+variety of officers! It scarcely seems respectable to be, as Patrick
+called you long ago, the member for Barrackshire!"
+
+"Marion! you are most ridiculously circumspect for your years!" replied
+Agnes, in her most stately tone; "you have certainly commenced life at
+the wrong end, and will be beginning to grow young, when I am thinking
+it time to grow old--if I ever do!"
+
+"I wish not to buy experience at so dear a rate as most girls do, but
+rather to benefit by that of others,--to reach the kernel at once,
+without having any trouble in breaking the shell!"
+
+"Pshaw, Marion! I would feel myself a fool for a week, had I spoken
+such nonsense! It gives me the tic douloureux to hear you. Who would
+think of listening now to every old hack, worn out with the
+vicissitudes of life, and only fit to make you melancholy before the
+time! But take your own way," added Agnes, who allowed Marion her own
+way, as the Vicar of Wakefield's daughters were allowed their
+pocket-money, which was never to be used. "You go upon the impossible
+plan of pleasing everybody; but remember the wise old proverb,--'Cover
+yourself with honey, and the flies will eat you up.'"
+
+When Marion spoke from the heart to her sister, she was accustomed to
+find herself talking to the winds, therefore she now concluded the
+conversation with a lively good-humored reply, and sat down to the
+pianoforte. Her music was as different as her conversation from that of
+Agnes, who but little appreciated it, and generally left the room,
+humming a tune as soon as Marion struck her first chord; but, on this
+occasion, she for once remained stationary.
+
+The style of Agnes' singing was a brilliant bravura, which, in any
+public performer, might have commanded whirlwinds of applause, but
+while her clear soprano voice dazzled and astonished by its uncommon
+brilliancy, Sir Patrick alleged that it cracked every glass in the
+room, and that her taste had been cultivated till she had literally
+none of her own,--Bellini's cadences, Rubini's shake, and Anybody's
+graces, all acquired from every teacher except nature, to whom nothing
+had been trusted.
+
+The rich full-toned melody of Marion's _contralto_ voice, often became
+instinct with the simple suggestions of her own feeling, while her
+music had that only one charm which never can be taught,--expression.
+There was a depth of sensibility in her eye and voice, which riveted
+the attention and awakened the sympathy of every heart, while it always
+appeared that, if display had been her object, she could have done much
+more than she attempted. No bird on a tree ever warbled its wild notes
+with more perfect simplicity and real delight. The rippling of a brook
+over its pebbly bed, or the sighing of the breeze amidst the summer
+foliage, was not more entirely natural, and while Sir Patrick sometimes
+protested that "every note was a tear," she yet reached even his
+feelings, so that not a whisper could be heard from him till the last
+cadence had melted away on his ear. Marion having seldom yet had any
+audience except her school-companions, remained almost unconscious of
+her own singular gift; but this day she sang with deep enthusiasm, and
+the last thrilling tones of her voice had died inaudibly away, when she
+looked round and saw young Lord Wigton standing near the door beside
+Agnes, in an attitude of intense and speechless admiration, with all
+his faculties, if he had any, apparently suspended,--his lips
+apart,--his eyes beaming with delight,--and his whole expression full
+of wonder and ecstasy; while Sir Patrick was lounging on a sofa near,
+exhibiting a smiling, frolicsome expression in his eye, full of fun and
+mischief.
+
+"This is hardly fair," exclaimed Marion, laughingly starting up with a
+brilliant blush of astonishment; "you know, Lord Wigton, stealing into
+a dwelling house is punishable by law."
+
+"Whatever be the penalty, I am sufficiently rewarded," answered he,
+with a shy diffident look. "My flute will be happy any day to make you
+an apology."
+
+Those who love music, and those only, can estimate its power over the
+feelings, and for several minutes afterwards Lord Wigton remained
+silent, then, suddenly awakening as if from a dream, he uttered some
+incoherent exclamations of rapture, and in tones of unaffected
+animation entreated Marion to sing the same air once again; while she,
+amused and surprised at his extraordinary _empressement_, prepared to
+comply.
+
+"My song is not worth asking for twice, and still less worth refusing,
+therefore you shall have it in my very best style!" said Marion,
+playing the prelude, for she had none of that giggling affected shyness
+assumed by most girls during their first winter. "This note is pitched
+so high, you should go up stairs to hear it!"
+
+"How strange that one so gay as you, should have a voice of such
+melting sadness!" exclaimed Lord Wigton. "It awakens fifty thousand
+thoughts and feelings I never knew before! I shall become an
+improvisatore, when listening to melody 'so rare and enchanting!'"
+
+"You must have heard it through the key-hole!" said Marion, laughing.
+"I had no idea that my trash could reach any ears but my own."
+
+"It did more, for it reached my heart! Your voice is the very essence
+of nightingales. I shall follow you to Harrowgate, for the chance of
+hearing that air once again."
+
+"Perhaps, then, it has some peculiar interest," said Marion, surprised
+at the warmth of his enthusiasm. "The chief delight of music certainly
+is, the associations it brings out, the remembrances of bye-gone hours
+it recalls, and the million of little phantoms it creates of past or
+future times."
+
+"Marion! your voice is by no means equal to that song, and your style
+is very amateur-ish indeed," interrupted Agnes, bitterly. "I do not
+wish to boast," added she, laughing, to conceal her irritation; "but
+Grisi never ventured to sing that air after hearing me, and Delvini
+said his fortune would be made, if he could engage me for his Prima
+Donna. I only mention this among friends. Keep it secret, for I hate to
+cause jealousy and mortification! Few people understand music like my
+old master Delvini, who said that my god-mother must certainly have
+possessed the wand of a fairy, and gifted me with music."
+
+"Ah! Delvini is the man who plays a whole concerto upon one note of the
+piano, or something wonderful of that kind," observed Lord Wigton,
+looking impatiently for Marion to begin. "I hate the helter-skelter
+school in music! people scampering through their songs with a thousand
+miraculous flourishes, which set one's teeth on edge."
+
+"Such performers," answered Marion, "give me no more pleasure than to
+see Van Amburgh thrust his head into the lion's mouth, which is very
+surprising, and what I could not do myself, but it excites no sympathy,
+and raises no emotion better than wonder."
+
+"Your voice is like some fairy spirit that would lead me to the world's
+end," said Lord Wigton, with an air of eager expectation. "And now,
+Miss Dunbar, I am all ears."
+
+"So I think, and very long ears too," muttered Agnes to herself, angry
+beyond all bounds at the young Peer's attention to Marion, when
+hitherto she had been the principal, or rather the only object of
+interest to him whenever they were in the same room. Agnes, without an
+assiduous lover, ready to put on her shawl, clasp her bracelets, and
+carry her boa, was like a ship without a compass, not knowing which way
+to turn, and though nothing could make up for the want of those
+graceful flatteries, amusing quarrels, and ambitious hopes, to which
+she was accustomed with Captain De Crespigny, yet should he disappoint
+her, Lord Wigton had been recently promoted to the character of a _pis
+aller_ in the list of her admirers, as she was heard to remark, that
+"it is better to have a donkey that carries you, than a horse that
+throws you." Though usually the object of her unbounded ridicule, yet
+the young Peer had recently become of so much importance to her, that
+it was indeed an unpardonable affront when he spared one moment's
+attention to Marion, while at the same time she considered his taste on
+the occasion, quite as questionable as that of the bird which preferred
+a barley-corn to a diamond.
+
+Next morning, to the increased indignation of Agnes, Lord Wigton's
+servant left at the door of St. John's Lodge, two splendid bouquets,
+both equally rare and beautiful; but when they were presented, Agnes
+looked angrily at Marion's, and plucked her own to pieces, saying,
+"That absurd little man! it is worth while to hear him talk of being in
+love, he makes the subject so thoroughly ridiculous! I like all my
+lovers till I tire of them, and his Lordship's reign was over last
+Tuesday. He has the stiffness of the poker without its occasional heat,
+and no more individuality of character than a leaf upon a tree. I
+wonder where we could have him measured for a cap-and-bells. He has so
+little vivacity, that he now wears the fool's cap without the bells. He
+did so weary me! I think Lord Wigton must be the man Rochefoucalt had
+in his eye when he said that many people would never have known how to
+fall in love, if they had not first heard it talked about! His
+sentimental speeches are so thoroughly ridiculous, they often remind me
+of Liston's meditation in the farce, 'There stands my Mary's cottage!
+and she must either be in it, or out of it!'"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+If happiness will not come of itself, most very sagacious people set
+forth in search of that enjoyment which none are willing to do without,
+though many plans are generally tried, before the right one be
+discovered. Agnes now declared that she was "ridiculously happy," while
+plunged in a whirl of preparations for Harrowgate, trying on every
+bonnet at every milliner's, and discussing the tone and coloring of
+silks or satins, with as much care and science as an amateur in
+paintings would devote to the study of a Titian or a Vandyke, while her
+spirits were restored to their highest pitch, by a letter she had
+accidentally seen from Captain De Crespigny, expressing the greatest
+delight in the prospect of seeing Sir Patrick and "his charming sister"
+once more, and mentioning that he was about soon to arrive at the
+Granby, in attendance on his uncle, who had already preceded him there.
+Agnes at once restored herself now, to the pleasing certainty of
+Captain De Crespigny's sincerity, and every ribbon she chose, or every
+costume she ordered, had an immediate reference to his taste. "_La
+toilette est une belle invention_;" but Marion's dress, without causing
+half the trouble and _fracas_ occasioned by that of Agnes, seemed
+invariably to fit better than any other person's, and the colors she
+wore were always in the most perfect harmony.
+
+Agnes never became wearied of the pleasurable bustle in which she was
+now engaged, till at length, when the imperial was packed, and the last
+box with extreme difficulty closed, she declared herself to be quite in
+love with life, and sprang into Sir Arthur's carriage, radiant in all
+the joy of a thousand anticipated triumphs. It might have been a study
+for any artist wishing to sketch a frontispiece for "The Pleasures of
+Hope," to see Agnes indulging all her own impossible expectations and
+ineffable wishes; but unlike the Goddess of Hope, she required no
+anchor whatever to rest on. Her drafts on the bank of futurity were
+unlimited by a single consideration of reason or probability, and like
+the Chinese plant that lives without requiring any nourishment from the
+earth, she existed upon a diet of airy nothings, and in a pleasing
+delirium of unreal fancies, wherein Captain De Crespigny generally
+acted the principal part. In the mind of Agnes--or rather in the empty
+space where a mind is supposed to be--she hung up a splendid
+picture-gallery, grouped and painted according to her own taste,
+displaying shadows as vivid as realities; and ignorant apparently that
+ever "hope told a flattering tale," she seemed scarcely to have a past
+or present period in her existence, the whole being formed into one
+bright futurity, glittering with splendid impossibilities.
+
+If those who waste and enervate their intellects by building castles in
+the air, could be supposed able to create scenes in reality, as easily
+and rapidly as they do in imagination, it would, perhaps, be the most
+vivid conception man could form of omnipotent power. Agnes' _chateaux
+en Espagne_ were in a most florid style of architecture, but scarcely
+lasted long enough to become finished edifices, as the phantoms came
+dashing through her mind in ceaseless variety, all apparently
+fragments, or slight sketches of future greatness, but without a
+probable access except the fool's ladder of hope. Her own visions were
+all, certainly, to be realised, and those of every other person
+disappointed, for the mortifications of even her intimate friends
+enhanced the pleasure of anticipated success; and while her plans were
+like the portraits of Queen Elizabeth, without a single shade, or like
+temples of spun sugar, all sweetness without solidity, the crowning joy
+of all was, to be envied, even more than to be admired.
+
+While Agnes thus piled hope upon hope, her wishes were dedicated to
+very solid possessions. In childhood her world had been a world of _bon
+bons_ and rattles, and now the kaleidoscope of her imagination was
+filled with an ever-changing galaxy of jewels, titles, equipages, toys,
+gold, bijouterie, and coronets, among which the Marquisate of Doncaster
+owed some of its prominence to the distinguished place it claimed in
+the herald's office. Conscious that she had been born with a peculiar
+genius for fine ladyism, Agnes considered the world as a large easy
+chair, wherein she might lounge away life in a perpetual gala, enjoying
+all the luxuries, and amused with all the trivialities of life. Having
+an idea that her undoubted birth-right was distinction and happiness,
+she considered it an undeserved injury to be deprived of a single
+delight on which her heart was set. Carelessly despising the duties or
+affections of life, she coveted only its diversions, and her favorite
+consolation, amidst its actual annoyances, was frequently to
+
+    Blow sportive bladders in the beaming sun,
+    And call them worlds.
+
+Sir Arthur had always been one of the few old people who would ever
+allow himself to be considered well and happy, but he cultivated a
+placid, cheerful good-humor, which enabled him now to prepare with
+apparent equanimity for exploring his way through the unknown seas of
+Harrowgate society, though he entered the carriage to be conveyed there
+with very little more inward satisfaction than he would have felt on
+stepping into a cart which was conveying him to Newgate, being fully
+persuaded that no fish had ever been as much out of water in the world
+before, as he was about to feel himself.
+
+Impatience only lengthens the hours which it seems desirable to
+accelerate, and time appeared to have become entirely motionless; while
+Agnes peevishly thought, during her journey, that the minutes passed
+like drops of lead, and that every day had some additional hours, till
+that day of days should at last arrive which was to rise the curtain
+and display Harrowgate to her view, though she almost ceased to repine
+at any present inconveniences while bewildered and lost in gay hopes
+for the future.
+
+Sir Arthur good-humoredly whispered to Marion, as they drove along
+through Yorkshire, that with such a mute as Agnes beside him, he felt
+almost afraid of the bow-string, and that she was the mere _tableau_ of
+a travelling companion, who seemed, like Lady Macbeth, to be literally
+walking and talking in her sleep. While Marion and her uncle beguiled
+their long journey with agreeable discussions and lively remarks,
+Agnes, perfectly absent during most of the way, and out of humor during
+the rest of it, uttered a thousand consequential complaints about the
+cold, the heat, the sun, the dust, the air, or the closeness, while Sir
+Arthur smilingly remarked, that Agnes' life seemed to be a sea of
+troubles, but hope served as a cork jacket to support her through them
+all.
+
+Like the fairy who turned a gloomy grove into a crystal palace, Agnes
+had now, in her private mind, metamorphosed the Admiral's old green
+chariot into a glittering saloon at Harrowgate, filled by a crowd of
+admirers, each gifted with almost superhuman merit and distinction, who
+were to fall prostrate at her feet, making proposals which sometimes
+she gracefully accepted, and sometimes as gracefully declined. Nothing
+was real around Agnes at present; but as the picture of a friend
+supplies the want of the original, so the imaginary attentions of
+Captain De Crespigny and other victims, consoled her for their being
+absent, and her life became a lively comedy, where the curtain never
+fell, and she was herself always the principal figure on the stage.
+
+Neither Alnwick Castle nor Harewood House attracted a moment's
+attention from Agnes, who cared no more for the magnificent landscapes
+they passed, than did the post-horses that drew the carriage; and when
+the party stopped at Caterick Bridge to dine, she had just put on the
+family diamonds of the Duke of Kinross, who waited to conduct her to
+the altar. It was a favorite speculation with Agnes, that she was to
+become acquainted in the public room at Harrowgate, with some handsome
+_incognito_, the sort of perfect Adonis whom alone it would be possible
+to marry; and after dancing, flirting, dining, and supping with him,
+he was to turn out the Duke of Somebody, who should make her a
+long-sighed-for declaration of undying attachment, while Barons, Earls,
+Viscounts, and above all, Captain De Crespigny, should be plunged into
+the depths of despair by her accepting him.
+
+Agnes' lovers were never estimated according to the qualities of their
+head or heart, but according to the trivialities of their dress and
+appearance. Like the Grecian artist, in love with an image of his own
+forming, the description of her intended lovers, with which she
+occasionally favored Marion, resembled a lecture on comparative
+anatomy, so emphatic was she on the necessity of his being neither too
+tall, nor too short, too dark, nor too fair; while she would evidently
+have considered a bad temper less objectionable than a bad complexion,
+and was ready to tolerate a man who was dissipated, rather than one who
+was awkward.
+
+In the estimation of Agnes, "good society" was composed entirely of
+lords and ladies, while her fancy very seldom strayed out of the
+peerage; though she did sometimes take the trouble to fancy herself
+admired by some distinguished commoner of more than ordinary celebrity,
+merely for the pleasure of rejecting him, and swelling her right
+honorable triumph, when she exchanged her wreath of roses for a
+coronet. Those who had been proverbially inconstant to other ladies,
+would now become unchangeably devoted to her; and if she heard of any
+individual more than commonly fatal to the peace of other ladies, her
+fertile mind suggested scenes of romance and rapture, where the
+injuries of others would be more than revenged by the distracting
+suspense in which she meant to hold her intended victim.
+
+While the world thus ran upon castors in the imagination of Agnes, no
+novel could be nearly so interesting as her own rose-colored dreams,
+because in none could she be herself the heroine; but when reading the
+most romantic romances, they served occasionally to suggest new scenes
+of emotion and pleasure, which could be adapted with variations to her
+own case, while all she saw in books flitted like a gay phantasmagoria
+from her mind, except what could be in any way applied to herself. The
+business of life, in short, was, she thought, to make every man living
+in love with her, and to get through existence like a party of
+pleasure, crowding into it the greatest possible variety of amusements,
+and ending the whole with orange flowers, Brussels lace, wedding-cake,
+and favors.
+
+None of the sacred duties or home affections ever entered into Agnes'
+calculations. She lived merely for the triumphs of society; while
+Marion existed for the happiness of home, seeking only the redeeming
+points of life, and absorbed in a prevailing desire to deserve and to
+obtain the attachment of those who were by nature nearest and dearest
+to herself. As the proverb says, "A long road or a bad inn teach us to
+know our companions;" but all that a generous person can do for others,
+and all that a selfish person fancies he could do, Marion did, with
+unobtrusive attention, for Sir Arthur and Agnes during the journey;
+while her sister sarcastically remarked, that even if Dash wagged his
+tail to her, she seemed grateful for his regard.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+
+It was on a pleasant evening towards the end of August, that Sir
+Arthur's chariot stopped at the Granby Hotel, which looked to the
+travellers more like an entire street than a single house; and Marion
+thought that accommodation might be prepared in it for all the invalids
+in Great Britain. Her ears were instantly deafened by a noisy clamor of
+bells, while the carriage was surrounded by a cluster of shabby
+waiters, in second-hand looking clothes, dishevelled hair, soiled
+cotton stockings, and dusty shoes, who were vociferous in their
+protestations that the house was already more than full, and that a
+hundred and fifty guests dined every day at the ordinary. In the mean
+time, however, they hurriedly dismounted Sir Arthur's baggage from the
+chariot, and at length ushered him into a sitting room, with a promise
+of finding sleeping apartments for the whole party, up three pair of
+stairs, in a lodging across the common, a tall old building spotted
+over like a plum pudding with windows, where they must be ready to
+abdicate on a moment's notice, if necessary, the whole house having
+been bespoke some weeks before, for Miss Howard Smytheson, the heiress,
+and suite.
+
+No place is so little changed by lapse of time as Harrowgate, during
+the last two centuries which have elapsed since first its unpalatable
+waters were tasted. There the same three great hotels flourish supreme,
+as in the days of Smollet, holding their crowded ordinaries, and
+distinguished by their former designations, as the House of Lords, the
+House of Commons, and the House of Drs. There, during three months of
+every successive year, an equal crowd assembles in search of health for
+their disordered bodies, and excitement for their stagnant minds, while
+time and money are frantically squandered, as if both were dealt out in
+unlimited portions among all who thus emulously seek with wearied
+eagerness for frivolous amusements, idle flutter, and all those
+relaxations of an unsatisfied existence, which soon became intolerable
+to those who can amuse themselves, but necessary to those who cannot.
+
+The very same rooms and furniture, the very same tables, knives,
+glasses, and spoons, and the same hours of eating and drinking, which
+were used during the time of old Humphrey Bramble, are still in
+existence, while every thing remains as much unaltered as the blue
+firmament above, except the company. Year after year has, at
+Harrowgate, even more, perhaps, than elsewhere, testified the ceaseless
+mutability of human affairs, where, amidst light laughter, mirth and
+music, the young have become married, the old have died, and, as days
+roll on in that little world of eager excitement, the names of all are
+soon alike forgotten. At Harrowgate the visitors seem scarcely more
+permanently interested in each other than in actors on the stage, or in
+characters represented by a novelist. Any lounger who appears in the
+public saloons a second year, becomes completely naturalized in the
+house; after a third season, it is ten to one he may be considered a
+bore; and during the fourth or fifth, he is completely superannuated. In
+these gay rooms, how much of human life and feeling have existed! how
+many of its joys and sorrows been experienced! and how many of its
+deepest interests have arisen, amidst the gay dance, the ringing laugh,
+the lively coquetry, the frantic dissipation, and the vows of endless
+attachment! With many a past generation, the fever of frivolity is
+over, and the dust of death now shrouds every remembrance in oblivion:
+but a new race yet successively arises, to exist, like their
+predecessors, in an atmosphere of music, dancing, flirting, riding,
+driving, feasting, and gayety,
+
+    "Smiling as if earth contain'd no tomb."
+
+"I cannot but think, when arriving at any new place," observed Marion,
+"what solitary desolation must frequently be experienced by those
+'citizens of the world,' who are for ever on the wing, from country to
+country, throughout the habitable and uninhabitable globe! We who live
+only for social companionship, would feel perfectly lost in arriving at
+a perpetual succession of places, where not one human being depends
+upon us for comfort or enjoyment--where not a single genuine tear would
+be shed by any living individual, if we dropped down dead at their
+feet!"
+
+"You are right, Marion," replied Sir Arthur. "Once when taken
+dangerously ill abroad, I was surrounded by those only to whom my very
+language was unknown, my features strange, my name unheard of, and my
+whole feelings indifferent. It was dreary and desolate indeed! A new
+place may divert us for a time, but we do not live to enjoy mere
+scenery or mere amusement. To find real happiness we must look within
+the circle of home feelings, home duties, and home enjoyments."
+
+When the very aristocratic and distinguished-looking Sir Arthur Dunbar
+first appeared in the public room at the Granby, leading in his two
+radiantly beautiful nieces, the babbling murmur of conversation became
+suddenly hushed, while a general whisper of surprise and admiration
+circulated round the tea-table. Many an eager inquiry was rapidly
+promulgated who they could possibly be, and from whence they came;
+while Lord Wigton, to produce some amusement, secretly announced that
+it was the Duke of Lincolnshire and his two eldest unmarried daughters.
+
+The better half of pleasure was its novelty to Marion, whose half-shy,
+half-amused looks, as she entered among a score or two of perfect
+strangers, found a pleasing contrast to the criticising, examining,
+fastidious air with which Agnes, in the full swell of magnificence,
+glanced her brilliant, haughty eyes round the tables, and muttered
+contemptuously to Sir Arthur, that the living furniture in the room
+seemed little better than a zoological garden--a human menagerie of
+tigers, bears, and monkeys, varied by a large proportion of red
+inflamed strawberry-colored faces belonging to the water-drinkers. By
+no means satisfied with the commencement of her Harrowgate existence,
+Agnes established on the spot a little whispering gallery of satirical
+discontent, while she ridiculed to Marion those of the company who were
+unlucky enough first to attract her notice and her disapprobation.
+
+Though the room appeared abundantly peopled with _dramatis personæ_ of
+many kinds and degrees, yet, instead of seeing, as she had rather too
+sanguinely anticipated, a society of distinguished-looking personages,
+as select as if they had been introduced at a drawing-room in St.
+James' Palace, the saloon was encumbered with groups of people as
+ridiculous as any that Agnes ever remembered to have seen at a country
+theatre. Old _beaux_ of half a century's duration,--two or three
+remarkably conceited, overdressed officers in full-fledged
+mustachios,--crowds of busy, bustling, managing-looking mothers,--four
+or five over-dressed Irish fortune-hunters,--a knot of agricultural,
+kill-your-own-mutton country gentlemen,--one or two widows of not very
+doubtful age, but _rouged_ to excess,--a few Oxonian professors, who
+were F.R.S. and the whole alphabet besides,--a multitude of
+whist-playing clergymen, reverened only on their visiting cards, who
+bore no symptom of their profession except a white neckcloth,--many old
+people to be made young, and young people to be made younger,--besides
+nearly an acre of very un-Almacks-like young ladies, showily attired in
+pink, blue, or yellow, like a bed of tulips, all in very gay spirits,
+or pretending to be so, who seemed to lead a life of perpetual smiles
+and good-humor, as if all the troubles of existence were unknown or a
+mere laughing matter to them.
+
+Sir Arthur was not long in having a delighted recognition with an old,
+wooden-legged messmate, Captain Ogilvie, who introduced to Marion his
+"three head of daughters," pretty animated girls; and Agnes hastily
+seated herself at the tea-table, disappointed beyond measure in the
+first chapter of her adventures, and half determined already to set
+about hating the whole party. Though deceived only by her own too vivid
+anticipations, she felt in some way or other imposed upon, in being
+unexpectedly introduced to such very third-rate society, and for
+several minutes she maintained a petulant silence, so very unlike her
+usual volubility, that she began, before long, to wish for some one
+with whom to enjoy a laugh at the whole circle of whimsical-looking
+oddities.
+
+Close beside the seat on which Agnes had accidentally placed herself,
+she very soon observed an old gentleman considerably past the meridian
+of life, who nevertheless dressed with very obvious pretensions to
+youth, wearing a fashionable, well-contrived wig, a perfectly startling
+set of teeth, and a gouty black velvet shoe. His figure was well built,
+and he had altogether a look of individual eccentricity peculiar to
+himself, with an air of supercilious haughtiness, which testified that,
+like Agnes, he thought himself too good for his company.
+
+"Who can he be?" thought she, finding his eye fixed upon herself with a
+fastidious look of connoisseurship, such as that with which he might
+have examined some doubtful copy of a Vandyke or Titian, while an
+expression of complacent approbation gradually stole into his features.
+"Probably some eminent artist! He may perhaps ask leave to do my
+picture for the exhibition!"
+
+Having reached this conclusion, she was almost startled to hear herself
+addressed by her unknown neighbor, in a consequential, rather
+patronising voice, and with an air of unembarrassed distinction, while
+he evidently watched her countenance with the same look of criticism as
+before, so that she felt certain if there had been a flaw in her teeth,
+or a single hair disarranged on her head, it could not have escaped his
+notice. So fastidious a personage seemed almost worth the trouble of
+pleasing, and Agnes, after replying rather graciously to his first few
+remarks, became exceedingly surprised to discover that there was a tone
+of well bred command in his dry, cynical manner, united with the most
+perfect polish, which both awed and surprised her. His assumption of
+superiority and importance seemed almost unconscious, but he evidently
+entertained not the fraction of a doubt that his conversation was a
+singular honor and an agreeable acquisition to any one on whom he
+condescended to bestow the slightest attention.
+
+"I have lived here lately at the rate of twenty new acquaintances a
+day, and am happy this evening in adding another to my usual allowance.
+One must enter into the humors of a place like Harrowgate, and do at
+Rome as Rome does," said he, in a somewhat haughty, supercilious tone.
+"This is the only spot in all the earth where English people attempt
+the ease and sociability of foreign manners, and we must acknowledge it
+fits rather awkwardly. Nevertheless, being in my own neighborhood, I
+make a point every year of lending my countenance for a short time to
+this house."
+
+Agnes gave an undervaluing glance at her companion, and privately
+thought his thin, dry countenance, with every vein like whip cord,
+might well have been dispensed with, but though he appeared to be
+unpardonably ugly, she prudently sipped her tea in silence, looking
+somewhat askance at the little consequential gentleman beside her;
+while he took the opportunity of examining her profile with his keen,
+observant eye, after which, having apparently satisfied himself that
+she was worth the honor of being spoken to, he continued, in a hard,
+croaking voice, like a door grating on its rusty hinges:
+
+"The company here is nearly of the same calibre as you might probably
+encounter in a Margate hoy, or in a second-class train on the
+Birmingham railroad."
+
+"Or at Bartholomew fair," added Agnes, determined not to be outdone. "I
+feel as if we were dining for once at the second table. There should be
+doorkeepers at Harrowgate to keep out the _canaille_! I wonder Captain
+De Crespigny misinformed my brother so much about the society here; but
+he would have said anything to make us come."
+
+"No one would ever dream, in his wildest moments, of visiting
+Harrowgate for society. Mere knife-grinders from Sheffield, and country
+curates," replied her fastidious companion, in a short, abrupt tone.
+"Are you acquainted with Louis De Crespigny?"
+
+"Yes; everybody who is anybody knows him, and those who do not often
+pretend they do," replied Agnes, indignant at the easy, almost
+contemptuous manner in which her companion named one whom she
+considered as her own peculiar property. "Not to know him would argue
+ourselves unknown."
+
+"I certainly am unknown," said her companion, with a strange little
+conscious laugh, which seemed to Agnes quite unaccountable. "Has De
+Crespigny so universal an acquaintance? People must be more at a loss
+for society than I had supposed!"
+
+"You know," replied Agnes, in an unanswerable tone, "he is the future
+Marquis of Doncaster."
+
+"Is he?" answered the old gentleman, with another short, dry laugh, and
+a proving shrug of polite non-conviction. "So much the better for him.
+You are quite sure of that?"
+
+"Perfectly certain! His uncle is a rich old quiz, who never thought
+anybody good enough to marry till now, when nobody would accept of him.
+The old peer could not get a girl to marry him now if he sent the
+bellman round to advertise for one. Captain De Crespigny's succession
+is as undoubted as anything can be which depends on the life of a
+whimsical, superannuated uncle, these many years past in the last stage
+of infirmity. He has the wrinkles ironed out of his face every morning
+with a smoothing iron, and I am told his very bones rattle whenever he
+moves!"
+
+"Indeed!" exclaimed the stranger, in a hard, withering tone, and with a
+cool sneer on his lip. "How very singular!"
+
+"Poor, dear old man! he was handsome once, and never can forget that;
+but it is a century since he lost any looks he ever had, and I am told
+he is quite preternaturally old, withered, and whimsical. Quite
+ingeniously ugly! _laid a faire peur!_ I should be afraid to go near
+him, in case his ugliness might be reflected upon me; but I hear he
+fancies himself quite captivating still. Patrick tells me that the old
+Marquis invested so large a sum of money lately in a new set of teeth,
+that his nephew is quite uneasy lest he should be robbed and murdered
+for the gold they are set in. He scratches his wig sometimes to look as
+if it were his own hair; and he had an ossification of the leg last
+year, in consequence of a disappointment in love!"
+
+"Very remarkable!"
+
+"Yes!" added Agnes, encouraged by the attention she had evidently
+excited, and happy to vent all her long accumulated antipathy. "The
+oldest man who ever lived certainly died at last, but I believe nobody
+ever before existed so long in this world without doing one atom of
+good either to himself or others. He keeps a Roman Catholic Abbe to
+think for him; and once his wig turned grey in a single night with
+distress of mind when they had a quarrel. The Marquis is so afraid of
+apoplexy, that when he walks out the Abbe Mordaunt always carries a
+lancet to bleed him instantly, in case he has a fit."
+
+"How very considerate! You have all this authentic intelligence on the
+best authority of course?" asked the stranger with a submissive bow.
+"De Crespigny's entire! I understand the nephew has not inherited his
+uncle's antipathy to marrying! If this very whimsical old relative
+could be safely packed into his grave,--let me assure you he is even
+more whimsical than has been represented, though not quite so
+infirm,--I suppose Captain De Crespigny would very soon dispose of
+himself and his coronet."
+
+"Certainly!" replied Agnes, unable to repress a conscious smile and
+heightened color. "In that case we should all probably see before long
+a Marchioness of Doncaster!"
+
+"I might not, perhaps, live to be introduced," answered the old
+gentleman demurely. "And I could lay a bet that, as long as I exist, we
+shall never have Captain De Crespigny in the peerage. If you happen,
+however, to know any young lady at all impatient to become Marchioness
+of Doncaster, let her consult me, and I could, perhaps, suggest a
+shorter cut to that situation, than by waiting for Louis De Crespigny."
+
+"How!" exclaimed Agnes, with a bewildered look. "Quite impossible!"
+
+"Unless by accepting the present Marquis, who ought, by your
+description, to go very cheap, old, whimsical, and infirm as he is!"
+replied the stranger, with a sly smile, and a graceful bow. "The report
+you have heard of Lord Doncaster is such, that I feel almost tempted to
+forswear my own name!"
+
+Agnes never in her life approached more nearly to a genuine fainting
+fit, than on hearing these words, and to have been swallowed up in an
+earthquake would have been quite a relief. She felt now like Abon
+Hassan, when he made the vizier bite his finger to ascertain if he were
+really awake, while, with a look of vacant wonder, she became aware
+that the middle-aged, nearly good-looking, and very elegant man beside
+her, was actually the old, worn-out, almost dead, and all but buried
+uncle, whose demise Captain De Crespigny had led her daily or hourly to
+expect for the last two years. If his ghost had appeared, she would not
+have been half so much astonished, while he seemed evidently more
+amused than he chose to acknowledge, at having created such a
+sensation, which he was by no means inclined to diminish, while
+silently admiring the beautiful fluctuations of expression in Agnes'
+resplendent eyes, fixed on himself with almost incredulous amazement.
+At length he rose to take leave, with a smiling, supercilious bow, and
+beckoned in an authoritative manner to a clerical-looking gentleman at
+some distance, to follow him, who spoke in a voice of almost feminine
+softness, though Agnes thought the expression of his countenance
+peculiarly sinister and forbidding.
+
+"That, then, must be the Abbe Mordaunt!" exclaimed Agnes, almost
+aloud, while she gazed at his stern, sallow countenance, his shaggy
+eyebrows, low forehead, and artful-looking smile. "He might act the
+villain in any melo-drama! I would rather not stand between that man
+and any earthly object he may set his heart on! He is the most
+Jesuitical-looking Jesuit I ever beheld!"
+
+Though Agnes' first recontre with the Marquis of Doncaster had been so
+calamitous, and her first prejudice against his shadow, the Abbe, had
+seemed most inveterate, she yet spent much of her time for the next few
+days in their society, and was delighted to engross the attention and
+the evident admiration of the two most distinguished-looking personages
+at the ordinary, while, without scruple, she flattered the Marquis most
+flagrantly, by laughing to excess at her own very mistaken ideas of him
+previous to their meeting, and hinting that this had rendered her
+subsequent surprise the more agreeable. Lord Doncaster in return amused
+himself with talking to her in a style suited to the female society in
+which most of his own time had hitherto been spent, though it should
+not certainly have suited any young girl educated like Agnes, who
+stretched her complaisance, however, to the utmost for a nobleman, and
+the uncle of her intended, Captain De Crespigny.
+
+Marion's refined and delicate feelings shrunk at once from the
+libertine freedom of look and manner which she could not but observe in
+the old Marquis' tone to ladies, and though he repeatedly tried to
+engage her in the flippant and almost dissolute conversation which, in
+a low lover-like tone, he addressed to her sister, and made an
+ostentatious display of his admiration for both, Marion, disgusted and
+shocked at what seemed so utterly unsuitable to his years, gently but
+decidedly evaded all intercourse, being of opinion that the coquetry
+which was dishonorable in the nephew, became ridiculous and
+contemptible in the uncle, therefore she behaved to him with distant
+politeness, and a degree of gravity by no means natural to her in
+general. Marion devoted herself almost exclusively to Sir Arthur,
+leading him about in his walks, and enlivening his conversation with
+old Captain Ogilvy, while she could not but frequently compare the age
+and respectability of her venerable uncle, with the almost equal age
+and very opposite character of the Roman Catholic Marquis, whose thin
+skeleton figure, hollow ghost-like laugh and old stories, as broad as
+they were long, formed as unsuitable a contrast to his juvenile dress
+and manners, as his withered aspect did, to the fresh and fragrant
+flowers he constantly wore in his button-hole, and of which he lavished
+a splendid profusion on Agnes.
+
+Marion observed with increasing surprise and regret, that the lively
+_persiflage_ of her sister with the Marquis, was varied very frequently
+by long and apparently grave discussions, with the Abbe Mordaunt, and
+at the end of a week, she became startled to observe that Agnes wore
+round her neck a black ribbon, from which hung conspicuously suspended
+a large gold crucifix of very beautiful workmanship. On many former
+occasions, Marion had found reason to dread the bitter vengeance of
+Agnes' tongue, but at no loss to guess the source from whence this
+unusual ornament had been derived, she inwardly resolved not to let it
+pass unnoticed, but warmly to remonstrate with her sister on the
+growing influence of the Abbe, which seemed surprising and
+unaccountable, while an undefined feeling of alarm respecting the
+rapidly increasing intimacy of Agnes with Lord Doncaster, caused her to
+long impatiently for the arrival of Sir Patrick, as she felt unwilling
+to distress her uncle on the subject of Agnes' extraordinary conduct,
+trusting that the whole affair was a mere girlish whim--a piece of
+missyish coquetry to please Lord Doncaster, who in the mean time
+laughingly boasted that never before had he made a proselyte so young
+and beautiful.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+
+"Patrick," exclaimed Agnes, hurrying into Sir Arthur's sitting-room the
+morning after her brother's arrival at the Granby, while a brilliant
+color lighted up her cheek, and her eyes sparkled with animation, "Lord
+Wigton is coming in a few minutes to hear me sing that new song of
+Bellini's, therefore pray tell the waiters we are not at home to any
+living mortal, and do hold this music till I give a last touch to my
+ringlets."
+
+Agnes impatiently held out a large roll of paper, but almost screamed
+with astonishment on looking up, to perceive that she had addressed
+Captain De Crespigny, evidently that moment arrived from a long
+journey.
+
+"Good morning, Miss Dunbar. We are well met!" said he, with rather
+satirical emphasis. "I am in a very cut-throat humor to-day, and shall
+certainly put an end to little Lord Wigton!"
+
+"You have nearly put an end to me," replied Agnes, unable to steady her
+voice; "but I am rather glad to see you! Perhaps you may be allowed to
+remain here, though that tiresome man does so teaze me about singing."
+
+"Wigton told me he was coming to see, or rather to hear Marion!" said
+Sir Patrick, emerging from a distant window.
+
+"To hear me!" exclaimed Marion, with unfeigned surprise and perplexity,
+while thunder and lightning both lowered on the forehead of her sister.
+"That must be a mistake! I heard nothing of any appointment, and have
+not had a minute's conversation with Lord Wigton since we arrived at
+Harrowgate. He heard me only once by accident, and probably never will
+again."
+
+"Unless by design!" whispered Agnes, angrily. "Marion, you have
+certainly some underhand way of getting on with people, which baffles
+my comprehension!"
+
+Marion turned away, and silently resumed her place beside Sir Arthur,
+who had been amusing himself by standing at the window, while she told
+him what carriages came round to the door, what parties of pleasure
+were setting out or returning, and what travelling equipages appeared
+in sight, of which seldom fewer than ten or twelve arrived in a day;
+and by ascertaining the coat-of-arms or coronets emblazoned on the
+panels, she sometimes formed a tolerable accurate guess who might
+probably be their occupants. After talking together with great vivacity
+for some time, Sir Arthur suddenly felt the arm of Marion on which he
+was leaning, give an almost convulsive start, while she seemed with
+difficulty to suppress a half-uttered exclamation of delighted
+astonishment. She now leaned eagerly out of the window, to examine a
+travelling chariot which had driven up to the door, from whence a lady,
+apparently in the utmost extreme of weakness, was carefully supported
+out by a gentleman, and before another moment could elapse, Marion had
+rushed down stairs, and was clasped in the arms of Clara Granville.
+
+"Did you get my letter?" exclaimed her friend, in feeble and agitated
+accents, while, after the first rapturous greetings, they had retired
+alone into a sitting-room. "No! is that possible? How could the post
+have been so long delayed? But perhaps it may be as well, for there was
+grief as much as joy in it."
+
+Marion observed now with alarm, that the appearance of Clara, always
+interesting, had become almost painfully so. The summer bloom had
+entirely vanished from her face, and not only had her form shrunk, but
+there was a deep and settled sadness in the expression of her eye, when
+she added,
+
+"The doctors have ordered me to go by easy stages abroad, but they
+recommended me first to try a few weeks here. The sight of you will do
+me more good than any medicine, and I had little difficulty--very
+little indeed, Marion--in persuading Richard to take the Granby on our
+way to the south of France, where we are to go health-hunting and
+scenery-hunting during the approaching winter; but you must see now, as
+I do, and as everybody does, except my dear brother himself, that I am
+hastening fast to that country where the sun always shines, and the
+flowers never fade."
+
+A start of indescribable emotion now shot through the heart of Marion,
+for in the pallid, emaciated countenance of Clara, she already read a
+sentence of death, and she gazed upon her friend with a growing
+conviction, which filled her heart with anguish, that soon, very soon
+they must be separated for ever! but Miss Granville, observing her
+emotion, affectionately added, "Few have more reason to value their
+lives than myself, Marion, and mine I shall do all in my power to
+preserve. We ought to be perfectly and cheerfully satisfied with every
+event as it comes, and while I have such a brother as Richard, my
+existence is precious to me. I know, however, that at all events
+another will reward him for his kindness to me, and one whom he values
+even more than his sister has happily learned to appreciate him as I
+do! Indeed, how could it be otherwise? My home will soon be an eternal
+world, and if I might have a choice, the sooner, perhaps, the better.
+It grieves me to take my brother now from his duties, without a single
+hope of my own restoration. I know that, for I feel it here! Change of
+air and scene can do no permanent good, and I wish we had been allowed
+to remain stationary, as it matters little where I die, compared with
+the importance to many of where Richard lives."
+
+Marion's voice, the faithful index to her feelings, trembled with
+emotion when she replied; but a moment afterwards, a smile of pleasure
+lighted up her dark speaking eyes, when Mr. Granville hastened into the
+room, with a look of animated happiness on again meeting Marion, and
+his whole countenance had that look of deep sensibility which becomes
+externally visible, when the whole mind and heart have been awakened to
+those affections which end with life, and only then. To cover their
+confusion, and conceal her own feelings, Clara assumed a tone of
+unwonted vivacity, saying, with an affectation of extreme gravity,
+"Allow me to introduce my brother,--Miss Dunbar, Mr. Granville! I can
+recommend both as desirable acquaintances, and hope you may find each
+other out by degrees! My duty is done, and now it is your own fault if
+you are not speedily friends!"
+
+Marion became every day more conscious that no one can appreciate the
+real joys and the real sorrows of human life but those who live for its
+friendships and attachments, while she would have thought wealth or
+rank, without affection, like a body without a soul; but Agnes cared
+comparatively little by whose means she obtained her title, equipages,
+and diamonds, provided they were likely to excite envy and admiration.
+In her estimation, the coarsest materials of happiness were the most to
+be coveted, and the marriage contract, instead of being anticipated in
+the light in which it would have appeared to Marion, as giving her the
+privilege of devoting a life-time to the happiness of the person she
+loved best on earth, was merely contemplated as entitling her to an
+expensive _trousseau_, a large establishment, and a set of family
+jewels. In the mind of Agnes, Captain De Crespigny seemed only an
+appendage to his future rank and future expectations, while she
+rehearsed over her own coming greatness with exulting anticipations;
+but Mr. Granville might have lost all that mortal man can lose, even
+life itself, and still retained the same place as at first in Marion's
+affection. The depth of her feelings was tempered, however, by the
+supremacy of yet higher and holier duties and hopes, those of sound and
+enlightened devotion, in which it was her greatest happiness to think
+that she had at length secured "a guide, philosopher, and friend."
+
+No man knew the world more thoroughly, or had viewed it on both sides
+with more careful scrutiny than Captain De Crespigny, who often boasted
+that he saw the working of people's minds as if their heads were like a
+glass bee-hive, and yet he was completely perplexed, on arriving at
+Harrowgate, to account for the extraordinary intimacy which had sprung
+up so suddenly between the beautiful Agnes and his whimsical old--, but
+certainly not venerable relative, Lord Doncaster. It seemed to him at
+first a laughable jest, but before long he became struck by the
+increased coldness of his uncle's manner, which was, if possible, more
+cynical and repulsive than ever, since the time when Agnes had
+inadvertently irritated the vanity of Lord Doncaster by her incautious
+jests during their first interview.
+
+Curiosity now induced Captain De Crespigny, in some degree, to resume
+that intimacy with Agnes, which he came intending entirely to
+discontinue; for he had meant that his attentions should be solely and
+exclusively devoted to the captivation of her still more fascinating
+sister, whom he was intent upon adding to the list of his conquests;
+but Marion continued to receive Captain De Crespigny with careless
+civility, resolved apparently to forget all that had hitherto been
+unpleasant or pleasant between them, while every moment she could spare
+from attending to her uncle was dedicated to the Granvilles. Clara
+never left her private sitting-room, partly from bodily weakness, but
+chiefly to avoid meeting Sir Patrick, whom she had not expected to find
+at Harrowgate,--and his name never passed her lips except once, when in
+answer to a remark of Marion's, she said, "I shun another meeting with
+your brother, not from indifference,--very far from that. If I were
+only more safe from the attachments and delusions of this world, it
+would be unnecessary to avoid him as I do; but I am consoled for my own
+sorrows, Marion, by thinking of my brother's happiness, and by
+believing that you will hereafter value and experience together the
+affection of reason and principle, with a sufficient tinge of romance
+to give it some flavor."
+
+"In that case," replied Marion, frankly, while a bright color glowed on
+her cheek, "I should think myself gifted with the largest share of
+happiness that the world can offer, and much more than the whole world
+could bestow, if unaccompanied by the hope of that felicity we are
+promised beyond it."
+
+"And which I shall share with you at last, though the joy of this world
+I cannot remain to see and to partake of, with those who have all my
+affection and all my prayers," replied Clara, solemnly, while her lips
+trembled with a smile such as floats sometimes on the countenance of a
+Christian at last, "when all the mortal dies."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+
+It was late one fine evening toward the end of August, when, though the
+rooms at the Granby had been brilliantly lighted, several windows were
+open to admit the soft radiance of moonlight, and the whole
+miscellaneous party of ladies and gentlemen resident at the great hotel
+had assembled, full of gay excitement, in the public saloon, where the
+buzz and laughter of merry voices might be heard on every side. Various
+agreeable excursions had taken place throughout the morning. Pic-nics
+had flourished at Studley, Ripon, Bolton Abbey, and Harewood House,
+while even Plumpton rocks, very little higher than the cut for a
+railway, had not been without admirers who called them sublime, and the
+petrifying well at Knaresborough had petrified many with admiration.
+
+A day of amusement seemed likely now to end, as such days too commonly
+do, in weariness and ennui. Several very old gentlemen sat down to
+cards,--those who still made any attempts at being juvenile, flirted
+with the more elderly misses, and Agnes, seated between Lord Doncaster
+and the Abbe, seemed industriously exerting herself to fascinate them
+both, while, though generally careful of her smiles, she now lavished
+them on each side with apparently heedless profusion.
+
+The scarcity of _beaux_, so often remarked and lamented in most
+societies, could hardly be a legitimate cause of complaint on this
+occasion, but, as Sir Patrick remarked to Marion, "in every family
+there is but one eldest son, while there are at least three-and-twenty
+daughters, each educated and prepared to take her place at the head of
+a brilliant establishment; therefore, seeing in this room sixty-five
+young ladies, every one of whom expects to marry on at least £2000
+a-year, it would require £130,000 per annum to satisfy them and their
+expectant mammas!"
+
+Lord Wigton's fortune alone might have been sufficient, if divided into
+suitable portions, for at least ten such happy couples; but his whole
+heart seemed bent on bestowing it, with himself, on Marion, who found
+that she was pursued with assiduity so persevering, not only by him,
+but also by Captain De Crespigny, who had now openly abandoned Agnes
+for her, that, annoyed and perplexed how to act, rather than become
+repulsive and forbidding, which was always repulsive to her nature, she
+silently retreated with Sir Arthur to the quiet domestic fireside of
+the Granvilles, where she enjoyed the peaceful reality of happiness,
+instead of that noisy and glittering imitation of it which she had so
+gladly forsaken.
+
+In the public saloon, Mrs. O'Donoghoe, a superannuated _jeune femme_ of
+about thirty, more or less, in a dress as bright and red as a
+blacksmith's forge, hammered on a decayed piano-forte a sort of tune,
+which might be an Irish jig or a Scotch strathspey, while several
+mournful-looking gentlemen had been persuaded to dance with three or
+four very affected, over-dressed partners, giggling young ladies, most
+of whom were on the shady side of five-and-twenty, dressed in stiff
+muslin frocks _a l'enfant_, bare shoulders, rouge, and very pink
+stockings.
+
+Mrs. O'Donoghoe's marriage, ten years before, had been a true
+Harrowgate match--a mutual take-in--the lady being a reputed heiress,
+without a shilling, and the gentleman endowed with an imaginary estate,
+which turned out to be situated in the moon. Since her widowhood, she
+had affected extreme youth, excessive wealth, and extraordinary
+vivacity, being of opinion that liveliness is the most universally
+popular of all qualities in the gay world, and that those who are not
+gifted by nature with light and joyous spirits, should assume them,
+though, if the exact degree of any person's happiness were distinctly
+marked by a thermometer on their foreheads, the reality might seldom
+coincide with the external appearance, and the pre-eminence would
+seldom be awarded to those who are blazing the brightest in a crowd.
+The most malevolent persons could scarcely wish their worst enemy to
+lead that life of anxiety, mortification, and misery, the inevitable
+doom of ladies who will not consent with a good grace to grow old--who
+desire to seem what they are not, and never can be again--who, instead
+of cheerfully advancing to meet advancing years, attempt to _rajeunir
+leur beaute passee_, and who, vainly endeavoring to stem the tide of
+time, catch at every straw which affords a hope of impeding their
+career into oblivion. If it be indeed true, as all who have experienced
+it acknowledge, that a worldly career, decked with all the glare and
+glitter of success, is yet a weariness to the spirit, what must such a
+life be to those for whom it does not even assume the tinsel of deceit.
+
+Mrs. O'Donoghoe had appeared during nine successive seasons at
+Harrowgate, where she shone like a moving rainbow, dressing of course
+younger as she became older, and being considered now quite a part and
+parcel of the Granby establishment. Though it had been remarked that
+she always appeared about the same day as Lord Doncaster, yet her usual
+place of habitation and means of existence were perfectly unknown; but
+as, on her arrival, she generally entered the public room about the
+same hour as the post bag, it became shrewdly conjectured that she
+might perhaps condescend to travel per mail, while, nevertheless, she
+boasted long and loudly of her enormous jointure.
+
+Sir Patrick alleged, that on a former occasion, when the house was
+crowded, Mrs. O'Donoghoe ordered a bed to be made up for her on the
+billiard table, and that now she had bespoken one, after the dancing
+was over, in the orchestra, while she gladly dispensed with a
+sitting-room, as the deficiency formed an adequate pretext for
+constantly frequenting the public room, which she greatly preferred,
+alleging at the same time, in the most emphatic terms, that saving six
+shillings a-day for the hire of a parlor was not of the slightest
+consequence to her, money being "no object," as poor Mr. O'Donoghoe had
+left her more than she could ever hope to spend.
+
+Mrs. O'Donoghoe's name appeared regularly in the weekly printed list of
+company at Harrowgate, and she was certainly by no means a dead letter
+in the brilliant circle. She sang a little, played a little, and talked
+a great deal, while no topic of conversation ever came amiss to her.
+The gay widow floundered through anything or everything, making a
+thousand blunders, and adapting herself to each individual who
+conversed with her in succession, being ready and anxious for the
+admiration of all. She seemed willing to compensate for the want of
+silver in her purse, by having plenty on her tongue, and apparently
+thought, if she thought at all, that conversation resembled a game at
+whist, where each individual should implicitly follow his partner's
+lead.
+
+In every carriage going to races, balls, pigeon matches, or steeple
+chases, Mrs. O'Donoghoe generally manoeuvred to get herself a place,
+either inside or outside, she seemed by no means particular which; and
+whenever the master of the ceremonies became perplexed at balls, by an
+application for a partner from some heavy elderly gentleman in yellow
+gloves, who desired to risk his tendon of Achilles by dancing, he was
+sure to be rapturously welcomed by Mrs. O'Donoghoe. She had been always
+hitherto the favorite flirt of Lord Doncaster; and her bold bravura
+manner amused Captain De Crespigny, who called her "Fountain's Abbey,"
+on account of her being so picturesque a ruin on so very large a scale.
+Though not quite so "wither'd, auld, and droll," as he and some
+refractory officers had alleged, when entreated by the master of the
+ceremonies to dance with her, yet Mrs. O'Donoghoe's best friends
+allowed she was thirty--her enemies protested she was forty--and the
+truth lay, as usual, between both extremes. Forced almost to
+acknowledge at last that she had arrived on the debatable ground
+between youth and that uninteresting period, middle age, too old for
+dancing, too young for cards, and not quite beyond the excitement of
+love-hunting, she still eagerly hoped to forget, in a brilliant
+establishment, the blighted hopes of former years. No unmarried man was
+too elderly or too juvenile for Mrs. O'Donoghoe to try her
+well-practised fascinations on; and whether they were majors or minor,
+Lord Wigton, Captain De Crespigny, Sir Patrick, or the Marquis, she yet
+continued to hope for their admiration. Still she retained a firm
+conviction that every gentleman arrived at Harrowgate with the full
+intention of marrying within a month or two--that happy couples, at the
+end of every season, were to be paired off like pairs of gloves or
+shoes--and that every gentleman among her numerous assortment of
+intimate acquaintances, would at last make his own selection; but the
+most sanguine hope of her sanguine mind was, that the attentions shown
+to her during many a successive season by Lord Doncaster, which had
+gone so far as even to excite some scandal, might at last ripen into an
+offer of his coronet; in which very ardent expectation she had recently
+suspended her dancing propensities, and diligently exercised on the
+Marquis her talents for listening, when his society could be had, or in
+his absence, she even tolerated his shadow, the Abbe.
+
+"Mrs. O'Donoghoe," exclaimed Captain De Crespigny, throwing himself
+into a seat beside the piano during the interval of a quadrille, "only
+look at your old superannuated admirer and Miss Dunbar. People laugh at
+the susceptibility of seventeen, but that is nothing to the
+susceptibility of seventy. Your ears have generally been the best of
+listeners to Lord Doncaster's prosing, but you are fairly outdone
+to-night. How all you young ladies must be tormented by that old
+fellow's button-holding propensities."
+
+"Quite the contrary! His conversation, though not always perfectly
+correct, is, it must be confessed, very amusing. Men in general are a
+queer set, but I like Lord Doncaster's old-fashioned compliments--quite
+of the _vieille cour_--one might fancy he had lived some centuries
+ago!"
+
+"I heartily wish he had! I could back old Doncaster against the world,
+for being the dullest proser in the United Kingdoms of Great Britain
+and Ireland, with the Colonies besides. He will die talking, for he
+talks everybody else to death! The Abbe, too, has no more mind than a
+sparrow. His conversation should be filtered every evening to purify it
+from bad taste of every kind. He picks up half a dozen stories every
+morning at the ordinary, and retails them to any wearied victim who can
+be forced to listen at night; when these are done so is he--his barrel
+organ has run down--and you may know when the Abbe has come to an end,
+by observing the hurry he is in to be off."
+
+"You are an habitual hater, Captain De Crespigny, and have put on your
+black cap to condemn us all this evening; but I will not have our good
+Abbe hissed off the stage in this way."
+
+"Good! Look out that word, Mrs. O'Donoghoe, in the dictionary
+to-morrow, for you cannot know its real meaning!"
+
+"Your criticisms on his conversation are like a shower of sleet this
+cold night, but I assure you the Abbe started a perfected new story
+yesterday, and I have sometimes heard him say very good things!"
+
+"Then you have the advantage of everybody else, for I have known him
+since the time of William the Conqueror, and who ever heard of his
+saying or doing a single good thing? He cannot even understand one. The
+whole pattern of his conversation is egotism in all its branches, and
+you must positively permit me to enjoy my detestation of the Abbe in
+peace."
+
+"I allow that he is in bad taste occasionally," whispered Mrs.
+O'Donoghoe, confidentially. "The Abbe can say very shocking things
+without causing one to feel shocked. If he has any hypocrisy, it is in
+trying to appear worse than he is."
+
+"Could any one be worse? That seems to me impossible. No human being
+would think of calling me strict, but of all the odious, revolting
+sights I know, none can go beyond an irreligious clergy-man. The Abbe
+always looks to me like a person who had something very heavy upon his
+conscience--a guilty, suspicious expression of countenance. I have
+occasionally wondered, Mrs. O'Donoghoe, to see you out-laugh him at
+some of his own abortive attempts to be witty; but you can do many
+things that no other person can, and that is one of them."
+
+"Captain De Crespigny, we must now and then laugh at other people's
+jokes besides our own!"
+
+"I never laugh! I am the gravest man in Europe. I do sometimes give a
+bewitching smile, but never more."
+
+"Did you ever try an ineffable look?"
+
+"Perhaps I may some evening, when anxious to cut out old Doncaster!
+Miss Dunbar must find her two hours' conversation with him a serious
+grievance; but what would a life-time be! The ideas which proceed from
+the inside of my uncle's wig are certainly not of the most original and
+amusing. Fancy him day after day _toujours_ Doncaster! Dunbar says he
+would dismiss the best servant he ever had, if the fellow so much as
+admitted him to a morning visit. If I had an ill-will at you, Mrs.
+O'Donoghoe, which is luckily not the case, I should certainly wish you
+were married to my uncle! Ladies and gentlemen may laugh; but I can
+assure them it would be no laughing matter!"
+
+"Well, say what you will; but I may perhaps think my rose-colored satin
+has done its duty if I have an offer from the Marquis of Doncaster, old
+as he is!"
+
+"Ah, Mrs. O'Donoghoe! If you had worn that red satin when we were first
+acquainted, there is no saying what might have happened. Another day of
+it now, and I should be perfectly done for! With a train, you would be
+fit to appear at St. James's! You alone, in the whole world, never
+alter! You must have been born a century old, and become younger every
+day!"
+
+Though Mr. Granville and Marion, with the good-humored connivance of
+Sir Arthur, now spent many delightful hours in rational and animated
+intercourse, their happiness became gradually clouded with anxiety
+respecting the lovely but fragile Clara, who evidently drooped and
+faded. Her mind was stronger than her body; while resigned and gentle,
+she never caused a moment's distress to others that could be avoided,
+though the bright eye, and brighter cheek, which might have been
+mistaken for the glow of health, were but too evidently caused by
+fever; and her brother's heart occasionally misgave him, on observing
+that a vivid flush, and a deadly paleness, chased each other on her
+countenance when she spoke. There was a nervous tremor in her manner,
+and a deep sensibility in her smile, which saddened the eye that looked
+on that form of almost ethereal delicacy, while she tried, but tried in
+vain, to conquer the wasting sorrow with which she thought the vices
+and follies of Sir Patrick had forever divided them.
+
+Several transient rencontres with the young Baronet, accidental on her
+part, but preconcerted on his, had renewed the conflict of her
+feelings, and unable to sustain the nearly frantic reproaches of one
+whom she loved only too well, Clara became now almost entirely a
+prisoner in her own apartments. It was the power of principle over
+feeling which caused her to reject, with gentle sorrow, the expression
+of attachment once so precious, and the fascination of Sir Patrick's
+manner to her was such, that his very errors she could not utterly
+hate, though day after day, she schooled her heart afresh with the
+remembrance how unjustifiably her own best hopes of lasting peace would
+be endangered by trusting her affections to the keeping of one who had
+betrayed others, and who would have but too baneful an influence over
+her own mind were they united, as he could so little sympathize in the
+emotions, occupations, and duties of the Christian life. While she
+might have said, like the poet, "I but know that I love thee whatever
+thou art," Clara felt that if her life were to be the sacrifice, he
+must be rejected; therefore, day after day, with pious resignation and
+fortitude, she endured the slow but agonizing martyrdom of
+extinguishing from her memory one whom she had so deeply loved. Sir
+Patrick contrived to testify by a thousand indescribable assiduities,
+only too gratifying to her nature, how constantly she was the object of
+his solicitude. Every morning Clara's sitting room was adorned with
+flowers from an unknown hand, which she felt and knew must be sent by
+Sir Patrick, though it was an attention he had never shown to any
+other; and the rarest fruit was frequently produced at her solitary
+dinner, though the waiter neither could nor would give any clear
+account of whence it came, while not a day passed that Clara did not
+see Sir Patrick's graceful figure lounging beneath her windows,
+conversing in an animated tone, with everybody except herself, or
+throwing himself on horseback, and galloping almost madly out of sight.
+
+Every evening Mr. Granville urged upon his sister the importance of her
+being speedily conveyed to the continent; but every morning Clara
+postponed their preparations, feeling too much enfeebled for the
+journey, and unwilling to lose the delightful fascination of Marion's
+society, who sat beside her couch all day, and every day, making hours
+seem like moments while they conversed together. Clara knew nothing of
+ennui, and never had occasion to kill time, for she valued it as time
+ought to be valued, at an inestimable price. She had no weariness to
+dissipate, as every hour was occupied in improving her own mind and
+heart, while she exerted herself for the happiness of others, and never
+laid her head on the pillow at night without an anxious examination
+whether she had done all in her power for the real advantage of herself
+and others. It was the opinion of Mr. Granville, frequently expressed,
+that the very essence of earthly happiness is found in exertion,--that
+"while a right discharge of religious duty is in itself the greatest of
+all exertions, even the trifles or the essentials of life must all be
+gained by making existence one great struggle against nature. Study,
+integrity, good-humor, benevolence, early rising, and moderation are
+all exertions that must be made upon principle,--a principle of
+Christian obedience; and, as difficulty is the condition of success,
+our frame is strengthened by exertion, our skill by practice, our
+reasoning powers by opposition, and he who wrestles most will wrestle
+best."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+
+Little of what is really going on in society can be traced on its gay,
+sparkling surface, where, amidst laughter, music, jesting, and smiles,
+a deep current may be flowing on of anger, envy, mortification, and
+disappointment. Agnes had lately allowed herself to suspect that her
+preference for Captain De Crespigny was by no means mutual; and though
+it still lingered in her mind, out-living all that coldness and caprice
+which had superseded the persevering ardor with which he once
+endeavored to engross her attention, the indignation of her feelings
+drove her now to seek relief in any counter-irritation, and especially
+in cultivating, beside Lord Doncaster, the society where he was most
+depreciated, and where she heard many a story of him from the Abbe,
+which filled her with angry misgivings.
+
+Captain De Crespigny now perceived, with almost bewildered
+astonishment, that the beautiful Agnes remained stationary the whole
+evening with Lord Doncaster, wishing, he conjectured, to propitiate the
+uncle as a preliminary to securing the nephew, and that she actually
+made him a secondary object in society, while it was evident the
+Marquis observed and enjoyed this very visible alteration. It became
+particularly conspicuous at last, when Captain De Crespigny having
+spoken, one evening, a few words to Agnes, strolled away in momentary
+pique at the careless inattention of her reply, after which the vacant
+chair, beside her and Lord Doncaster, was immediately occupied by the
+Abbe, who talked down both his companions, while a long discussion
+ensued, of evidently deepening interest, during which the eyes of all
+three were frequently directed towards Captain De Crespigny. Those of
+Agnes now assumed an almost unnatural brightness, and her cheek became
+dyed with a hectic flush of excitement. Then, for the first time, he
+perceived the gold crucifix which she held carelessly in her hand,
+while the Abbe spoke with an air of artful and subdued earnestness, and
+Lord Doncaster, looking like winter beside spring, watched, with
+evident admiration, the changes of color and expression which flitted
+like an aurora borealis on her beautiful features. It occurred to
+Captain De Crespigny, that his uncle, believing, perhaps, in some
+degree, the report of his marriage to Agnes, and being an enthusiastic
+admirer of beauty, might wish the Abbe first to convert the young lady
+to his own faith, before bestowing him upon her, and as the idea
+flitted through his mind, he smiled inwardly to think how they would
+all be disappointed. Still the ceaseless conversation continued, and
+Captain De Crespigny, apprehending it might never come to any
+particular end, resolved, for his own amusement, _coute qui coute_, to
+break up the _coterie_.
+
+"Miss Dunbar," said he, advancing, and in a matter-of-course way
+offering his arm, "allow me the pleasure of this quadrille with you!"
+
+Agnes seemed almost to awaken from a dream at these words, but, after a
+moment's evident perplexity, during which she assumed an air of
+dignified indecision, Lord Doncaster having turned away to converse
+with Mrs. O'Donoghoe, she slowly rose, and silently took her place in
+the dance.
+
+Captain De Crespigny had hitherto been to Agnes like the sun to the
+dial, causing the lights and shadows of joy or anxiety to flit over her
+countenance according to his own pleasure, but now he became piqued and
+astonished to perceive that he could not even command her most
+transient attention, and with a satirical glance at her absent
+countenance, he emphatically exclaimed,
+
+"A delightful party this!"
+
+"Yes, delightful!" echoed Agnes, mechanically.
+
+"And delightful music too!" added he, observing with increased surprise
+the total absence of her thoughts.
+
+"Delightful, indeed!" repeated Agnes, in an almost dreaming tone.
+
+"And what a delightful partner I have secured!" added Captain De
+Crespigny, with some asperity of tone, while gazing more and more
+curiously into her countenance. "I am so well pleased, that really it
+was fortunate I did not shoot or drown myself yesterday! We are
+excelling ourselves to-night, Miss Dunbar! I never saw you so
+agreeable, so particularly facetious! Your spirits are perfectly
+turbulent!"
+
+"That is the more surprising, as I have done nothing this evening but
+yawn and be yawned at," replied Agnes, resuming her gay, bantering
+tone. "I have been plastered to the wall like Warren's Japan blacking,
+looking as grave as an old gate-post, while you were generally so far
+off, that I borrowed a good telescope at last, to try whether it might
+be possible to see you!"
+
+"I could not approach within a mile, you were so barricaded with Abbes
+and Marquises, but you of course occupied all my thoughts. Shall I ever
+forget my vexation on beholding my fossil specimen of an uncle
+depositing his bones in the very seat I intended for myself. He is
+really becoming a formidable rival!"
+
+"Very true!" replied Agnes, forcing a laugh. "Lord Doncaster is so
+agreeable, that I am all but captivated, and if this were leap year I
+might, perhaps, use the lady's privilege and propose!"
+
+"Take care, or I shall tell him so!"
+
+"Pray do! It will save time, and he has but little to spare!"
+
+"I am very certain, if the old boy were ninety years younger, he would
+make you an offer! But certainly marriage is a juvenile indiscretion,
+only for young people like us!"
+
+"Lord Doncaster says, he is any age I like, and pledges himself always
+to continue so!" replied Agnes, laughing, though she became agitated to
+the very tips of her fingers, while, trying not to seem embarrassed,
+she hastily drew her gloves on and off, adjusted her necklace, and
+betrayed, by other nervous manoeuvres, that her mind was not quite at
+ease under the observant eye of Captain De Crespigny, who looked at her
+with satirical surprise, and at last exclaimed, in accents of wonder,
+"May my bridle be too long, and my stirrup too short, Miss Dunbar, if I
+ever dreamed of jesting with you in earnest, about the old veteran
+amateur in flirtations, my uncle! That is rather beyond a joke,--and as
+for the Abbe, you ought to put him down in your private list of
+detestables, being a bad and dangerous man for young ladies to form an
+intimacy with. Let me be your father confessor to-night, Miss Dunbar,
+and tell me when, under his auspices, you mean to take the veil!"
+
+Seeing Agnes become more and more embarrassed, Captain De Crespigny's
+politeness now induced him to change the subject, though still unable
+to conjecture any probable cause for her confusion; therefore assuming
+his usual tone of careless conceit, he added, "Mrs. O'Donoghoe tells me
+there are two singularly handsome officers in the room to-night; but I
+cannot see the second. We can be at no loss for No. 1. There is a
+strange-looking mortal opposite in black! He skips about in the
+quadrille like an industrious flea! Does it not seem like a frightful
+dream, that we are expected to find steps for such music as this? What
+would Monsieur D'Egville say, if he saw me, his favorite pupil,
+blundering through the figure to such discord?"
+
+"He would still be proud of his scholar! I mistook you for Duvernay
+last night when you danced with Mrs. O'Donoghoe at the Crown ball. Her
+dancing-master must have been St. Vitus! She was as light as----"
+
+"As a cork flying from a bottle of champagne! You seem perplexed for
+once to find a simile!"
+
+"And you are not particularly happy in yours! I have been puzzling my
+head for the last two seconds who that gold man is opposite in uniform.
+He looks like a clever caricature of an officer on leave!"
+
+"That is Charleville of ours! Mrs. O'Donoghoe considers him the first
+of men! almost superhuman! because, as she said to me yesterday, 'he is
+quite the thing! drives a tandem--rides races in a bonnet and
+habit--can back his horse down the steepest hill in Low
+Harrowgate--writes occasionally in the Sporting Magazine--and smokes
+more cigars in a day than the whole regiment in a week!'"
+
+"There is an officer of that description in every regiment, who is
+generally called 'Jack' or 'Tom.' I detest these hunting, racing,
+smoking, and betting men; but you may introduce him to me when the
+quadrille is over."
+
+"That is a ceremony I never perform, and never undergo! It is too
+solemn an affair for me to engage in! I never mean, as long as I live,
+to be introduced to any one--never!"
+
+"Then if your present list of friends is to last for life, I hope it
+musters pretty strong?"
+
+"Pardon me! We are not so particular at an ordinary as in an opera-box!
+There are ways and means of becoming acquainted without my making
+people conceited, by asking to be introduced! I tread on a lady's gown
+in passing, look shocked, beg her pardon, receive the very sweetest of
+smiles, enter into conversation, and am intimate in a moment!"
+
+"Very easy and convenient! I never could imagine till now why officers
+had all become so awkward at parties lately, in tearing my dress with
+their spurs!"
+
+"Believe me, nobody is ever introduced to anybody now, and ladies have
+become equally ingenious with myself in picking up acquaintances. At
+Almacks last season, Lady Sarah Wyvell, having the good fortune to be
+next me in a quadrille, though we were not acquainted, asked, with a
+modest diffident air, if I could possibly tell her the hour. I politely
+took the trouble of answering her, and mentioned, that the key of my
+watch had been for some time mislaid, and therefore it was not wound
+up; but next evening, when we met at the Russian Ambassador's fete,
+would you believe it, she walked up to me, and, with a fascinating
+smile, begged my acceptance of a watch-key, beautifully set in
+turquoises!"
+
+"Which fitted exactly, of course!" added Agnes, laughing. "I like a
+round unvarnished tale, and admire a ready invention, especially when
+the story is perfectly credible, and betrays no personal conceit
+whatever. The world certainly grows more ridiculous every day!"
+
+"You never said a truer thing! It is a good plan in conversation always
+to say what nobody can contradict! Never certainly was there a more
+ludicrous medley of people shuffled together, than here at this moment!
+Nothing but old Doncaster's whim could have brought me to such a
+snobbery and tag-raggery! Harrowgate is like death itself for levelling
+all distinctions! You may glance down the dinner-table, containing a
+hundred and thirty odd-looking guests, and each individual has the same
+quiet, little, unpretending bottle of sherry placed at his elbow, and
+labelled with his name. Even the great millionaire, Mr. Crawford, who
+might, if he chose, drink liquid gold, fares no better, though he has
+brought home the sort of nabob fortune people used to make long ago.
+The art is lost now!"
+
+"You might find it, I dare say, in some of the Useful Knowledge books."
+
+"Yes! but I manage still better, by spending a fortune without
+possessing one, which does quite as well, and gives me less trouble.
+The hat is his who wears it, and the world is his who enjoys it."
+
+"What a pity that very good people like the Crawfords are so often
+atrociously disagreeable," observed Agnes, listlessly. "We must allow,
+that in this world rogues are the majority; and as their good opinion
+is the most easily gained, and the most easily kept, I wonder less
+every day that some men are satisfied to secure that, and live upon
+it."
+
+"I wish I had either!" said Sir Patrick, laughing.
+
+"The whole tribe of Crawfords are, in my opinion, seriously unpleasant,
+with their airs of condescending stiffness and ineffable superiority,"
+said Agnes, "never vouchsafing to appear, except at dinner, and
+huddling out of sight the instant we rise. Those who desire to be
+exclusive should take private lodgings, and not spoil a place like this
+by any purseproud finery! They almost live with Marion and the
+Granvilles; but I abhor that whole set!"
+
+"So I do!" exclaimed Sir Patrick. "I hate their very parrot! He sits in
+a golden cage at the window, looking over his nose at one in the most
+exclusive manner imaginable. Old Crawford was a shop-boy in some
+green-grocer's once, I believe; therefore, it really amused me
+yesterday to hear him in the loud authoritative tone of a connoisseur,
+finding fault with the sherry. I never pronounce upon any wine till I
+have drunk a few dozen of it; but it is credibly reported, that the
+Crawfords at home indulge in nothing but Cape Madeira and water. We,
+who have been brought up upon claret, conform to custom with a better
+grace. I should never think of putting the cellars here out of fashion,
+by saying what I really think of them; but _entre nous_, the whole
+contents are perfect poison. Of the two, I would rather drink the
+Harrowgate waters, because they have at least the one merit of being
+wholesome."
+
+"Lord Doncaster seems to find the sherry drinkable," said Agnes dryly;
+"and, as you say, 'he has cracked a bottle or two in his time.'"
+
+"Very true! a really aristocratic man is so accustomed to everything of
+the best, that he tolerates or enjoys the inconveniences of an inn or a
+steamboat as an amusing variety," said Mrs. O'Donoghoe. "Besides which,
+Miss Dunbar, between you and me and the post, Lord Doncaster is old,
+and somewhat _passee_. You and he made quite a _tableau_ together this
+evening; but take my word for it, Lord Doncaster is no chicken!"
+
+"I need not take anybody's word for that! I have my eyes in my head
+like others!" replied Agnes, rather sharply, and glancing towards a
+distant corner of the room where Lord Doncaster was seated, with his
+eye at the moment fixed on herself. "We may all see that he is not the
+youngest man in the world; but he is certainly one of the most
+agreeable!"
+
+"Well! old or young," continued Mrs. O'Donoghoe, resuming her habitual
+smile, "Lord Doncaster is my very particular friend, and if I meet him
+ten times in a day, he shakes me by the hand as cordially the last time
+as the first."
+
+"Tiresome old bore!" replied Sir Patrick; "I would put my hand in my
+pocket the second time, and tell him, once a-day must do!"
+
+"Instead of putting it into an empty pocket, Sir Patrick, offer it to
+one of the two Miss Crawfords," said Mrs. O'Donoghoe, rolling her eyes
+affectedly round, like the wire-drawn eyes of a wax doll. "The old
+nabob is so rich, that it took five India ships to carry home his
+fortune, and he has settled his whole countless rupees on the young
+ladies. What do you say, gentlemen?--one each? That tall may-pole, the
+eldest, who looks as if she could eat her own shoulders off, will be a
+great catch."
+
+"She has proposed to me twenty times," replied Captain De Crespigny,
+"but I am not to be had! It would be necessary for me to hang all her
+relations, they are so vulgar! The second looks as fat and round as
+from yesterday till next year; but if she were less like a turbot
+standing on end, more like the person I admire most in the world, and
+several years younger, possibly I might propose."
+
+"If you thought she would have you," replied Mrs. O'Donoghoe, laughing,
+"you would propose without minding the years. If a girl had eighteen
+pence, you would propose instantly, for fear she might spend a shilling
+of it!"
+
+"I am told Miss Crawford was born in diamond ear-rings," said Agnes.
+"She looks as if it had rained precious stones on her ever since,--as
+if she had been pelted at the Carnival with diamonds instead of
+sugar-plums! The price of blonde and feathers is raised in every town
+where the Miss Crawfords arrive!----"
+
+"The Miss Crawfords must not be ridiculed," interrupted Captain De
+Crespigny, looking very magnanimous, "at least by any one except
+myself! They are my preserve! They both dress in the last extreme of
+jewellery to please me; and I am pleased. If I have a weakness in the
+world, it is for dress; and, in my opinion, ladies ought all to shine
+like glow-worms every night. Look at this indefinite article of a man
+approaching! Tall, and covered with orders, he looks like a house
+insured! Who can he be?"
+
+"Never distress yourself about who people are," said Agnes. "Somebody's
+son, I believe,--and somebody's nephew or cousin, with estates in all
+the disturbed districts of Ireland."
+
+"Very accurate and satisfactory! Watering-place imaginations are apt to
+be a little inventive; like Cuvier, who described the whole history and
+formation of any animal from seeing merely a single tooth! With that
+bottle-green coat and all that light hair on the roof his head, he
+looks like a bottle of porter newly drawn, and foaming at the top. It
+makes me thirsty to see him."
+
+"I excel particularly in biography," added Agnes, laughing. "That
+tigerish-looking man you are inquiring about, with all the little stars
+and bits of ribbon, had a whole regiment of horses killed under him at
+Waterloo! He saw sixteen colonels of cavalry lose their heads that day
+in battle, and he received fifteen mortal wounds himself, before he
+left the field!"
+
+"Agnes, your stories would be as difficult to bolt as the American
+oyster, which it took three men to swallow whole! You remind me of the
+man who contrived to place a fly's eye so that he could see through it,
+and he found that it multiplied everything, till a single officer
+appeared like a whole army. I never saw a man ride as that stranger did
+this morning! His horse is a mere spider, and he jumped up and down in
+the saddle like a cup and ball?" said Sir Patrick, laughing; "but the
+climax of all his atrocities was, five minutes ago, when Marion
+re-entered the room, I heard him request that the master of the
+ceremonies would introduce him to one of my sisters! I am at a loss to
+guess which, but here he comes, drawing on a splendid pair of gloves!"
+
+"Pray do not let me be the victim!" said Agnes, shrinking back with a
+contemptuous toss of the head. "I have no turn for teaching a bear to
+dance! and I will not be made ridiculous by having such a partner! The
+ugliest man I ever saw for nothing! Is he a human being?"
+
+"For my part, I do not feel that being ridiculous or otherwise depends
+on any one but myself," said Marion good-humoredly; "and if it will
+make a man, all ribbons and orders of merit, happy, to perform a
+quadrille, I have not the least objection to be his partner, especially
+when he wears such very clean gloves!"
+
+"Miss Dunbar!" said the master of the ceremonies, approaching Marion in
+his most pompous manner, "allow me to introduce the Duke of Kinross!"
+
+Marion accepted his Grace's offered arm, looking by no means so much
+petrified at the unexpected rank of her partner as Agnes did, who
+started, and colored with evident vexation, at having even in thought
+rejected the greatest man in Harrowgate, the hero of all her castles in
+the air, and one who was considered as eminent for ability as for rank.
+
+"Well, Agnes!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, in a bantering tone, "for the
+first time in a long life you have made a blunder. You who never, even
+at chess, would play a pawn, if you could move a knight or a bishop, to
+have actually rejected a ducal coronet. I thought that in general you
+could draw out people's whole histories and characters like an
+opera-glass, and see through them in a minute. You generally know
+everybody's peculiarities and everybody's value, who everybody is, and
+what everybody does, with notes and annotations of your own, all
+original and authentic,--who have elder brothers to impoverish them,
+and rich uncles to give them hopes,--in short, their whole biography
+better than they know it themselves!"
+
+"To be sure! I am an inestimable cicerone, 'honest, civil, obliging,
+and thoroughly to be depended on!' Where other people have only two
+eyes, I have three, and I make it my duty to ascertain who brings a
+footman or an abigail, what carriages people travel in, what stay they
+intend to make here, whether they hire a sitting-room, or lounge, like
+Mrs. O'Donoghoe, in the public saloon! I do believe the well-informed
+visitors at Harrowgate know exactly how much silver we carry in our
+purses every day, and what our washing-bills amount to!"
+
+"Not much in some cases!" said Captain De Crespigny, fixing his
+satirical, mischievous glance on a shabby-genteel stranger who seemed
+to be lurking near and watching the lively party with an evil eye.
+"Look at this dark figure leaning against the door in a sort of Italian
+bandit attitude, trying to look romantic with his arms stuck on like
+crooked pins, his neckcloth perfectly strangling him, and his scarlet
+waistcoat like a robin-red-breast!"
+
+"Is there a man in a waistcoat!! where?" asked Agnes eagerly. "Another
+Duke, I suppose. He seems like the picture of a robber in some sixpenny
+story book. But how he stares at you, Captain De Crespigny! I declare
+that look would pin me to the wall!"
+
+"It is rather odd! Surely I have seen that man somewhere before! He
+must have dressed my hair at Brighton, or measured me for a coat at
+Dodd's. He is probably now the sort of £200 a-year man who wears a gold
+chain and vagabondizes about perpetually from one watering place to
+another! He seems by his look inclined to pick a quarrel with me; and,
+if he does so, I feel pretty certain he ought already to be sent among
+the velvets below stairs, which he certainly shall be without much
+ceremony. What can the fellow mean by looking such daggers at me in
+particular?"
+
+"One addition is expected to the Crawford party to-night, which will
+puzzle you all!" said Mrs. O'Donoghoe. "That enchanting suite of rooms
+next the garden has been bespoken during the last three weeks, by some
+person whose name is quite unguessable! The landlady says that Mr.
+Crawford has made her solemnly promise never to divulge it! Now! there
+is something worth knowing!--a dark unfathomable mystery in a place
+like this, is perfectly inestimable!"
+
+"I undertake to solve it in twenty-four hours!" exclaimed Sir Patrick,
+with animation. "When there is a real undeniable secret to be ferreted
+out, I am wider awake than most people! I can do everything but what is
+impossible! If I fail, then, as the lawyer once pathetically exclaimed,
+'may my head forget the wig that covers it!' What will you bet that I
+succeed? Here is my betting-book to register our agreement; I never
+stir without it!"
+
+"I have no turn for betting my head off my shoulders; but you shall
+have the Pigot diamond for your trouble!" replied Mrs. O'Donoghoe. "I
+have been busy about it for three weeks in vain, going about
+investigating, with my glass at my eye, like Paul Pry, but the maids
+pretend to know nothing, and the landlady looks bursting with
+mysterious importance whenever she speaks of her coming guests!"
+
+"Then I am twice a man when there is anything to be found out!"
+continued Sir Patrick. "If I had lived in the days of the Iron mask,
+that affair would have been probed to the bottom, and laid open. I have
+quite a genius for unravelling mysteries!"
+
+"If so, I allow you three days for scrutinizing the expected _incognito_,
+after which, do you promise and engage to furnish me with their numbers,
+names, professions, ages, fortunes----"
+
+"And expectations! certainly! Also to disclose why they came here, and
+when they go away. Mrs. O'Donoghoe, I delight in difficulties, and
+glory in conquering them! I abhor everything easy! Even if you were
+easily pleased, I should have less pleasure in fascinating you."
+
+At this moment, a plain travelling carriage suddenly swept round the
+road leading towards the Granby, while in the clear moonlight it could
+only be discerned that two footmen sat behind, and two lady's maids
+were mounted on the dickey; but before the rush of gentlemen towards
+the lobby, which usually takes place on such occasions, could be
+successfully achieved, the chariot stopped at a garden-gate beyond the
+usual entrance, while in the dusky obscurity the most penetrating eye
+could not discover who or what alighted. A torrent of waiters streamed
+along the passages, a noisy outcry was heard summoning the landlady,
+every bell in the house seemed ringing simultaneously, and Captain De
+Crespigny was surprised to observe the dark, stern-looking stranger
+standing near the door, as if he belonged to the party, and yet did not
+wish to be seen.
+
+A procession of four wax candles, and a tea tray proceeding afterwards
+towards the newly occupied sitting-room, was all that the most
+enterprising observers could discover; and as there were but three
+cups, and Mr. Crawford was known to have joined the party, it became
+very plausibly conjectured by Sir Patrick that there were but two new
+arrivals.
+
+The supper-bell had been rung that evening about ten minutes, and a
+numerous bevy of gentlemen collected round it, varied by a scanty
+sprinkling of ladies. The table was covered with wine glasses and
+crystal decanters enough to fill a glass shop, with not a drop of
+anything visible to drink, except cold spring water; each gentleman had
+half a pigeon on his plate, and each lady a glass of jelly before her.
+The uproar of waiters, plates, and tongues, and glasses had subsided,
+and the conversation was at so low an ebb, that there seemed every
+probability of the whole party being found asleep in their chairs next
+morning, when suddenly their attention was roused by the door being
+hurriedly opened by the _soi-disant_ gentleman entering, who had
+already excited the notice of Captain De Crespigny.
+
+Besides the eager curiosity felt in every small community, to see every
+one recently added to their number, this was a gentleman whom few of
+the company had seen before, and such a gentleman as is seldom seen
+anywhere. His dark hair hung in wild profusion over his head. There was
+an extraordinary wildness, almost amounting to ferocity, in his eyes,
+which had the restless glare of a wild beast's, as he quickly glanced
+round the table, while his pale haggard features, and the strong
+compression of his upper lip, gave him an air of irritable melancholy,
+along with a look of flustered, anxious suspicion quite unaccountable.
+He seemed annoyed at having attracted any observation, while, if
+Banquo's ghost had appeared, the apparition could scarcely have
+awakened more attention, as the party had little to do, and nothing
+else to think of.
+
+"One would fancy a kangaroo had come in to supper!" muttered he,
+angrily, glancing round with a look of scorching hatred at Captain De
+Crespigny, and drawing his chair near Mrs. O'Donoghoe, who was almost
+the only lady still remaining. He then cut himself a supply of cold
+veal, that might have dined a couple of grouse-shooters, with ham in
+proportion, not at all carved on the Vauxhall pattern, and glancing at
+all the observant eyes around the table, he added, endeavoring to look
+in a more amiable mood, while a most unpleasing attempt at a smile for
+a moment disturbed his features; "I see, gentlemen, you are somewhat
+amazed at my powers of mastication! I am not Dando; but let me tell you
+I could finish all we see, and pick the bones of that turkey besides.
+What man in his senses would profess to be hungry, and sit down to half
+a pigeon! You seem to be quite a Temperance Society here! Fifteen jugs
+of water in regimental order round the table! The waiters must have
+bottled off the Thames!"
+
+A suppressed whisper ran round the table, circulating many wondering
+conjectures who the stranger could possibly be, for there appeared a
+vehemence in his tone, and an irritability in his eye most repulsive
+and peculiar.
+
+"That man looks as if he had stepped forth ready made, from one of Mrs.
+Radcliffe's romances," exclaimed Mrs. O'Donoghoe, in an apprehensive
+tone, as she strolled away from the table. "Who can he be?"
+
+"One of the swell mob! I remember his picking my pocket in Bond Street,
+last spring," replied Captain De Crespigny, confidentially. "Did you
+not observe his bunch of skeleton keys."
+
+"You are quite mistaken," interposed Sir Patrick. "He is one of the
+garden-room party. I saw him waiting for them in the passage; people of
+prodigious fortune I assure you! Their names are--no matter what! but
+they have estates in--I don't know how many counties!"
+
+"He has rather an aristocratic look!" added Mrs. O'Donoghoe. "The sort
+of arbitrary air, as if he were accustomed to command a regiment!"
+
+"More like an unengaged actor from one of the minor theatres, or a
+travelling dancing master. They are very well got up sometimes, and he
+is exactly according to the last 'gentleman's fashions for the month,'"
+said Captain De Crespigny. "But certainly in some shape or other, a
+strolling gentleman-beggar; probably, like the dustman's dog, he
+answers to any name."
+
+"Perhaps," added Sir Patrick, laughing, "one of those innumerable
+lecturers on astronomy, who are constantly tormenting me with
+prospectuses. If any man whatever is in distress, he puts on a decent
+coat, and announces a popular course of lectures, in which he makes the
+comets ten times hotter than ever, and the stars as many millions of
+miles distant as he pleases, shows plenty of diagrams, talks big about
+Sir Isaac Newton, gives a dissertation on the political economy of the
+moon; tells a few anecdotes, hazards a few conjectures, doubts what
+everybody believes, or believes what everybody doubts, and his bread is
+baked. I mean to try the plan myself some day!"
+
+"Depend upon it, he is a peer of the realm," added Mrs. O'Donoghoe,
+more imperatively than before. "I heard that Lord Wakefield was
+expected to-day. His sister, Lady Jane, whom I saw once at a
+Spitalfields ball, was thin, with dark hair, exactly in that style."
+
+"I have no doubt he is an Earl one day, and a Duke the next, as it
+happens to suit his fancy; and if you look well at him, Mrs.
+O'Donoghoe, he has a coronet tattooed on his forehead," whispered
+Captain De Crespigny. "That is the very last new fashion for peers."
+
+"Coronets are falling into great disuse now; so I am glad they are to
+be displayed any where," replied Agnes. "Lady Towercliffe's eldest son,
+Lord St. Abbe, used to have one embroidered on his pinafore; but the
+coronet on Lord Doncaster's chariot now is almost invisible, and not
+larger than you would use for the seal of a note."
+
+"I know whose taste ought to be paramount in ordering the next carriage
+bearing the Doncaster arms," whispered Captain De Crespigny, throwing a
+world of arch expression into his countenance. "How exceedingly well
+our shield would look quartered with the lion rampant, and the eight
+roses of the Dunbars!"
+
+Agnes did not, as she would have done formerly, on hearing so broad an
+insinuation, look down and blush, or attempt to blush; but she fixed a
+long and searching look on Captain De Crespigny, during which her large
+lustrous eyes betrayed an inward struggle between the interest with
+which she would once have gathered up every expression of her voice,
+and the lurking angry suspicion she now felt of his sincerity; but her
+confidence was in some degree restored, when, keeping up a lively
+dialogue till the last moment, he assumed his most becoming looks, and
+escorted her to the door.
+
+"Pray, Miss Dunbar," said he gravely, "will you give me a very serious
+answer to a very serious question?"
+
+"Perhaps I may," replied Agnes, looking rather startled.
+
+"Then, whether do you think ladies or gentlemen are the greatest
+humbugs?"
+
+"Gentlemen, certainly; for they often pretend to feel what they do not,
+but ladies conceal what they do."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+
+Marion and Sir Arthur were engaged next morning to meet the Granvilles
+at breakfast in the private parlor of Mrs. Crawford, and they had
+advanced considerably in the consumption of their muffin and first cup
+of tea, when a very plainly dressed young lady glided into the room
+with a timid, agitated step, and giving a slight nod to the party,
+silently seated herself beside Marion, who, in compassion to her
+apparent shyness, averted her eyes. She seemed recently recovered from
+an illness, being thin and emaciated to excess, while it appeared as if
+her hair had been entirely shaved off, as she wore a cap fitting close
+to her face, and neither curl nor braid to vary the almost spectral
+whiteness of her whole aspect. Marion ventured a second glance at the
+interesting invalid, and observed a smile quivering about her mouth,
+which she seemed vainly endeavoring to suppress, and a sly glance
+towards herself, which enlightened her in a moment, for, with an
+exclamation of joy, she sprang from her seat and was instantly
+embraced, with laughing delight, by her old friend Caroline, whom she
+had lately learned to know as Miss Howard, the heiress of countless
+thousands,--not the more, nor the less dear to her on that account, but
+still the beloved companion of all her early frolics and school
+enjoyments.
+
+"I wished to try your powers of recognition, and Sir Arthur's," said
+Caroline, with tears of laughing and almost hysterical joy. "I am
+changed--greatly changed, so that my best friends could scarcely
+recognise me, and if my enemies were also deceived it would be well.
+Dear Marion! I am still pursued and persecuted by that wretched madman,
+the terror of our school days, the horror of all my subsequent life! My
+aunt finds her nerves so shattered with the whole affair, that our kind
+friends here have undertaken me for a week or two, and it is thought
+that, amidst the crowd collected at Harrowgate, I may be in comparative
+safety. My life has been rendered almost a burden to me in the country,
+where not a corner of the earth seemed safe from that wretched
+creature's intrusions, and it is thought that he must bribe some of our
+servants to betray all my plans; yet, among them all, I scarcely know
+whom to suspect or whom to trust! Remember, dear Marion, that here I am
+to be treated as some humble cousin of Mr. Crawford's, and on no
+account let your brother, or a living soul in the house, suspect that
+you ever saw me before. Agnes also must keep my secret, and Mrs.
+O'Donoghoe, who has heard nothing of my real history, agrees to be my
+_chaperon_."
+
+"Then you should adopt her name, for Patrick always calls the widow,
+'Mrs. I-don't-know-who.'"
+
+The most agreeable conversations are those of which there is generally
+least to be repeated, and that which followed round the cheerful
+breakfast-table at Mr. Crawford's, was carried tranquilly on, in a
+pleasing animated tone, on subjects of immediate interest as well as of
+permanent importance, showing, in the most prepossessing colors,
+characters, and feelings, inspired by the finest impulses which adorn
+the heart and mind of a Christian. Amidst the enlightened discussions
+and unreserved vivacity of a conversation, displaying the ease and
+fascination of high life, without its flippancy, frivolity, and
+pretension, those who have lived to discover that what is called the
+gay world, is sometimes but a dull world after all, might there have
+learned for what important purposes the power of speech and the power
+of thought have been given, if rightly used and enjoyed. There was the
+joyous relaxation of happy hearts and well-ordered minds, without the
+effervescence of empty affectation, or the flash of bewildering
+excitement, which Marion had lately been accustomed to find among those
+who seemed little better employed than Domitian of old, in catching
+flies, and who prefer living upon exaggerated trifles, to enjoying that
+calm, rational and intellectual intercourse which is registered in the
+heart for ever.
+
+With feelings of deep and animated pleasure, Marion gathered from Mr.
+Granville a rich harvest of sound opinions, amiable sentiments, and
+original ideas, while, with the free-masonry of real attachment, many a
+sentence, which seemed addressed by him to the whole company, attained
+its full meaning only in her heart. Richard was very seldom, as Agnes
+expressed it, "tuned up to nonsense pitch." He wasted none of his hours
+on the mere flummeries of conversation, but the frequent sparkling of
+his wit shone the brighter for its occasional gravity; and never had
+Marion seen him in a more buoyant and happy frame than now, when
+developing the thoughts and affections of a mind and heart cultivated
+to the highest tone of refinement, fortified by the strongest
+principles of religion, and imbued with a supreme regard for all that
+is noble, generous, or graceful in the conduct and characters.
+
+To Sir Arthur, the social circle imparted feelings of inestimable
+happiness. He had long considered human life as having nothing left for
+him now, but the one great opportunity to prepare for eternity, not to
+be trifled away in its smallest details; and he had remarked to Marion
+the evening before, after spending an hour in the public saloon, "I
+tire more of that Vanity Fair in the next room, than I would of
+breaking stones on the road! I should become an idiot before long, if I
+lived the sort of butterfly-life they do here, in a whirl of exhausting
+and frivolous amusement."
+
+The respectful deference paid by Mr. Granville to his age, his
+infirmities, and his high character, was in itself most gratifying to
+Sir Arthur; but more than all, he now saw his beloved Marion,
+surrounded by those who loved and valued her, the happiest of the
+happy. Inspired by the desire of pleasing, and unchecked by any fear of
+being misunderstood or misrepresented, there was now a spirit and
+originality in her expressions, and a native eloquence in what she
+said, enlivened and assisted by a sunlight brilliancy sparkling in her
+eyes, and beaming in her whole countenance, which was beautiful to
+behold, while her partial and affectionate uncle thought there was
+poetry in her look, and music in every tone of her voice.
+
+Their discussions diverged after a time to the scenery and remarkable
+places around Harrowgate, while Mr. Granville, deeply read in
+antiquity, described with picturesque and most felicitous effect, all
+that seemed best worth visiting in the neighborhood, enlivening his
+animated sketches with many amusing remarks and original anecdotes, and
+giving to everything he treated upon, some new and unexpected interest,
+while Mr. Crawford varied the subject by an entertaining comparison of
+what he had seen and known abroad, particularly as connected with the
+Roman Catholics of Italy and France.
+
+The convent which existed near Harrowgate having come under
+consideration, Mr. Crawford described at great length what he had seen
+there during a visit which he had paid to it many years before, and
+recounted several almost traditionary anecdotes of former times, in
+which the names of Lord Doncaster and the Abbe Mordaunt, became almost
+insensibly blended, very much to their discredit, while Marion
+reflected with wonder and regret that such men were frequently now the
+chosen attendants of her own young and beautiful sister. There was
+degradation even in their looks, and still more in their conversation;
+but she hoped, trusted, and believed that the Abbe's influence would be
+terminated when Agnes discovered that his attentions were not really
+likely to influence those of Captain De Crespigny.
+
+Mr. Crawford mentioned with peculiar and melancholy interest the very
+beautiful niece of the Abbe Mordaunt, whom it was evident that he had
+intimately known, and very greatly admired, while he awakened the
+keenest interest in Marion and Miss Howard, by alluding to an abortive
+attempt he had made at Beaujolie Castle, to take a last leave of Miss
+Mordaunt, after she had been beguiled into forsaking the faith of her
+fathers, and was supposed to be on the point of retiring within the
+walls of a convent.
+
+Marion could not but smile at the description given by Mr. Crawford, of
+his first and last visit to Lord Doncaster, when he had called at
+Beaujolie Castle sixteen years before, at which time the aged peer,
+though leading a life of retirement, made it by no means a life of
+solitude, as the vices of his early years enslaved him then as they
+enslaved him still, and the libertine of fifty years then, was a
+libertine now, when tottering on the brink of death. It became evident
+that the proprietor of Beaujolie Castle, though a great lord, was by no
+means in any respect a great man, being penurious in everything except
+the indulgence of his own vices and superstition.
+
+"It makes me shiver yet," said Mr. Crawford, "to remember the large
+cold hall, paved with a curious mosaic of black and white marble, and
+the chilling, uninhabited room into which I was first ushered. Your
+uncle, Lord Doncaster, Miss Howard, never at that time associated with
+any living individual of his own rank in life. Those who do not
+cultivate good society, are always in bad; and it was supposed that he
+had strong reasons against admitting any one to his residence. The
+drawing-room was like a lantern with windows on every side, the floor
+so polished that it might have taken fire from the perpetual friction,
+and a scanty Turkish carpet served but to cover half the slippery
+floor."
+
+"I always wish, in such a room, to be rough-shod," said Sir Arthur, "or
+to wear skates."
+
+"You will remember, Miss Howard, that no foot was ever allowed by your
+uncle to tread on its icy surface," continued Mr. Crawford, smiling.
+"But pathways of green baize were laid along the floor in every
+possible direction, where it could be supposed that any reasonable
+person might desire to walk. A broad line stretched from the door to
+the fire-place, and tributary streams of baize branched off towards the
+sofa in one direction, and the writing-table in another, while directly
+leading towards an invisible door in the book-case, was a still
+narrower stripe, which it required some skill to keep upon rigidly."
+
+"Were no sign-posts raised to point out the proper direction for
+travellers?" asked Marion. "Nor threats of prosecution held up in case
+of a trespass?"
+
+"No! but I certainly did commit one unawares, for while examining the
+invisible door, it accidentally flew open, when a lady whom I could not
+distinctly see, hastily concealed herself, and beside her stood,
+without exception, the most beautiful boy I ever beheld, bright and
+radiant like a cherub. When I called him forward, he laughingly
+disappeared, and no sooner did I leave that room, than the door was
+hastily locked inside."
+
+"It sounds like the prettiest romance imaginable!" exclaimed Marion,
+eagerly. "In that old house, and among so many ancient portraits, what
+could be more picturesque?"
+
+"A poor relation of Lord Doncaster was at this time the talk of all
+Yorkshire for her beauty," added Mr. Crawford. "Young De Crespigny,
+then almost a boy, had come home, I remember hearing, and admired her
+only too much; but whether she married, or what became of her, perhaps
+you will tell me, Miss Howard, as I never heard?"
+
+"Then you are not informed of all that has occurred in the world during
+your natural life, though you seem very nearly so!" replied Caroline.
+"Whenever I hear a story told, I like to put a hat on its head, a stick
+in its hand, and to send it travelling rapidly round the world; but the
+mystery relating to Mary Anstruther was, like that of poor Miss
+Mordaunt, and of others in the same house, carefully hushed up, and my
+uncle's family soon after moved to Scotland. Louis De Crespigny was,
+even then, I am told, formed to gain and to keep the heart of any girl,
+with a perfect consciousness of his own powers, and very little scruple
+in using them!"
+
+"He still has a very deep sense of his own supernatural merits,"
+observed Marion, "and finds many admirers to agree with him, though I
+think his uncle must have been still handsomer once. The features of
+both are very peculiar!"
+
+"I often think," said Caroline, coloring and hesitating, "that Sir
+Arthur's young friend, Henry De Lancey, looks as if the whole family of
+Doncaster had been distilled into one. He has the hair dark as
+midnight, for which my uncle was so celebrated; that remarkable
+drooping eyelid, too, as if his eye-lashes were too heavy to be lifted
+with ease, and the magnificent outline of his profile."
+
+"You are right," exclaimed Sir Arthur, in a deep, low, musing tone.
+"The madman, Howard or Anstruther, who acted so long as my clerk, and
+still persecutes you, once hinted something of the kind, in an
+unguarded moment. I have been ever since on the watch to strengthen the
+clue, but in vain. If I could but live to see that mystery solved!"
+
+"You shall!" said Caroline playfully. "What should hinder you? I must
+make it my business now, to ferret out more respecting the story of
+that Miss Mordaunt, which has faded into oblivion, like the thousand
+other wonders of the past.
+
+    Of course, she lived until she died; but where,
+    Or when, I never heard; nor you nor I need care."
+
+"But I do care," said Sir Arthur, earnestly. "It seems to me, as if
+there were here some scattered links of the chain by which we might
+discover Henry's origin. Truth has been too long already at the bottom
+of a well; but we must invent some diving-bell to bring her up! It
+would give me satisfaction, whatever his connexions are, to identify
+them!"
+
+"May he live to wonder at his own good fortune!" said Caroline, gaily.
+"People must exist twenty years in the world, as I have done, before
+they can find out what a strange place it is, and what extraordinary
+changes occur here sometimes."
+
+Pleasure has a time-piece of its own, which certainly does not adhere
+to the ordinary measure, for hours and minutes most perversely run on,
+always fastest when it would be most agreeable that their course should
+be delayed. Marion seemed to awaken from a dream of enjoyment, when Sir
+Arthur struck his repeater at last, and found he had remained till
+nearly the hour of luncheon; but, before the party dispersed, they
+agreed to meet often with closed doors, in the same sociable way; and,
+exchanging a thousand pleasing plans and anticipations of coming
+enjoyment together during the following few weeks, they then separated.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+
+High Harrowgate, where the more aristocratic strangers and invalids
+annually resort, is nearly two miles distant from the mineral well, and
+from Low Harrowgate, which is infested by the more inveterate class of
+water drinkers. Placed far from the offensive odour of the medicated
+spring, on an elevated common, which still remains bare in all the
+uncultivated barrenness of nature, the broad green expanse is
+surrounded on every side by a wreath of miscellaneous buildings of
+every size and shape, cottages, shops, lodgings, houses, villas, and
+hotels, all marshalled in a row, and, like guests at the ordinary,
+mingled without order or distinction; while, elevated above all, and
+conspicuous for its whitewashed front and innumerable windows, stood
+the extensive building in which Sir Arthur had his sleeping apartments.
+Its aspect was extremely ancient, with a venerable stone roof peculiar
+to old times, and testifying to its great antiquity; while the more
+modern slates, or even thatch, on the surrounding dwellings, indicated
+a recent construction.
+
+At High Harrowgate, a crowd of large consequential-looking hotels may
+be observed on every side, all unusually extensive in their
+accommodation, and apparently of nearly equal calibre; but visitors,
+after residing there some time, become aware that to those who
+prescribe gaiety, as well as more salubrious air and water for
+themselves, there are but three hotels in Harrowgate. Invalids may be
+ill anywhere, and personages who wish to be exceedingly exclusive
+retreat into private lodgings; but for anything that can be dignified
+with the name of society at an ordinary, the Granby, the Crown, and the
+Dragon, have by mutual agreement, established a singular monopoly,
+giving balls every alternate night, to which the guests in each house
+are reciprocally invited; the ladies and gentlemen of the Granby and
+Crown requesting the honor of being patronized at a ball on the
+following night; and each hotel provides a carriage for the
+transportation of its own party, in case any of the distinguished
+guests should happen by chance not to have brought their private
+carriages. Meantime, it is rather arbitrarily taken for granted, that
+there are neither ladies nor gentlemen at Gascognes, Queen's, the White
+Swan, or the Black; but residents at these houses are allowed to appear
+on sufferance, though not as invited guests; being merely "winked at."
+
+At a Harrowgate dinner the travellers take precedence more according to
+the length of their bills than by any other criterion, those who have
+resided a month in the hotel going before those who have resided only a
+week, and the visitors of a week being far in advance of all who
+arrived the day before. A Peer of the realm must sit below his tailor,
+if he arrived at the house after him, and no dispute about places can
+arise, as each individual's name is accurately ascertained in the
+morning, and a plate turned upside down on the table opposite where he
+is intended to sit, with his name distinctly written in ink on the
+china. A label is also attached to each bottle of wine, exhibiting, not
+the name of the wine, but the name of its owner, and half an hour
+before dinner, all the gossiping world at each inn, may be observed
+slowly pacing round the table, and carefully reading the name, style,
+and title of those with whom they are about to dine, illustrating their
+remarks by exchanging biographical anecdotes and remembrances connected
+with each successive person, as he comes under discussion. Thus, though
+many arrive at Harrowgate strangers whose "names were never heard,"
+yet, after passing through the ordeal of this gossiping committee,
+stories and circumstances are gradually discovered or invented, by
+which each individual is in some degree identified.
+
+Between High and Low Harrowgate, besides a broad, circuitous high-road,
+two pleasant rural paths lead through the fields, on which a
+gaily-dressed crowd may be seen from peep of day in the morning,
+hurrying along in rapid succession to the well, with looks of
+anticipated disgust in the prospect of that strange compound of horrors
+which they are about to swallow, only comparable to the washings of an
+old gun-barrel. As Sir Arthur remarked, these waters seemed to have
+been invented for the especial affliction of elderly gentlemen,
+processions of whom might be observed drinking tuns of water, in order
+that complexions evidently much the worse of wear might in the process
+of renovation, be mended, cleaned, dyed, and repaired, till they looked
+as good as new; and though the Admiral complained that, to his
+uncomfortable feelings, it always seemed as if he had swallowed the
+tumbler itself, yet he valiantly persevered in daily drinking bumpers
+to his own health, saying that what was good for so many others, would
+be good for his complaint, if he had one, though, except old age and
+blindness, he was conscious of none.
+
+In consequence of Sir Patrick's bet with Mrs. O'Donoghoe, he was on the
+alert at an early hour before breakfast the next morning, to ascertain
+who the incognitos were in the garden room. For nearly an hour he
+sauntered on the common within sight of the Granby, exchanging gay
+observations with those who passed, listening with a satirical smile to
+Lord Wigton, who was practising to desperation some of Rossini's airs
+at an open window, and watching with astonishment the repulsive
+stranger of the preceding evening, who, closely buttoned up in a
+military surtout, with his hat slouched over his face, was rapidly
+pacing up and down, with ceaseless perseverance, close to the garden
+room, with his eye fixed upon the windows and doors, making apparently
+so accurate a survey of those private apartments, that had it been by
+night instead of by day, he might almost have been arrested on
+suspicion of intending to attempt a burglarious entrance.
+
+Not a mouse seemed stirring within these rooms, the blinds were all
+drawn down, and the doors all closed, but still the stranger paced
+rapidly up and down, casting many impatient, irritable glances upwards
+on the silent walls, yet keeping himself so concealed that no one,
+looking suddenly out, could have perceived him lurking there. Sir
+Patrick now, for the first time, suspected that he did not belong to
+the party within, and became more and more interested in observing his
+various eccentric movements, which betrayed a high state of excitement,
+till at length, finding himself watched, with the quickness of
+lightning he suddenly vanished round a projecting corner of the
+building, though a few moments afterwards Sir Patrick perceived that he
+was concealed in a thicket of trees not far off, where he could still
+keep his eye fastened on the windows with unswerving steadiness.
+
+Parties, meantime, hurried onwards to Low Harrowgate to do duty at the
+well, while some of the loungers had already returned, being full
+charged with their quantum of water, and all very loudly expressing
+their astonishment that Sir Patrick had not yet set forth to hear the
+military band, which was reported to be playing "beautifully!
+enchantingly! or detestably!" according to the humor of those who
+spoke.
+
+The crowd was on this day so excessive, that the old well had been
+completely exhausted, and alarming apprehensions were entertained by
+the invalids, of a scarcity for the later visitors, but still Sir
+Patrick stirred not! Though not usually endowed with excessive interest
+in any affairs but his own, the movements of the mysterious stranger,
+and his look of feverish anxiety, engrossed almost the whole of Sir
+Patrick's thoughts, though, to avoid any appearance of espionage, he
+kept up a lively dialogue with Mrs. O'Donoghoe and Captain De
+Crespigny.
+
+Marion in the mean time had been exceedingly amused by the scene which
+usually takes place at the well, where every face seemed as if laboring
+under the nausea of sea-sickness, and she stood for some time with Sir
+Arthur and Mr. Granville, laughingly studying physiognomy, as parties
+arrived in rapid succession, threw off a tumbler of smoking horrors,
+and instantly departed, while a row of shabbily-dressed women, standing
+behind a stone counter, hurriedly filled the glasses, and handed them
+over in a long wooden ladle, to the expectant invalids, one by one, who
+were waiting patiently or impatiently for their turn. Each of the great
+hotels had an emissary appointed here, whose business it was to attend
+on their respective guests with the proper allowance of water, and it
+seemed as if these old women knew by a sort of instinct those who
+belonged to their own house; but an angry contest having taken place
+respecting one gentleman, who was obliged to wait with resignation or
+without it, till the belligerent parties had decided whose privilege it
+was to kill or cure him, Marion's attention was more peculiarly
+attracted to the spot, where one of the women who assisted in serving
+out the general beverage had been hitherto screened from her notice.
+Her face was excessively muffled up, but in the little that remained
+visible, traces of beauty still remained, though her features were so
+attuned to suffering, that Marion with wonder and pity contemplated so
+pale and ghastly a form. At length a dim idea stole into her mind, that
+surely she had seen that face before, but while the floating
+remembrance yet continued to flicker indistinctly through her mind, the
+wretched-looking woman, with a startled glance, had vanished.
+
+"Patrick!" whispered Marion, turning to take her brother's arm, "do
+patronize me for one minute! Did you observe that melancholy-looking
+woman at the well? I never saw so blighted a countenance! What can the
+sorrows be that stamped such a look of ghastly woe upon these beautiful
+features?"
+
+Marion looked up for a reply, and started to find that she had
+inadvertently taken the arm of Captain De Crespigny, whose usual
+vivacity and presence of mind seemed at this moment to have entirely
+forsaken him. His eyes were straining after the receding figure of the
+stranger, with an air of eager astonishment and alarm, while his
+countenance had become white as death. In a moment, however, he
+recovered himself, when Marion, with an exclamation of surprise, had
+drawn away her hand, making a hurried apology for her mistake.
+
+"Did you not recognise her?" asked he, in accents of almost tremulous
+agitation. "It could be no one else! Surely that must have
+been--Dixon?"
+
+"It was!" exclaimed Marion, breathlessly. "How has she come here? what
+can she want? where is Agnes?"
+
+"This must be inquired into!" muttered Captain De Crespigny, almost
+inaudibly; and then resuming his usual careless vivacity of tone and
+manner, he entreated Marion to let him benefit by the fortunate
+resemblance of his dress to Sir Patrick's, and still continue to escort
+her. "I envy Dunbar for the privilege whenever he enjoys it, for you
+shun me like a rattle-snake," added he, in his most insinuating tone;
+"yet I would not for worlds be your brother."
+
+"It is but a troublesome office," replied Marion, looking anxiously
+round for Sir Arthur, who had walked on a few minutes before, leaning
+on Mr. Granville, and most impatiently did she long for their return,
+being always on the alert to shun Captain De Crespigny without
+appearing to do so. Though, like all other persons, amused and
+enlivened by his whimsical and diverting style of conversation, which
+had more even in the manner than in the words, and though with any
+friend of her brother's it pained her courteous nature to be otherwise
+than frank and good humored, yet she made a principle of unobtrusively
+evading his assiduities, not only because his conduct to Agnes had been
+and still continued unpardonably dishonorable, but she felt indignant
+to think that he was disposed to beguile his leisure by also
+captivating and deluding herself. It was obvious that whenever she
+entered the room, he became silent and embarrassed with every one else,
+and took the first opportunity of devoting himself exclusively to her.
+Not giving one shadow of belief to all his professions, when Marion was
+obliged to listen, she did so with unconcealed indignation on finding
+the same insinuations of attachment made to herself which had been
+repeated to her formerly with triumphant credulity by Agnes. Marion
+thoroughly despised his double dealing and ungenerous trifling, while
+feeling nothing for him on that score but contempt, she could almost
+have rejoiced that he wasted his efforts to be irresistible on one who,
+being so fully aware of his character, could incur no danger from the
+fascinations which had been fatal to the peace of many. Safe in the
+consciousness of a hallowed attachment to Mr. Granville, and convinced
+that Captain De Crespigny was incapable of a single genuine feeling,
+she could scarcely have considered it necessary even to be repulsive in
+her manner; but it seemed due to Agnes as much as possible to avoid
+him, knowing that her sister had not yet been able entirely to divest
+herself of a lingering belief that the professions which were false to
+all others were sincere to herself.
+
+For the first time in his whole acquaintance with lady-kind, Captain De
+Crespigny felt doubtful and diffident of his own fascinations, and for
+the first time also he felt himself really and undeniably in love, as
+the transparent single-hearted excellence of Marion's character seemed,
+when compared with the hackneyed and artificial mind of her sister, and
+all other girls, like the difference between a pure mountain breeze and
+a London fog. The attachment he so often affected had now become
+genuine, and the feelings he formerly invented for amusement, and
+expressed with the utmost fluency, were now so real, that they could
+scarcely be spoken at all; for language seemed to fail him when he
+addressed Marion, and every day, as it increased his attachment,
+diminished his hope. She had no vulgar love of admiration; and Captain
+De Crespigny was mortified to perceive, that while the color mounted to
+her cheek at the slightest evidence of affection from her uncle or
+brother, all his own hints of a preference, all his fascinating
+attentions and irresistible speeches, were listened to with the same
+smiling good humor as if they had been devoted to a third person.
+Marion always made some ready reply, without a _soupcon_ of
+embarrassment, and seemed to take compliments, reproaches, love, or
+despair, all as matters of course, which must inevitably be listened to
+with the same indulgent consideration she would have bestowed on Lord
+Doncaster's lamentations respecting his last attack of the gout. She
+did not even pay him the compliment to drop a single stitch in her
+knitting from agitation or from interest when he spoke to her; but all
+his words passed away like arrows flitting through the air, which leave
+not a trace behind.
+
+Captain De Crespigny became, this morning, more than usually assiduous
+while they stood beside the well, referring to Marion's opinion on
+every subject, quoting what he remembered her formerly to have said,
+rejoicing in everything that seemed to give her pleasure, regretting
+the most trifling annoyance that fell in her way, approving of all her
+sentiments, and talking in raptures of old Sir Arthur, while eyes,
+smiles, voice, and manner, all indicated the feelings he wished to
+convey; but Marion merely congratulated herself, that having seen the
+cards already, she knew the game he was playing.
+
+"Miss Dunbar!" said Captain De Crespigny, rushing eagerly forward to
+pick up a flower which the wind had blown out of her bouquet, "may I
+keep this rose?"
+
+"Certainly! any gentleman may take a flower; but I never give one.
+There are twenty better in the garden."
+
+"I would give all the twenty for this one. This is more precious than
+anything except the hand that gives it. Indeed this is the only rose in
+the world I care for!"
+
+"The white moss-rose is more fragrant, and not so common," answered
+Marion, indifferently. "That was beautiful an hour since, though rather
+the worse of wear now."
+
+"I am so unalterable in my preferences, that even though withered and
+decayed, still it would be precious to me, as connected with
+recollections which I shall cherish till the world's end, and till the
+end of time! Flowers speak a language which words cannot express; and
+even if mine were to fade in an hour, let me enjoy it while I may. This
+rose does not hoard all its sweetness, as you do!"
+
+"Captain De Crespigny, if your conversation has a fault in the world,
+it is too plain, matter-of-fact, and unadorned," said Marion, with a
+careless laugh. "You have wasted a whole summer of lilies and roses
+upon me during the last five minutes, and I ought to answer you with a
+perfect conservatory in return; but it sounds dreadfully like the
+double-distilled essence of the Minerva press. I thought this very
+flourishing style of compliment had been worn out now, and given over,
+as old clothes are, to the race of abigails and valets. But here comes
+my sister; and, to speak in your own fashion, remember '_je ne suis pus
+la rose, mais j'ai vecu avec elle_.'"
+
+To Marion's astonishment, Agnes merely strolled past, with her eyes
+earnestly fixed upon nothing, and did not interrupt her conversation
+with Lord Doncaster and the Abbe Mordaunt, by whom she was escorted,
+except to give a smiling nod to Captain De Crespigny, who seemed
+exceedingly surprised at her indifferent "how-d'e-do" manner, and
+excessively piqued at the carelessness she either felt or feigned,
+saying, in a tone of satirical wonder:
+
+"The Abbe seems to have every probability of gaining a proselyte! He
+has been very successful among the lower orders lately, though; I
+believe, my uncle's ale and roast beef ought to receive great part of
+the credit; but I cannot be sufficiently astonished at our new
+convert!"
+
+"I must discuss this subject with my sister!" replied Marion, pleased
+to observe Captain De Crespigny so much interested in Agnes. "It is
+wrong to have delayed so long asking an explanation; but I could almost
+more easily die for those I love, than distress them. My uncle would
+care too much on the subject, and Patrick too little; therefore it must
+devolve upon me to speak. We are to have a long drive, soon. Let me
+consider! this is Tuesday--to-morrow will be Wednesday----"
+
+"How clever of you to find that out! You would certainly have
+discovered the longitude!"
+
+"No doubt of that! I have discovered a great deal in my time; but in
+the meanwhile I shall talk this over fully with Agnes to-morrow."
+
+"Do not speak of to-morrow, when to-day is the happiest, perhaps, in my
+life! I wish there were no to-morrows! Such an hour as this appears to
+me like an aloe, which can blossom only once in my existence."
+
+"You entertain very moderate expectations of life, therefore I think we
+may confidently rely on your being agreeably surprised by many days as
+pleasant."
+
+"Then they must be passed in the same society; but Miss Dunbar, it
+always seems as if you would rather say 'Good bye' to me than 'How d'ye
+do!' You treat me with the most barbarous injustice! Your heart never
+teaches you to understand mine! Is it that you hate or despise me? You
+are so amiable to others, so charming, so everything that I could
+admire, yet to me your smiles are as cold and chilling as a moon-beam
+on snow. Be severe, satirical, anything but half absent and altogether
+indifferent, while you listen to me only with the ear and not at all
+with the heart. I shall positively be obliged at last to give you up."
+
+"I wish you would! We might be the best of friends as well as cousins,
+if you would only talk to me in an everyday manner, without rehearsing
+over those absurd Romeo-and-Juliet speeches."
+
+"Let us, then, be friends now, and more than friends in time to come."
+
+"Never! O never! Patrick has led you to disbelieve my engagement to
+another; but at all events, Captain De Crespigny, if we lived in
+separate planets we could not be more entirely divided; and even in
+jest, I cannot allow any one to talk as you do, though I know it is
+merely an unconquerable habit you have of saying the same thing to
+every young lady, indiscriminately."
+
+"What a shocking aspersion! you seem to think me incapable of a single
+respectable feeling, but believe me, since first we met I have scarcely
+known whether there be another girl in the world but yourself! Every
+moment I can be with you adds something to the value of my existence."
+
+"Your civilities are all so complete a burlesque that I need never
+forget they are in jest!" replied Marion, looking considerably bored,
+and hurrying onwards, while Captain De Crespigny buried himself in
+melancholy silence, and assumed a most perfect attitude of graceful
+despair. Finding the pause rather awkward, she added, in an every day,
+commonplace tone: "Are you going to hear Grisi to-night? I am told that
+large sums are given for places on the heads of those who have already
+secured seats!"
+
+"If I go to Grisi's concert, the temptation is--not to hear him--that
+you know very well--too well! I have but one object in going anywhere,
+and that is--to meet you. _Esperer aupres de vous vaut mieux que jouir
+avec tout autre._ I must quarrel with that little shake of the head.
+It is a libel on my sincerity! Miss Dunbar, your face is a perfect
+printing press, and publishes all you think! I wish you possessed the
+magic ring which enabled people to know exactly what was thought of
+them! You are in my debt several months of devoted attachment! Little
+do you guess how often and how deeply your slightest words are
+pondered, remembered, repeated, and dwelt upon in my solitary hours,
+nor how constantly I wish that the man in the moon, who employs his
+leisure in knitting people together with invisible cords, would, for my
+especial happiness, give us a few stitches."
+
+"It must be his fault that we have been kept so very long together this
+morning. Where can my uncle be?" said Marion, impatiently. "You are
+aware already, Captain De Crespigny, that I must receive all my
+brother's friends with civility. In that respect his authority shall be
+obeyed, as it is of no use quarreling with the wind, but if you
+consider me indifferent, that is what I am and ought to be, therefore
+think me so always."
+
+"That very indifference is distracting! Let me acknowledge, Miss
+Dunbar, that I may have deceived others, but you I never even wished to
+deceive; others I have flattered, but no one can flatter you, because
+nothing can be said equal to what I think. I wish new words could be
+invented to express the ardor of my sentiments! When we are together,
+the present moment is everything! I have neither past nor future,
+neither hopes nor fears, but what are connected with you," said Captain
+De Crespigny, with hurried impetuosity, while a rush of mingled feeling
+swept across his features. "I forget everything else when you are
+present, and neither know nor care where I go in your absence. I love
+you as I never loved before and never can again. The world, in short,
+has only two divisions, in my estimation--where you are, and where you
+are not. Despise my attachment if you will, but at least believe in
+it."
+
+"You grieve me to the very heart," said Marion, in a low, tremulous
+voice, for there was an irresistible air of truth in Captain De
+Crespigny's manner which startled and shocked her. "I never for a
+single moment could imagine you serious about anything! Life and even
+its most sacred affections seem all in your estimation a mere jest, to
+be thought of and forgotten with a smile. I trust it is so now! I would
+not for worlds believe you in earnest! You seem really to have parted
+with your senses!"
+
+"Or rather I found them from the moment I learned to appreciate you!
+Did you never hear, Miss Dunbar, that in this world two individuals are
+always created suitable to each other, who must both be miserable
+unless they become one, and you exactly fill up the beau ideal which
+has haunted me from the hour I left Eton."
+
+"Why? De Crespigny!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, coming forward, "with that
+melo-dramatic air, you seem to be rehearsing a last speech and
+confession."
+
+"Or rather my first speech and confession," replied he, with a
+conscious laugh. "And Miss Dunbar, I must entreat you not to
+believe----"
+
+What Captain De Crespigny entreated her not to believe Marion did not
+wait to hear, as they had at last reached the Granby, and she rushed up
+to her own room, while he, as much astonished at his reception as a
+gentleman could well be, strolled slowly away singing to himself with
+angry asperity,
+
+    "If she love me, this believe,
+    I will die ere she shall grieve;
+    If she slight me when I woo,
+    I can scorn and let her go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+
+Marion had frequently sketched in her own mind a faint outline of what
+she should say to Agnes on the subject of her unaccountable intimacy
+with Lord Doncaster, who seemed to delight in making a parade of her
+preference for his society, especially in the presence of his nephew;
+but when Marion found herself at length alone one day with her sister,
+she felt her heart sink with apprehension, yet, being resolved to
+conquer nature, and do her duty, if possible, she approached the table
+where Agnes was seated. A large, foreign-looking book, with gold
+clasps, lay conspicuously before her, which Marion discovered at once
+to be a missal, bound in antique boards of beautifully inlaid wood,
+with massy gilt ornaments, and illuminated by designs in the style of
+Albert Durer.
+
+To hide her confusion, and begin the subject with advantage, Marion
+placed her hand on the shoulder of Agnes for some moments, and leaned
+forward, examining those splendid paintings, the singular beauty of
+which she admired, while expressing considerable amazement at the
+strange, distorted designs on the border, where animals with five heads
+and their faces all nose, were varied with fish mounted on legs, and
+birds exhibiting human countenances.
+
+"These eccentric creatures resemble the figures in some horrible
+dream!" observed Marion; "but they are not a greater distortion from
+the truth of nature, than the Popish superstitions which they
+illustrate are from the truth of revelation. Nothing seems left in
+either, of the perfect symmetry with which all things come from a
+Divine Creator."
+
+"I am no controversialist," said Agnes, indifferently. "I take matters
+as I find them."
+
+"That is not the safest of all plans, unless you are very careful from
+whom your ideas are received. I have heard that there are writers in
+the Roman Catholic Church, such as Massillon, Pascal, and Fenelon, who
+were nearly as pure in Christian doctrine as ourselves, resting their
+hope on no merits except those of our Divine Saviour; but I should
+think, for instance, that no Protestant could gain anything from
+associating with such a man as the Abbe Mordaunt, who would disgrace
+any church. Dear Agnes, allow me for this once the privilege of a
+sister; not merely to love you with my whole heart, as I always do, but
+also to prove my affection by saying for your sake what is most painful
+to me, and may probably be annoying to you. It is with the greatest
+anxiety and surprise that I have lately been watching you----"
+
+"Watching me!" exclaimed Agnes, starting round with angry asperity, and
+fixing her flashing eyes on Marion. "What right have you--or what right
+has any living being to watch me?"
+
+"The right of affection and kindness," replied Marion, with emotion,
+while a large tear glittered in her deep blue eyes. "We are motherless
+girls, Agnes, and therefore we owe each other the greater solicitude.
+There are many eyes upon you, less friendly, I fear, than those of a
+sister. If others were not placing a sinister construction on all they
+see, I might not perhaps have ventured to begin the subject; but as it
+is, I have no choice except to discuss it with either Patrick or
+yourself. Our kind uncle must not be agitated, on any consideration;
+otherwise I have sometimes thought of asking him to take us at once
+away from this place."
+
+"And pray, what has your mean 'watching' of my conduct,--your police
+investigation, discovered, which might render so desperate a measure
+necessary?" asked Agnes, with a flickering color in her cheek, and in a
+bitter tone of suppressed anger. "Wisdom will die with you, Marion! I
+ought to be duly sensible of my good fortune, in having such a sister!
+Perhaps you intend obligingly to favor me with a few hints for the
+regulation of my conduct,--to honor me with a little of that valuable
+advice which I have not been sufficiently alert in asking."
+
+"Agnes! I know myself to be in a most unsuitable position, when
+criticising anything in your conduct; but if I had died, and returned
+from another world with permission to speak, I could not be more
+entirely free from any personal motive. If I give pain to you, I give
+greater pain to myself; but every one combines in saying, that this old
+Roman Catholic peer, and his Abbe, are most profligate men; that they
+scarcely deserve to be well received by ladies of character; that the
+very glance of their eye is contamination, and that you alone, of all
+the ladies in this house, are singled out to be, not distinguished, but
+insulted by their attentions. Surely, Agnes, it is time for me to
+speak. Our reputation is all we have on earth--more precious to any
+woman than the wealth of the world, and more precious, if possible, to
+us, than to others, because we have no other dependence. Patrick is
+every day on the brink of ruin, and must leave us before long. Our
+uncle--but I cannot speak of that--when he is gone, we shall be alone
+indeed."
+
+"When that day comes, I shall be as sorry as yourself; but there is
+nothing to fear at present. Captain De Crespigny says, all old uncles
+or aunts who wish to be lamented by their young nieces, should die in
+the midst of a gay season, to interrupt the parties and balls; but
+good, worthy Sir Arthur is more considerate than to incommode any one.
+When we do lose the Admiral, however, be under no apprehension of my
+remaining alone! I have made up my great mind upon that subject, and
+you will see that circumstances do not always continue the same."
+
+"Nor people either, Agnes! I have long feared that you trust too
+implicitly in the constancy of Captain De Crespigny."
+
+"Trust! Do you suppose that I any longer trust him!" exclaimed
+Agnes--her color rising, and her large eyes glittering with a strange
+expression of indignant contempt. "No, Marion! He has been represented
+to me now, as he is, a heartless, vain, unfeeling coquette. All men are
+monsters, but he is the worst! I can be revenged, however! Even he,
+cold and indifferent as he is, shall repent! I shall blight his hopes,
+as he has blighted mine. I shall cross his views, humble and disappoint
+him. To inflict on him all that he has so wantonly and cruelly
+inflicted on me; to destroy his insolent triumph, and bring down the
+pride of his success, I would--yes, Marion, I would, and I shall
+sacrifice the happiness of my whole life!"
+
+"Dear Agnes! do not say so! Do not even think so for a moment! What can
+you mean! Revenge would be a wretched satisfaction, at best! If he has
+treated you ill----"
+
+"If he has!" interrupted Agnes, with startling vehemence. "Marion! the
+Abbe thinks he could never have married me, even had he wished it. That
+Captain De Crespigny became entangled, from the time he was a boy, in
+one of those horrid Scotch affairs, half a marriage, or a whole one,
+just as he pleases, and Lord Doncaster told me one day in
+confidence----"
+
+"In confidence, Agnes! What confidence should ever exist between you
+and such a man as Lord Doncaster? an old _roue_! You ought to despise
+and avoid him!"
+
+"I am apt to think you are quite mistaken," replied Agnes, with a
+sudden assumption of haughtiness, while she shot an angry glance at
+Marion. "The last Lord Doncaster but ten, may have been a _roue_, or
+what you please, but I know nothing, and will hear nothing against the
+present."
+
+"That is the very point on which I must speak!" answered Marion,
+hurriedly, her features working with agitation, while the blood rushed
+back to her heart. "In a case like this, where love or marriage are
+completely out of the question, our friends are all astonished that
+you, Agnes, who make no secret of liking admiration, should waste so
+much time in deep conversation with that really disreputable old Peer.
+Believe me, it gives rise to much animadversion, and even calumny,
+especially when connected with that new ornament you wear; and I begin
+seriously to fear you may be persuaded into taking the veil."
+
+"Only a bridal veil," replied Agnes, arranging her ringlets. "I am not
+quite so mad as you think. I certainly have adopted this badge! At Rome
+I shall do as Rome does. Now, Marion, as young Rapid says in the
+comedy, 'I shall take it a personal favor if you will not faint;' but
+the Romish faith suits me best, and I consider it religion in full
+dress, instead of religion in deshabille. I admire the almost
+theatrical magnificence of its ritual; the splendid processions, the
+consecrated dresses, the superb music, the dazzling lights, the clouds
+of burning incense, the romantic convents, and the magnificent
+cathedrals."
+
+Marion looked aghast with consternation and sorrow, while she listened
+in silence; but at length, in a tone of subdued and mournful
+indignation, she replied, "Is this, then, possible! that without one
+serious thought, you would forsake our holy faith, for a mere external
+mockery of religion! a solemn pantomime? Attracted by rosaries,
+crucifixes, tinkling bells, and empty symbols, you would forget the
+lessons of our childhood, the church in which we worshipped with our
+father, the Bible which he taught us to revere. Surely, Agnes, you will
+consult a clergyman of our own persuasion, before taking rashly the
+most important step which a mortal can possibly contemplate,--which our
+parents would rather you had never been born, than that you took."
+
+"Excuse me, for interrupting your sermon. It is against all rule, but
+it may save you a great deal of trouble," said Agnes, arranging her
+rings, and re-tying her bouquet; "my sole intention is to be of a
+similar religion to the man I marry."
+
+"Do _you_ still expect," said Marion, with a look of surprise, "to be
+Mrs. De Crespigny?"
+
+"Or Marchioness of Doncaster!"
+
+"Yes, in due course of time, when Captain De Crespigny succeeds!"
+
+"He never shall succeed," replied Agnes, setting her teeth, and
+speaking with stern determination, while her face became rigid as
+stone. "Captain De Crespigny has deceived me, cheated me of my youth,
+hopes, and happiness. I have been fooled, trifled with, basely
+ill-treated. My heart is seared against any real attachment to another;
+but I shall be amply revenged on him. I shall destroy his happiness, as
+he has destroyed mine. Without his long-expected wealth and title, he
+will find that the butterfly is but a grub.--I mean to marry his
+uncle!----"
+
+A dead silence followed these words. Marion made no exclamation, and
+did not even look at Agnes, but buried her face in her hands, with a
+feeling of unutterable shame and consternation. The very idea had never
+before occurred to her imagination, that her young and blooming sister
+could contemplate so degrading a sacrifice; but when, at length, she
+looked up, there was something in the proud, stern expression of that
+beautiful countenance, which forced upon her the unwelcome and
+extraordinary conviction that all had been said in earnest.
+
+"Agnes!" cried she, gasping with astonishment; "that dissipated,
+horrid, dreadful man! Impossible! The miserable wreck of an ill-spent
+life! A superannuated _roue_. Are you in jest? or are you mad?"
+
+"Mad! or at least delirious! Marion, we have lived long together, and
+yet you do not know me! I am not one to sit tamely down, as you would
+do, and wash my heart away with tears! My sorrows are not to be
+closeted in silent desolation, but I must act. If hope and happiness
+are crushed for ever, he who turned my feelings to stone shall suffer
+for it! He shall no longer wind me on, and wind me off, according to
+his own caprice! It is like death itself to love in secret, but worse
+than death when it is known, and he does know all! He knows, believes,
+and rejoices to believe, that I have waited, suffered, hoped, and
+feared for him, and for him only; but I am not one to die of scorned
+love. Now every spark of my regard for him is crushed out. His vanity
+shall not have another moment's triumph over me," said Agnes, her eyes
+becoming frightfully brilliant. "My heart feels as if it were buried in
+a snow-drift, and nothing warms it but the hope of vengeance."
+
+"Agnes! who in her senses would think of being consigned to misery and
+contempt both here and hereafter, merely to punish one who ought to be
+despised! If Captain De Crespigny be vain, foolish, and unprincipled,
+is that a sufficient reason for you to become degraded, and, I must
+say, infamous!" said Marion, in a tone of undisguised disgust, though
+her voice made no more impression than the gentle wave on the hard and
+unbending cliff. "Such a step as this would separate you for ever from
+those you have most reason to love."
+
+"I am one of the Positive Club, Marion, who never change their minds
+about anything! and my resolution is unalterable. ''Tis best repenting
+in a coach and six.'"
+
+"Think, Agnes, not of the short triumph over Captain De Crespigny, but
+of the long years that must follow,--of the living death you must
+endure, linked to vice, decrepitude, and immorality, lowered in your
+own eyes, and contemptible in those of others."
+
+"Mistaken as usual, Marion! a life of mediocrity would be a life of
+misery to me, and few people think the worse of any young lady for
+becoming a Marchioness. Lord Doncaster can give me every thing except
+happiness, and I must find the best substitute for that in my power. A
+blight is on my heart! my pride has been mortally wounded; but I cannot
+undertake a cold, insipid, colorless existence, devoid of motive and of
+hope. It would be ennui drowned in wretchedness, if I return jilted,
+mortified, and disappointed, to our uncle's dog-hole of a villa at
+Portobello?"
+
+A red spot burned on Marion's cheek, and indignant tears, occupying the
+place of words, glittered on her eye-lashes, while her thoughts
+reverted to their generous, kind-hearted, and high-spirited uncle,
+whose affection was so undervalued by Agnes, and whose better feelings
+were about to be so outraged by the announcement of a preposterous and
+really disgraceful project.
+
+Agnes now assumed the dignity of a peeress in expectancy, looking cold,
+resolute, and haughty, till at length Marion, overcome with emotion,
+threw her arms round the neck of her sister, and burst into tears,
+saying, in accents of incoherent affection,--
+
+"Agnes,--dear Agnes! take pity upon yourself. Lay open your heart to a
+kind Providence,--pray for peace, but do not barter yourself for
+revenge. Do not become utterly lost, as well as unhappy! For my sake,
+for everybody's sake, let us go home as we came! Life is only precious
+for the eternal hopes and the domestic affections it bestows. Would you
+rashly throw away both, bringing on a lifetime of unpitied remorse?"
+
+Marion looked up with anxious solicitude, but scarcely had she ceased
+to speak before Agnes glided out of the room, leaving behind her the
+splendid missal adorned with Lord Doncaster's arms in gold upon the
+white parchment binding. Beside it lay the envelope of a letter, with a
+marquis' coronet on the seal, and underneath was engraved, to her
+astonishment, the exact date of Agnes' birthday. Marion started when
+she saw this absurd piece of gallantry, and covered her face with her
+hands, as if she never could show it again.
+
+    She did not know how hate could burn,
+    In hearts once changed from soft to stern;
+    Nor all the false and fatal zeal,
+    The convert of revenge can feel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.
+
+
+Though the leaders of fashion have decided that it looks greedy and
+gormandizing to be punctually ready for dinner, yet, at the Granby
+Hotel, no sooner does the clock strike five than the bell rings, and
+the instantaneous rush of company which then takes place towards the
+dining-room can only be compared to a congregation hurrying out of
+church, or a flock of chickens in a poultry-yard assembling to be fed.
+Doors fly open,--guests are seen precipitating themselves headlong down
+stairs,--elderly matrons advance, leaning on their gouty, red-faced
+husbands,--troops of marriageable daughters follow,--and solitary
+gentlemen are visible, strolling forward in all the unencumbered
+independence of having no one to care for but themselves. The
+noise-meter then rises to a deafening pitch, when, to the din of a
+hundred tongues, is added the jingling of glasses, plates, knives, and
+forks, while the long serpent-like procession winds slowly into the
+room, and gradually subsides into places.
+
+Amidst the moving mass of strangely mingled personages, Captain De
+Crespigny had offered his arm to Marion, which she did not seem to
+observe, but led forward Sir Arthur, while all eyes were turned upon
+Agnes, who walked beside Lord Doncaster, with burning cheeks and
+downcast eyes, yet affecting to look superbly dignified.
+
+Sir Patrick, in the mean time, always on the _qui vive_ for variety and
+adventure, entreated Mrs. O'Donoghoe's permission to sit between her
+and the young lady under charge, who attracted his especial notice
+because she so obviously suffered from that apprehension of being
+conspicuous, common to strangers on their first appearance at a public
+table, and was dressed with a degree of plainness which amounted almost
+to eccentricity.
+
+"I lose no time in making new acquaintances here," whispered he aside
+to Mrs. O'Donoghoe, with a glance at her timid companion, who had
+become a perfect aurora of blushes as she seated herself at the table.
+"Our short visits at Harrowgate scarcely leave me five minutes to spare
+for each new face."
+
+"Then I hope you do most of the conversation yourself, for I suspect
+the young lady, who was placed under my _chaperonage_ by Mr. Crawford,
+is not so much accustomed to live upon airy nothings, and to run up
+_impromptu_ intimacies as you are."
+
+"The sooner she begins then, the better. I have a thousand things to
+say to her!"
+
+"Perhaps she may not have time for above five hundred of them. You must
+talk to her like a dialogue book, supplying both the questions and the
+answers; for, as far as my experience goes, she seems to be shockingly
+silent and nervous. Are you generally reckoned amusing?"
+
+"Everybody agrees in considering me so, and many people think me quite
+the reverse, but I can be either the one or the other, on a moment's
+notice."
+
+"Indeed! a little of both, and a great deal to spare! I imagine it all
+depends on which way the wind blows!"
+
+"Exactly! I am sentimental in a westerly breeze,--cutting and sarcastic
+in an east wind,--noisy and boisterous in a northern blast,--and during
+'a southerly wind and a cloudy day,' the genius of nonsense takes
+possession of me so completely, that I have bestowed on myself the
+privilege of saying whatever I think."
+
+"How shocking! I do not particularly fancy you in any of these moods!"
+
+"Adagio! do not condemn me yet! choose your own subject, concerts,
+sermons, pic-nics, dress, Harrowgate water, or the last new novel,
+nothing comes amiss to me! I mean soon to publish a weekly programme of
+the five or six subjects to which all conversation at the Granby is
+usually limited; a complete set of the questions invariably asked by
+all the visitors every day, with a sketch of the most appropriate
+answers. For my own part, all my replies are given by rote, and it puts
+me out entirely, if the inquiry whether I have been at Ripley, comes
+before the question how I like the waters, or who was the last arrival,
+which is, _a propos_, the only subject on which I am not very well
+informed."
+
+Sir Patrick saying these words, gave a sly glance towards his left
+hand, where the young _incognita_ sat, without apparently listening to
+what passed, and as she seemed at the moment to be looking another way,
+Mrs. O'Donoghoe archly turned round the label on her bottle of wine, so
+that the young baronet could read that it bore, according to custom,
+the name of its proprietor 'Miss Smythe.'
+
+Nothing could be a more complete balk to curiosity than such a name.
+Sir Patrick had already known seven Mrs. Smythes. His washerwoman was
+Mrs. Smith,--his sister's governess had been a Miss Smith,--two
+Captains in his own regiment had gloried in the name of Smyth,--and his
+old Colonel's widow was Mrs. Smith. There was no individuality in the
+name, but a whisper had reached him in the morning that a Miss Smith,
+the authoress of several popular romances, was expected at Harrowgate,
+and a horrible apprehension crossed his mind that, young as she looked,
+this might actually be the culprit, his surmises respecting which he
+could not but whisper to the laughing widow, adding, with a look of
+comical consternation--
+
+"Only think how my portrait will look in her next book! There is no
+escape, unless I faint away immediately and am carried out! We must
+remain together now as long as I stay at Harrowgate, for no change of
+place is allowed. Even if you and I quarrel, there is no remedy! It is
+like connubial felicity, we are settled here permanently, for better or
+for worse."
+
+"It might certainly be worse! I am tolerably resigned to my fate, for I
+sat till lately among the dullest set of hum-drum bores who ever ate a
+potato; but you are so clever, I always become clever in your company."
+
+"That is a novelty, I suppose?"
+
+"Why, for that matter, my mind is like a piano-forte, which requires to
+be skilfully played upon," replied the widow, gayly. "I have often been
+offered large annuities by people, merely to live in their houses and
+entertain them, but lately I was in danger of falling into a state of
+sensible, every-day dullness."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"You may doubt it--anybody would--but actually, yesterday, talking to
+Lord Wigton, I was threatened with a fit of prosing! a thing I never
+was subject to, and I never heard it had been in our family! Whether do
+you dislike most, a professed wit, or a professed proser, Sir Patrick?"
+
+"My favorite society is any old lady of seventy, who has met with great
+misfortunes!"
+
+"Well, I am not much upon that pattern, certainly, but fifty years
+hence, we might make an appointment, perhaps, to meet here again."
+
+"How many succession of visitors will before then have flourished in
+this house, and vanished. Even after the interval of one season, a
+visitor's return is like coming back from the grave. Nothing is
+remembered of either yourself or your cotemporaries. Guests, waiters,
+landlords, and even boots, have all disappeared."
+
+"Very affecting, indeed," said Mrs. O'Donoghoe; "but half the dinner
+has disappeared during that long moral discourse of yours, Sir Patrick.
+Among the transitory things in this house, pray enumerate, another
+time, the _entre-mets_ and vegetables."
+
+"Pardon me--these dishes re-appear only too often. I have known some of
+those pies intimately for several days. In our regiment, we called such
+revivals 'old clothes,' and it really is too bad treating ninety
+deserving people so ill."
+
+"I should like to live upon the diet of a chameleon! Eating is a vulgar
+necessity which the mind despises," observed Mrs. O'Donoghoe, helping
+herself to a _pate_; "but some of the company here seem _ne pour la
+digestion_, talking love and sentiment over a haunch of venison. Mr.
+Crawford tells me that an Indian dinner party lasts twelve hours, and
+people who sit down as thin as skeletons, rise from table quite
+corpulent."
+
+"It certainly does require the aid of refined conversation to keep up
+our self-respect in a scene of such gormandizing. For my own part, I
+live upon anti-pastry principles, and am also a no-vegetable man; but I
+wish haunches of venison had never been invented! I made fifteen mortal
+enemies by the last I carved in this house, because no one thought I
+had given him the best slice," observed Sir Patrick. "I wish all men
+like old Doncaster, who eat more good things in a day than they say in
+a year, would dine alone."
+
+"But I think," said Mr. Crawford, "that the habit of meeting at meals
+is one of our most excellent social customs! If each individual in a
+family were merely to snatch a morsel when hungry, there would be no
+re-union, and often no intimacy among members even of the same
+household. I like frequently to trace the usefulness of old established
+customs, which have been sanctioned by successive generations, because
+the advantages are always so much greater than they at first appear,
+that it has now become quite a sufficient reason for me to respect any
+custom, when I find that it is an old one."
+
+"I take the liberty of thinking quite the reverse!" said Sir Patrick.
+"Change is the very essence of enjoyment! change of habits, change of
+company, and change of air, are all equally necessary, and I never have
+a guinea in the world without instantly getting it changed. That custom
+will make a scarcity of silver at the bank, when I marry the heiress,
+Miss Howard."
+
+"You!" exclaimed Mr. Crawford, his very wig standing on end with
+surprise, while the young lady next him colored to the very tip of her
+fingers.
+
+"I beg your pardon," said Sir Patrick, turning to her with one of his
+most winning smiles. "I thought you gave symptoms of speaking."
+
+A torrent of blushes being her only reply, he began to doubt whether
+she had the faculty of speech at all, and having decided at last that
+the young lady was either a statue or an idiot, he turned to his more
+accessible neighbor, muttering in an under tone, "Mute as a fish! An
+exhausted receiver! I never saw such a genius for shyness! Her very
+cap-strings are blushing! But about Miss Howard, my friend De
+Crespigny, who was born and educated for the very purpose of marrying
+his cousin, wishes me to take her off his hands, and if I could have
+sold myself, which I cannot, she might have done. I am told she is very
+romantic, so he and I agreed once to get up an amicable duel for her,
+and after that I was to waylay the mad cousin who persecutes her, and
+horse-whip him!"
+
+"Nothing like spirited beginning," said Mr. Crawford, in agonies of
+risibility, while the young lady on Sir Patrick's other side, after an
+evident struggle, during which the ever-deepening color in her cheek
+became perfectly scarlet, at length burst into an uncontrollable fit of
+laughter, so full of fun and glee, that the young baronet instinctively
+joined her, though amazed and perplexed beyond measure by the oddity of
+her manner, and by her unspeakable silence. "Your love," added Mr.
+Crawford, "is to be more in the heroic than in the pastoral style."
+
+"Never was there a Captain of Huzzars so preternaturally in love at
+first sight, as I should have been. De Crespigny tells me she is first
+cousin to Croesus! has land in every country, gold in every bank, the
+mines of Golconda for a part of her portion, carries a million of money
+in each pocket, and changes horses three times in driving across her
+own estate! I should think myself rich to be five minutes in her
+company."
+
+"I see you are half in joke, and wholly in earnest," said Mrs.
+O'Donoghoe. "But some gentlemen certainly do speculate in matrimony,
+exactly as they would in the public stocks. So my poor husband used to
+say before he left me so handsomely provided for. As for Miss Howard's
+hundred lovers, they will have but one idea amongst them--money! money!
+money!"
+
+"Love for an heiress certainly has the most solid of all foundations.
+How much better to be married for your fortune than for your dancing or
+singing--your pedigree or connections! There can be no mistake in
+pounds, shillings, and pence! De Crespigny tells me she is said to be
+not only very rich, but very plain, therefore as people generally marry
+their opposites, we shall suit exactly."
+
+The timid young lady had now fallen into a perfect paroxysm of blushes,
+and an extraordinary twitching about her mouth betrayed the last
+extreme of nervousness, though whether her agitation were not of a
+risible nature, Sir Patrick felt somewhat perplexed to decide,
+especially as she was seized with a fit of coughing which appeared
+almost like laughter, while she hastily drank up the water in her
+finger-glass, threw salt over her pudding, and committed a dozen of
+absurdities, which caused the young Baronet to ask himself whether she
+were in possession of her fifty senses. A moment afterwards, Sir
+Patrick felt his arm convulsively grasped by the young lady, as if for
+protection, while a half-suppressed scream burst from her lips, and she
+clung to him with an aspect of breathless terror, her lips parted, her
+cheeks livid, and her eyes almost startling from her head, as she gazed
+anxiously after the receding figure of a man who was hastily leaving
+the room.
+
+Sir Patrick, when thus unexpectedly appealed to, started from his seat
+to offer assistance, though at a loss how to act, when, seeing Miss
+Smythe's countenance become of a ghastly paleness, he rapidly poured
+out a tumbler of water, and held it to her lips, proposing, at the same
+time, to support her out of the room.
+
+"No, no! I am better here!" replied she, in trembling accents.
+
+"I--I need society! I am so nervous! It must have been some dreadful
+mistake! Excuse me, I would rather remain!"
+
+Mr. Crawford, in the mean time, had rushed hastily out of the room;
+and, having now returned, he made a signal, as if desirous to escort
+her also; but to this implied proposal the young lady only answered by
+an almost imperceptible shake of the head, while she fixed her eyes on
+her plate, resolved, apparently, to remain stationary. To the great
+surprise of Sir Patrick, two tall footmen, in plain livery, now placed
+themselves behind her chair; and, having afterwards closely followed
+her when the ladies retired to tea, they were observed lounging about
+in the lobby during the rest of that evening.
+
+"What could be the meaning of such a scene?" asked Mrs. O'Donoghoe, in
+an undertone of extreme curiosity. "Can you conceive, Sir Patrick, why
+the young lady started in that extraordinary way?"
+
+"Yes!" whispered he confidentially. "I can explain, but do not mention
+this. It was because--she couldn't help it! There is a sublime mystery
+of some kind at work here! I cannot dive into it! Suppose she were to
+turn out Miss Howard Smytheson _incog._!"
+
+"Oh no! that is impossible! Her aunt was coming with her, who is one of
+my most intimate friends!"
+
+Never had anybody so many most intimate friends, as Mrs. O'Donoghoe.
+Every person she met for half-an-hour, had the honor to be so
+designated, and if a gentleman were distinguished by the appellation,
+it was generally followed by a very plain insinuation that she had
+refused him. Of late, however, Mrs. O'Donoghoe had been more cautious
+in such assertions, having been discredited in one of her many
+forgeries on the bank of truth, by its being proved, that she boasted
+of a proposal from Mr. Crawford three weeks after it became known that
+he was already engaged to his second wife. Such accidents happen,
+however, in the best-regulated families!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.
+
+
+It is absolutely indispensable that every visitor at Harrowgate shall
+go through a course, not merely of its waters, but of all the castles,
+ruins, rocks, lakes, gardens, and houses in the neighborhood, and
+especially that, _bon gre, mal gre_, he shall spend one entire day in
+rhapsodizing among the splendid fragments of Fountain Abbey. The
+leading question asked of every visitor at the Granby, at least nine
+times a day is, whether he has seen the Abbey, followed by exclamations
+of dismay and astonishment, if he have not. A shower of inquiries then
+follows, how soon he intends to go there, after which no one forgets
+the exact day and hour named, while every good-natured friend fills up
+occasional gaps in the conversation by hoping he may be favored with a
+fine morning for his excursion.
+
+No stranger, unmarried and marriageable, at the Granby, has any right
+or title to the squandering of his own time, as the whole race of
+chaperons have assumed the privilege of knowing how he spends it, as
+well as of dictating the various ways in which he should and must
+dispose of himself; and, accordingly, Sir Patrick and Captain De
+Crespigny found themselves one day ensnared into a _soi-disant_ party
+of pleasure to Studley, from which they had no more chance of escape
+than a brace of partridges at a _battu_.
+
+As Madame De Stael remarks, "English weather does better to rail at,
+than if it were finer; and if Britain had a settled climate and a
+despotic government, there would be an end of all conversation." After
+a long succession of good-for-nothing days, during which the rain
+seemed to pour from a thousand water-spouts, till the world was in a
+perfect dropsy, and it was feared the sun must have met with an
+accident, as he seemed unable to appear, he at last, contrary to
+custom, when a pic-nic is in the case, blazed out with unprecedented
+splendor, and became quite a spendthrift of his rays. September had
+evidently borrowed a day from June for the occasion; and yet Sir
+Patrick, who would much rather have encountered any danger than the
+smallest discomfort, staid an hour in bed to consider whether there was
+anything that might happen in the whole course of that day,
+sufficiently agreeable to reward him for the effort of rising. Except a
+fox-chase, however, nothing could have done so; and he secretly
+detested the very thoughts of walking five mortal miles, and spending
+five mortal hours in "doing the rural" among the dismal cloisters of a
+roofless ruin, or bush-ranging through damp shrubberies, with a
+committee of enraptured young ladies.
+
+His fellow-sufferer, Captain De Crespigny, stood yawning and humming a
+tune beside him, waiting for the carriage, and expressing a hope, that
+though he had almost fallen out of acquaintance with nature, and wished
+pic-nics had never been invented, yet perhaps, with the assistance of
+sandwiches, champagne, chicken pies, porter, music, and young ladies,
+the expedition might be endurable, when the noise of wheels grinding
+along the gravel, attracted their attention, and Mr. Crawford's
+carriage passed on its way to Studley, with the two tall footmen of the
+evening before, mounted behind. A moment afterwards, Sir Patrick
+perceived the excited looking stranger, whom he had already remarked,
+leading his horse out of the stable, with a degree of haste and
+impatience quite unaccountable, while the animal seemed resolute to
+postpone the evil hour of being mounted, though his master lashed and
+swore at him with an extreme of cruel violence, which raised Sir
+Patrick's utmost indignation. He was rather strangely attired for so
+sultry a morning, being equipped in a large, rough greatcoat, a thick
+neckcloth, a riding whip, and a broad brimmed, melo-dramatic looking
+hat. Having at length mastered his refractory charger, he rode straight
+up to Sir Patrick, with a contracted brow, saying, in tones of high
+irritation, while riveting his fierce eyes on the young baronet with an
+expression that strongly betokened insanity:
+
+"You are disposed to be observant this morning! We shall certainly know
+each other again! In which direction did Mr. Crawford's carriage drive
+off?"
+
+"I observe only for my own amusement!" replied Sir Patrick, haughtily
+turning away, and humming a tune.
+
+"Allow me to remind you that those who whistle before breakfast, may
+weep before night," said the stranger, with a malignant scowl, drawing
+back his lips, and breathing through his clenched teeth, as he glanced
+at Captain De Crespigny, and galloped rapidly away, followed at a more
+moderate pace by the two gentlemen.
+
+"I am in the humor to knock every body down!" said Sir Patrick; "and
+there was an admirable opportunity lost! I dislike the looks of that
+man! He is evidently cracked! Depend upon it, his skull will never ring
+again! Do you observe, De Crespigny, he has nearly overtaken the
+carriage, and pulls up now, apparently anxious not to be seen by the
+servants. In days of yore, we might have been certain he was a
+highwayman, going to rob that barouche; but such things are done in a
+pocket-picking, pettifogging way now, without an atom of spirit or
+adventure. Why, my good friend, what a very particularly brown study
+you are in! What is the matter?"
+
+"Nothing! nothing! I am solving an enigma! I must get another look of
+this man! Dunbar, years have passed since that voice rang in my ears,
+but it must be Ernest Anstruther's! Though shrill from excitement, and
+every fibre of his body seems dilated with madness, it can be no other,
+and we must have him seized this day. I actually shivered before the
+fierce glare of his eye; but let us forget it. I cannot speak upon the
+subject at present, for it involves all the deepest interests of my
+life. Now, then, for Fountain Abbey! I feel in the humor that I could
+strike the air for breathing in my face. It would be dangerous for any
+body to ask me how I do!"
+
+"I wish all gaunt skeletons of deceased houses were buried out of
+sight! The very idea of those damp, mouldy walls would give me the
+rheumatism. Had we not better return?" said Sir Patrick, looking
+anxiously at his companion.
+
+"No!" replied Captain De Crespigny, who seemed resolute to conquer his
+agitation, or to conceal it. "I say like Luther, 'if it rained madmen,
+let us go on!'"
+
+"Then, my good fellow, you deserve to be put in a straight waistcoat
+yourself!"
+
+"Well, if you will buy and pay for one, I have not the slightest
+objection to wear it."
+
+"If we could get up a good old-fashioned belief in ghosts, for this
+occasion, and go to Fountain Abbey some other day by moonlight, there
+would be some sense in it," persisted Sir Patrick; but seeing that his
+friend was not to be dissuaded, he changed the subject, adding: "Our
+existence now is detestably matter-of-fact. I should like to have lived
+in the days of giants, fairies, witchcraft, and the philosopher's
+stone!"
+
+"You would have required the last, Dunbar, certainly. For an excursion,
+commend me to Harwood House. It is like a fashionable residence in Park
+Lane. Such Brussels carpets, rosewood sofas, and damask curtains, that
+I felt quite at home; but here we have a bad road; and worse dinner. A
+refrectory with no refreshments, and a kitchen fire, where a whole herd
+of oxen might be roasted whole, and not so much as a beefsteak to be
+had. Visitors may not even take, like the horses, a nose-bag with
+provisions."
+
+"We might at least air the ruins with a segar. Well, here are the
+ladies; and now that I have brought you here, and you have brought me,
+let us make the best of it. We must honor the old Abbey with a glance,
+though I am sure, before we are done, I shall be walked off my legs."
+
+"I knew a gentleman, once," said Agnes, "who walked till nothing was
+left of him but his hat."
+
+"It seems as if all the birds and butterflies in Britain had an
+appointment here to-day," said Marion. "How their twittering and mad
+spirits enliven me. That thrush is a perfect Orpheus! Few can ever sing
+like these simple, self-taught musicians."
+
+"Anybody can. Grisi, Pasta, you, or I, could," replied Captain De
+Crespigny. "It is pleasant, however, to be received with so lively a
+serenade. These little creatures are happy without being able to say
+why or wherefore; and how often we ourselves are miserable, though
+unable to tell the cause, or perhaps, Miss Dunbar, to excite the pity
+we deserve."
+
+"There is evidently a much greater proportion of happiness than of
+misery in the animal world, as they do not make unnecessary annoyances
+for themselves or others," said Marion, wishing to talk on indifferent
+topics, as she observed her brother watching, to see how she received
+his friend. "What bird in all the world would you like best to be?"
+
+"A canary, or a piping bullfinch, because you would keep me in a cage,
+and treat me kindly. I should wish to borrow the language of any living
+creature that pleases you! I am born to succeed in everything but in
+gaining your approbation, which I would rather never have been born
+than live without. I could willingly go step by step round the world,
+to find out the secret of pleasing you; and I am falling rapidly into a
+Byron-like, misanthropic melancholy, because of your cruel
+indifference. How I wish emotions were communicated like electricity,
+without the slow, vulgar use of language, for I always feel so much
+more than I can express, especially in your society."
+
+"Why do you not take to writing verses; for you know poets all work
+themselves up into fictitious emotions, which they pour out upon paper,
+without troubling any one individual more than another, to believe or
+disbelieve them. Your poems might be lithographed for private
+circulation, and one of each sent to Agnes and me, to the five Miss
+Ogilvies, and to all Lady Towercliffe's daughters. You would require
+eight eyes, like a spider, to look after so many!"
+
+"But," replied he, in his most sentimental tone, "there is a want of
+which one might die in the midst of plenty. If all ladies were like
+you, one might be surrounded by a hundred, and yet die of a broken
+heart!"
+
+"Any one may break his own heart, if he pleases, but he has no right to
+break other people's," replied Marion, jestingly; "and there are some
+who have no more scruple, I am told, in doing so, than in breaking
+stones on the road."
+
+"Perhaps the hearts are as hard as the stones, if we may take yours as
+a specimen; but you really are becoming severe! Take care you do not
+hurt my feelings!"
+
+"Your feelings!" exclaimed Marion, with a gay, half-reproachful laugh,
+as she caught the eye of Agnes. "I thought you only played upon the
+feelings of others, because you really had none of your own."
+
+Near the gate leading into the superb grounds of Studley, no less than
+two-and-thirty carriages were assembled, from the low elderly gig and
+graceful pony carriage, to the aristocratic barouche and four, not to
+mention tax-carts, phaetons, curricles, and coronetted chariots, filled
+with joyous groups and laughing faces. The landscape around seemed as
+if colored in the rich, deep tints of some ancient painter pre-eminent
+in his art, so bright, so distinct, and so immoveable in its rare and
+singular beauty, serene and lovely, like a mind at peace. The pencil of
+Poussin or of Watteau could scarcely have done justice to such a scene.
+The air was literally raining sunshine, and a light cloud here and
+there sailed across the blue sky from the foreground to the distant
+horizon, while the rich canopy of massy trees over head, tinted with
+the many-colored hues of autumn, and the carpet of velvet turf beneath,
+were enlivened by a thousand birds, hopping sportively from bough to
+bough, like feathered arrows, and by the gay insect world fluttering in
+rapid career from flower to flower, humming aloud their ceaseless
+sounds of joyful activity.
+
+Every walk was sprinkled over with gaily-dressed loungers, sunning
+themselves in the bright atmosphere, and no flower in the field looked
+more fresh, more natural, or more lovely than Marion, whose beauty had
+never appeared more attractive than now, amidst all the sumptuous
+magnificence of nature, which seemed on the present occasion to be
+adorned in her full dress regalia.
+
+"This is a very tolerable imitation of a fine day!" said Captain De
+Crespigny, shading his eyes to gaze around, and looking as if the
+landscape were made on purpose for him. "I see determined admiration in
+your countenance, Miss Dunbar, but I mean to out-ecstacy you altogether
+in my expressions of rapture! Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods, and
+plains."
+
+"Charming!" said Marion, absently, and looking round for Sir Arthur. "I
+am glad you are pleased."
+
+"To be sure! you are pleased, I am pleased, everybody is pleased! This
+was called a party of pleasure, and nothing could be a party of
+pleasure to me, unless you were included; but now all the world is
+here! at least those who are all the world to me, and I expect a day of
+perfect happiness."
+
+"That is as much certainly as any reasonable person can reckon upon,
+and I believe it is more likely to be enjoyed in the simple rural
+pleasures of the country than anywhere! Some persons whom we might
+almost envy, think it pleasure enough for a whole day to find a
+tom-tit's nest, containing, for a wonder, five eggs instead of four, or
+follow the flight of a king-fisher during six whole hours, at full
+speed, in a morning, to see where he feeds, and can talk for half a day
+about some new combination of colors in pansy or chrysanthemum."
+
+"And yet they would be reckoned silly and vulgar, to speak half as long
+about a new combination of color in a ribbon, which is in my estimation
+quite as interesting! If all those who detest the country, had courage
+to confess it, as I do, how the shades of rural life would be deserted,
+and volumes of rural poetry cast into the fire! I am not one to 'hang a
+thought on ev'ry thorn,' and indeed my thoughts have thorns enough
+already!"
+
+"There is too much still water at Studley, and the grounds are
+altogether too artificial for my taste," said Marion. "Those little
+ponds, like globes for gold-fish, are dull and uninteresting."
+
+"They resemble china bowls, and should be filled with iced punch!"
+observed Sir Patrick. "Anything so like the basin of the Serpentine
+reminds me of old women committing suicide! This is not a good sporting
+country, so crowded with laurels, temples, statues, cascades, and that
+sort of trash! I wish we had all staid at home, and looked over
+Turner's views of Studley, for they are beautifully done!"
+
+"Yes!" said Agnes, yawning, "I like the works of art better than
+nature, pictures, statues, books, or pianofortes; and" added she, with
+a withering look at Captain De Crespigny, "I like human nature least of
+all."
+
+"What has set you off Childe-Haroldizing this morning, Agnes?" asked
+Sir Patrick, with angry surprise. "Strike me poetical, but I like
+Marion's style of admiring, exclaiming, and wondering the best, for it
+is not either overdone or underdone!"
+
+"You shall have a most intelligent guide, Sir, immediately," said the
+superintendent of the lodge, civilly touching his hat to Sir Patrick.
+
+"Let him be deaf and dumb, if you have any compassion for me. It is
+trouble enough to come here, without listening to an endless rigmarole
+about ancient abbots, clustered pillars, and stone coffins. The fellow
+will not abate a single tomb or tree! I could invent a story quite as
+good as his, and equally true! 'built nobody knows when, and destroyed
+nobody knows how.'"
+
+"I like to hear all, and believe all," said Marion; "but you remind me,
+Patrick, of the French lady, who said she wished to be taught
+everything in two words. Now let us summon up any little poetry that
+may be lurking in our composition, to admire those noble, pillar-like
+elms, with branches so thickly clustered that the wind can scarcely
+elbow its way through the leaves. Those shadows are magnificent,
+flickering across the road."
+
+"Give me an old post-horse instead of an old tree, and I shall call up
+much finer associations!" said Sir Patrick. "My sole idea of enjoying
+the country is connected with hunting, shooting, and fishing; but as to
+living for ruins, flowers, green trees, fat cows, rocky mountains, and
+all that sort of trash, excuse me. They do for poets and painters,
+professionally, to rave about, but I care no more to look at that
+prodigiously aged tree before me, than at old Lord Doncaster, tottering
+behind us with Agnes."
+
+"That tree, Sir, is a Spanish chesnut, 112 feet high, and 22 feet in
+girth," said the guide, in his usual business-like tone. "It has seen a
+hundred summers."
+
+"Then it has certainly not lived in this country!" replied Sir Patrick,
+affecting to shiver. "There's a thing they call summer in England, made
+up of east wind and fog, with a half-extinguished sun, trees trying to
+put a good face on the matter, a few leaves and flowers born apparently
+in a consumption, and one or two misguided birds mistaking the
+imitation for a reality, while chirping their notes all out of tune."
+
+"This oak, Sir, is 500 years old," continued the guide, pertinaciously
+bent on executing his task; "it contains 300 feet of solid timber."
+
+"And how many leaves are there on it? You never heard! Do you pretend
+to be a guide, and not know that? The timber will cut up for a
+tolerable sum, which will suit the next heir."
+
+"Have you the barbarity, even in imagination, to prostrate that kingly
+tree! look at its gigantic shadow on the grass!" exclaimed Mrs.
+O'Donoghoe. "I really had, even upon our very short acquaintance,
+conceived a better opinion of you."
+
+"Then be not rash in altering it! I am all you ever thought me, and
+more! At the same time I cannot but think, in looking at this immense,
+overgrown prodigy among trees, how fortunate it is that they stop
+growing at last, or one such monster might at last overshadow the whole
+world. Now, it is a hundred years at least since the ground beneath
+that tree has been enlivened by a single sunbeam! Spare me all the
+exclamations of delight I see impending! Ladies are taught a taste for
+the picturesque as part of their full-dress manners, but the truth is,
+that you care no more for scenery than for a painted sign-post."
+
+"I have no eye to spare for the landscape," said Captain De Crespigny,
+glancing towards Marion. "Therefore pray let us, like 'Puff in the
+Critic, omit all about gilding the Eastern hemisphere; or about the
+setting sun pillowing his chin upon an orient wave.' Nothing gives me
+so mournful an estimate of people's general happiness, as to join what
+they call a party of pleasure! Such rising before daylight, such
+climbing of inaccessible hills, such scrambling on slippery rocks, and
+such eating of trash, which no one in an ordinary rational state of
+mind would ever dream of tasting! In short, it begins with the total
+sacrifice of all comfort, bonnets and dresses in jeopardy, as well as
+every limb of your body in danger, a great deal of forced vivacity, a
+number of old, worn-out jests, a seat upon the damp grass, and
+returning home after sunset in a fog! If these are people's pleasures,
+what must their miseries be?"
+
+"Certainly the most toilsome of all vocations is that of an idle man,"
+said Marion. "I often think, when observing the extraordinary plans of
+life on which people set out in search of happiness, that if during one
+day in every year, we were all obliged to exchange the modes of life we
+voluntarily adopt, it would produce universal misery. If Mr. Granville
+were obliged to play sixteen hits at backgammon every forenoon instead
+of Lord Doncaster; if Patrick had to visit and condole with the sick
+all morning; if you had to blow the flute five hours a day for Lord
+Wigton; if he had to hunt eight hours in your place; and if I must
+lounge all morning in the public room, like Mrs. O'Donoghoe, how
+wretched each individual would be!"
+
+"Very true," replied Captain De Crespigny. "The various species of men
+are as different from each other, and as little calculated to
+associate, as the various species of animals. Sportsmen have a natural
+antipathy to literary men, politicians to jockeys, and infidels to
+Christians. Life is to each of these a perfectly different affair.
+Their feelings, desires, habits, occupations, and pleasures, are
+entirely opposite, their conversation quite unsuitable, and they all
+hate each other."
+
+While Sir Patrick, with ceaseless vivacity, teazed the guide by asking
+a thousand unanswerable questions, the replies to which should have
+occupied several hours, he amused himself with making premeditated
+blunders and lively questions, enough to bewilder the brain of their
+matter-of-fact conductor, who hurried forward with a velocity of body
+disproportioned to the slowness of his understanding, pointing to an
+arbor elevated high upon the ridge of a hill, from whence he intimated
+that the finest view was to be obtained. With a rueful grimace, Sir
+Patrick prepared to make a forced march in that direction, measuring
+the height with his eye, and protesting that the fellow certainly had
+an ill-will at him, for imposing such a task, when he was falling to
+pieces already with fatigue.
+
+Marion, in the mean time, looked as happy as she felt; having now
+achieved two very great pleasures, as, in the first place, Captain De
+Crespigny had been called away by his uncle, and, in the second, he was
+succeeded by Sir Arthur leaning on the arm of Mr. Granville. The smile
+of confidence and interest with which Marion now listened and talked,
+when contrasted with the constrained attention she had bestowed on
+Captain De Crespigny, was like the difference between the glowing
+warmth of a summer morning and the icy brightness of winter. While
+loitering along their beautiful path, picking up here and there a wild
+flower, or pausing to enjoy the verdant beauties of nature in her
+holiday garb, cold would have been the heart, and vacant the
+imagination, not crowded with thoughts and feelings of poetical
+interest, when, thus surrounded by memorials of many romantic incidents
+in the national history. To Mr. Granville, all the charms of the place
+and season seemed familiar. He pointed out to Marion a thousand
+beauties overlooked by ordinary eyes, while many a refined allusion to
+his own attachment arose spontaneously out of the subject, and was
+listened to by her with modest but heartfelt interest. They conversed
+with glowing delight and perfect communion of thought, on the various
+interesting subjects which abound in the rich stores of a cultivated
+mind. Throughout the remarks of Mr. Granville on music, science, and
+every elevating enjoyment of the human intellect, the poetry of
+literature, as well as the poetry of nature might be traced. Even the
+most indifferent subjects were no longer indifferent to Richard and
+Marion when thus viewed with mutual interest, and when affording a
+deeper insight into each other's heart and mind; while the gorgeous
+scenery around inspired them with feelings of enjoyment beyond any that
+could be attained in gaudy festivity and artificial amusement.
+
+"This place is quite a morsel of Arcadia!" exclaimed Marion, while her
+eyes were beaming with delight. "I could fancy it some undiscovered
+country of our own, with not a living being in it but ourselves."
+
+"Excuse me there," said Sir Arthur, smiling. "I shall by no means vote
+for having my world made so small and select! I am the most sociable of
+created beings, having fully convinced myself that nothing renders
+people more utterly selfish than solitude; all your strollings alone in
+forests and reclining beside rivers, what do they lead to? a prodigious
+opinion of ourselves, and an extreme indifference or contempt for
+others!"
+
+"Most undeniably true," replied Mr. Granville. "If we had no happiness
+to seek but our own, I should not have far to search for mine; yet, as
+a matter of duty, I am for association and for cultivating the kinder
+feeling produced by mingling with others. Man could not be happy alone,
+even in Paradise, and the sternest misanthropes can do nothing worse
+against society than to become solitary hermits."
+
+"The injury is inflicted on themselves also, as Providence has ordained
+for wise purposes that, bad as men are, they should love one another,"
+observed Sir Arthur. "My Marion here brings the joys of spring to cheer
+the winter of my life, and I give her in return the gathered experience
+of many a long year; while, with you both beside me, the withering
+leaves of autumn look almost green and almost gay."
+
+"Yet this is certainly the most melancholy of all seasons," replied Mr.
+Granville. "It has been called the time of fulfilment, when hope is
+realized,--but it can be an emblem only of Christian hope realized in
+death. Every hue and every sound reminds me of decay. The howling
+winds, the fleeting clouds, and the rustling leaves all speak of change
+and mortality; but permanent hopes and feelings belong only to our
+religion, which become the charm of existence when they arise, and
+which neither time nor death can alter. Our earthly affections when
+founded on such ennobling prospects, entitle us to believe that we
+shall advance, hand in hand with those we love, along the journey of
+life, and even at the end, be only separated for a very short period,
+to be reunited in a world of which even hours so bright as these are
+but a faint representation. When a Christian dies, he dies into another
+world. He is then born into a scene more beautiful, more joyous, and
+more lasting than this."
+
+"How surprising it seems, that so little real admiration is felt for
+the wonders of nature, though so much is pretended!" observed Marion.
+"If anything could vulgarize so glorious a scene, it would be that
+tawdry crowd of many-colored visitors, rending the air with
+exclamations of delight, which seem chiefly addressed to the crows and
+jackdaws."
+
+"We should have a band of fairies here, to give suitable music," added
+Sir Arthur; "and you ought to rob the poets of a few verses to
+celebrate the shades of Studley. I observe, Marion, that though in
+actual conversation, a single line of poetry sounds pedantic, yet young
+ladies in all novels have the whole British poets by heart, and spout
+entire pages by the yard measure, for every emergency, taken from
+Cowper, Milton, Byron and Co."
+
+An interesting discussion now ensued, respecting the effect produced on
+the mind by sacred poetry, which diverged to the subject of sacred
+music, when Mr. Granville spoke with enthusiasm of the exalting,
+touching, and saddening influence of Handel's choruses, and of the
+affecting thoughts they occasionally create. In every remark referring
+to the heart or imagination, he expressed himself with a depth and
+fervor, felt and appreciated by the fresh young mind of Marion, who now
+experienced, under the happiest auspices, how much the mental faculties
+are enlivened by studying nature. Amidst surrounding peace, the soul
+exercises its brightest powers of thought, undivided by the shifting
+scenes of human life, with its thousand fluctuating objects and cares;
+while the fancy, liberated and unoccupied, is thrown back upon itself,
+and discovers once more the visions of other days, the stores of
+memory, experience, and hope.
+
+From the point of view to which their guide now left the party, all the
+finest characteristics of Fountain Abbey became visible, and Marion
+found Miss Smythe finishing a masterly sketch of the landscape, which
+she blushingly yielded up for examination, while Sir Patrick confessed
+that he had been standing in his most picturesque attitude during five
+minutes, in hopes of obtaining a place in the foreground. Nothing could
+be more strikingly beautiful than her spirited representation of the
+large eastern window, like a light triumphal arch, the patches of ivy
+clinging round those mouldering walls, and the high, stately tower,
+nearly transparent with its many windows, all yet in perfect
+preservation.
+
+"What a fatigue!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, throwing himself in a graceful
+attitude full-length on the sloping turf. "This day is like the famous
+Peter Schlemihl, without a shadow!"
+
+"Well done art and nature both!" added Captain De Crespigny; "we have
+not existed in vain after seeing that matchless view! I shall give bail
+to live contented and happy during the rest of my life, if you will
+only endow me with all I see, and let it be shared with the person in
+this company whom I like best, though perhaps she might tire of me."
+
+Agnes bit her scarlet lip with scorn at words which would once have
+thrilled to her very heart, but she turned away with an insufferably
+haughty air on perceiving that her _ci-devant_ admirer had turned his
+most irresistible looks towards Marion, who was earnestly talking in an
+undertone to Miss Smythe, while a look of anxious alarm had become
+depicted on the countenances of both.
+
+"Such moments as these are like the colors of a rainbow, very bright
+and very fleeting," observed Sir Arthur. "If I had a place magnificent
+as this, even with the power of choosing my own society, yet, as Dr.
+Johnson says, 'such possessions make men unwilling to die!'"
+
+"Allow me to differ, then, from Dr. Johnson," replied Mr. Granville.
+"It is not our possessions, but our affections that could ever make me
+grieve to forsake this bright green earth. I would rather be loved by
+one than envied by thousands. I can imagine no happiness that does not
+spring from the heart, and the most splendid mansion that ever adorned
+the earth, would be a desert without the smile of those who loved me to
+welcome my entrance there."
+
+"Who that knows the worth of friendship would not say the same," added
+Marion, in a deep, low tone. "My wishes never grasp at great
+possessions, as their very vastness appears disproportioned to our
+nature and powers. The most superb houses are those most generally
+deserted by their owners, but I scarcely ever see a retired and
+peaceful cottage without whispering to myself, 'There I could be
+happy.'"
+
+"Take my word for it, the whole thing would be odious in a week," said
+Captain De Crespigny. "I have been a great observer of life from the
+windows of the New Club, and my serious opinion is, that poetry is all
+written to mislead our unsuspecting youth into an effervescence of
+empty enthusiasm about rural felicity on an income of nothing per
+annum; but I drew the cork out of that bottle long ago, and found it
+all froth. Once upon a time I was betrayed into living a month at one
+of those little bird's nests, a gaudy, stuccoed gimcrack, all plaster
+and green paint, surrounded with roses, hollyhocks, and the flaring
+trash people call flowers. There were within the walls, three noisy
+dogs, four ditto children, a roasting-jack and a mangle, all screeching
+at once! It was distracting! No! no! I hate money myself, but that
+cured me of ever making a mere bread-and-butter match."
+
+"Yet I could live on the bread without the butter, for any one I really
+liked, or even the butter without the bread," said Mr. Granville,
+smiling. "Money is only the raw material of enjoyment, which must be
+raised into a fabric of solid strength, and embellished with taste, to
+suit my wishes and hopes. The hook and eye will never be of gold that
+attaches me, and nothing has ever been so difficult to my comprehension
+as that any one can possibly form the nearest ties of life upon a mere
+calculation of profit and loss!"
+
+"Well," exclaimed Sir Patrick, who always assumed an air of bravado
+before Mr. Granville, to conceal his real feelings, "I am above all the
+follies of inferior mortals, but I do say, that to me, the most
+interesting object in nature is a young lady of large, independent
+fortune, ready to throw herself away on the first man who asks her!"
+
+At this moment, Miss Smythe's sketch-book fell to the ground, while,
+with a sudden exclamation of affright, she started up, but instantly
+endeavored to recover herself, and when Sir Patrick had gathered up her
+pencils, she received them back with blush of double-dyed carnation, as
+if she could never unblush again, and making an apology for having been
+startled by the sudden apparition of a hare, she silently resumed her
+occupation, and Sir Patrick continued to rattle on at his full pitch of
+nonsense, as if nothing had occurred.
+
+"I wonder Lady Sarah Marchmont did not wait another season for me! I
+was hastening rapidly to my last shilling, and might possibly have been
+driven, by stress of weather, to propose, if she had not accepted the
+Duke of Middlesex, in despair; yet had she possessed a thousand pounds
+for every shilling, I am not certain that the most golden of her gold
+could have gilded her.----"
+
+"My dear fellow!" interrupted Captain De Crespigny, in his most
+sagacious tone, "_L'amour fait beaucoup, mais l'argent fait tout_; it
+is easy to say 'fortune,' but where will you ever find one weigh in the
+scale against Lady Sarah?"
+
+"Easily, any day! As the Spaniards say, 'a man of straw is worth a
+woman of gold.' Last season, in London, all the heiresses were dying
+for me."
+
+"Except three who never saw you."
+
+"And at balls, when a chaperon asked any young lady who she would
+prefer for a partner, the invariable answer was, in the sweetest voice
+imaginable, 'Sir Patrick Dunbar!'"
+
+"Or the Duke of Tunbridge, and he never dances!"
+
+"Indeed, next season I have serious thoughts of lending; myself out to
+parties, at so much an hour. It is all nonsense about fortune being
+blind! The goddess has one eye left, which has been fixed upon me
+during the last five years, if I would only accept her favors."
+
+"Well, Dunbar! We all know that you are like the elephant in an Irish
+menagerie, who was the greatest elephant in the world except himself.
+But be warned in time! They say every man has one opportunity given him
+of succeeding in life, and if he lose that, he never has a second!
+Positively, old fellow, now is your time! Do not think me malicious,
+but even I, your best friend, must allow that you are growing fat."
+
+"Yes!" observed Agnes, in the same rallying tone. "Pat is scarcely such
+a 'look-and-die' person as he was. I remember him younger, once!"
+
+"Very true! I am getting quite uneasy about you," added Captain De
+Crespigny, in an admonitory voice. "A young lady's reign lasts from
+seventeen till twenty, and our best days are over at forty! Dunbar,
+shall I give you a line of recommendation to Miss Howard?"
+
+"A million of thanks; but as you never succeeded in recommending
+yourself, De Crespigny, I shall be better, in case of extremity,
+standing on my own merits."
+
+"Then you will stand as precariously as my old uncle Doncaster, toiling
+up the bank there, whose legs look so thin, that I often wonder he has
+courage to venture upon them at all. He is most unfit to come up hill,
+when actually going down the hill of life so very fast, that he might
+as well be setting his worldly affairs in order."
+
+"Worldly affairs! He has no other affairs, I suppose," replied Agnes,
+with a supercilious smile on her haughty lip. "And I think Lord
+Doncaster will be able to manage his own affairs for many years to
+come! He intends to live as long as Great Britain is an island. Nobody
+is old, till he feels old!"
+
+Captain De Crespigny looked at Agnes with a penetrating air of
+astonishment, which gradually changed to an expression of satirical
+indifference, while he added, "This is an odd world, Miss Dunbar!"
+
+"So it is! When did that idea first occur to you? It seems so very
+new!" replied Agnes, in a tone of biting satire. "Patrick has often
+told me that the De Crespignys are reckoned a sagacious family; and
+perhaps, after so bright a remark, you may turn out by no means the
+sort of every-day person people expected."
+
+"Probably not! I shall, perhaps, be like Cimon, awakened from stupidity
+by the charms of a second Iphigenia," said Captain De Crespigny, with
+an air as if he had surpassed himself; but the smile with which Agnes
+listened to this characteristic reply was cold and transient as a gleam
+of sunshine on a frozen lake; yet while her features remained
+immoveable as those of a beautiful statue, a strange, unnatural fire
+sparkled in her splendid eyes, and with a look of withering indignation
+she turned haughtily away to address Lord Doncaster; while Captain De
+Crespigny, humming the last opera tune, and switching with his cane the
+heads off all the flowers along his path, quickened his pace, and
+resumed his not very welcome assiduities to Marion, who felt
+insufferably annoyed at being obliged always to hear the same nonsense
+talked, and to play her part in what she considered a mere hack
+flirtation on the part of Captain De Crespigny; while she greatly
+wondered that he had not long since tired of always, in her company,
+drawing up an empty bucket.
+
+Sir Patrick was preparing to follow, when he observed the young
+sketcher hastily adding a last touch to her beautiful drawing; and
+before she could assemble all her scattered implements and materials,
+which he had assisted her to do, the whole joyous party had nearly
+vanished out of sight; while the young Baronet's eyes flashed with
+amazement, on giving a clandestine glance into the sketch-book, to find
+there an extremely clever caricature of Captain De Crespigny, as he
+stood a few minutes before, endeavoring to divide his attentions among
+the whole group of ladies. On examining another leaf, he found, to his
+yet greater surprise, a beautiful likeness of Clara Granville; and
+turning instantly to his young companion, with sudden emotion, he
+entreated permission to have it copied. While he was yet speaking, the
+young lady, with crimsoned cheeks, though a lurking smile played about
+her mouth, continued hastily to follow the guide, tracing his footsteps
+with an accuracy worthy of a Mohican, impatient, evidently, to overtake
+their companions, as she hastily threaded her way through the forest
+glades, and beneath the arching branches of many a lofty tree, towards
+a dark, gloomy-looking plantation, to which their guide seemed now
+impatiently hurrying them. He was dressed in a smock frock, and had
+become singularly silent, his replies being all so short and so
+grudgingly given, that Sir Patrick had angrily yielded up the point,
+determined to give the man nothing, and not to ask him another
+question, when suddenly his arm was tremblingly grasped by the young
+lady beside him; while in a low, strange, unearthly whisper, and with a
+look of mortal terror, she said, "I do not like this! What can it mean?
+Has he escaped from confinement? Are you sure that man is our guide?"
+
+"I scarcely looked, but of course he is! It can be no one else!"
+replied Sir Patrick, in a soothing tone; for he thought she must
+certainly be deranged. "There he waits for us! We shall overtake our
+friends immediately."
+
+"Look at this tree!--pretend to be admiring the landscape!" continued
+the young lady, in a deep, concentrated voice; "but tell me,--can we
+make our escape unobserved by that man? My life, probably, depends upon
+your answer!"
+
+Sir Patrick now became confirmed in his opinion respecting the insanity
+of his young companion, and fixing his eyes on her countenance, he
+perceived with amazement that every tinge of color had been drained
+from her cheek--that her lip quivered with fright, and that terror
+spoke in her eyes, and trembled in every limb; while her words poured
+out with a rushing vehemence of tone and manner which startled and
+alarmed him.
+
+"I caught a momentary glance of his countenance! Where could I ever see
+these eyes and be mistaken? There is madness yet in their expression.
+He has sworn to destroy me. The whole purpose of his being is revenge!"
+
+"Revenge on you--impossible! Who could be so unmanly--so----"
+
+"You forget that my cousin is insane--that he thinks I drove him into
+madness--that he pursued me day and night till we shut him up! Can
+nothing be done?"
+
+"Miss Howard! I might have guessed this! Can it be? When I am here, you
+need apprehend nothing! He dare not harm you."
+
+"Oh! how little you know him! In his present state, he has the strength
+of ten men," replied she, with wild and hurried glances. "Once I saw
+him struggle in their grasp. Why must I forever remember that scene?
+His cries, his imprecations; but see, he returns! Let us appear still
+to advance, but concert some plan for my escape, or believe me, my
+moments are numbered."
+
+The tone of intense agony in which these words were uttered, filled Sir
+Patrick with pity, while knowing the fearful and mysterious power
+communicated by madness, even to the feeblest frame, he felt a
+well-grounded apprehension for the terrified girl's safety, on
+observing the strong, muscular figure of the maniac; therefore, after
+walking on some steps, he whispered to her, almost inaudibly:
+
+"The guide seldom looks back. Let me ask him a question, and
+immediately afterwards drop down the side of this hill, and conceal
+yourself. I shall continue to follow him, that the sound of your
+footsteps may not be missed. Whatever the danger is, be firm, and you
+will certainly escape. Guide!" continued he, elevating his voice in an
+authoritative tone, yet, even at this crisis, unable to resist a joke;
+"tell me the exact age of this tree, and how many stones it took to
+build the Abbey?"
+
+The man threw back some inaudible reply, in a surly, dogged voice, and
+quickened his pace towards a dark group of fir trees, while again the
+almost fainting girl gave an agitated glance at Sir Patrick, who
+silently pointed towards the turf edging along the gravel-walk, making
+her a sign to take flight upon it as noiselessly as possible, while he
+proceeded forward himself with no fairy tread, making the sound of his
+footsteps as loud as if there had still been two behind.
+
+After the terrified girl had hastily slid down a steep bank and
+disappeared amidst a mass of evergreens, Sir Patrick was beginning to
+contemplate the expediency of adopting a similar plan, seeing that in
+conflict with a madman he could gain neither honor or advantage, and
+might be seriously injured, when the maniac suddenly burst into a
+thrilling, fearful laugh, and, snatching a pistol from his breast,
+turned fiercely round, when Sir Patrick instantly recognised, as he had
+begun to expect, the countenance of that excited stranger, whom Captain
+De Crespigny had in the morning named to him as Ernest Anstruther.
+
+Astonishment and unimaginable fury glittered in the madman's wild and
+haggard countenance, when he missed the object of his pursuit, and he
+looked for the moment like a wild beast at bay, till, springing upon
+Sir Patrick with a cry of hideous rage, he seized hold of his arm with
+a delirious grasp, and clenched his fist, shouting in accents of
+frenzied rage, while the white foam was on his lips:
+
+"Where! where is she? Tell me, or you shall die! Have I tracked her
+through earth and air, through sky and ocean, to be disappointed now?
+With sleepless care have I dodged her steps! Demons drove me on! Fiends
+and serpents have beset me! Coals of fire are on my brain! Cold hands
+are on my heart! All is horror! Every human soul shall shudder for the
+deeds I do! A brand of shame shall be on my head! The dogs shall howl
+when I pass! Even now, the sun never shines on me! Show me, then, where
+she is, or I will tear you limb from limb."
+
+Sir Patrick stood firm as a rock before this whirlwind of passion,
+though filled with horrible amazement, as he beheld the burning glare
+of the madman's eye, and heard the sharp, shrill, shrieking voice in
+which he spoke; but if he appeared terrible in his fierce excitement,
+he seemed more terrible still, when a moment afterwards, with a cold,
+livid look, as if turned into stone, he added:
+
+"She shall be mine, or she shall never be given to another. I would not
+spare her for ten thousand lives. If she refuse me, her lips shall be
+closed forever and ever. I shall destroy and be destroyed. My love or
+my vengeance must be gratified; and mark my words. You are the friend
+of Louis De Crespigny. I would it had been himself, and one of us
+should never have left this spot alive. There is a dark and dreary
+account to be settled between him and me. My first warning shall be my
+last," added he, in a hollow whisper, while a look of dangerous meaning
+gleamed in his eye. "He deserves death at my hands. He wrenched my
+sister from her home, trampled on her affections, and is born in all
+things to injure and supplant me! He must die!" added the maniac, with
+a strange glare in his eye-balls. "It is, perhaps, for his sake that I
+am rejected! Wild voices are whispering in my ear! Unnameable horrors
+beset me! Fierce phantoms are hissing and shouting behind me!"
+
+The unfortunate being uttered these words with preternatural fury,
+while his countenance wore an expression of deadly malignity. He then
+paused, ground his teeth, and with the frightful levity of a maniac,
+uttering a howling, fiendish laugh, and rushing away, disappeared into
+the thickest part of the forest, leaving Sir Patrick horror-struck at
+the awful spectacle of a shattered intellect, the fragments of which
+were of so deadly a nature; while, at the same time, amidst a torrent
+of other thoughts and feelings, chiefly directed to secure the safety
+of Captain De Crespigny, he could not but smile at his present
+discovery, that the plainly dressed, shy, reserved, but rather
+satirical young lady, whom he had been of late patronising and bringing
+forward, was no other than the superbly endowed heiress, Miss Howard
+Smytheson, respecting whom he had so often rallied himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVIII.
+
+
+Sir Patrick gave instant information to the civil authorities at
+Harrowgate, respecting the dangerous madman now in the neighborhood;
+and when every particular of his adventure had reached Agnes, she felt
+an undefined sensation of disappointment that the end had not been of a
+more exciting nature. Never happy unless her mind were in a complete
+foam of excitement, she lived for sensation, and would have bought it
+at any price, being heard often to complain, that now nothing ever
+happened. Every day she considered as a chapter in her own life, into
+which she wished as many incidents crowded as possible, caring little
+whether joy or sorrow prevailed among those around, if the weary vacuum
+in her thoughts were but filled up. A few elopements or murders made a
+newspaper extremely acceptable; while even public riots she would have
+allowed to a certain pitch, provided she could pull the check-string as
+soon as they became at all inconvenient or alarming to herself; while
+she often remarked, in a querulous tone, that a revolution had been a
+thing threatened and talked of all her life, without ever seeming any
+nearer. The world, in short, if arranged to suit her taste, would have
+been one shifting scene of accidents and offences, fires, overturns,
+explosions, narrow escapes, marriages, births, deaths, mournful
+catastrophes, and astonishing vicissitudes.
+
+On the evening after the pic-nic at Studley, Sir Arthur having gone
+early to bed, at his lodgings near the Granby, Marion accompanied her
+sister and Mrs. O'Donoghoe, to fulfil a dinner engagement at the Crown
+Hotel; and on their way home, the lively widow rallied Agnes on her
+prospect of walking at the next coronation, saying, that Lord Doncaster
+had evidently laid down twenty years of his life, lately; and that she
+had once seen the Doncaster diamonds, then considered the finest family
+jewels in Britain, which Queen Charlotte herself was supposed to have
+coveted, and the box containing which required two footmen to carry it.
+
+"The tiara would shine like glow-worms in your dark hair, and the
+bandeau round your waist would be exquisite! I have heard it remarked,
+that people in this perverse world will not be happy; that those who
+have every wish gratified, and not a want upon earth, invent a
+grievance for themselves, and live upon it; but I wonder where the
+Marchioness of Doncaster could find one. You might drive away care in
+that beautiful pony carriage, kill time with your grand pianoforte, and
+read your own happiness in the envy of every one around. Even your
+sister seems scarcely so happy at your good fortune as might have been
+expected!"
+
+"There is no earthly blessing I do not with my whole heart desire for
+Agnes," replied Marion warmly, when thus appealed to. "But if she has
+any plans such as you speak of, let no one ask me what I think, as it
+is quite enough that she should herself know my utter abhorrence of
+them."
+
+Tears of indignant sorrow sprang into Marion's eyes, and she gazed
+earnestly out of the window, trying to conceal and to conquer her
+emotion, while Mrs. O'Donoghoe exclaimed, in a tone of satirical
+burlesque,
+
+    "For of the choice, what heart can doubt,
+    Of tents with love, or thrones without!"
+
+As their carriage drove on, the night being clear and moon-lit, the
+wind sweeping over the earth with a rushing sound, and ten thousand
+stars twinkling in the blue vault above, Agnes remarked, in accents of
+surprise, that crowds of people were running eagerly on the road, with
+animated looks, and an appearance of most unusual excitement. Soon
+after she heard a rumbling noise behind, as of some heavy vehicle
+hurtling and thundering along the road; and the next moment a
+fire-engine passed at full speed, amidst the cheers and vociferations
+of a dense multitude, who assisted and followed its progress, with
+looks of mingled curiosity, delight, and apprehension.
+
+Marion hastily thrust her head far out of the carriage, and perceived
+that a lurid glare burned on the sky, evidently reflected from High
+Harrowgate, while bright spiral flames shot upwards into the flaming
+arch above, and burning flakes of fire descended in showers of
+terrifying brilliancy. Every now and then a fresh burst of dazzling
+light blazed to the very heavens, while Marion watched the flickering
+flames with intense and solemn interest; but Agnes, after the first
+surprise was over, sank lazily back into the carriage, saying, with a
+look of peevish disappointment,
+
+"It is only a fire somewhere! Fires are so common now, that they excite
+scarcely any sensation! One might fancy, Marion, that you had a
+valuable uninsured house at High Harrowgate!"
+
+"It looks, even at this distance, very awful!" replied Marion. "The
+hills are like molten fire, while the broad red reflection on those
+massy clouds makes the very heavens seem on fire! What gleams of fiery
+light! What sheets of flame! It is fearfully grand! We should pray,
+Agnes, that no lives may be lost!"
+
+"Fires are never fatal now! Years ago, they were said to be sometimes
+really frightful; but now any one I ever saw might be extinguished with
+a tea-cup. I never so much as read the accounts in one of the
+newspapers. We shall of course be asked to subscribe for the
+sufferers," added Agnes, in a tone of contemptuous pity, "poor
+creatures!"
+
+"What a strange look of terrified enjoyment is depicted on the
+countenances of all who hurry past," exclaimed Marion. "It is curious,
+that probably some of those people who are ready to risk their lives in
+extinguishing the flames, would yet feel quite disappointed and
+ill-treated on arriving, to find that there was actually no
+conflagration. There are no limits to the love of excitement. When
+people have made up their great minds to a catastrophe, they feel
+really cheated if it does not occur; and I often think, that old people
+especially wish their few remaining days to be crowded with events,
+like the last pages in a novel."
+
+The noise and the mob had greatly increased: loud shouts, hoarse yells,
+and clamorous cries of fire resounded on every side, with the heavy
+trampling of a hundred feet, when suddenly Sir Arthur's coachman
+whipped the horses violently, and proceeded forward with unprecedented
+rapidity, till Marion fancied the horses must have taken fright at the
+ignited sparks, which were now borne along in the air, and that
+maddened with terror, they were actually running off.
+
+Agnes, now really in a state of excitement, thrust her head again out
+of the window, believing that the coachman must be drunk, and that a
+catastrophe, though not exactly what she would have selected, might
+actually occur, and Marion continued anxiously gazing around, till
+gradually a horrid sensation of doubt and fear gathered upon her mind,
+as she looked in the direction from which the light came. The curtain
+of night was withdrawn--the surrounding scene seemed one mighty
+furnace--and the roaring noise of the flames was now distinctly
+audible. At a turn of the road the whole became distinctly visible; and
+Marion, suddenly uttering a wild cry of horror and amazement, covered
+her face with her hands, and sank back, almost fainting, in the
+carriage; for she had at once become aware that the fire must be among
+the houses where Sir Arthur lodged. The garden around them was one
+vivid blaze of burning light--the stems of the trees were visible in
+dark relief, on a drapery of fire--while a brilliant pillar of flame,
+like a gigantic serpent, twirled its enormous coils upwards into the
+very sky. Forked flames appeared bursting from every window, and
+sweeping over the whole house, which was one great reservoir of fire,
+while a black volume of smoke rolled far away to the distant horizon.
+
+"Is there no mistake?" exclaimed Marion, wringing her hands with
+terror, and bending her head almost to her knees in unendurable grief.
+"Is there no hope? Tell John to drive on faster--faster! O let me
+out--let me fly to the house! This is dreadful! fearful! Shall we never
+reach the spot! Listen to their cries! Let me out! let me out!"
+
+"Dear Marion! there are crowds giving assistance! He must have
+escaped," said Agnes, in trembling accents. "I feel certain he has
+escaped. He has surely heard the noise, and called for help!"
+
+A dense mass of persons round the crashing house, wild with agitation,
+and vehement in their attitudes and gestures, prevented the carriage
+from advancing farther; but Marion instantly opened the door, sprang
+out, and with an impetuosity which nothing could resist, rushed
+onwards. She was not one whose faculties could be prostrated by terror
+or danger; for it was then that her quick judgment and generous spirit
+became most active; and while crowds were standing around, in vacant,
+helpless wonder, she reached the spot where a tottering ladder had been
+placed against the walls, and where the engines were playing upon the
+blazing roofs, while flames spouted forth in every direction, and a
+confused din of cries and vociferous oaths became audible on every
+side.
+
+Timid and easily frightened on slight occasion, all emotion now
+appeared to be dead within the breast of Marion, who paused, while,
+with bloodless cheek, and a face as rigid as death, she seemed turned
+into stone; yet every word whispered around fell with frightful
+distinctness on her ear.
+
+"The last house that caught fire is uninhabited, I believe?" asked a
+stranger, calmly. "I am informed that the whole conflagration was
+raised by a madman--a perfect Guy Fawkes, who afterwards escaped. There
+are crowds of servants belonging to the heiress Miss Howard, and he had
+some scheme of carrying her off; but most mercifully she and her
+attendants were all saved."
+
+"Very fortunate indeed, as the stair-case is now falling in," added
+another, while crash followed crash in frightful succession. "Some one
+talked of a blind gentleman being there, but that is probably a
+picturesque addition, to give the story interest, for that tall house
+seems really empty."
+
+At this moment, a low murmur of grief and horror arose among the crowd,
+followed by a death-like silence. In a part of the building high above
+what had yet been consumed by the flames, though already undermined,
+the shutters of a window were slowly opened, the sash hastily thrown
+open, and the venerable figure of Sir Arthur appeared there, his grey
+hair streaming in the wind, and his head stretched forward in the act
+of listening. He raised his hand to his forehead, as if bewildered, and
+seemed evidently calling for help; but his feeble voice was lost amid
+the war of elements, the crackling and blazing of all around, and the
+loud crash of falling timber.
+
+No one had a hope of his being rescued, and the most selfishly
+indifferent looked on with breathless dismay, while Agnes threw herself
+on the grass in an agony of horror and despair; but Marion rapidly
+grasped her hand with convulsive energy, saying, in a low deep whisper,
+"I shall save him, or die with him."
+
+Using the speed of thought she flew forward, while every voice was
+raised in loud shouts to stop her; and several persons, as soon as they
+became aware of Marion's rash intentions, followed vehemently in
+pursuit, determined to force her back; but eluding their grasp, she
+wrapped her large cloak around her, and ascended the crackling beams of
+the staircase, beneath a shower of glowing sparks, while blazing flames
+were running round the cornices and ceiling, with a sound like
+incessant thunder.
+
+The smoke nearly blinded her--the smell of burning wood became
+suffocating--and the heat was nearly unbearable. Long wreaths of fire
+and smoke soon shut Marion out from the view of those who followed, and
+none could pursue with their eyes the fearful progress of her
+enterprise, while she hurried onwards, having one only thought in her
+heart, that Sir Arthur, blind and alone, was calling for help, and
+might yet perhaps be saved. A wooden gallery, leading from the stair to
+Sir Arthur's room, though fringed with an intense and devouring flame,
+which had almost entirely burned it away, showed yet a plank remaining
+close to the wall, charred and blackened, while shrivelling and
+crackling in the devouring element. Over this Marion quickly but
+cautiously glided; and opening the Admiral's door, she tried to compose
+her voice, saying in a clear, distinct tone--
+
+"I am here, uncle Arthur! come away quickly! give me your hand!"
+
+"What is the matter, Marion? What is all this?" replied he, turning
+round with a quivering lip, and in a tone of piercing agitation. "The
+blessings of your blind and helpless uncle be upon you! I am so
+agitated and confused! Where is the fire? Every body had forgotten me
+but you!"
+
+"Uncle Arthur!" answered Marion, hurrying with him towards the door,
+where they were almost suffocated by a dense cloud of dust and smoke;
+"you were always brave and determined. All our courage is necessary
+now. Be firm and we may escape. You are now at the door. This wooden
+gallery is nearly burned away. It could not sustain us both, and no
+earthly power shall persuade me to go first. You can only impede me by
+speaking of it. Lose not a moment, then, for that will but increase our
+danger. Cling close to the wall; feel it all the way. I shall call out
+when you are safely over. Then remember the fifty steps we always
+counted to the first landing-place. After that, turn to the right, and
+you are safe. May the Almighty protect and guide you!"
+
+"But Marion! my dear child! you are coming this way too?"
+
+"Yes! or perhaps some other!" said she, assuming a tone of
+indifference, while she despondingly gazed at the rapidly consuming
+beam, and the thick smoke, which arose like mist before her sight.
+
+"Go on, dear uncle, and pray for yourself and me."
+
+Marion led Sir Arthur to the very brink of the yawning gulf, and
+cautiously placed him on the tottering gallery, deaf to his entreaties
+that she would seek her own safely first, and imploring him not to
+render her enterprise unavailing by delay. Flames were leaping upwards
+in the dark abyss beneath, dust and mortar fell in clouds on every
+side, while the heat and noise of the flashing light became more and
+more terrific; but still she spoke calmly to him, in tones of
+confidence and encouragement, giving directions while he remained in
+sight, and anxiously watching, as he slowly and cautiously groped his
+way. All Sir Arthur's firmness of look and voice had now returned, as
+he questioned or thanked her, when suddenly a deafening crash took
+place over head, an impending fragment of the roof was precipitated
+with a roaring convulsion upon the spot where a moment before the
+Admiral had stood, and nothing now remained beneath the eye of Marion
+but a hideous gulf of smoke and ruins, one bewildering medley of
+crackling beams and falling floors, a mighty mass of horror, which it
+made her giddy to behold.
+
+Marion ceased now to speak, fearful that her voice might induce Sir
+Arthur, if yet alive, to return; and nearly hopeless of his having
+escaped, she now felt that no duty was so imperative, as, if possible,
+to seek her own safely. Yet what resource remained? Her heart beat
+hurriedly, stopped and beat again, while a choking sensation arose in
+her throat, when for the first time she fully contemplated her own
+instant danger. The noise was like that of a mighty wind, while the
+flames swept the very heavens, with a sound more appalling than the
+loudest thunder, and she hurried almost breathlessly back to Sir
+Arthur's apartment, which had not yet been attacked by the devouring
+element.
+
+The heat was even there so intense, that she hastened to a window for
+air, and a shuddering groan burst from the surrounding multitude when
+they beheld her; but no succor was near, while the door became
+instantly blockaded by shivered beams and smouldering ruins, which had
+fallen at the entrance, setting it on fire, and she saw around long
+aisles of flame, and deep caverns filled with surges of fire and smoke.
+
+Marion felt now that death impended in its most terrifying form. It was
+no new thing with her to prepare for the certain approach of
+dissolution; yet often as she had tried to realize the idea of that
+mighty change, never did it appear before with the appalling
+distinctness, which now filled her spirit with unutterable awe, while
+standing as it were between earth and heaven, all beneath full of
+boundless terror, but all above promising peace, and full of hope.
+
+No effort of her own could avail. Marion looked at the long line of
+tall houses on her left, untouched by the flames. She glanced at the
+crowd below, all anxiously gazing upwards, in death-like stillness, and
+at the garden, which seemed paved with faces; but while the consuming
+flames pursued their desolating track, not a hope of rescue appeared. A
+storm of burning ashes fell on every side, and all around was a
+whirlwind of fire and smoke.
+
+Marion's figure became conspicuously seen at the window, every pane of
+which was already so heated by the blazing conflagration behind, that
+she leaned against the shutters, and gazed towards heaven, as if
+already lost to all connection with the world around.
+
+"Martyrs have willingly died in a scene like this," thought she. "Let
+me also testify the faith in which I die."
+
+Marion clasped her hands, while now her spirit rose superior to danger,
+and, seeing the hundreds gazing at her in silent, horror-struck
+sympathy, she calmly pointed upwards, that all might remember the
+comfort derived from a hope full of immortality.
+
+The heat had become so intense, that Marion, choked almost to
+suffocation, leaned farther than ever out of the window, trying to
+catch one breath of air, when to her astonishment she now perceived the
+figure of a man descending from the window of a house far to the left,
+and having planted his foot on a narrow ledge of stone, which ran along
+all the buildings as an architectural ornament, he pressed his hands
+firmly against the wall, to preserve his balance, and, with a degree of
+skill and intrepidity scarcely to be credited, rapidly traversed that
+shelf towards the place where she stood, carrying one end of a rope in
+his hand, the other extremity of which had been already fixed to the
+window from which he came out.
+
+"Marion! dear Marion!" cried the voice of Richard Granville, which even
+at this awful moment thrilled to her heart with deep emotion, "we must
+live or die together. Trust yourself to me! Here is a firm footing. Try
+it! At the worst you cannot be in greater danger than now."
+
+While yet speaking, he had securely fixed the rope to the window-frame,
+thus forming a temporary balustrade, and after carefully assisting her
+out, he slowly led Marion with one hand on the rope, and her face to
+the wall, safely towards a house as yet untouched by the fire.
+
+A low, whispering murmur of intense interest arose among the
+spectators, when they saw hopes of her being preserved, but not a voice
+was raised till they perceived her safe, when a deafening cheer burst
+from the spectators, which rang through every ear like a trumpet. Again
+and again it resounded, louder and louder still, but Marion heard it
+not, for no sooner was she out of danger, than, with a cry of
+thankfulness, she rushed into the expanded arms of Sir Arthur, and
+fainted.
+
+When Marion recovered to consciousness, her first evidence of returning
+life, was the deep blush with which she extended her hand to Mr.
+Granville. Tears now streamed from the blinded eyes of Sir Arthur,
+while he spoke to her with every term of affectionate endearment,
+saying, in a voice that yet quivered with emotion--
+
+"My child! my dear Marion! I thank God that your life, young and full
+of hope, has not been sacrificed to keep my grey hairs a few hours
+longer from the grave. Would that I were able to thank you as you
+deserve."
+
+"Never thank me for anything, dear uncle Arthur. I owe you more than my
+existence, for I owe you, under Providence, all the happy days I have
+ever known in it, and long, long, may I be able to show you my grateful
+affection."
+
+"My very dear girl, aged as I am, and shattered now by this night's
+alarms, I have little more hold of life than of the gale that blows
+along the ocean, but existence would yet be precious to me, if I could
+only live to see my Marion as happy as she merits."
+
+"Already I am!" replied Marion, affectionately embracing her uncle,
+while a torrent of joyous, agitated tears rushed into her eyes. "I am
+too happy, dear uncle Arthur! You are saved, we are restored to all we
+love, and my life is doubly precious to me, preserved by the generous
+courage of--of----"
+
+"Of one whose first earthly wish is to render it happy," said Mr.
+Granville, warmly. "I trust that for many long years we shall testify
+together our gratitude to God for the mercies of this night."
+
+A smile and a tear struggled hard for the mastery in Marion's downcast
+countenance, while Richard continued to speak with confidence and hope
+of the happy future, trusting that their engagement, though unavoidably
+postponed, could not be long delayed, and that if Clara recovered in a
+more favorable climate, to which she must set out the next evening, he
+might speedily return, to resume his duties and occupations, with new
+motives of hope, while Sir Arthur expressed, in brief and powerful
+language, his fervent wish that nothing might interfere with a prospect
+which secured the happiness of his beloved Marion.
+
+"Yet," observed Sir Arthur, next morning, when Mr. Granville called to
+take leave, "I dislike long engagements, and never would recommend one.
+If you both remain constant, it is unnecessary, and if either of you
+change, it would be little worth to obtain from a sense of honor what
+should only spring from affection."
+
+"There is nothing to fear on that score," replied Mr. Granville,
+exchanging a smile with Marion. "We are most apt in general to doubt
+where we have most at stake, but I have lately become almost
+presumptuously confident. I would not wish, Sir Arthur, that Marion
+should feel engaged one hour after she ceased to love me more than she
+could love any other, or if there were any man on earth who could value
+her more, and make her happier. One thing I ask of you, dear Marion,
+and only one," added he, his eyes flashing with animation--"That till
+we meet again, nothing shall make you doubt my unalterable affection;
+and in asking this, I ask only what I intend in return towards you,
+that our mutual confidence may be for ever unbroken, from the first
+hour we met."
+
+"To trust you once is to trust you for ever," answered she, in a low,
+scarcely audible voice. "All my happiness in life depends on one, who,
+I am certain, never will change."
+
+"Then, as surely as day follows night, I hope our present parting shall
+be followed by a happy re-union; and months will seem like hours, till
+I return to claim you as my own, till I once more hear your voice, and
+till this hand is again clasped in mine."
+
+Marion listened with a quivering smile on her lip, while a tear
+trembled in her eye. For a moment, the blood forsook her cheek, and
+returned again in rushing torrents over her whole countenance, while
+the eloquence of the heart was in her eyes, though she attempted not to
+reply; and Mr. Granville continued, in accents of the deepest
+tenderness,--
+
+"It grieves me more and more every day to think of leaving you, but my
+duty to Clara must not be postponed any longer. Her strength is
+gradually diminishing, and though she does not idly or selfishly
+indulge her feelings, yet here, above all places, she seems least
+likely to forget a sorrow, which is, I trust, not incurable. We, who
+are Christians, know that there is some good purpose in her affliction,
+and that the lightest straw which casts its balance into our lot, is
+ordained by the infinite power, and the infinite goodness of One who
+cannot err."
+
+"Yes," replied Marion. "In going through life, I feel myself reading a
+book by the best of all authors. Many of the incidents, as we advance,
+surprise and disappoint us; but, knowing that the whole is on a plan
+which could not be improved, we feel certain that all shall turn out
+right and best in the end."
+
+"It is a conviction such as you describe, Marion, which allays the
+torturing and almost feverish anxiety I should otherwise suffer
+respecting those around whom my warmest affections are kindled,"
+observed Mr. Granville. "Religion is indeed the best of all anodynes
+for pain of every kind; otherwise, who can tell how greatly I should
+have suffered in our sorrowful uncertainty respecting Clara's recovery,
+and in leaving you, my Marion, to whom I am now bound by every tie that
+can unite heart to heart. I will not,--I cannot say, farewell; but let
+us live in hope of better days to come."
+
+Mr. Granville at length took leave; and, as he hurried for the last
+time across the common, Marion leaned against the window, and followed
+him with her eyes till he vanished out of sight; while Sir Arthur's
+countenance shewed that his kind heart was full of anxiety and sorrow;
+for he had seen many vicissitudes in human life and human attachment,
+therefore he trembled for the possibility of sorrow hereafter, to one
+whom he loved with all the unbounded warmth of his nature.
+
+Marion closed her eyes that night with the pleasing conviction, that
+the world contained not a happier being than herself. She felt
+conscious how much Mr. Granville had elevated her mind by his
+conversation, what a treasure of interesting thoughts and pleasing
+hopes he had left her; and, while following him in imagination through
+every mile of his journey, and sadly counting the many days that must
+intervene till they could meet again, she resolutely turned her mind
+towards all the pursuits and occupations calculated to render her
+worthy of Richard Granville, when he returned to claim her as the
+partner and companion of his future existence.
+
+    "Discerning mortal! do thou serve the will
+    Of time's Eternal Master, and that peace
+    Which the world wants, shall be to thee confirm'd."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIX.
+
+
+Captain De Crespigny had heard, with frantic alarm, of the fearful
+danger from which Marion was so wonderfully delivered; and then, for
+the first time, he discovered the whole depth and reality of his love.
+The gracefulness of every thought which she expressed, and the bright
+beauty of that look with which it was accompanied, had made an
+indelible impression on his heart, so that now, when he saw her so
+unexpectedly snatched from the jaws of death, no words could do justice
+to his emotion. He hurried that very evening to ascertain the reality
+of her escape, and to say what he could on the occasion; while the
+tremulousness of his voice, and the quivering of his lip, gave a degree
+of depth and reality to his few incoherent sentences, which all his
+well-turned speeches in former times had failed to convey. Marion
+thanked him warmly for his friendly sympathy, and spoke to him with all
+the intimacy of relationship and old acquaintance; but when she turned
+to Mr. Granville, Captain De Crespigny then observed the flutter of her
+voice, the deep tone of tenderness, and the look full of confidence and
+full of interest, with which she spoke to him, and to him only; while
+there was a degree of tact and delicacy in her manner of testifying the
+wide disparity of her feelings, which left him nothing of which to
+complain. Careless of the dry and sarcastic air with which Agnes
+watched his mortification, Captain De Crespigny did not even take the
+trouble to conceal it; but soon after strode out of the room, and
+walked with hurried and agitated steps up and down in the garden,
+whistling, but not from want of thought. When thus alone and
+unobserved, a thousand angry and indignant feelings made him writhe
+with mental suffering, to think that he, who had been so deeply, so
+fatally loved by others, who had never sued in vain, and never truly
+had loved before, should endure now the agonies of unrequited
+affection, should be slighted, avoided, and forgotten, for a man he
+hated, as he had always hated Richard Granville.
+
+"He cannot love her as I do!" thought Captain De Crespigny, vehemently
+clenching his hands, and throwing himself on a seat. "What does he know
+of that magical feeling! a passionless being from boyhood, master of
+all his own feelings and impulses, incapable of the wild, ungovernable
+ardor, which carries me forward, in the face of all obstacles, to win
+her! He has indeed acted manfully on this occasion, but shall the
+accident of his success destroy my hopes of happiness! No! it must
+not,--shall not be! Dunbar will never consent to their marriage, and he
+must prevent his sister from thus throwing herself away. She shall yet
+be mine! The only girl who was ever insensible to my preference! I
+cannot live without her, and if there be means in the wide world to
+thwart Richard Granville, I must find them!"
+
+Sir Patrick received next day, with gratified surprise, the explicit
+declaration of his friend's unbounded, and, at length, undisguised,
+attachment for Marion, which he had already, in some degree, suspected,
+though so much accustomed to Captain De Crespigny's being in jest, that
+he could scarcely believe now that he was in earnest, while listening
+to the vehement expressions of his attachment, and promising,
+nevertheless, to enlist himself in the cause, with all the zeal and all
+the interest he could command.
+
+"As her guardian, I have a perfect right to postpone this most absurd
+engagement, and Sir Arthur deserves to be _spiflicated_, for ever
+having encouraged such a mere penny-wedding affair for that girl, who
+does not know her own value. Agnes tells me my uncle has allowed them
+to correspond; but this he had no right to do without my consent, and
+therefore I shall take most effectual means to intercept every letter,
+either to or from her, till she is of age, after which my reign ends,
+though, I hope, long before that, yours shall have begun."
+
+Sir Patrick took an early opportunity of expressing to Marion, in no
+measured terms, his utter abhorrence of poor marriages in general, of
+poor curates especially, and of Richard Granville in particular; while
+she, with downcast eyes, blushed, and re-blushed, deeper, and deeper
+still; though, unwilling to irritate him more than could be helped, she
+listened in silence, till at length, encouraged by meeting with no
+reply, he added, in a tone of high exhilaration--
+
+"But we need not talk of that now! The thing does not bear speaking of!
+You shall hear news to-day that must positively drive all this nonsense
+out of your head. The best 'catch' in Britain has actually lost his
+heart to a tolerably pretty, and not very disagreeable young lady, by
+name Marion Dunbar! A better fellow does not exist on earth than De
+Crespigny; and he will render you the happiest of women. I never saw
+any man so anxious to make himself liked by any girl as he is!"
+
+Marion felt now that she must no longer be silent, and blushing her
+brightest red she replied, in a low, deep, earnest voice, "Hear me,
+dear Patrick, and I shall not annoy you by saying one word in favor of
+my indissoluble engagement, that being a subject on which, I fear, we
+shall never agree; but without reference to a previous attachment, had
+it not even existed, my feelings towards Captain De Crespigny would
+have been the same. I never could confide my affection and happiness to
+one who has found his amusement hitherto in betraying all who trusted
+him, and who feeds his vanity by causing misery to those who are as
+deserving as myself. It would have been more merciful to destroy life,
+than to destroy the happiness of life, as he has done, for many, and
+for our own sister, I fear, among the number."
+
+"Pshaw, Marion! Do not stand in your own light like a thief in the
+candle!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, impatiently. "De Crespigny is worth a
+hundred thousand Richard Granvilles!"
+
+"One is all I care for!" replied Marion, timidly. "But, Patrick, as you
+have begun the comparison, let me say, that to have once known Mr.
+Granville is a talisman against every other attachment. There is no
+pleasure in life worth a thought, without mutual confidence, such as, I
+trust, we have established between us for ever, and such as I never
+could have felt with Captain De Crespigny. My taste has been tuned to a
+higher pitch than to be satisfied with such a transient and capricious
+attachment as he could ever offer to any one--mere tinsel and filigree,
+compared to the strong and lasting sentiment on which I may now rely."
+
+"Marion! there is not a man living who deserves a more grateful return
+for his preference than De Crespigny; and I still hope the time may
+come when you shall see his value, and more than return his attachment,
+or it will inflict a very great disappointment, which I should be
+annoyed beyond measure to occasion him!"
+
+"Patrick! how could your friend, with his heart splintered into atoms,
+ever presume to expect a whole one in return? He often reminds me of
+that German lady, whose picture is drawn encouraging three lovers at
+once. She is giving her hand to the first, stealing a glance at the
+second, and treading on the toe of the third, while each believes
+himself the favorite. Captain De Crespigny will take the
+disappointment, if it be one, to the next ball, and dance it off in a
+single quadrille. His love is like wax, ready for all impressions, and
+he has weathered so many flirtations already, that you need never be
+uneasy about him now. I venture to say what I think, Patrick, to
+convince you how vain all future importunity on the subject would be;
+and I cannot but observe, that if there be any blame on this occasion,
+it is yours, for obliging me so often, most unwillingly, to meet
+Captain De Crespigny. Let us hope, however, that you have been misled
+into over-estimating his intentions and feelings. Caroline Smythe
+sometimes takes off your friend to the very life; and I wish you could
+see how cleverly she carries on a furious flirtation with two ladies at
+once. There really seemed danger, one day, that uncle Arthur would die,
+like the famous Mr. Hope, of suppressed laughter! I wish all ladies
+could view the case in as ridiculous a light as Caroline does; but
+Patrick, it is very different in respect to Agnes. Her whole thoughts
+are embittered by Captain De Crespigny's unpardonable coquetry--her
+whole feelings lacerated; and I fear she may, in a paroxysm of angry
+disappointment, consign herself to long years of misery--I may even
+say, of degradation. You know all I mean, Patrick, and you ought, if
+possible, to soothe her, to advise and persuade her into a better line
+of conduct. As for myself, Patrick,--lastly, and to conclude," added
+Marion, a wandering blush resting its warm tint again on her cheek, "I
+can say, like Cardinal Wolsey, but with more satisfaction, 'Farewell to
+all my greatness!' Richard is not affluent--probably he never may be
+so; but I am no spendthrift. I would rather have love than money; and
+whatever befall us, it is happiness enough for the rest of my life to
+know that he thinks me deserving of his attachment. We love, and we
+understand each other perfectly."
+
+Marion rushed through what she had to say with agitated rapidity, and
+on reaching the conclusion she bent down her head, and leaned it on her
+folded arms, while Sir Patrick hastily left the room, uttering a few
+emphatic exclamations, which were lost in the thundering report with
+which he closed the drawing-room door, till it quivered upon the
+hinges.
+
+"Very absurd and unaccountable!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, interrupting
+himself next day, during a paroxysm of angry whistling, which he had
+carried on for some time, standing with his back to the fire, in that
+attitude peculiar to Englishmen, and in which he was said to be the
+only man who ever looked graceful. "Most extraordinary."
+
+"What?" asked Agnes, with a start of eager curiosity. "What is there
+which astonishes you so much?"
+
+"That I am the only one of our family who cannot endure to eat roast
+mutton!" replied he, evidently resolved to balk her inquisitiveness.
+"This is a teazing and tormenting world, Agnes, where we cannot order
+everything as we like."
+
+"But what has ruffled the surface of your humor to-day, Pat?" asked
+Agnes, indifferently. "You seldom treat me to a stage soliloquy!"
+
+"Then, if you must have it, all I can say is this! Here are my two best
+friends on earth, Wigton and De Crespigny, with a thousand mental,
+personal, titled, and landed recommendations, each making his proposal,
+and I cannot give either of them the slightest hopes!"
+
+"Patrick, you must be mad! If they wait long enough, I may perhaps
+marry both, but at all events I have no intention to refuse either!"
+replied Agnes, in her most conceited tone. "Are you in jest or in
+earnest?"
+
+"Why, both! That strange girl, Marion, has given them each a good,
+round, decided negative. I did not think she had it in her nature to be
+so positive."
+
+"Impossible!" exclaimed Agnes, with angry vehemence, while her eyes
+seemed literally striking fire. "This is some ill-natured jest of
+yours; but Marion understands Captain De Crespigny too well to fall
+into any such absurd mistake. She knows he is secretly attached to me,
+though, indeed, that has been no secret for ages past, and Marion never
+hinted to me that he had an idea of proposing to her."
+
+"No! Marion is exactly the sort of person never to mention what might
+hurt the feelings of another, especially as you would probably not have
+believed her; but I had yesterday a point-blank, _bona fide_, serious,
+and even solemn proposal to make her from De Crespigny, which I had to
+decline with all the usual regret, surprise, gratitude, offers of
+friendship, and so forth. It is a great inconvenience, Agnes, that both
+your strings should break in this way at once; but Marion is a perfect
+loadstone for attracting the attentions, the hearts, and the good
+opinions of all mankind. I have seen both these affairs coming on for
+some time, and it is really awkward and irritating to be placed in such
+a predicament with all my friends," continued Sir Patrick, in the tone
+of an ill-used man, thinking only of his own grievances, while Agnes,
+feeling herself extinguished at a blow, gazed in his face with a look
+of pallid amazement. "If Granville could only be sunk to the bottom of
+the sea," added Sir Patrick, impatiently, "I would not beckon with my
+finger to bring him up again!"
+
+When a separation is inevitable, those who depart have generally the
+advantage, in seeing a variety of interesting novelties, to force their
+attention, and occupy it; but while the thoughts of Mr. Granville
+reverted continually to Harrowgate, Marion's became now more than ever
+engrossed with Sir Arthur, whose nerves had been greatly shattered by
+his recent adventure, and who ardently longed, as soon as his health
+was in any degree re-established, to be again in the quiet sanctuary of
+his own home.
+
+Amidst scenes where she was hourly reminded of the happy past, Marion
+delivered herself up to the pleasing consciousness of Richard's
+unalterable attachment. Though circumstances had now separated, and
+might keep them apart for months, she felt a steady assurance that
+their mutual attachment could never be shaken by either time or
+distance. In the solitude of her own heart, Marion hoarded up many
+cherished remembrances of what he had said, and how he had said it,
+while the most transient of Mr. Granville's remarks seemed indelibly
+imprinted on her recollection. She read the books he liked, practised
+the music he admired, traced out all his favorite walks, and lived with
+him as the continual companion of her thoughts.
+
+Marion's was an unclouded sunshine of hope, as she confided so entirely
+in her absent lover, that she would quite as soon have distrusted her
+own heart as his; yet day after day, and week after week passed on,
+without a line ever reaching her from either Clara or Richard, and
+little did she dream, while suffering from the melancholy monotony of
+their long-continued silence, that letter after letter, written from
+heart to heart, with ardent affection and entire confidence, had been
+consigned to a premature end by the order and contrivance of Sir
+Patrick; but nevertheless, with all the ardor of a young and sanguine
+mind, she daily expected a satisfactory explanation, and still looked
+back upon the past with unembittered feelings.
+
+Marion's was not a weak, wavering, suspicious, or fanciful nature, but
+high and generous in all things, she had not lightly confided her
+happiness to one on whom she could not implicitly rely. She knew his
+attachment to be one of principle as well as of inclination, and though
+uneasy lest Mr. Granville might be ill, she entertained no jealous
+apprehension that he had become changed, but perseveringly trusted,
+believed, and hoped the best. Many a time had Marion's heart throbbed,
+and her color risen with a tumult of hope, as she watched the return of
+Martin from the post-office, and the flutter of expectation faded sadly
+away in mournful disappointment, when she found that another day and
+night, at the very least, must be added to her long and weary
+disappointment; for no "hope deferr'd" makes the heart more sick, than
+vainly watching for a letter, in which the happiness of a life-time is
+involved.
+
+"Out of sight out of mind!" said Agnes, sarcastically, one day, when
+she observed the look of surprise and anxiety with which Marion was
+leaving the room, alter seeing hoards of letters brought into the room
+from every quarter but the right one. "Marion! as Shakspeare says, 'No
+word from Goodman Dull yet?' That is just like men in general!"
+
+"It may be like men in general, Agnes, but it is not like Richard,"
+replied Marion, coloring and smiling. "On him I have the most
+consummate reliance. We can both depend on our perfect knowledge of
+each other, and I shall not break the long chain of our mutual faith by
+a single doubt. I have given him my confidence, and that was all I had
+to bestow."
+
+"Well! as some sensible poet remarks, and I quite agree with him," said
+Agnes, with a peevish, discontented sigh--
+
+                      "The maid that loves,
+    Goes out to sea upon a shattered plank,
+    And puts her trust in miracles for safety."
+
+"No, Agnes! Those who have loved lightly may change as lightly, but I
+should little deserve the inestimable happiness of having known Mr.
+Granville so entirely, did I not always believe him above the suspicion
+of caprice. We have read each other's mind and heart, we have been
+willing to trust each other in life and till death; therefore now,
+unless Richard were to tell me with his own lips that he had changed, I
+would not believe it,--and scarcely even then! This alone is affection
+that deserves the name, not to torment him with distrust, nor to take
+up the first cause of offence, but with unenquiring confidence to judge
+him as I would myself be judged. It would add a pang to the sorrow of
+separation if we believed ourselves at the mercy of every idle
+suspicion; but I know his heart to be as incapable of deceit or
+dishonor as my own."
+
+In the mean time, Mr. Granville had continued to write from abroad with
+unceasing assiduity, believing that some unexpected obstacle must have
+occurred to prevent Marion from answering his letters, but never
+suspecting that she did not receive one of the many he had written. In
+his candid and elevated mind, there was no room for jealousy or
+suspicion, and conscious that the transparent nature of Marion's nature
+admitted of no concealments, he rejected every angry or impatient
+thought. The more he saw of other society, the more dear she became to
+his memory now, while his attachment was of that deep and lasting kind
+over which the accidents of life have no influence.
+
+"Miss Dunbar," said Captain De Crespigny, one evening, placing himself
+on a sofa beside Marion, while Sir Patrick, to whom he had been
+speaking very earnestly some minutes before, anxiously watched her
+countenance from a distance: "I wish you were now seated in one of
+Merlin's chairs, from which no one can rise till a story be finished. I
+have something to say, so important to myself, and let me hope also to
+you, that I expect to be heard to the end."
+
+"Of course, if you wish it," replied Marion, in a faltering, agitated
+voice. "But, Captain De Crespigny, allow me to remark how unlikely it
+is that any subject can very deeply interest us both. I trust and hope
+we fully understand each other."
+
+"It is time, indeed, that we should," replied he with emotion.
+
+"And if I dare say all I wish, it would still be less than I feel.
+Dunbar assures me you are still at liberty to consult only your own
+inclinations, and let me hope I am not entirely the dupe of my own
+vanity, in believing that I might yet conquer your indifference. Since
+the hour when we first met, I had eyes for no one but yourself. Even
+when we could not converse I have watched you with ceaseless interest,
+and am forever thinking of you in absence, counting the hours of my
+existence only by those passed in your society. Why, then, do you so
+obviously avoid me? Why am I for ever made the companion of Miss Smythe
+or Miss Anybody-else? You know and see that my whole object in life is,
+to remain beside yourself. Every look, word, and action tells you as
+plainly as language can speak, that I love you to distraction, that my
+attachment has not been hastily formed, to be as hastily laid aside,
+and now my only apprehension is, that by too openly disclosing my
+feelings the confession may separate us for ever, yet it can no longer
+be delayed, for I must know at once now, whether I am to be happy or
+miserable for life?"
+
+"Patrick has done very wrong," faltered Marion, while tears sprang into
+her eyes, "I told him long ago to let you know all. It is most
+unfortunate that your preference should be given to one of the very few
+who never can return it. You ask for a heart which is not mine to give.
+My engagement to Mr. Granville cannot be soon fulfilled, but while we
+both live, we shall live only for each other."
+
+"That, Dunbar assures me, can never take place," replied Captain De
+Crespigny, while a dark red flush passed over his countenance; "and
+till it does, I cannot cease to hope. Nothing is more annoying, I know,
+than the perseverance of an unrequited attachment, but I must cling to
+the faint and haggard hope which remains. A mere taper is extinguished
+by being blown upon, but a fire burns only the brighter. The greatest
+felicity of life would not be good enough for you, nor so much as I
+wish you, provided only we share it together; but with another, I
+cannot wish you happiness. No! the words would choke me. May you never
+find any till you find it with me. If you can ever feel one relenting
+thought in my favor,--if, dissatisfied with another, you think with
+even momentary regret of me, then, were I at the extremity of the
+earth, let me but know it, and you shall find that I have been true as
+the dial to the sun, even though not brightened by its light."
+
+Captain De Crespigny continued with vehemence of tone and manner which
+nothing could interrupt, while Marion's countenance became more and
+more expressive of grief and confusion.
+
+"If I have been to others the reckless, inconstant, and unprincipled
+being you think, all who ever suffered a pang on my account are now
+revenged. I never really loved any one but you! All else was
+fancy--vanity--any thing but love. Were others like you, there could be
+no changeableness or caprice, but never have I seen before, and never
+shall I see again, so much to attract affection and to secure
+constancy. Hereafter a solitary recollection of the hours spent with
+you will be my only remaining happiness. Happiness!! there is no such
+word for me, now! You, who delight in making all others happy, would
+condemn me to misery! The thought of my defeated hopes will forever
+ring upon my heart. The remembrance, that when I asked that of you,
+which I never asked before, you coldly and indifferently rejected me."
+
+"Not indifferently, but with heartfelt gratitude for your disinterested
+preference," answered Marion, in a low, agitated voice. "If already
+married to another, I could not be more decided in saying, that you
+must never renew the subject again, for I owe it to you, as much as to
+myself and Richard, to say that my answer is final,--that we never can
+be more to each other than friends, but that I sincerely hope the time
+may come, when we shall meet as we did formerly, without emotion, but
+with kind and cousinly regard."
+
+"Never! oh never! The very thought shows you have never loved as I do!
+I could not be in the same room with you,--no! not in the same kingdom.
+You may pity, if you cannot love me," replied Captain De Crespigny,
+with a deep gasp of acute disappointment; and seizing his hat, he
+rushed out of the house, nearly suffocated by contending emotions; but
+as he ran, rather than walked, towards his lodgings, the first and
+foremost of his thoughts was, under all circumstances, and at all
+hazards, to persevere with unalterable pertinacity, and only with his
+dying breath, to resign the hope of success.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XL.
+
+
+Life is indeed a complicated and mysterious drama, in which Agnes felt
+more and more dissatisfied with the part she had to play. Harrowgate
+had been the threatre of many interesting scenes to her; but now Lord
+Doncaster had departed with a vaguely-expressed hope of her visiting
+him at Kilmarnock Abbey; and when Sir Arthur felt sufficiently
+recovered to begin his long-desired progress towards home, she slowly
+and sadly prepared to accompany him.
+
+Before they reached Portobello, winter had already covered the earth in
+a shroud of snow and of ice; the birds no longer carolled gladly on the
+boughs; the rustling leaves had ceased to fall; the naked trees hung
+their dejected branches, in bare and stern desolation, and the
+blood-red sun glittered on the cold and barren fields. "Winter's dumb."
+All life and joyfulness had departed from the face of nature, which
+looked, as Agnes remarked, like a wedding-cake without the ornaments;
+and amidst weeks of dreary discontent, she compared the death-like
+contrast of nature now, from what it had been, to her own sadly altered
+feelings. She appeared constantly now to be in a state of restless,
+almost feverish excitement, always, evidently, expecting some event
+which never happened, while she became daily more depressed and
+irritable.
+
+Marion, in the mean time, during many a long and dreary evening,
+resolutely buried beneath a smiling aspect, her own anxiety respecting
+Mr. Granville's unaccountable silence, and devoted herself as entirely
+to Sir Arthur's comfort, as if there had not existed another being upon
+the earth; yet still, every knock at the door made her heart palpitate
+with hope, and every note brought into the room, caused her a new pang
+of disappointment and surprise.
+
+If a grain of hope or joy were to be found in any circumstances,
+Marion's was a mind to sift out and enjoy it; and her buoyant spirit
+now shielded her from a too sensitive apprehensiveness, while she
+repelled the withering fears that might have forced themselves on a
+heart less candid and trusting. Her whole spirit rebelled against a
+vagrant thought of Richard Granville's inconstancy or indifference;
+though in Sir Patrick's letters from the continent, there was much that
+might have insinuated distrust into her thoughts; but Marion clung to
+the unswerving belief of her lover's infallible truth. She knew that
+the stamp of Christian excellence was on his whole character, engrained
+in his very being, and only to decay with life itself; therefore her
+opinion was not at the mercy of any idle representations; but the blast
+which might have uprooted a superficial attachment, only deepened the
+root of her own, which nothing could undermine.
+
+Mr. Granville, in the mean time, having long ceased to hope for any
+answer to his letters, became more and more impatient for the time when
+he might seek a personal interview with Marion, of whose constancy not
+a doubt ever crossed his imagination; while day after day he watched
+with saddening apprehension over the declining health of his sister,
+whose failing strength required all the affectionate attentions he
+lavished on her, especially when, after a few weeks, Sir Patrick also
+arrived at Florence, and Clara shrunk with blighting, heart-broken
+grief, from every engagement that might endanger her meeting him. She
+mournfully acknowledged, that having at first esteemed as well as loved
+him, she was still unable to conquer her misplaced affection; and that
+while nothing could induce her to unite her fate to Sir Patrick's, or
+to place her happiness in his care, still the painful consciousness
+that he was unworthy and dishonored, weighed the more deeply upon her
+spirit, and crushed her whole heart with anguish.
+
+The constancy with which Sir Patrick tried to regain her affection was
+deeply touching to Clara's young mind; and in vain she tried to blot
+out his name with her tears. Still, Mr. Granville, with
+inextinguishable hope, continued to believe that the germ of life must
+be stronger than it seemed; but day after day she faded and drooped.
+Change of air had done less than nothing for Clara's feeble frame and
+wasted strength; while she spoke often, with a smile of affectionate
+interest, respecting her brother's future life, though he observed with
+emotion, that her own name was never included, and that only when
+talking of a world hereafter, did she speak now of their being
+together.
+
+"We must die to be perfectly happy," observed Clara, one day, in a tone
+of calm and elevated peace. "My sun has set in the morning, Richard;
+and it might have seemed hard thus early to leave such a world, so
+beautiful, so fragrant, so joyous, and embellished by such affection as
+yours; but we know that sin has destroyed this whole magnificent
+creation; that misery, decay, and death, are hid beneath all. It is the
+glorious discovery of Christianity that we are immortal; that we are
+created, not for time, but for eternity! So long as my spirit continues
+to lodge in this most fragile of human bodies, I must have sorrow and
+suffering to prepare me for throwing off the homely garb of an earthly
+nature, and assuming the glorious garments of heaven."
+
+Mr. Granville covered his face with his hands, unable for some moments
+to reply, while Clara continued, in a tone of solemn sadness and
+fervent emotion--
+
+"The near approach of death fills my heart with strange and wonderful
+thoughts! When, like the lightning from the cloud, my soul departs from
+the body, O then, Richard, how I shall learn to know the value of our
+immortal salvation! It bewilders me now to think, that I myself shall
+survive that glorious sun, the solid earth, and all the wonders around
+us; that I shall see and understand all the miracles of creation; that
+I shall know and love all the wisest and best of human beings who ever
+existed on the earth; and that I shall then be wiser than the wisest,
+as well as happier than the happiest of mortals. Richard! that is
+marvellous! and were it not for leaving you, I could rejoice with a joy
+that is unspeakable, and full of glory."
+
+Mr. Granville clasped Clara's emaciated hand in his own, and would have
+spoken, but his voice failed; and after an ineffectual effort, fearful
+of agitating his sister, he turned away and was silent; but she saw his
+unutterable grief, and continued,
+
+"You could have borne this better if it had been yourself, Richard; but
+I leave you in the hands, not only of an atoning Saviour, but also of a
+sympathising friend, who will send you comfort according to your utmost
+need; and, my dear brother, let us now remember, that as the infidel La
+Harpe said, there is one text in Scripture sufficient either to live or
+to die on, 'God so loved the world, as to give his only Son, that
+whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting
+life.'"
+
+Mr. Granville solemnly bent his head in token of acquiescence, and
+closed his eyes, but large tears, notwithstanding every effort, coursed
+each other down his face, and he avoided looking round, while Clara in
+tremulous accents continued--
+
+"Before long I shall live only in your memory, and well do I know the
+place you will give me there; but remember, dear Richard, when my
+mortal frame is dissolved, that you will have another relative then
+awaiting you in heaven, and that I shall yet be in as active a state of
+consciousness there as here. When we are separated, you must still
+sometimes revive old times, by reading with Marion the books I have
+loved--by listening to the music I have delighted in--by walking in my
+accustomed haunts at home--by rearing my favorite flowers--and most of
+all, console yourself, my dear brother, by reflecting, that when you
+and Marion are both worshiping God together on earth, I shall also be
+adoring Him in heaven:--
+
+    'Tis sweet, as year by year we lose
+    Friends out of sight, in faith to muse
+    How grows in Paradise our store.'"
+
+The wintry year rolled on till Christmas eve, when Agnes, with a
+discontented yawn, loudly wished that she had been born in the planet
+Jupiter, where there was no winter at all. That night she announced
+after tea to Sir Arthur, that she was about to leave home for several
+weeks next day, being engaged to spend some time with her friend, Mrs.
+O'Donoghoe. A considerable air of trepidation appeared in her voice and
+manner when she spoke; and Marion, having recently observed that her
+sister's thoughts were continually pre-occupied, felt startled and
+amazed at the look of agitated determination with which she intimated
+her approaching departure, after which she hurried towards the door,
+anxious apparently to avoid all discussion; but Sir Arthur, in a tone
+of mild authority, called her back, and drawing in his breath between
+his compressed lips with evident vexation, he assumed an air of grave
+but ironical humor.
+
+"May I take the liberty of inquiring, Agnes, whether you have fully
+investigated all the stories we heard at Harrowgate respecting Mrs.
+O'Donoghoe's former connection with Lord Doncaster, and what she
+actually is, before I consent, on very short notice, to entrust her
+with my niece."
+
+"Oh! she is everything on earth most delightful! You need not have a
+minute's anxiety about me, uncle Arthur! I can take excellent care of
+myself. Nobody knows my own value better than I do!"
+
+"Convince me of that, Agnes, if possible; but you are aware that my
+whole heart abhors your recent very unaccountable intimacy with that
+contemptible old _roue_, who shall be nameless," replied Sir Arthur,
+with strong, deliberate emphasis. "Any continuance of that exceedingly
+familiar intercourse would be utterly improper; and as for a young girl
+of your appearance setting out on a wild ramble with any Irish
+adventuress recommended by Lord Doncaster, let me hear of her having
+some very different introduction, or I cannot allow you to go."
+
+"My dear uncle! I would dig my own grave and bury myself, if anything
+prevented me! As for your permission," exclaimed Agnes, her whole face
+illuminated with angry eagerness, "I shall certainly be most happy to
+have it; but if people strain the cord too tight, it sometimes snaps
+altogether. I have made myself a positive promise never to decline a
+good offer, and go I must. Mrs. O'Donoghoe is to take me in her own
+carriage, free, gratis, and for nothing. Only think how very kind!"
+
+"My dear Agnes," replied Sir Arthur, while his brow darkened with
+mournful anxiety, "I cannot wonder if you tire of the dull, monotonous
+house I have to offer you. A perfect mausoleum indeed! It is a
+premature old age for girls like you and Marion to be, evening after
+evening, the companions of a solitary old man. Often, of late, have I
+considered in vain how it could be remedied. Yet, my dear girl, there
+might be a solitude far worse, if you lose the respect of others, and
+the peace of mind you may enjoy with me. Hearing what I have lately
+done of Mrs. O'Donoghoe, and knowing all I do of Lord Doncaster and the
+Abbe Mordaunt, I must lay my positive prohibition on your accompanying
+them now. You may think me a whimsical old man; but, Agnes, you cannot
+long be troubled with my care. Loaded as I am with the weight of years
+and infirmities, my life is like a spark on the ocean. Its fleeting
+joys and troubled thoughts are drawing rapidly to a close; but if these
+were the last words I am ever to speak, you must not go unprotected
+into such society."
+
+The Admiral walked with slow and musing steps up and down the room, his
+fine countenance flushed with agitation, and his eyes shaded by his
+long white hair, exhibiting an expression of mournful solicitude.
+Marion's heart swelled with agitation, while inwardly moralizing on the
+officiousness of Irish widows, and Agnes bit her beautiful lip with a
+look of resolute determination, flashing glances of angry surprise at
+her uncle, and pouting her beautiful lip, though the reverence which
+Sir Arthur never failed to inspire kept her silent.
+
+"Tell me, Agnes," continued he, stopping at length before her, with a
+look of benignant kindness, "is there anything within the compass of my
+powers that could be done to make up for this disappointment? We who
+are old must not forget that there are pleasures for the young which
+they naturally wish to enjoy. If there be any place you wish
+particularly to see----"
+
+"It is not places, but people, that I care for!" interrupted Agnes,
+peevishly. "With respect to this excursion, it is impossible for me to
+get off. I shall go deranged if you interfere with it! The party is
+made on purpose for me, the horses are bespoken, my things all sent to
+Mrs. O'Donoghoe's, and nothing left for me but to bid you good-bye!"
+
+"This is little short of an elopement, Agnes!" replied Sir Arthur, with
+a mild but resolute countenance, while there was a tone of strong
+resentment in his voice. "What good object can there be in a scheme so
+clandestinely begun! But I have no legal authority to detain you, if
+affection and kindness are insufficient!--One thing only let me say,
+painful as it is to my feelings," added the Admiral, while his whole
+frame shook with emotion, and he walked several times across the room.
+"In the name of your father, Agnes, I forbid you to leave my roof with
+the party you speak of; and if, in defiance of all propriety, you do
+go, then--I would have said, never return here again; but no!--I cannot
+say that to my brother's child. No!--till my home is in the grave, you
+may share it with me. Come back when you will, Agnes, and if I am
+alive, you shall be welcomed."
+
+Marion caught the hand of Sir Arthur in her own, and kissed it with
+ardent affection, while she felt a tightening in her throat, and a mist
+before her eyes, till tears fell fast and thick, like rain, upon her
+cheek; but Agnes, with whom kindness, in its most impressive form,
+could excite no generous impulse, rose in silence, and hurried out of
+the room.
+
+That night, after Marion had been asleep for several hours, she
+suddenly started up in bed, with that bewildered feeling of perplexity
+experienced by those who are unexpectedly aroused at an unusual hour.
+It was four o'clock in the morning, and a pale, cold, livid moon-beam
+streamed faintly into the room, giving a chilled and spectral aspect to
+all around. A death-like stillness reigned beside her, and unable to
+account for having been so suddenly disturbed, she was about once more
+to consign herself to repose, when she heard the noise, repeated which
+she had begun to fancy must have been only a dream. She listened in
+trembling astonishment, for it seemed as if in her uncle's room
+over-head, some persons were trampling up and down the room, drawers
+opening and shutting, heavy weights falling on the floor, and a sound
+sometimes reached her, as if several carpenters were at work.
+
+Finding there was no mistake, Marion sprung out of bed, threw on her
+dressing-gown, rushed up stairs, and having hastily thrown open the
+door, she stood there transfixed for a moment with amazement and fear.
+Through the glimmering dawn of light, she saw that Sir Arthur was up,
+and completely dressed, while he appeared to be hurriedly groping about
+the room, as if packing up for a journey. He seemed unconscious of
+Marion's entrance, who stood for several minutes watching him in
+speechless perplexity and consternation, while her very blood forgot to
+flow, when she saw the stony look of his eyes. His countenance was of
+an ashy paleness, his long grey hair matted over his forehead, his
+expression sad beyond mortality, and when she took his hand in her own,
+it felt cold and damp. His eyes wandered over her face for a moment,
+without any apparent recognition, and then giving a smile of utter
+vacancy, he resumed his occupation with restless eagerness.
+
+"Uncle Arthur! dear uncle Arthur! what are you doing?" exclaimed
+Marion, throwing her arms round him, while her limbs were faint, and
+trembled with fear. "Speak, dear uncle! Speak to your own Marion! Why
+do you not speak?"
+
+A deep silence ensued. Sir Arthur evidently did not hear her. His cold,
+livid lips moved as if he would have spoken, but not a sound became
+audible, and with the same vacant smile as before, he turned away. The
+terror-stricken Marion now felt utterly appalled. A death-like sickness
+came over her, horror and darkness seemed gathering over her mind, and
+apprehensive lest her senses might entirely fail, she hastily and
+vehemently rang the bell, calling loudly for assistance.
+
+Marion's was an intellect of that high tone which rises to meet a great
+emergency, and though nearly paralyzed by grief and terror, when she
+first saw the fearful, ghastly smile, with which her uncle gazed around
+him, she now endeavored, by gentle persuasion, to make him lie down in
+his bed, and tried, by speaking in accents of tenderness, to recall his
+recollection, while impatiently longing for Martin to appear; and
+during the few minutes that elapsed till he entered, it seemed as if
+time itself had ceased to move.
+
+The doctor was at length summoned, and having pronounced the Admiral's
+illness to be caused by an oppression of the brain, threatening
+apoplexy, he attempted to bleed his patient, though almost without
+success; for Marion observed, while she held him in her arms, that the
+blood scarcely flowed, till after some time he uttered a fearful,
+convulsive cry, which rang through the room, and fell back in a violent
+spasm, the immediate precursor of apoplexy.
+
+Awe-struck and paralyzed with grief, Marion clung to her uncle, and
+remained by his side, watching with deep and solemn affection every
+turn of his features; while her cheek assumed the hue of death, her
+tearless eyes were motionless, her quivering lips compressed, and she
+remained as silent and immoveable as if the mortal shaft had reached
+herself. Without shedding a tear or breathing a sigh, she bent over the
+distorted countenance of Sir Arthur, and assisted in cutting off the
+long white locks of his hair, which she had often loved to look upon,
+but which were now strewed all unheeded on the bed, and again seating
+herself by his side, she riveted his hand in her own, becoming white
+and motionless as an image of marble.
+
+Notice had been sent to Agnes' room of the afflicting event which had
+taken place, and Marion expected every instant that her sister would
+appear; but time passed on, and she came not, being one who
+systematically avoided any scenes of distress, therefore she satisfied
+herself with sending frequent messages of inquiry to the door. At
+length, after some hours, Sir Arthur appeared to have recovered his
+recollection; for he looked at Marion with a feeble smile of deep
+affection, and laid his hand on her head as if to bless her; but words
+were denied him; he struggled in vain to speak; and she who had not yet
+found the solace of a tear, now bursting into an irresistible agony of
+weeping, sobbed aloud. After gazing long and tenderly in her face, Sir
+Arthur's eye-lids at length closed with fatigue, and still clasping her
+hand in his, he fell into a peaceful, quiet slumber of many hours'
+duration.
+
+Those who have most leisure to contemplate death, generally think least
+about it, and no one had ever meditated less on the subject than Agnes.
+She occasionally remarked, when the infirmities of the old and the
+indigent were forced upon her notice, that they might hope soon to be
+released, and that to them it must, of course, be a happy escape. The
+busy and active, she thought, had scarcely time to die; and, for
+herself, she considered death as a very unpleasant subject, which fifty
+years hence must be attended to, when the joys and the dreams of her
+present life had vanished; but it seemed to her most preposterous now,
+to lower her spirits by melancholy reflections on what could not
+certainly be avoided, and would come only too soon in the end. In
+short, her whole plan of life was, "To-day to sparkle, and to-morrow
+die."
+
+Marion had stolen away to complete her midnight toilette, before she
+settled for the day beside Sir Arthur's pillow, when she was amazed
+near the door to meet Agnes, hurrying past in travelling costume, and
+anxious, apparently, to avoid being seen, though, when an interview
+became inevitable, she tried to carry it off with careless audacity,
+being evidently in a perfect delirium of high spirits, which she vainly
+tried to conceal.
+
+"Well, Marion! I am quite relieved to hear from Martin that there is
+not the slightest danger! The doctors also say that everything has
+taken a favorable turn, though, as for their opinion, I have despised
+all physicians from Esculapius down to the magnesia-and-rhubarb doctors
+of the present day. They all tell us the same thing of an invalid, 'If
+he does not die, he will certainly recover!'"
+
+Marion listened with a look of grave and melancholy surprise; while
+Agnes, trying not to seem aware of it, and evidently anxious to avoid
+any reply, fixed her eyes on the door, as if impatient to proceed, and
+continued, in rapid accents of assumed bravado--
+
+"You are looking really ill, Marion, and must have got a dreadful
+fright! It would have killed me altogether! But make your mind easy,
+for these attacks are, I am told, very common. The Duke of Middlesex
+had ten or twelve, and people live often for years after the first,
+which is a great comfort."
+
+"They do sometimes, but not always," replied Marion, with mournful
+gravity. "My dear Agnes, do not be too sanguine. This is a very serious
+attack. You may hope, but I cannot; for it seems to me that our uncle
+is laid on a bed from which he will never rise again."
+
+"Oh! you are nervous, after being so frightfully alarmed this morning.
+It must have been very shocking," said Agnes, shaking her well-arranged
+ringlets, and attempting to get up a melancholy look; but in her mind
+there never was any of that gentle, feminine apprehensiveness for
+others, which is so amiable and so endearing. "I feel quite confident
+that in a few days he will recover; but for the present, Marion, you
+see everything through a darkened glass. I have no fears whatever,"
+added she, in a tone of superior wisdom. "Old people always remind me
+of a creaking door, forever complaining, but never any worse! It is
+lucky for those who have nerves to endure it all. I have none;
+therefore being of no earthly use here, I should be quite in the way.
+Indeed, a single week of moping at home, with fright and anxiety, would
+lay me up also."
+
+"You are not going, Agnes? Impossible! Listen to me for five minutes."
+
+"I am not equal to the exertion! What can I do? It is out of the
+question to break off my engagement now! I am really between the horns
+of a dilemma, and must be tossed upon one or other of them. Both Mrs.
+O'Donoghoe and Lord Doncaster have set their hearts upon having me;
+and, as the schoolboys say in their speeches, 'It must be so! Agnes,
+thou reason'st well!'"
+
+"If we are sisters, hear me," replied Marion, in accents of breathless
+indignation. "Agnes! you cannot, you must not think of going."
+
+"But, as the lover says in the Critic, 'I can, I must, I will, I ought,
+I do!' Marion, you do not know the importance I attach to my excursion,
+which will last only a few days. As for this absurd affair of Sir
+Arthur's, you think every breeze a hurricane; but it is well over now,
+and, since he is ordered quietness, he will miss me the less, or
+perhaps not at all, if you never mention my absence. Certainly my forte
+is not in a sick-room, and yours is. My chief fault, as an attendant on
+sick people, is, that I am good for nothing. As for danger, Marion, I
+do not see any."
+
+"Or, rather, you will not see any. Agnes, I would not for ten thousand
+worlds leave him now. Our best--almost our only friend, and probably
+dying," exclaimed Marion, while hot, scalding tears rushed in torrents
+from her eyes. "The question now is not, whether Sir Arthur will be
+restored as he was to us? but only, how many days or hours he can be
+kept from the grave. Every passing moment is a knell of death to my
+heart, when I think how few more we shall see before he is gone
+forever. If you consider nothing but mere appearances, Agnes, you ought
+to stay."
+
+"As for appearances," replied she, clasping her bracelet, "I am of
+opinion with the Abbe Mordaunt on that point, as on most others, that
+those who study appearances have seldom any realities to boast of."
+
+"Such sentiments might be expected from such a man, but I should not
+certainly have supposed you would act upon them, especially now.
+Believe me, Agnes, your own heart will reproach you forever after. The
+danger is immediate and very great," said Marion, while her tears fell
+drop by drop on the ground. "My uncle is hovering over the very brink
+of the grave, therefore, for my sake, and for his sake, do not leave
+us."
+
+"But for my own sake I must! You have a teazing, exaggerated way of
+stating things; but pray, remember now, Marion, the maxim Madame
+D'Ambert taught us at school, '_Pour porter legerement la vie, il faut
+glisser sur bien des choses!_' I always prefer hopes to fears, and hate
+that desolate, dreary look of yours, this morning. You wish to rule and
+direct everybody, but I will not be governed or trampled on," said
+Agnes, in an angry imperious tone. "I did not suppose as much could be
+said on any subject in the world as you have said upon this. One would
+think, from your way of talking, that Sir Arthur was nobody's uncle but
+yours; or that I did not know how to act for myself! Well! I hope, for
+my own especial happiness, very soon to be independent of those who
+never have appreciated me."
+
+"At all events, we have loved you, Agnes."
+
+"Yes! of course. Ah! here is the carriage! Good bye, then! Sir Arthur
+will never miss me while you remain; but write often, though where in
+the wide world to direct your letters is more than I remember; but,
+Marion, we see in the Times newspaper every day, advertisements
+entreating persons who have left their homes to return, that all their
+wishes may be granted, therefore, when you and Sir Arthur want me back,
+pray insert something of that kind. Good bye!"
+
+With heightened color, and eyes fixed on the ground, Marion received
+the hand of Agnes, and gave her one parting look of expostulation,
+hoping to the last that nature and feeling might yet make themselves
+heard; but when Agnes had sprung into Mrs. O'Donoghoe's carriage, and
+kissed her hand with a parting smile, every trace of agitation vanished
+from the face of Marion, but a band of iron seemed around her head and
+her heart, as she slowly turned away, disgusted and astonished at her
+sister's heartless levity, and in the privacy of her own room, she sank
+upon her knees and offered up solemn, fervent prayers for the many to
+whom she was attached, but, above all, for her much-loved uncle.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLI.
+
+
+With all the acute susceptibilities of youth, Marion now experienced,
+for the first time, what it was to watch over an almost hopeless
+illness, and, with a shuddering sensation of unutterable woe, she tried
+to obtain that comfort from above, which nothing on earth could supply.
+Days passed slowly on, the longest and most melancholy she had ever
+known, while most of her hours were spent in prayer, but all around was
+gloom. Nothing could be more oppressive to her than the subdued whisper
+and stealthy step of Sir Arthur's attendants, his vacant seat, his
+darkened room, the mute and solemn looks of his physician, and, above
+all, the inward anguish with which, hour after hour, she sat with his
+hand in hers, watching the fluctuations of his feeble pulse, observing
+with awe and grief the pale ensigns of death gathering over his
+features, and feeling as if every labored breath he drew gave him but a
+momentary reprieve from the grave, while she could not bear to
+contemplate the probability of burying with her beloved uncle, all the
+dear and tender ties that bound them to each other.
+
+With no one to console her, and nothing on earth to screen her from the
+desolating blast of grief, the whole fabric of her worldly happiness
+seemed crumbling to dust. Her heart was like an exhausted receiver, and
+her spirit sank, yet no inducement could have withdrawn her for an hour
+from that scene of solemn, deep, and awful melancholy. Throughout the
+long, dreary hours of night, each of which seemed an eternity of
+anxious care, Marion felt too deeply impressed with the solemnity
+around for the indulgence of any violent emotion. Nothing is so silent
+as intense feeling! Stunned and stupified by the sudden affliction, a
+wild chaos of sorrow, fear, and amazement rushed through her young
+mind, filling her with agony, which tears could not relieve; but now
+was the time for that supernatural aid given by Divine grace to the
+humble, believing Christian. In silent, speechless prayer, Marion found
+her first and only relief; then she felt that her heart was read, and
+her sorrows pitied, by One who has shared every human grief, carried
+every human sorrow, and to whom the suffering sinner never applies in
+vain.
+
+One morning, the grey light of dawn stole through a crevice of the
+shutters, while, in her lonely silence, Marion felt as if the whole
+world were in a trance, and not a sound was heard, but the slow ticking
+of the clock, reminding her that time and death are forever advancing.
+She sat watching every minute change of that beloved countenance
+shattered by sickness, and evidently sinking in decay, when Sir Arthur
+unexpectedly opened his eyes, which once more beamed with intelligence,
+as he fixed them with a look of touching mournfulness on Marion, and
+called her by name. That voice, which had so long been dear to her, now
+sounded strange and unnatural, being palsied by weakness, while the
+glassiness of the grave was in his eye; but Marion, forcibly subduing
+all appearance of emotion, stooped down, and, with a momentary gleam of
+hope, kissed his pale forehead.
+
+"Marion! we have loved each other well," said he feebly, extending his
+hand to her. "For your sake I would stay, old and weary as I am, but
+the far better will of God is otherwise. Before that clock strikes
+again, I shall be in a better world."
+
+Marion covered her face with her hands and attempted not to speak, for
+she saw that the sure hand of time, and the heavier hand of sorrow, had
+indeed done their work. It was but too evident that Sir Arthur would
+never see another night, for he was about to awaken in the mighty dawn
+of eternity, where no darkness ever would follow. The frail, old,
+worn-out tenement of his body, so full of infirmities, was now to enter
+its rest; his head, whitened with age and suffering, had been anointed
+with peace, and, having partaken with cheerful thankfulness of the
+banquet of life, he was evidently willing to make way, that others
+might fill his place; not disgusted or dissatisfied with existence, but
+thankful that he had tasted better joys than those of earth, and
+desiring to enjoy them at last in never-ending perfection. A mysterious
+conviction is generally given to the dying, when their disease becomes
+mortal, but though nature shrank at first from the solemn change,
+religion supported the powerful mind of Sir Arthur, who added, in a
+tone of commanding calmness, while a beam of ineffable peace overspread
+his countenance,
+
+"You are now my sole earthly care--as you are my only earthly comfort.
+It breaks my heart to leave my Marion worse than alone, while Patrick
+and Agnes remorsely pursue their own pleasure, careless how you are
+trampled down in their wild career."
+
+"Dear uncle!" whispered Marion, wishing to soothe him, "you consigned
+me to the care of Richard Granville, and year after year, while we
+live, you shall be remembered by us both with the affection and
+gratitude of children to a parent."
+
+"I did hope, my dear girl, that I should have lived to understand his
+conduct, and even now, while standing in the gloomy porch of death, it
+would cheer me to see him and dear Henry again. If Granville be the man
+I believe him, he will come immediately to see you now, and all will be
+satisfactorily explained--if not, the world is worse than I thought."
+
+"If Richard is alive, he will come, dear uncle--but oh! what a meeting
+it would be, without you!"
+
+"Take comfort, dear Marion. Think of me often, but let it be with
+consolation. My long life seems but a span! May yours be blessed with
+every affection of this world--with every hope for eternity--and may
+your death-bed be attended by one as dear and affectionate as mine is.
+May your eyes be closed in the same undoubting faith, and may I be
+permitted to meet you on the very threshold of heaven, and in the
+august presence of Him, whom 'not having seen, we love, and in whom
+believing, we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.'"
+
+With a face livid as death, Marion choked back her sobs and restrained
+her tears, while she listened to every faltering word Sir Arthur said,
+as if her life depended on hearing him. When he became silent from
+exhaustion, she attempted to whisper a few broken expressions of grief
+and affection in his ear. Unable, however, to think or speak under the
+weight of her sorrow, she might have been mistaken for a corpse, but
+for the look of living agony in her eye, while struggling with a sorrow
+which tears or lamentations could not have expressed, and could not
+have relieved.
+
+At length Sir Arthur's breathing became uncertain--his majestic chest
+heaved convulsively--a damp, cold dew broke out on his forehead--the
+heart which had beat with every kind and noble emotion, could beat no
+more--and, giving a last glance of fond affection at Marion, a grey,
+ashy hue stole over his features, and his countenance assumed that
+strange, peculiar aspect which is seen in death, and in death only.
+Marion saw it, and long afterwards that look was forever before her
+sight. Nothing in all the earth is so unutterly sublime as death.
+Strange and solemn was the mysterious horror, the inexplicable wonder,
+with which Marion, for the first time, witnessed the soul forsaking its
+earthly tabernacle. Day after day, when she returned to watch beside
+all that now remained of her earliest and kindest friend, while her
+heart seemed scorched and seared with grief, she gazed on the mortal
+form in ruins before her--its light extinguished--its tenant
+departed--its whole nature in a moment transformed--and, forgetting
+sometimes for a moment her own grief, her loneliness, her deep and
+fearful bereavements, she thought but of that purified spirit now
+emancipated into the regions of eternal glory, and almost longed for
+the period when she also might become as indifferent to things of time
+as the inanimate corpse beside her. Often, however, she tried, with an
+eye of faith, to look beyond the portals of the tomb, remembering that
+death is to a Christian, like the setting of the sun, for while lost to
+human sight, he still exists and shines with unfading glory and
+everlasting brightness.
+
+When Sir Arthur's remains were placed in the coffin, Marion felt as if
+the last link were severed between them. His better part had, indeed,
+already departed, but the cold image before her was still associated
+with all she had ever known of happiness or affection, yet, in the
+strong agony of her grief, when all seemed a gloomy chaos of solitary
+desolation, she felt consoled by reflecting that her own devoted care
+had assisted in smoothing his passage to the grave; and she could not
+but think how great must be the joys of another world, when such
+affliction as her's was not worthy to be compared with them. A wide
+horizon of sorrow seemed before her, long days of loneliness and longer
+nights of grief; while, though young in years, she already felt old in
+affliction, for a blight and a mildew were upon her spirit. Marion's
+sanguine mind and ardent feelings had nothing near her on which to
+rest, the whole energy of her being, for the time, seemed crushed and
+withered; the future appeared to stretch before her mind in a long
+vista of moving shadows, and the memory of past happiness, like gold in
+the hand of a drowning man, sank her only the deeper in grief. Her
+beloved uncle seemed still to be everywhere--yet she saw him not. In
+all the earth there was not a thought which did not pierce her, or a
+worldly hope which did not now bring an icy chilliness to her
+heart--for a dark cloud had fallen between her and all those whose
+affection once adorned her existence.
+
+It was now that Marion, like a tempest-tossed vessel, surrounded by
+darkness and fear, turned for direction and help to that steady and
+benignant light burning at a distance, which alone could direct her
+into a haven of rest. Her sorrow became gradually illuminated by hope
+and peace. She clung to every shattered wreck of happiness which
+remained, and sinking on her knees, she felt that no one could ever be
+completely alone, or completely miserable, who rightly used the
+privilege of speaking her wishes in prayer to that great and holy
+Being, who is the father and the friend of all his earth-born children.
+Marion had long believed that the happiest life is that most conformed
+to the will of God--that grief arises from not believing whatever is
+appointed to be really best; and now she found in the Bible that
+comfort which is nowhere else to be gained. The deepest emotions of
+this world remain unseen and unknown to all around; for the strength of
+character which gives power to feel, gives power also to hide, and
+there is a modesty in real sensibility, which admits not of display;
+but Marion, cut off now from all the tenderest sympathies of life,
+became the more zealous and diligent in preparing for that hour when
+"mourned and mourner lie together in repose."
+
+    Oh! if belov'd ones from their hallow'd sphere,
+    May witness warm affection's faithful tear,
+    At this deep hour, they hear the mourner's sigh,
+    And waft a blessing from their homes on high.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLII.
+
+
+At Florence, Clara Granville lingered and recovered, and lingered
+again, sleeping little, eating nothing, and patiently trying every
+remedy, though she herself was without hope of recovery, till at
+length, decorated in all the radiant coloring and bright beauty of
+consumption, she sank slowly but surely, evidently hastening to the
+grave, though still Mr. Granville, with the tenacity of affection,
+continued to hope, and still he told himself that she might, perhaps,
+yet be spared. Day after day he sat beside her couch, reading,
+conversing, and praying with her, while his brotherly attachment seemed
+to grow only the more engrossing and considerate the longer she needed
+his care; but it became evident to all around, that his cares and hopes
+on her account were drawing to a close, and that his sorrow must soon
+be without hope in a present world, though full of hope in a world to
+come.
+
+Letters now reached Mr. Granville, announcing that his long-pending
+law-suit had been at length finally decided in his favor, giving him an
+income more than equal to his utmost desires; but letters far more
+deeply interesting to his feelings still were missing. Often and
+anxiously had he watched for a single line from Marion, yet so well had
+Sir Patrick arranged the measures which, as her guardian, he persuaded
+himself it might be allowable to take, in order to intercept her
+correspondence, that not a single letter ever escaped the vigilance of
+his emissaries; and Mr. Granville, though he still cherished, as his
+best earthly treasure, the belief of Marion's attachment, felt so
+painfully perplexed respecting her, and so grieved for Clara, that the
+almost unexpected change in his circumstances appeared scarcely worth a
+thought, while a dense curtain of sorrow seemed gathered around his
+spirits.
+
+If the vital spark of his own existence had been about to expire,
+Richard could scarcely have felt more deeply than now, beside the dying
+bed of his young and lovely sister, who took his hand in her own one
+day, while a fixed expression of tenderness and grief appeared in her
+speaking eyes, and there was a melting softness in her voice, when she
+said:
+
+"My only reluctance to die, is, dear Richard, because I must leave you!
+This is sorrow; but our sorrow shall hereafter be turned into joy. When
+patience has had her perfect work, you, like myself, have a sure and
+certain hope of a better world, and, unlike me, you have a hope also
+for this life, which contains the best blessing left to man upon earth.
+Yes, Richard, you will soon have a loved and trusted companion, suited
+in every respect to yourself; and with her, I trust, you may enjoy a
+long course of usefulness and of joy, after I am no more."
+
+Mr. Granville kissed his sister's forehead with deep and solemn
+affection, while his cheek became pale and his lip quivered; but his
+heart was too full to reply, and Clara proceeded:
+
+"We have saved ourselves much unnecessary anxiety by placing a firm and
+well-founded confidence in dear Marion. Let that remain unshaken,
+Richard, till you meet," said Clara, fixing her large, mournful eyes on
+him; and slowly closing them as she faintly added, "Tell Marion I died
+without a doubt of her constancy and truth. And now, there is but one
+wish remaining to me in life, Richard--only one----"
+
+Clara hesitated, the hectic color deepened on her transparent cheek,
+her lip trembled, and she became silent, while Richard took her hand in
+his own, and listened with affectionate anxiety for what was to follow;
+but it came not. With a look of desolate grief Clara turned away her
+head and was silent, while Mr. Granville, using every term of
+affectionate endearment, entreated her not to let him suppose there was
+a wish of her heart unspoken, or a desire which he could grant
+unfulfilled. After a short struggle, during which he was alarmed by the
+greatness of her emotion, she seemed at length to have entirely
+conquered her feelings, and said in a perfectly calm, unimpassioned
+voice--
+
+"A letter was conveyed to me last night--I know not how it came--from
+Sir Patrick. He has been some time in Florence; he sends every morning
+to inquire for me! I am told he even watches daily till the doctors
+come out, and asks how I am!"
+
+"True, dear Clara, and I feel for him deeply."
+
+"Richard!" added she, raising herself up with sudden energy, and
+clasping his arm, while her large, bright eyes became fixed on his, "I
+wish to see Sir Patrick once again! to have a last conversation with
+him on this side of the eternal world. There is a sacred power in the
+words of a dying friend, and I would summon the whole faculties of my
+being, to bid him a last and solemn farewell. He has always listened to
+me. If I have any influence, let me use it now. Think what a blessed
+consciousness I yet might carry to the grave, if our unhappy attachment
+were no longer a source of misery to both, but of real and eternal
+advantage. Let me make a final effort of life and of affection, to
+leave in his heart a thought of immortality. Such a hope might almost
+hold back my spirit from the gates of death! Dear Richard, I shall rise
+for half an hour to-morrow, and then let me see him!"
+
+"It would destroy you, Clara! you are quite unfit for the effort; but
+give me a message. Say what you please; and, painful as it must be, I
+shall see Sir Patrick, personally. We can sympathise with each other
+now, as we never did before, and I shall deliver your very words. You
+are unfit now, Clara, for any agitation."
+
+"Dear Richard! you never yet denied me anything! Do not now refuse my
+last--my very last request. Whatever be the faults of Sir Patrick, his
+attachment was disinterested and generous. I cannot die in peace
+without saying that I am grateful--without, at least, endeavoring to
+convince him, for his happiness now, as well as hereafter, how true it
+is, that 'he sins against this life who slights the next.'"
+
+"It might be a work of usefulness and mercy," replied Mr. Granville, in
+a musing tone; "and if there be a pleasure in life you can yet enjoy,
+dear Clara, I am not the person who could withhold it."
+
+"That I know. In this world which has so long been my home, Richard, I
+have never lived a moment without being the happier for your affection,
+and it will be so for ever. I am now counting the last grains of my
+sand-glass as they fall, and ready to go alone through the portals of
+the tomb. Every sorrow is about to be eternally forgotten, every
+blessing to be eternally enjoyed. Most of my feelings and affections
+are already transferred to another and a better world; while I ought,
+as a dying Christian, to be like an eagle soaring to the sky, and
+seeing nothing but the sun, yet, Richard, the hope of serving one whom
+I loved only too well still lingers round my heart, and will not be
+repulsed. Say then, Richard, that we may meet;--tell him that, standing
+on the very brink of eternity, I feel as if, even in another world, it
+would increase my felicity to know, if permitted to look back on
+earthly scenes, that I had not left him without hope or consolation."
+
+"I do not believe, Clara, that the invisible world is very distant; but
+only that it is hid by the grossness of our mortal bodies; and I do
+believe, my dear sister, that we may both, perhaps, yet see the
+influence of your prayers and of your last words upon one whom I most
+sincerely pity," said Mr. Granville, observing the mild, full,
+melancholy eyes of his sister fixed upon him, while gradually, as he
+spoke, her countenance became irradiated with peace. "The ways of
+Providence are indeed wonderful! If Dunbar be willing to forget all
+that has ever been amiss between us both, I have forgotten it long ago.
+If he choose it, we shall become friends, till Marion makes us
+brothers."
+
+"Oh that I could live to see that day, and then close my eyes in peace;
+but it must not be! In a few hours I shall have shed my last tear,
+endured my last sorrow, and conquered my last enemy. Who would not be
+willing, then, to change time for eternity, the sufferings of earth for
+the joys of heaven, misery for happiness, and a dying life for
+immortality!"
+
+A lovelier morning never had smiled on the glad earth, than that on
+which Clara Granville received the visit of Sir Patrick alone. On a
+couch near the window, into which the sun poured a flood of light and
+warmth, propped up by cushions, Clara, with an unearthly brightness
+glittering in her eye, and burning on her cheek, looked more like a
+celestial spirit than a creature of earthly mould; but what passed
+between them, during the long interview which ensued, no one could
+tell. Clara's features, when it was about to close, betrayed no
+agitation, but continued almost motionless for some time, while the
+tone of her voice became slow and languid. Gradually her words appeared
+fainter; her voice grew nearly inaudible; the color which had tinged
+her cheek died away; and a death-like paleness succeeded. Not a groan
+was heaved, nor a feature disturbed; but scarcely had Sir Patrick time
+hastily to summon Mr. Granville, and to support her in his arms, before
+her countenance became rigid as marble, and her ethereal spirit had
+mysteriously fled from its mortal dwelling.
+
+    Loveliest of lovely things are they,
+    On earth, that soonest pass away;
+    The rose, that lives its little hour,
+    Is prized beyond the sculptured flower.
+
+    Ev'n love, long tried, and cherish'd long,
+    Becomes more tender and more strong,
+    At thought of that insatiate grave,
+    From which its yearnings cannot save.
+
+Sir Patrick's grief and horror now became almost delirious, and he was
+tortured by a feeling of unutterable agony; yet still he seemed
+resolute to doubt the fatal truth, to hope against hope, to believe
+that by a miracle Clara might at length awaken from her seeming repose;
+but her hand grew cold within his own, and the glassy fixedness of her
+eye carried death to his heart. He felt and knew that all was over, yet
+he could not allow himself to credit the solemn event; till, at length,
+covering his face with his hands, he groaned aloud in all the anguish
+of a sorrow without hope or resignation.
+
+Mr. Granville, forgetful, apparently, of his own grief, tried now to
+impart consolation from that rich fund of sublime peace and everlasting
+hope which belongs, at such an hour, to the Christian; for, though his
+own feelings were lacerated and torn with a sorrow that seemed as
+sudden as if he had never till now expected it, still there was a balm
+for his wounded spirit, which soothed the first anguish of his
+sufferings, and would at last, he knew, bring him daily more abundant
+consolation. No affliction seems to come so directly from the hand of
+God as the death of those who have been so truly loved; and in
+contemplating the wide gulf which now divided him from Clara, the manly
+spirit of Mr. Granville was overpowered with grief. This seemed a
+moment too awful for vehement sorrow. He had watched the last struggle
+of existence in one with whom every thought and emotion were hitherto
+shared, and now, while her beloved and well-known features remained the
+same, all intercourse and all sympathy between them had at once been
+closed; and, in the hours of solemn contemplation which followed,
+Richard felt more than ever a desire to learn what is seen and felt
+when the gloomy curtain of life is withdrawn, and the glories of
+eternity are first revealed; but, checking the speculations of a vain
+curiosity, he opened the pages of holy inspiration, there to find an
+inexhaustible fund of sublime and elevating comfort, convinced that, to
+have his affliction sanctified, was even better than to have it
+removed.
+
+The sympathy established between Sir Patrick and Mr. Granville now
+brought them daily together, when the young Baronet learned, in such
+society, to venerate and admire that holy faith, which as yet he could
+neither feel nor comprehend; and every hour he became more conscious of
+its happy effects on the mind and heart of Richard Granville, who
+seemed always ready to forget every selfish thought, when the glory of
+God or the good of others claimed his most arduous and zealous
+devotion; and even his grief for Clara, deep and agonizing as it was,
+found a vent in the most implicit attention to all her wishes, and
+especially to her injunctions respecting the restoration of his
+friendly intercourse with Sir Patrick.
+
+    The darts of anguish fix not where the seat
+    Of suff'ring hath been thoroughly fortified
+    By acquiescence in the will supreme,
+    For time and for eternity.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIII.
+
+
+There is said to be a stage in sorrow, after which an addition can be
+borne with apathy; but this the heart of Marion seemed never likely to
+reach. It is a natural source of comfort, however, in mourning over the
+loss of those we love, to find that they are appreciated and lamented
+by others; and many kind letters of condolence on the death of Sir
+Arthur reached the young mourner, from old companions and young
+acquaintances. Some were written with overdone and inflated expressions
+of sorrow, as if the writer had lost a parent of her own; and if the
+occasion had been less heartbreaking to herself, Marion might almost
+have smiled at their tone of exaggerated grief. Others wrote studied
+compositions, so beautifully got up, and with such skilfully turned
+periods, that the writer must have felt certain of Marion's "Life and
+Correspondence" being hereafter collected and published; while others
+concluded with "Yours, in haste," as an evident apology for neither
+head nor heart being much enlisted on the occasion; but all were
+received with grateful interest, being more or less a proof of kind
+intentions, very soothing to the feelings of a solitary girl.
+
+Each letter, as it came, caused her a palpitation of hope, followed by
+a pang of disappointment; for every morning she arose with a confident
+hope that now Richard Granville must certainly write, and every evening
+closed in with an added weight of discouragement and sorrow; for now
+indeed the roses of life seemed all to have faded, and the thorns only
+to remain.
+
+As Shakspeare observes, "every one can master a grief but he that has
+it;" and among the many well-meaning but commonplace acquaintances who
+came to gossip over the sorrows of Marion, and to ascertain exactly how
+much Sir Arthur had left, there was not one to whom she could unveil
+her feelings. Each of her well-intentioned visitors said a few words in
+praise of Sir Arthur, enough to convince Marion that no one but herself
+could appreciate the hundredth part of his inestimable worth--a
+sentence or two then followed of pious reflection, obviously spoken
+with restraint, and picked up by rote from some volume of religious
+meditations, and the whole was generally concluded in a masterly
+manner, by repeating a few texts of Scripture, strung together from a
+concordance.
+
+There is a solemn dignity in real grief, beside which all commonplace
+or trifling consolations fall powerless and cold; but strangers in
+return for their contributions of sympathy and comfort, evidently
+expected from Marion an ostentatious display of affection, and were
+often not a little disappointed, at the pale, still, concentrated
+calmness of the lonely girl, who, subdued beneath the weight of her
+recent sorrow, received visitors only when she felt able to do so with
+composure, speaking to them with gentle, melancholy kindness, and
+evidently endeavoring to derive all the comfort she could from their
+society; yet often in the solitude which followed, did she feel
+inclined to agree with an author, who remarks, that "_la pitie n'est
+pas le plus due a celui qui pleure dans la solitude_."
+
+Marion seemed to live in a dream, yet she gazed on the daylight and the
+people moving about on their errands of pleasure or business, till she
+felt that the whole was a sad reality. The common, every day routine of
+life seemed strange and unnatural, amidst the agony of her first
+sorrow, when the tomb had so recently closed over her earliest friend.
+She felt as if nature herself should have suspended her ordinary
+course, and as if the melancholy awe so impressed upon her own heart
+should extend to everything animate or inanimate around--as if the very
+sun itself should scarcely rise and shine as heretofore; and nothing
+appeared to Marion so strange, as that sameness visible in the outward
+world, contrasted with the mighty revolution in all her own inward
+feelings. Marion tried to take a lesson in cheerful resignation, from
+thinking sometimes of the many created by the same Almighty Father, and
+yet suffering far more than she had ever done; and her eye fell one day
+on a blind beggar, seated near her window, shivering with cold,
+emaciated with hunger, solitary and deserted, shut out from the light
+of day, friendless, homeless, and desolate, with none to sympathize in
+his sorrows, or to cheer him by their affection. "Yet," thought Marion,
+"that miserable being finds an object to live for, and would not
+perhaps willingly die! God gives something to all his creatures; and
+who makes me to differ from the most wretched. But bodily wants are not
+the real sorrows of life! O no! The mind, when relieved from such
+abject cares, has more leisure to grieve over withered hopes and
+blighted affections; yet all trials, if rightly received, are but
+blessings in disguise. It is well if, by tasting such sorrows as
+mine--and they are many--I am taught to avoid the far greater and more
+permanent evils of futurity. In this world, we are suspended over the
+abyss of eternity, by a thread which grows more feeble every hour; and
+all events should be welcome which are ordained by infinite wisdom, to
+prepare me for that hour when my place on earth shall be vacant, and my
+place in eternity--in a ceaseless eternity, shall be filled."
+
+Time has wings, even when they move most heavily, and as day after day
+passed slowly onwards, Marion felt more and more astonished to hear
+nothing of Agnes, who had written but once, a very few days after her
+departure from home, in gay and almost triumphant spirits, boasting of
+the excessive attention she met with from all the party, of the
+splendor in which they travelled, of the admiration she had herself
+excited, and of several magnificent presents she had received from Lord
+Doncaster. In a postscript to this letter, she expressed a careless,
+patronizing hope, that poor, dear Sir Arthur was now convalescent; and
+as for anything but a recovery, she seemed no more to doubt it than if
+death had been altogether abolished. To Marion's surprise, when looking
+at the signature of Agnes, a broad line had been drawn through the name
+of Dunbar, and the whole was surrounded by a fantastic wreath of
+flourishes, exactly imitating the very peculiar way in which Lord
+Doncaster was accustomed usually to encircle his own autograph; and
+much she marvelled what this uncommon device was intended to indicate,
+though she secretly dreaded to hear the interpretation of it, which her
+fears had at first suggested.
+
+As the mind and heart become more matured in this world, they too often
+become, from sad experience, more apprehensive of evil, and more
+suspicious of earthly friendships; but it was otherwise with Marion in
+respect to Richard Granville; though a dark curtain had fallen suddenly
+between them, all intercourse was most unaccountably suspended, and the
+very thought of his attachment, once a pleasure without alloy, was now
+accompanied by a heavy, leaden depression and anxiety. She told herself
+a thousand times over that all would hereafter be explained, and yet
+her heart seemed turning to stone, while day after day dawned and
+closed without a line to give her comfort or to reassure her heart.
+
+In this state of wearing suspense a visiting card was brought to Marion
+one morning of Captain De Crespigny's, accompanied by a letter which he
+had brought from Sir Patrick, strongly urging on her, in almost
+arbitrary terms, his earnest desire that she should reconsider her
+decision against her friend, and no longer wasting her affections on a
+penniless curate, who had proved himself undeserving of her,--bestow
+them where they would be so much better appreciated, and where they
+would exalt her to so distinguished a situation. Marion was astonished
+to think how Sir Patrick could know that she had any cause of
+dissatisfaction against Mr. Granville, whom she had never even named of
+late; but resolute if possible to avoid meeting Captain De Crespigny,
+she was denied again and again when he called, though to her surprise
+he persevered in almost daily inquiring for her, and numbered his
+visiting cards conspicuously on the corner till they amounted at last
+to more than a dozen.
+
+Marion was sitting alone one evening, beside her solitary hearth, and
+to a spectator she would have seemed of more than earthly beauty,
+though the cold tear stood unheeded on her cheek, while her memory had
+become haunted by the ghost of departed happiness. She thought of her
+deceased uncle in his silent grave, yet it seemed as if still she could
+trace his step and hear his voice by her side. All was still as death,
+her soul seemed wandering in a mysterious existence, amidst the
+solitary and deserted world, and hope itself grew dim within her
+breast. The flood-gates of memory were now unclosed, pouring into her
+heart and spirit a ceaseless stream of old recollections, old scenes,
+and recent sorrows; while the bright mirror of joy which had once shone
+in radiant splendor before her eyes seemed now broken to shivers. No
+one seemed destined hereafter to know the deep mine of thoughts and
+affections which lay unspoken in her breast. She felt as if the summer
+might shine in its brightness, the spring might be gay with the
+blossoms of hope, but that her spring and summer would return in this
+world no more, yet she believed and knew that it was better to witness
+the death of every dear affection, and the burial of every promising
+expectation, if, when thus blighted and withered upon earth, they
+became rooted and strengthened for eternity.
+
+    "What empty shadows glimmer nigh!
+    They once were Friendship, Truth, and Love!
+    Oh! die to thought, to mem'ry die,
+    Since lifeless to my heart ye prove!"
+
+Martin had brought in the tea-tray, and Marion scarcely noticed his
+entrance or departure while mournfully gazing on the dim embers
+expiring in the grate, when her attention became suddenly attracted by
+hearing a carriage draw up close to the door, and her pale cheek grew
+paler, when a moment afterwards her sister hurried into the room, and
+with a strange, wild, hysterical smile, clasped her arms around Marion,
+and locked her in a long embrace. Marion thought no grief too great for
+the loss they had both sustained, and yet she became startled to
+perceive that Agnes was actually shivering with agitation; that her
+eyes were blood-shot, her hair dishevelled, her whole form shrunk and
+altered, while her lips quivered for a moment as if she would have
+spoken but could not articulate; and a look of unutterable anguish
+swept across her pallid countenance. At length, burying her face on
+Marion's shoulder, she exclaimed, in a voice of thrilling agony,
+
+"I knew you would welcome me! I knew it, Marion! Cold and heartless as
+I have been, you will not reproach me. You deserve a better sister."
+
+"I could love none other so well," replied Marion, alarmed and shocked
+at the unexpected excess of Agnes' grief. "We are all the world to each
+other now, Agnes!"
+
+"Yes! yes! Who ever dreamed it could come to this! You alone will pity
+me, Marion! Here at least I shall find a refuge till I find one in the
+grave! Do not look so alarmed, Marion! If I had brought disgrace to
+this house, I never would have entered it again; but I have been duped,
+made miserable, and, worse than all, ridiculous! The whole world will
+laugh, and well they may; but in the living death I have brought upon
+myself, still one friend remains who will never reproach me for my
+folly. Dear kind Sir Arthur, too, if he had lived! Alas! Marion, I know
+his value now; but I know it too late! To obtain his forgiveness, I
+could follow him to the very grave."
+
+Marion gasped for breath, and tried to suppress her emotion, that she
+might compose the mind of Agnes, whose voice had become hollow, her
+eyes were brightened by fever, and there was a frantic energy in her
+tone and manner so tearfully agitating, that Marion entreated her to
+postpone all farther discussion till she was better able to bear it;
+but Agnes continued to pour forth her words like a gushing torrent.
+
+"I shall be better when all is told! Hear me out now, Marion! Believe
+me it is better! You remember Dixon!--that wretched woman who attempted
+once to destroy me. She stole into my room at Mrs. O'Donoghoe's some
+weeks ago. Imagine my horror and affright when she entered! Dixon
+related to me her own history--seduced, ruined, and forsaken by Captain
+De Crespigny. She fancied at first that he had deserted her for me; but
+she has since discovered, as I have done, Marion, that he is attached
+only to you!"
+
+"It matters little, Agnes, who Captain De Crespigny fancies for a
+passing hour, provided it be one whose happiness cannot be injured by
+his caprice."
+
+"Dixon added," continued Agnes, with a gasping sob of angry emotion,
+"that Lord Doncaster had been equally deceived into believing that his
+nephew liked me--that I was the only obstacle to his marrying the
+heiress, Miss Howard; and his whole attentions at Harrowgate were paid
+to expose my self-interestedness,--he had carried it on as a farce to
+amuse an idle hour. The plot had amused him; and, after a time, he
+became flattered by the consciousness that a girl, young, beautiful,
+and admired, as I was, could be induced to accept him; but Mrs.
+O'Donoghoe is now actually his mistress! Spare me, Marion, the
+recapitulation of all that passed: it is too humbling, too dreadful.
+She told me that Captain De Crespigny, the only man I ever loved, had
+spoken of me to his uncle--as--as I deserved, with scorn, derision, and
+censure! She repeated the whole scene, and I then saw myself as I am in
+the sight of others--seared in heart, degraded, contemptible, wretched!
+and oh! how ungrateful to those who were, indeed, my friends!"
+
+Marion saw that Agnes, when she spoke, gazed at the portrait of Sir
+Arthur; and tears sprang into the eyes of both, as they looked upon
+that silent memorial of past worth and affection.
+
+"My reputation must be irreparably injured in the world's eye by such
+association!" continued Agnes, rapidly. "All is agony and horror! While
+Dixon yet spoke, I hated myself and everything around. Shame and
+mortification overpowered me! All became shadowy, confused, and
+wavering in my thoughts. That night I was seized with fever and
+delirium. A sick-nurse was placed to attend on me; and I am thankful to
+find that Mrs. O'Donoghoe, with her party, instantly left the house. I
+am ashamed to think what folly my ravings must have disclosed! The
+worst horror of fever is, that it betrays all to others! I hovered on
+the very brink of the grave! Oh! that I had been as fully prepared to
+enter another world as I was to leave this! How happy are those whose
+trials and mortifications are buried in the silent grave, and whose
+pulse is no longer like mine--the knell of a living death! Life is,
+indeed, an awful gift, with its deceitful hopes and consuming sorrows!"
+
+"Yes, if we will not be satisfied with the happiness provided for us by
+God himself; if we will persist in laying out a plan of life for
+ourselves, and in being wretched when the infinite wisdom of our
+Creator sees fit to alter it. Even now, Agnes, you may, if you choose,
+have peace and cheerfulness. How much better it is, to lose all your
+lovers, than to marry a bad husband! Let us live for each other; let us
+improve our minds; let us console the many who are worse off than
+ourselves; let us encourage one another in all the difficulties of
+life; and, whatever is wanting to us now, we can look the more
+thankfully forward to those regions of eternal joy, for which our
+sorrows here are all sent on purpose to prepare us. Dear Agnes, for my
+sake you must not despond."
+
+"I ought not, Marion, while you are my sister! I hate the world and
+every thing in it, but who would not love you," replied Agnes, in a
+voice of dark and stormy grief, while no tear was on her cheek. "My
+heart seems dry as summer dust! My body is a dreary sepulchre to my
+mind, all dark, cold, and desolate. There is nothing in life worth
+living for!"
+
+Though little of Agnes' depression was really caused by Sir Arthur's
+death, yet her grief became now as deep as crape and bombazine could
+make it. She had not the generosity to struggle against her mortified
+feelings, or to spare those of Marion, but from day to day her wayward
+mind seemed to cherish the chagrin which inch by inch consumed her. No
+gentle self-renunciation appeared in her sorrow, but she seemed to
+fancy that in all the world there was no tear except of her
+shedding,--no sigh but of her breathing,--and she forgot to observe how
+Marion had banished all her own anxieties and cares while listening to
+the egotism of grief in another, thus bearing the whole burden of both.
+Agnes gradually delivered herself up to a state of peevish, listless,
+apathetic despondency. If she attempted to read, her eyes looked only
+on a wilderness of words without meaning; she had no taste for work,
+not a correspondent in the world, and never had cared for a newspaper;
+therefore unable to fix her attention on any employment, she proceeded
+with sullen, mechanical indifference, through the ordinary routine of
+life, without energy and without interest.
+
+Agnes' mind was like a crushed butterfly, disfigured and valueless; all
+its buoyant hopes and fantastic flights for ever at an end. She knew
+not that sunshine of the heart, often divinely given amidst the darkest
+hours of life, when inward peace, amidst external sorrow, might be
+compared to a cheerful, quiet room, while a torrent and tempest are
+raging unheeded around. Agnes mistakenly believed that the only
+possible aggravation to her melancholy would arise, if her thoughts
+were turned to religion, since hitherto she had seen in it nothing but
+the gloomy terrors of futurity. She never had cultivated any taste for
+reading that infallible balm to the depressed, and least of all would
+she have thought of appealing to the Holy Scriptures for relief from
+the cankering irritation of her proud but broken spirit, and nothing
+had ever annoyed her more, than when Marion, one day, from the fulness
+of her own heart, observed with soothing gentleness, that they should
+be too grateful for the blessings bestowed, to repine for those which
+were withheld, especially as affliction was generally the surest way to
+amend the heart.
+
+"Yes! but in mending you may break it," replied Agnes, discontentedly.
+"My existence here is a living death, with nothing to care for, nothing
+to hope for, nothing to do, meditating continually on my feelings,
+hating life, and yet dreading death."
+
+"But," replied Marion, laying her hand on the Bible, "here, Agnes, I
+find enough to care for, enough to hope for, and more than enough to
+do. No mortal being has all his wishes granted, and why should we
+expect to be an exception? The world and its affections have deprived
+us of peace, and this is the only guiding-star which can lead us to
+find it again. If we were to study a portion of this volume together
+every day----"
+
+"Marion! I am surely melancholy enough already, without becoming
+methodistical!" interrupted Agnes, impatiently. "I wept when I was
+born; and every day since shews me I had cause to do so! If I ever do
+get up my spirits again, I may perhaps read the Bible more carefully,
+but, not while I feel so low and depressed."
+
+"You remind me, Agnes, of Lady Towercliffe saying last year, that she
+felt much too ill to see a doctor, but would send for one if she became
+better. We find ourselves lonely and benighted now; but here is a
+bright path of glory pointed out, and strength offered us to pursue
+it."
+
+"Well, Marion! if you must soar to the clouds, pray leave me to grovel
+on the earth!" replied Agnes, peevishly. "You are so fond of reading
+now, that, like Petrarch, your head will be pillowed on a book when you
+die; but can you not talk of something more cheerful to me? Those
+mournful subjects are fit only for a deathbed, or a tract. When people
+talk to me of religion, I always feel like the felons at Newgate in the
+condemned pew, with their coffins gaping at their elbow! What makes you
+always talk so dismally about resignation now, Marion?"
+
+"My own sorrows and your's, Agnes. We both need comfort, and neither of
+us can find any, except in religion. 'God gives what bankrupt nature
+never can.' The effect of time would be only to benumb our hearts; but
+faith could restore them to cheerfulness."
+
+"You might as well plant flowers on a tomb-stone, as attempt to enliven
+me, Marion! It is a hopeless endeavor! No! the wing of hope is broken
+within me for ever and ever. It is the misfortune of having too much
+feeling! Life seems to me a cold and bitter blast, with all its events,
+like snow-flakes, driving in my face. I have been brought into it
+without my consent, and shall be torn from it against my will, while
+
+    Dream after dream ensues;
+    And still I dream that I shall still succeed,
+    And still am disappointed."
+
+"Yet, Agnes, there is not probably a single living being with whom you
+would change places!"
+
+"Yes! hundreds! thousands!"
+
+"Indeed! Would you take the looks, habits, tastes, age, health, and
+conversation, of any other person who could be named, instead of your
+own?"
+
+"No! not exactly! Probably no person living would agree to such an
+exchange, and least of all one who has in some respects such ample
+reason to be satisfied," replied Agnes, with a complacent glance at the
+mirror, which was not, however, so satisfactory as in former days; for
+her eye had lost much of its lustre, the bloom had faded from her
+cheek, and her very features looked crushed and contracted by the
+gnawing effect of mortification. "I should like to have the fortune of
+Caroline Howard, the rank of Charlotte Malcolm----"
+
+"But Agnes! you are not entitled to expect such a pic-nic of happiness,
+'made of ev'ry creature's best.' No; the more we look into life, the
+more we shall see how equally distributed are its enjoyments--satiety
+to the rich, contentment to the poor, and compensation of one kind or
+other to all, for their various privations; but one only gift of God
+makes life a blessing or a curse, according as it is given or withheld;
+and it is only in proportion as we have the gifts of Divine grace
+showered upon us, that we can measure our own happiness, or that of any
+other mortal being."
+
+Agnes's ill-humor was growing rapidly into misanthropy, and her sorrow
+seemed never likely to be of that kind which "forgets to weep, and
+learns to pray;" but Marion's more happily gifted mind clung to every
+natural source of enjoyment which offered itself, being resolute, even
+when she was not happy, for the sake of Agnes, to appear so. Marion's
+sorrows taught her to feel tenfold for others; but the sympathies of
+Agnes were concentrated entirely on herself.
+
+There is not merely piety, but good humor also, in being happy; and
+much ill-humor is invariably associated with that grief which refuses
+to be consoled. Agnes had strewed her own path with thorns, and would
+not be comforted; her heart had now the frozen coldness of an ice-bound
+stream, on which the breeze might play, or the sun might shine, while
+it still continued cold and cheerless as before; but Marion, resisting
+all the selfish supineness of sorrow, found out many around to whom her
+time could be made useful. With no schemes of worldly ambition, she
+felt that there must be, in every heart, some object to live for; and
+in her solitary walks, the very trees and flowers became her
+companions, while the brightness of nature's coloring, the hum of bees,
+the chirping of birds, the ripple of a pebbly stream, or the daisy she
+picked on the grass, reminded her that there are simple pleasures she
+was born to enjoy, and of which she had formerly been deprived during
+the long years when her best feelings had been heartlessly wasted in
+the tumult of education at Mrs. Penfold's. On first beholding any sign
+of human life and enjoyment, it seemed to Marion strange and unnatural.
+The joyous laugh of children at play in the fields grated harshly on
+her ear; but before long, she pleased herself with listening to the
+milk-girls gaily singing as they passed along the road, and was ready
+to feel for that most desolate of all beings, the blind fiddler,
+playing his melancholy tune on a rainy night. Religion was to Marion
+now like the sun behind a fog. She knew that it would before long warm,
+cheer, and revive her; yet for a time it seemed shorn of its brighter
+beams, and, in the words of a Christian poet, she was ready to say,
+
+    "Give what Thou can'st, without Thee I am poor,
+    And with Thee rich, take what Thou wilt away."
+
+The emotion which Agnes felt on first returning home, had been only
+like the last quiver of molten lead before it becomes cold and hard for
+ever. She now grew daily more peevish and discontented, and, far from
+affording any relief to Marion only aggravated her distress; for if
+there were any subject more disagreeable than another to be harped
+upon, she fastened on it with ceaseless irritability, continually
+prophesying evil, and recollecting injuries. She took the most teazing
+view of all subjects, attributed the worst motives to everybody's
+conduct, and spoke with incessant and bitter invectives against all
+those by whom she thought herself ill-treated. Far from forgiving
+injuries, she seemed never, even for a moment, to forget them, while
+the effect of her tedious vituperation was like that of a file upon
+velvet, to the gentle Marion, who tried often to give a more Christian,
+as well as a more cheerful turn, to their _tete-a-tete_ conversation.
+
+It was singular that Agnes still evidently found a mysterious pleasure
+in exercising to the utmost her powers of torturing; and in nothing did
+she so deeply wound the feelings of Marion, as by constantly comparing
+the conduct of Richard Granville to that of Captain De Crespigny,
+speaking coldly of both, as being selfish, hypocritical, and deceitful.
+Marion's whole heart shrank from allowing any resemblance, while once
+or twice she spoke warmly and eloquently in defence of her absent
+lover; but finding that this only lifted the veil which concealed her
+own inmost feelings, and exposed them to one who made no generous use
+of her confidence, she at length passively allowed Agnes to follow the
+bent of her humor, and kept their discussions as much as possible on
+indifferent topics, taking always as cheerful and contented a view as
+she could of life.
+
+"You know, Agnes," observed Marion one day, in answer to some peevish
+lamentations of her sister's, "we might as well attempt to carry the
+ocean in an oyster-shell, as to satisfy our immortal souls with
+anything in this life. Christians must not let their imaginations run
+wild after every fancy, but put on the strait-waistcoat of reason and
+religion, to curb their inclinations. We should not only expect, but
+desire the correction which is necessary, as much for us as for others.
+You cannot expect all our years to be summers!"
+
+"No!" replied Agnes, discontentedly; "but they need not all be winters!
+You seem to think we are like the Indian savages, who must carry a
+weight on their heads to make them upright."
+
+"Yes, Agnes, I do!" added Marion, gently. "It often occurs to my mind
+what a character mine must naturally have been, which has required so
+much discipline to correct it; for every sorrow or anxiety I feel is
+absolutely necessary for my good, I know, or it would not be sent.
+Though the blossoms of hope lie withered at our feet, however, let us
+reap the fruit hereafter, and who could wish to be fed with the
+promises of spring, rather than with the fulfilment of autumn?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLIV.
+
+
+During the deepest midnight, the unseen light is still incessantly
+approaching, though man remains insensible of its progress till the
+glorious dawn of morning; and thus the march of coming events hurries
+daily on unnoticed and unknown. Never before had it appeared, to the
+impatient mind of Agnes, that the sands of her hour-glass fell so
+slowly and silently. In her heart there was scarcely sufficient depth
+of soil for grief to strike a very permanent root, as her superficial
+feelings were calculated only to produce a mushroom crop of petty
+discontents and selfish grievances. Sharp and acute as the pang of her
+disappointed vanity had been, it seemed destined not to be very
+lasting, as Marion, on returning one day from a long walk, almost
+smiled to find Lady Towercliffe seated in their small parlour, and
+diligently pouring a torrent of lively gossip into the ears of Agnes,
+who felt little disposed at first to become interested in all the
+ill-assorted marriages people might choose to make, or to care who had
+died, or were likely to be born: but gradually her mind had been opened
+to the consideration of whether Miss Brown were a suitable match for
+Mr. Grey--whether £500 a year might possibly be enough to maintain
+Captain Jackson of the 10th and Lady Maria Meredith, whose individual
+expenditure on dress amounted to £400 per annum each, and whether it
+would be best for Lieutenant Stanley and Miss Maynard to marry and
+settle in Australia, or to continue single and remain at home.
+
+Agnes had no possible chance of seeing the parties, or of influencing
+their decision. She would probably never hear more of them, nor had she
+been previously aware of their existence, yet the magic of Lady
+Towercliffe's eloquence gradually led her on to argue the merits of
+each case, as if she had been the arbiter of their fate, till at
+length, being insensibly roused from her stupor of melancholy
+indulgence, the visit was concluded by Agnes joyfully consenting to
+dine at Lady Towercliffe's next day, to meet a party of friends.
+
+After having feared that her sister never would smile again, Marion
+now, with glad surprise, heard Agnes once more actually laugh, and she
+could not but wonder that Lady Towercliffe, by putting her through a
+course of gossip, and administering to a "mind diseased" a strong
+mixture of love affairs, quarrels, sicknesses, and bankruptcies, had
+acted on the spirits of Agnes as a counter-irritation, so that, in the
+contemplation of other people's miseries, she attained a spurious
+resignation beneath her own. As sorrow is the rust of the soul,
+everything that traverses the surface, has a tendency to scour it away,
+and the scattered links of Agnes' happiness seemed brightening now
+again, as if they might at last be reunited into as glittering a chain
+as before, while her cheek resumed its wonted hue and her tongue its
+wonted volubility. After the first great affliction of life, it is said
+that the sufferer never is again the same, "that the heart can know no
+second spring;" but now there seemed every probability that, though the
+drooping pinions of her ambition had been lowered, Agnes might soon put
+a patch on her worn-out spirits, and be only too much restored to her
+former self. When the carriage next day arrived, which was to convey
+her to Lady Towercliffe's, Marion, ever ready to enjoy any happiness
+reflected from the eyes of others, bid her good night with a sensation
+of real pleasure at this unexpected revival.
+
+There are strange coincidences in every day life, and the small dinner
+party at Lady Towercliffe's accidentally contained the two last persons
+on earth who would have wished to meet. When Lord Towercliffe received
+Agnes with friendly cordiality at the door, he had not yet relinquished
+her hand before he suddenly felt his own grasped with a convulsive
+start, and when he hastily looked up, the countenance of his newly
+arrived guest had grown pale as that of a spectre, her eyes were
+closed, and he felt her hand become as cold and heavy as lead. Too
+well-bred to notice her strange emotion, which there was an evident
+effort to conceal, he naturally ascribed it to the remembrance of
+recent family affliction, when now, for the first time, entering
+society again, and he silently led Agnes to a seat beside Lady
+Charlotte Malcolm and Miss Howard Smytheson.
+
+Agnes did not once look round the room, but she heard the low, deep
+tones of a voice with which she had too long been familiar, though now
+it must for ever be to her the voice of a stranger. Captain De
+Crespigny had been, some time previously, dividing his fascinations
+between the only two young ladies in the room, and he continued still,
+with the same light laugh as before, to exhibit his rare gift of
+conversational humor and vivacity, after giving a slight bow to Agnes,
+which she did not even see. A mist was before her sight--a ringing in
+her ears--her very heart seemed benumbed--and her only desire being to
+avoid notice, while her parched lips refused to articulate, she
+silently fixed her large eyes on Lady Caroline Malcolm, assuming an
+aspect of attention, and inwardly thankful that there was something in
+the room at which she could look, while circumstances had thus so
+painfully and so very unexpectedly "awoke the nerve where agony was
+born."
+
+The world, usually one great "School for Scandal," had not yet
+circulated the story of Captain De Crespigny's inconstancy, and Agnes'
+disappointment; therefore, dreading above all things the contemptuous
+pity bestowed on a case like hers, she now exerted herself, from the
+fear of ridicule more than even of censure. The strongest emotions of
+existence are concealed in the great drama of life; and though Agnes
+felt herself grow blind when dinner was announced, yet she afterwards
+retained a confused recollection of having walked down stairs, leaning
+on the arm of an officer whom she had never seen before, discussing the
+hue of a ribbon, or the probability of a war, while her whole heart,
+mind, and spirit, were torn with contending emotions.
+
+Strange is the ignorance in which people may live respecting the real
+thoughts and feelings of those with whom they are at the moment in
+actual contact! Agnes possessed an energy and pride of spirit which
+supported her now, while with flushed cheeks, and eyes brightened by
+agitation, her volubility became like a delirium. What she said to the
+stranger might be sense or nonsense, she neither cared nor knew, while
+her own laugh sounded unnatural in her ears; but still her companion
+listened and smiled, looking even more admiration than he felt, and
+while Agnes rattled on with apparent recklessness, he was inwardly
+conjecturing whether this could possibly be the beautiful Miss Dunbar
+who had endeavord to "entrap" his brother officer De Crespigny,
+artfully attempting what she had not been artful enough to achieve.
+
+When the endless dinner was ended at last, and the ladies rose to
+withdraw, Agnes could willingly have fled from the house for solitude;
+but Lady Towercliffe, to beguile the interval, importunately begged for
+music, and persecuted her to sing. It was weeks since Agnes had
+attempted a note, but, anxious to avoid notice, she tried to remember
+the songs best known to her. Each as it rose to memory, seemed filled
+with remembrances in which she dared not indulge. Who but the unhappy
+can tell the power of music in recalling vanished years and vanished
+joys! One song Captain De Crespigny had formerly accompanied, another
+he had admired, a third he had copied out for her. All their sentiments
+of love and constancy he had with ready flattery applied to herself,
+and each had been played or sung only for him.
+
+Hopes and feelings now for ever extinct, crowded into her memory; a
+cold, curdling anguish gathered round her heart; the notes died away
+inaudibly, and Agnes at length, leaning her forehead on the music-desk,
+burst into an irresistible flood of tears, while her eyes rested at
+these words,--
+
+    "Long hours have passed on
+    Since that name was too dear;
+    Now its music is gone,
+    It is death to my ear!"
+
+"Poor thing!" whispered Lady Towercliffe, "Her uncle's death makes a
+sad change in their circumstances, and she lives too much alone now.
+People rave about the pleasures of solitude, but I never could find
+them out! They are excellent for poetry, but, like the Arabian apple,
+they turn to ashes when tried. I never could keep up the shuttle-cock
+with only one battle-dore."
+
+"Nor I! particularly in conversation," said Captain De Crespigny,
+entering. "There is old Crawford below stairs, with single-handed
+diligence, stringing off his whole book of anecdotes; I left him at No.
+5, so he has three yet to come, before the gentlemen escape! The last
+he told was perfectly stupendiferous! That man's mind is like an old
+chest, but there is an end to all agreeable conversation, when people
+begin drawing for it on their memories! I am so wearied now, that I
+shall give any one £5 who can amuse me for half an hour!"
+
+The solitude at Seabeach Cottage was not destined to remain much longer
+uninterrupted, as the very evening subsequent to Lady Towercliffe's
+party, after Agnes had retired in feverish dejection to spend some time
+in her own room, Marion was startled by a loud impatient peal at the
+bell, and the next moment her hand was eagerly clasped in that of Henry
+De Lancey, whose countenance, in returning thus to his altered home,
+was pale and haggard with strong emotion. Marion started up, giving an
+exclamation of sudden joy at his unexpected appearance, while a
+momentary smile flashed on her countenance, like a gleam of sunshine on
+the dark face of a wintry cloud; but his eye sadly wandered towards the
+portrait of Sir Arthur, with a long lingering look of deep affection,
+and, covering his face with his hands, he threw himself on a sofa,
+remaining for some time buried in silence while his whole frame shook
+with emotion, one burst of grief following another.
+
+It was long, very long before Henry could listen to the mournful detail
+of all Sir Arthur had said and suffered in his short and fatal illness;
+but the feelings of Marion were soothed thus to meet at last with one
+who thought and felt like herself. Grief that disperses itself in words
+and tears is speedily over; but theirs was of that calm, concentrated
+nature which consumes the heart, though Marion assured Henry that
+nothing had yet done her so much good, as this happy, but most
+unexpected meeting.
+
+"Did you suppose, Marion, that I could remain absent at a time like
+this! Impossible! I no sooner heard all, than I applied for leave. It
+is sad, indeed, to find so changed a home. I cannot speak of that! He
+was too good for this world, and is gone to a better! I can only weep
+to look around me here, where his affectionate smile can welcome me no
+more."
+
+"Yes!" faltered Marion. "But memory, like a miracle, restores him to me
+every day! I seem to behold his face, to hear his voice, to know his
+thoughts. That calm and cheerful portrait appears to tell me sometimes
+how gladly he is done with all the weary business and heart-sinking
+trials of this vain, perplexing world."
+
+"When such friends part, 'tis the survivor dies," observed Henry,
+mournfully. "But it has been hinted to me, Marion, that the man I esteem
+the most in this world has trifled with your affections! I cannot
+believe it! I was long in his confidence, and if there be truth in man,
+he loves you with an attachment which nothing can alter. Half the
+miseries in life proceed from a want of explanation. No! there is some
+mystery we cannot solve. A thousand mistakes may occur in the absence
+of friends; but for his sake, as much as your's, and for my own sake,
+most of all, I shall outstrip the swiftest courier, and return with his
+entire justification. But there is another business also to be
+discussed," added Henry, with a sudden change of tone and countenance,
+while his face glowed with a look of strong excitement, and he bit his
+lip till the very blood seemed ready to spring out. "Your sister,
+Marion! Agnes has been made the sport of an unprincipled, heartless,
+coxcomb. His conduct embittered the last days of my benefactor and
+friend! He must and shall be made to repent it!"
+
+"Henry! what do you mean?" interrupted Marion, startled and alarmed by
+his evident irritation. "Do not make me regret having entrusted you
+with all our girlish fancies and follies! Such things happen every
+day!"
+
+"No, Marion! Had the insult been only to Sir Patrick, he considers the
+happiness of others, and even his own honor, as trifles compared with
+immediate convenience. His sister's peace of mind might be destroyed
+without his having the wish, or me the right to interfere, but, in
+respect to Agnes, as the niece of Sir Arthur, it is not so. I know how
+her heart was gained, and has been crushed. It is said that ten years
+of ordinary suffering would not have made such ravages as are already
+visible in the countenance of Agnes, and she must not be so treated
+with impunity. But a day of retribution may come upon him, yet!"
+
+"Dear Henry!" interrupted Marion, anxiously, "Do not add to what we
+have already suffered, by imprudence on your part. I little thought
+that any circumstance could ever make me otherwise than happy to meet
+you, but your impetuosity now really alarms me!"
+
+"It does no such thing! at least it should not," said Henry, assuming
+for a moment his old vivacity of manner, but it would not do. A tone of
+cheerfulness in that house, now jarred painfully on his ear, and again
+fixing his eyes on the portrait of Sir Arthur, he added, in a low, deep
+tone of intense feeling: "No, Marion!--in this room, consecrated to
+kindness and affection,--on this seat, so long occupied by the most
+generous of benefactors, and before that Holy Bible in which be
+instructed us both, I promise to speak, act, and think, as he would
+have dictated. My situation now is most perplexing! De Crespigny has
+acted the part of a brother towards me since I joined his regiment. He
+has courted my friendship and intimacy to a degree for which I can
+scarcely account, but for which I felt most grateful, till within these
+few days, when a strange and most perplexing communication has been
+made to me."
+
+An air of deep and anxious thought gathered over the countenance of
+Henry; he covered his face with his hands, and Marion listened in
+silence, when he continued in a rapid, agitated voice.
+
+"The unhappy madman, Howard, wrote me lately a long, incoherent letter,
+in which he accused De Crespigny of having instigated him twelve years
+ago, to that dreadful deed which made me motherless; adding, that the
+very peculiar weapon then found on the bed, had been furnished by him;
+and I have ascertained since from Martin, that De Crespigny, when a
+boy, had precisely such a knife given to him. I am told that he has
+been making many secret inquiries lately, respecting the papers found
+in my mother's bureau; and he frankly mentioned the subject once to me
+himself, saying, I little knew the deep interest he still had in
+investigating that affair. He is a man I cannot, and do not suspect of
+a dishonorable thought in his transactions with gentlemen; but though
+entirely acquitting him on that point, Marion, I am determined to speak
+my whole mind to De Crespigny this night. He is now at Mrs.
+Smytheson's, in the next house, and we are going to town together, when
+his ears shall ring with my opinion of his conduct to Agnes!"
+
+"Then, dear Henry, be prudent! It would not benefit us, if you and
+Captain De Crespigny were to get into an Irish rage, and shoot each
+other. Love once extinguished can never be forced back, and we cannot
+bring repentance to those who are destitute of feeling; therefore, for
+our sakes, be silent."
+
+Young De Lancey strode a few hasty turns up and down the room, in
+agitated silence, and seemed preparing to depart, when the door was
+slowly opened, and Agnes glided into the room, while Henry started,
+looking doubtfully at first, as if he scarcely recognised her; and then
+advancing, he received Agnes with an expression of warm-hearted
+kindness, which brought the hectic color for a moment to her cheek.
+
+When Henry glanced at the expression of settled melancholy on the
+beautiful features of Agnes, a gleam of indignant emotion flashed
+across his countenance, but it was succeeded by an effort to appear
+cheerful; and by "smiles that might as well be tears," when he extended
+his hand, saying, with all the vivacity he could assume,
+
+"Here I am, quite unexpectedly, Agnes! like snow in summer, or a burst
+of sunshine at midnight! A little surprise will do you and Marion good!
+It acts like an electric shock! I remember the time, Agnes, when you
+never gave me above three fingers to shake, and now your whole hand is
+presented, therefore I may feel really welcome."
+
+"Yes, Henry!" replied Marion, seeing her sister unable yet to speak;
+"we shall now endeavor to get up our spirits!"
+
+"That may be easy for those who have any spirits to get up!" added
+Agnes, in a tone of peevish melancholy. "But if Marion chooses to look
+through a Claude-Loraine glass, and declare that the whole earth and
+sky are _couleur de rose_, must I wipe my eyes with my elbow, and say
+the same? All I can do is, if possible, to forget myself to stone. You
+were always a light-hearted being, Henry! Would it make you serious to
+be told of one like me whose heart is turned to ashes! The world is a
+Castle of Desolation now, with not a tie that binds me to the
+earth--not one!" added she bitterly, while her eyes were purposely
+averted from the reproachful kindness of Marion's expression.
+
+"Agnes," interrupted Henry, in his kindest manner, "you wasted much
+good advice on me formerly, but now it is my turn. As an old French
+lady once judiciously remarked, '_Il n'y a pas de plus grande folie,
+que d'etre malheureux_.' For Marion's sake and your own, do not
+treasure up grief as if it were gold! When one plan of happiness fails,
+we should always change horses, and drive on with another! It is a
+fatal mistake to throw up the game of life, if our favorite hope fails!
+Try pleasure now, on some new pattern! We should look on both sides of
+existence, and keep hold of it with the best handle!"
+
+"I will! I will!" exclaimed Agnes, flinging back the long entangled
+ringlets from her pallid face, and forcing a wild, haggard smile into
+her distorted features. "Does that please you, Henry? Do I look
+sufficiently happy? Why are you so disconcerted? Let us all be cheerful
+again! Shall I sing to you, or how shall we be merriest?"
+
+"Surely, Agnes, as we cannot mend the past, or direct the future, you
+might make some of the present. Remember the old proverb, 'There is a
+silver lining to every cloud,'" continued Henry, assuming a tone of
+animation. "You might find a thousand occupations which become an
+excellent substitute for what people call happiness. Try geology, or
+book-making, or worsted work! But, Agnes," added he, more seriously,
+"above all, take the strong staff of religion, rather than the feeble
+reed of earthly hope, which has pierced you, as it will pierce all who
+trust in it. Why are we placed on earth? Not to contrive a plan of life
+for ourselves, but to learn from above what is the real meaning of
+happiness--its surest source--its brightest fountain! Behind the
+machinery of all human events, God is at work for our real good, and
+every misfortune may be transformed into a blessing, if we receive it
+as a Fatherly correction, and take the good it is intended to do us."
+
+With absent, listless indifference, Agnes took leave of Henry when he
+was about to depart; but Marion's eye glistened with emotion, as she
+wished him good-night, entreating that he would return soon and often.
+
+"Trust me for that, Marion! It can never become a mere duty to visit
+here," replied Henry, hastily dashing away a tear. "This room is my
+home, more than any other on earth. Every chair and every table is
+endeared to me, and how much more the living inhabitants. Even that old
+geranium, all run to wood, and covered with dust, is consecrated by a
+thousand old recollections. Adieu!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLV.
+
+
+After Henry left the room, Agnes, having inveighed with more than her
+usual bitterness against all persons, good or bad, and all events,
+past, present, or to come, retired to bed, leaving Marion to muse with
+saddened feelings on the untoward turn which her sister's mind was
+likely to take for the future, which rendered her every day a more
+uncongenial companion, as now Agnes had come to the final conclusion
+that she was herself the victim of unmerited and unmitigated
+misfortune.
+
+About ten o'clock, Marion lighted her candle to retire, and was slowly
+leaving the room, when she became startled by suddenly hearing,
+immediately below her window, in the street, a noise of scuffling and
+shouting, mingled with vehement cries for help, and dreadful oaths,
+till at length a wild and horrid shriek arose, which thrilled to her
+very heart. Having hastily summoned Martin, who hurried to the door,
+she paused some moments in an agony of alarm, and then rushing to the
+window, threw it open, and gazed out, being so close to the combatants
+that she could almost have touched them. Two men were engaged,
+apparently, in desperate conflict, while Marion's eyes became fixed on
+them with the fascination of fear. She could not scream--she could not
+move: she seemed to have lost all power of motion, while watching the
+whole scene with harrowing interest, yet with the vague indistinctness
+of a dream. It seemed as if some frightful night-mare were upon her,
+and as if she were chained to the spot, yet there was a frightful
+reality in all that followed. It was a fierce and deadly struggle,
+carried on with the energetic strength of despair. Again and again, in
+a hoarse, deep voice, the fearful cry arose on the night air, of
+"Murder!" mingled with agonizing cries for help. Marion clung to the
+window for support, and shivered from head to foot; while she still
+heard the loud trampling of feet, the fierce tones of defiance,
+threatening, groans of suppressed anguish, and then a loud, delirious
+shriek of agony, followed by a sharp, gasping cry, when one of the
+combatants fell suddenly to the ground, as if a hundred daggers had
+pierced him.
+
+Windows were now thrown open on every side, the watchman's rattle
+became audible, there was a tread of many feet, the sound of many
+voices, and all seemed to promise speedy aid, when, amidst the
+death-like silence beside her window, Marion heard a strange, unearthly
+laugh, which sounded more appalling in a such a scene than all she had
+yet beheld. A mysterious dread fell over her heart, her eyes swam, her
+brain reeled, a faint sickness came upon her, she made a feeble attempt
+to support herself against the window, and, with a convulsive sigh,
+sank almost insensible on a seat. When Marion recovered, a low,
+murmuring sound of many voices became audible. Martin hastily opened
+the door, and a crowd of strange faces appeared, pale and full of
+horror; while several men almost staggered beneath the weight of a
+shutter, on which lay a motionless figure, partly concealed by a cloak,
+with a bloody napkin over the face; while the stillness, the stiff and
+rigid look of that immovable form, could indicate nothing but death.
+
+There was that in the voices of those who entered which caused Marion's
+nerves to creep with apprehension. A low murmur stole through the
+crowd, while, shivering with apprehension, she silently gazed on the
+stone-like, lifeless image before her. The hair was damp and matted
+with gore, the hands were clenched in agony, the dress soiled with clay
+and blood; but the tall figure retained a look of solemn dignity; and
+Marion felt a cold thrill shoot through her heart, while her eyes
+became riveted on that ghastly object.
+
+Though unable to speak, or to ask a single question, her mind was
+intensely conscious of all that passed; while many surmises were
+whispered around respecting the cause and origin of this fearful
+catastrophe, and much impatience was expressed for the proper
+authorities to arrive and take cognizance of the circumstances. Marion,
+at length, feeling herself alone among so great a concourse of
+strangers, had slowly turned to leave the room, when her ear was caught
+by hearing the name of De Lancey, and, turning hastily round, she
+started to find Lord Wigton close beside her, in earnest conference
+with an officer, who remarked, in low, ominous accents, "I am perfectly
+well aware that several discussions took place between them lately,
+respecting the circumstances of his childhood, though I understood them
+to be of a friendly nature; but this very evening, at Mrs. Smytheson's,
+some very high words, passed relating to a young lady." A faint chill
+came over Marion as she heard these words, and turning, with a
+bewildered look, to the speaker, she asked, in a low, deep voice, if he
+knew anything of Henry De Lancey.
+
+"Yes! only too much, if all be as we suspect," replied the stranger
+sternly. "I always liked De Lancey; but if he had any hand in this
+business, great as the provocation may have been, he would be more like
+an Italian assassin than a British officer. He was heard once to
+declare the greatest abhorrence to duelling; but these canting sort of
+speeches never come to any good. At Mrs. Smytheson's, not two hours
+ago, he seemed very violently irritated against my unfortunate friend
+who lies murdered there."
+
+Marion's countenance became pale and terror-stricken; she looked
+irresolutely round, and then, with faltering steps, approached a table
+on which the corpse had been laid. She could not speak, and her hand
+trembled convulsively; but she grasped a napkin which shrouded the
+features of the deceased. Slowly and fearfully she raised it, gave one
+shrinking glance, and, with a broken shriek of astonishment, beheld,
+stained with blood, and rigid as marble, the well-known features of
+Captain De Crespigny.
+
+Marion's heart stood still, a cold shiver ran through her frame, and,
+tottering back, with a gasp of pallid horror, she sank upon a seat,
+where her blanched cheek and quivering lip revealed the agony of her
+amazement and horror. Conscious at once that this must be the work of
+Ernest Anstruther, still the world seemed to rock beneath her feet,
+with the vibration of crime and misery; while, covering her face with
+her hands, she tried to shut out the very thought of all she had
+beheld.
+
+Martin had sent an express instantly to Lord Doncaster; and, meanwhile,
+the dreadful tale flew far and wide; while the universal appetite for
+horror seemed on this occasion more than satiated. A young, handsome,
+and talented officer, thus brought down, by some mysterious agency, to
+the dust of death! It was appalling; and throughout the whole
+neighborhood, a spirit of eager, burning, impatient curiosity, became
+general.
+
+A summons at length arrived, for all present to proceed instantly to
+Kilmarnock Abbey, that depositions might be taken before Lord Doncaster
+and the nearest magistrates, while Marion as a witness was obliged
+immediately to appear there, that her testimony might assist with that
+of others in clearing up the tragical mystery. The unwarrantable
+suspicions which had been expressed respecting Henry, formed a strong
+additional motive to Marion for consenting to accompany the melancholy
+cavalcade, as she was anxious at once publicly to acquit him, knowing
+that, as the proverb says, "if a lie has no feet on which to stand, it
+has always wings with which to fly round the world."
+
+Marion hastened into a carriage which had been sent, that she might
+follow the body to Kilmarnock Abbey, where she was ushered before long
+within the house. It was a solemn scene! That large, old hall hung with
+antique armour, spears, horns, cross-bows, and portraits of many a
+long-forgotten ancestor. The gothic stained window, magnificent in its
+proportions, the ancient grained roof, the black oaken panels, the
+cumbrous, carved woodwork, the marble floor, and the faded tapestry,
+all dimly illuminated by the glimmering of a single lamp hastily
+lighted for the occasion. An uncertain, mysterious gleam was cast on
+the nearest objects, while the more distant recesses were thrown into
+gloomy shadow, and the tumultuous agitation of those around contrasted
+strangely with the locked and riveted limbs of that motionless figure
+to which all eyes were directed, the rigid stillness and stern
+composure of that countenance now invested with all the majesty of
+death, from which Marion turned with shuddering sympathy and amazement,
+while the multitude of servants and spectators continued in a state of
+wild excitement, uttering on every side subdued exclamations of horror.
+
+At length Lord Doncaster himself slowly entered, with several
+gentlemen, some of whom looked deeply concerned, while others were
+evidently no more affected than if they had come to see the fifth act
+of a well-performed tragedy. Among the first to appear was Henry De
+Lancey, to whom Marion had instantly sent an express, and, totally
+unconscious of exciting more than ordinary notice, he advanced to Lord
+Doncaster with an expression of heartfelt sorrow, wishing to volunteer
+his services in unraveling the appalling and mysterious events of the
+night. While some eyes were turned on Henry with eager and intense
+scrutiny, an anxious investigation was commenced, though without
+success, for no clue could be obtained which threw any light upon this
+treacherous and unaccountable murder.
+
+Not a whisper was heard, while Henry at once related all which had
+passed that night between himself and Captain De Crespigny, during the
+angry dialogue which had been overheard between them; but as delicacy
+to Agnes prevented him from being perfectly explicit respecting the
+cause of their dissension, several questions were asked, which he felt
+obliged to decline answering, though a cloud of suspicion gradually
+gathered over the countenances of several spectators, when he
+acknowledged having been in company with the deceased a very few
+minutes before the catastrophe, and that they had separated in anger.
+
+All that could be ascertained for certain was, that Captain De
+Crespigny had passed the evening at Mrs. Smytheson's--that he seemed in
+unusual spirits, which is always remembered to have been the case with
+those who suffer some sudden calamity--that he had spoken of plans
+involving many years of life and health--that he had mentioned to Lord
+Wigton differences having arisen lately between him and Henry De
+Lancey--and that some one had been observed lurking near the door, when
+he took leave at night of his cousin, Miss Howard, to whom he said in
+his usual tone of characteristic gallantry, "I shall count the minutes
+till we meet to-morrow."
+
+Little did he then, in the bright glow of youth, health, and spirits,
+foresee what that to-morrow should produce!
+
+No farther information could be elicited except the evidence of Marion,
+who described, in faltering accents, the deadly conflict she had
+witnessed; but, being unable to see the assassin, she could afford no
+assistance in identifying him; though she declared in the strongest
+terms, that in height and form he bore no resemblance to any one she
+had ever seen before, unless it were the madman, Ernest Anstruther. To
+have explicitly denied that it was Henry, would have seemed like a
+tacit acknowledgment that such a thing might have been conjectured; and
+Marion abhorred the very thought of his name being at all implicated in
+a catastrophe so revolting.
+
+Some time elapsed before it occurred to the imagination of Henry, that
+the eye of suspicion could for a moment rest upon him; and when the
+idea flashed into his mind, it seemed so perfectly preposterous, as to
+be scarcely worth a thought; but he now perceived with indignant
+astonishment, that there were those among the spectators who cast on
+him dark glances of doubt and suspicion; therefore feeling that to be
+accused, even in momentary thought, of a deed from which his very soul
+would have shrunk, was intolerable, he advanced without a moment's
+hesitation towards the table before which Lord Doncaster was seated;
+and, placing his hand upon that of the corpse beside him, he spoke in a
+firm and decided tone, though evidently with deep emotion, while the
+spectators crushed forward to hear him, and the dead silence around
+gave a solemn distinctness to his words, uttered, as they were, in a
+low, impressive tone.
+
+"I perceive--with what degree of astonishment no words can
+describe--that I--the last man on earth who would seek the life of
+another, even in open and honorable conflict--that I, who had for my
+benefactor and instructor the most upright and excellent of men--am
+now, by a strange combination of circumstances, likely to become
+suspected of a dastardly and treacherous assassination! I disdain to
+make any paltry asseverations of innocence! yet, let me not blame any
+man for what he thinks! This is a time of sudden and mysterious alarm!
+The calamitous event is as little to be accounted for, as it is deeply
+to be deplored. Already I have buried in oblivion every cause of
+irritation which had recently arisen between us. Nothing personal to
+myself had caused our alienation. The deceased acted on many occasions
+towards me formerly with the kindest consideration, which I am as ready
+now to remember, as I am also to forget all that ever was painful or
+unsatisfactory between us."
+
+Henry bent his head to Lord Doncaster with an air of resolute but
+melancholy composure, and stood back while several other persons gave
+their evidence, and Marion observed with surprise, that, instead of
+being occupied in attending to their depositions, young De Lancey gazed
+with a look of wondering perplexity all around the large, old-fashioned
+hall, while, with an expression of absent astonishment, his eye
+wandered over the gigantic chimney-piece of quaint device, the rusty
+armour and trophies of the chase, the old historical furniture, the
+tapestried chairs, the statues, and the richly sculptured ceiling. At
+length he glanced towards Lord Doncaster, who had been for some time
+keenly observing him, but whose looks were now hastily averted, while
+apparently occupied in arranging some papers, and it was evident that
+the aged peer's hand shook with agitation. Much might, of course, be
+attributed to the fearful event of the night, and yet Marion felt that
+this emotion did not originate from the same cause, for the Marquis
+cast frequently a furtive glance at Henry, though avoiding observation,
+and his excitement obviously increased.
+
+Young De Lancey seemed evidently struggling with some painful,
+agitating perplexity! Again he perused the room with a scrutinizing
+gaze, and again his eye became fastened on the aged features of Lord
+Doncaster with a steady, earnest examination; while still the
+expression of doubt and wonder on his countenance became more obvious,
+as if he were attempting to stir up some recollections which would not
+come at his bidding. Turning at length to Marion, he whispered in a
+low, almost dreaming tone, "It is long,--very long since I have been
+here! When did I see this apartment last?"
+
+"You, Henry! never! My uncle ceased to visit Lord Doncaster ages ago!
+Indeed, they rather disliked each other than otherwise! We never were
+in this old hall before!"
+
+"And yet, Marion," replied Henry, in a tone of increasing decision,
+while his eye still wandered round with a look of intense curiosity, "I
+could swear that every object in this room is familiar to my memory.
+That oak roof blackened with age; those time-stained walls; those
+strange old portraits and their massy frames! I seem to look back
+through a dark mist, and to remember scenes and circumstances which
+occurred in this apartment long ages ago!"
+
+"Yes, Henry! every person living is subject to these unaccountable
+delusions! It has often been mentioned as extraordinary, that, when any
+very agitated scenes occur, people are apt to feel that sort of
+dreaming fancy you describe, as if the whole had been acted over in
+their sight before."
+
+"No, Marion, it is not so! The whole is a distinct reality! A hundred
+recollections arise like phantoms, and struggle in my memory. Yes! I
+have stood upon this floor in former years! I have gazed upon every
+object you see there! This was once my home! There, in that large old
+chair, I have sat on my mother's knee, and the aged countenance of Lord
+Doncaster himself is indelibly imprinted on my recollection."
+
+"Impossible!"
+
+"True, Marion! most true! A thousand remembrances pour in like a flood
+upon me! This room has often appeared before my eyes in a dream! it is
+connected with my earliest years! Look at the farthest corner of this
+hall,--behind that damask curtain stands a secret door, and it leads to
+a room where I could swear that some hours of my life were formerly
+passed, when or why I cannot even guess. Marion, the house is crowded
+at present, and we shall not be remarked, let us verify my
+recollection, by gradually approaching the concealed door, and then you
+will be convinced that memory has not deceived me."
+
+When Henry, by a slow and difficult progress, had piloted Marion
+through the dense mass of persons who filled the hall, they reached at
+length the spot he had indicated, where, lifting the tapestry, he at
+once opened a door, so nearly resembling the paneling as scarcely to be
+discernible, and they entered a small, low room, which seemed to Marion
+no larger than a four-post bed, so dusty, dark, and neglected-looking,
+that it had evidently not been occupied for years. Long cobwebs hung
+like banners from the roof,--it was almost destitute of furniture--and
+they found a picture placed on the floor, its face towards the wall,
+representing a lady, young and dazzlingly beautiful, and a boy beside
+her, playing with a large Newfoundland dog.
+
+Henry silently strode across the room, and, as if perfectly familiar
+with its arrangements, he threw open a small cupboard, into which had
+been thrown the broken fragments of several childish playthings. He
+paused and gave an agitated look towards Marion. His countenance had
+become pale, and wore the same expression as at first, of almost
+agonizing perplexity, while he was evidently groping through the
+darkest recesses of his memory for that which still eluded his grasp.
+Leaning his head on his hand, with eyes fixed on the portrait before
+him, Henry remained long in this agitating reverie, his countenance
+flushed by the inward tumult, while hunting through his recollection
+for a more defined shadow of that which flickered in his brain, and
+Marion silently observed him. She did not speak, she scarcely even
+breathed, for now it seemed to her as if some mystery were there too
+deep for her to fathom, connected probably with Henry's early history,
+and a secret hope glimmered on her mind that possibly the time had come
+at last when a clue might be obtained to the mystery of Henry's birth
+and misfortunes.
+
+The child, whose portrait they had here discovered, bore an obvious
+resemblance to Henry De Lancey, as she first remembered him. The very
+dress was similar, and all around brought to mind what Henry had once
+described of his early home. It seemed to Marion as if this were the
+very crisis of his existence, and she waited in silent hope, expecting
+that the moment might come, when he would again speak to tell her his
+thoughts; but a deep oppression seemed gathering over his spirit, he
+riveted his hands over his face, as if anxious thus to shut out the
+world, and every thing in it, from his shrinking memory, and there was
+a silence around like death itself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVI.
+
+
+While Henry continued thus entranced with perplexity, Marion's
+attention was gradually attracted by a noise at her side, and, looking
+suddenly round, she was startled to behold crouching in the remotest
+corner of the room, the figure of a human being, which filled her with
+horror and dismay, so haggard, so emaciated, so unlike anything she had
+ever looked upon before, that scarcely could she suppress a shriek of
+dismay. It was a face of woe and wretchedness, once seen never to be
+forgotten, and she had formerly seen it. The sunken temples, the hollow
+eyes, the lurid glare of insanity in the eye, and the clusters of hair,
+black as death, blown by the night-wind in large damp masses on his
+forehead, all brought the wretched Howard instantaneously to her mind;
+and, grasping Henry's arm, with an exclamation of terror, she attempted
+to hurry with him out of the room. Scarcely, however, had she made a
+step towards the door, when the madman darted forward, and closed it,
+then wheeling round, he said, in a low, husky voice, while his strength
+seemed so subdued, that the grasp of an infant might have mastered
+him,--
+
+"You have discovered me, and there is no escape! Be it so! 'Welcome
+death,' as the rat said, when the trap fell down. Here the tragedy
+began, and here let it end!"
+
+He paused for several minutes, and gradually his face assumed a look of
+ungovernable anguish, while he added, in a dreary, desolate tone,
+unlike any human voice,--
+
+"I could weep for my own ruin,--for my sister's,--but the time is past.
+Never shall I shed another tear! Our sin be on the Abbe Mordaunt's
+head! The withering curse of a dying man be on his head! The misery of
+eternal ruin be on his head, as it is on mine! For his own purposes he
+nurtured every wild passion in our young blood. He taught me the mad
+ambition that was my ruin,--promised me impunity here and hereafter, if
+I assisted in his schemes; and now, after being his tool, I am, like a
+useless tool, cast aside! But could he silence my outraged conscience?
+No! The gibbet is forever hovering before my sight, and the curse of
+heaven is borne to my soul in every blast!"
+
+"Yet you are still in this world of hope, where none can be finally
+condemned," said Henry, solemnly. "Till the grave closes over your
+head, mercy and pardon may yet be asked, and may yet be granted! Ernest
+Anstruther, from the hour of my mother's death until now, you have most
+barbarously injured me, but mortal man must not keep up immortal anger.
+I only obey our beneficent Creator in saying, that if you repent, I
+heartily forgive you. Your life is probably forfeited to the outraged
+laws of man, but may your soul find mercy in its utmost need."
+
+"I have been your deadliest foe, De Lancey, and haunted your steps with
+my hatred from childhood; but it is done," continued Anstruther, with a
+look of bleak and barren agony. "I will not live to be caged in prison,
+a spectacle of scorn and infamy, to die a death of shame. How different
+from what I once hoped! There shall be no to-morrow for me in this
+world! A fire is at my heart, which can only be quenched by death! It
+is better not to be, than to be miserable! I shall give my body to the
+beasts of the field, or the birds in the air. I shall find a bed where
+no dreams shall haunt me, and a sleep from which there is no awakening!
+A wolf may lose his teeth, but you cannot change his nature! As a
+madman I have lived, and as a madman I shall die! We must sleep in the
+bed we prepare for ourselves! Before that sun shall have traveled
+another hour, you, Henry De Lancey, shall be raised to honor, and I
+shall have died, covered with infamy and disgrace. I never stir now,
+without the fatal means of release."
+
+Marion shivered from head to foot, at the ghastly sound of Anstruther's
+voice, but paralyzed with terror, she dared not stir, for already a
+loaded pistol was in his hand. A fearful ghastly smile distorted his
+countenance,--the smile of a maniac,--a smile such as may be seen on
+the lips of a corpse, and an expression gleamed in his eye, which it
+curdled her blood to look upon, and might have struck terror into the
+strongest mind; but Henry, in a calm, deliberate voice, replied,--
+
+"There is no such dreamless sleep, Anstruther, as you describe! Even
+Satan himself believes in futurity! Whatever be your sorrow, and worse
+than sorrow, your sin, do not madly hasten to that world where there is
+no peace and no pardon. Take pity upon yourself."
+
+"Mine has been a desperate life, and it shall have a desperate end,"
+replied Ernest, with a sullen, deadly smile on his bloodless lips; but
+trying to assume a tone of reckless indifference, he added, "I never
+was one to choke upon the tail! I have gazed at the moon, and fallen in
+the gutter, but, De Lancey, for the sake of that good old man, Sir
+Arthur, who was your benefactor and mine, I will not die without doing
+you justice. The wax of secrecy may now be broken, and here are papers
+clearly and indisputably to prove that you are the legitimate son of
+Lord Doncaster. They purify your mother's character from every
+aspersion, and testify without doubt your title to be Lord Dunraven."
+
+Had an apparition arisen through the floor, or had a cannon gone off at
+Henry's ear, he could scarcely have been more startled and astonished,
+while, with an exclamation of joy and rapture, Marion rushed up to him,
+saying, in accents of tremulous joy, while he stood bewildered with
+surprise, and then grasping the packet in his hand, staggered to a
+seat, "It is then as uncle Arthur once almost believed! Oh, Henry, what
+joy! If he had but lived to hear it! Can this be possible!"
+
+After a few moments given to emotion and wonder, while Henry seemed
+almost as if his spirit had taken wing from the body, Marion having in
+some degree recovered herself, looked round, and observed with surprise
+that they were alone! The madman, taking advantage of Henry's
+agitation, had rushed wildly from the house, to be seen and heard of no
+more. Henry rose, intending instantly to give an alarm, and to follow
+in pursuit of Anstruther; but scarcely had he stirred a step, before he
+and Marion were startled by hearing, in the adjoining room, a shriek so
+shrill and appalling, so heart-broken and delirious, that in an agony
+of alarm, they hurried forward to the hall. A confused murmur, a buzz
+of suppressed astonishment had arisen among the assembled crowd, in
+which were many countenances expressing strong fear, others wearing
+only an air of gaping curiosity, many with their hands clasped in
+amazement, and others expanding them in terror, but all listening with
+looks of motionless attention, while every eye was turned towards the
+table on which the murdered body had been laid, and a deep silence
+ensued, of hushed expectation, as if the stage were about to exhibit a
+tragedy of exciting interest.
+
+Henry glanced rapidly around, and saw standing beside the corpse a tall
+female, whose aspect filled all present with surprise. Her worn and
+haggard countenance seemed cold and rigid as the figure on a
+tomb-stone, and her cheek had become overspread with a damp and leaden
+paleness; while in speechless horror, which seemed as if it amounted
+almost to insanity, she pointed her long, ghastly finger towards the
+body. A hundred eyes were now bent on hers, and her bewildered glance
+swept for a moment round the assembled crowd, with a look of
+unutterable wretchedness, till at length her eye fell on Lord
+Doncaster. On him she now fixed an unshrinking gaze, while she spoke in
+a low, hoarse whisper, which sounded with terrifying distinctness
+through the large old hall, and fell upon every ear with a solemnity
+and awfulness like the knell of death.
+
+"I knew all, but could not hinder it! No! I would have died to prevent
+this! There was death in my brother's eye when he left me! I pursued
+him, but it was too late! Day by day, step by step, we have sunk into
+deeper crime and misery! Who would think that I had ever been young,
+innocent, and happy? The barrier was first thrown down by him who lies
+here! Hour by hour the deepening shadows grew darker! Long, long have
+these eyes been drenched with the tears of a broken heart! My wretched
+brother swore that every pang I suffered should be avenged! I would
+have pardoned, I would have forgotten all, if I might but have saved my
+brother, and sheltered _him_ from death. I have warned, I have wept,
+implored! I have prayed on my very knees; but in vain! All is now over!
+Every law of God and man has been violated! None in all this assembly
+can see as I do the horror of our guilt--none can hate it more! The
+past maddens me, and the future--oh! what is there in the future for
+me!"
+
+With a shuddering groan, Mary Anstruther sunk back on a chair, and she
+trembled like a leaf in the blast of autumn, while a mortal silence
+ensued. Lord Doncaster with brows knit, and lips firmly compressed,
+seemed resolute to conceal the emotions evidently struggling and
+boiling within his breast; and the by-standers, in dismay, had all
+shrunk back from the unhappy woman; but Henry now, with an irresistible
+impulse of pity, approached, and spoke a few soothing words to her,
+when she suddenly looked up, and seeing the expression of unfeigned
+commiseration with which he gazed at her, burning tears forced
+themselves into her eyes, and, with a look of piercing woe, she added
+in a low, husky, choking voice--
+
+"I have asked pity, and all are not pitiless! I am used to misery--that
+cannot draw tears from me now, but kindness does,--your kindness
+especially. My heart was dumb and frozen! I never thought to weep
+again. Many is the long day since I have been pitied! Many is the long
+day since I have deserved it! Yes!" added she, grasping Henry's arm
+with almost iron force, while she spoke in a voice so strange and deep,
+it thrilled to every heart. "The time is come for me to tell all and
+die. The secret of your life was begun with bloodshed, and here in
+bloodshed it has ended. The thought that your mother died by my
+brother's hand has, from that fatal hour, gnawed like a fiery serpent
+at my heart. My soul is shaken to the very dust; but while I have
+breath to speak, let me confess how we slandered your mother--how we
+caused her to be driven as an outcast from this house--how we deceived
+your father, and cheated you, Henry De Lancey, of your birthright."
+
+At this moment Lord Doncaster, who had seemed almost paralyzed with
+agitation, and as if the springs of life were drying up within him,
+suddenly rose, and waving back the Abbe Mordaunt and others who were
+crowding around him, he placed himself opposite the wretched woman, and
+fixed a look of searching examination on her death-struck countenance,
+while he seemed afraid to trust his own voice, lest it should betray
+the tumult of his feelings; but after a momentary struggle, he passed
+his hand across his eyes, and said in a low tone of doubt and
+uncertainty,--
+
+"It seems like a resurrection from the dead! It cannot be! Is Mary
+Anstruther yet in being?"
+
+"I have dreamed of such a man once," replied she, casting a desolate
+look around. "My heart was not then bursting, as it is now, because
+none can help me."
+
+Henry's eye became fastened with a look of settled intensity on the
+countenance of Lord Doncaster, who walked a few agitated steps about
+the room, and then added, in a voice of stern astonishment:
+
+"You speak of a deception! Let me know all? What of Laura Mordaunt?"
+
+"Not of Laura Mordaunt, my Lord, but your lawful wife! The story of
+your previous marriage, invented by the Abbe, was a hideous lie. Had
+she been told the reason why you spurned her from the house, she could
+have disproved it. We told her only that your affections had been
+changed. She was too proud to complain; yet she did at last write a
+letter, which never reached you. She there made a solemn appeal to your
+justice and compassion, claiming for her son the affection and the
+station to which he is entitled. She became persuaded, by the Abbe's
+contrivance, that her marriage had been illegal. All--all was foul and
+horrid falsehood. We each had our various interests to serve! the Abbe
+to embezzle his niece's fortune--Ernest to keep his place near the
+succession--and I----"
+
+Mary Anstruther's almost unearthly voice, which sounded unlike the
+voice of a human being, now entirely failed; her teeth chattered, she
+shivered from head to foot, and her eyes became fixed on the stiffened
+corpse by her side, while Lord Doncaster, with a scarcely audible groan
+of bitter regret, locked his hands over his heart, as if to still its
+palpitations, and listened, in agitated silence, for more. At length
+the wretched woman continued, while her voice became faint, and her
+very blood seemed to freeze at the sound of her own words.
+
+"The slow progress of a breaking heart was not rapid enough for
+Ernest's hatred. He believed she was the cause of our ruin, and he
+murdered her! I would die a thousand deaths now to restore Laura
+Mordaunt--to undo all that I have done! Oh! that memory itself would
+fail! I am haunted and tortured by those over-living remembrances!"
+
+Lord Doncaster looked as if a flash of lightning had blinded him,
+while, after gazing for a moment in almost vacant astonishment at Mary
+Anstruther, he put his hand to his head, and, with a suppressed groan,
+leaned against the table for support. A feather might have thrown him
+down, but he was evidently trying to collect his senses, and murmured
+hurriedly to himself in broken accents, "No! no! Impossible! It is all
+proved! She was guilty! Who can doubt it?"
+
+"My Lord! it was a cruel, horrid, slanderous falsehood!" cried Mary, in
+a tone of solemn earnestness. "Night and the grave seem already closed
+over my wretched head. Take, then, the assurance of a dying creature,
+that Lord Mordaunt was innocent. Let me do one good action on the
+earth, before I perish for ever! She deserved a better fate! Let her
+young son enjoy the titles and honors of his ancestors. Letters will be
+produced after my death, proving his right. I desire all here to
+witness the last words I shall speak before my lips are sealed by death
+in everlasting silence, that there stands Henry, Lord Dunraven, the
+lawful son of Lord Doncaster! And now my destiny is accomplished!
+Already I seem separated from the living, though not yet united to the
+dead! Let my end come quickly, as it comes surely."
+
+Henry's very heart trembled with agitation, and it seemed as if his
+veins ran lightning, while he fixed a long and agitated look on Lord
+Doncaster, whose countenance became convulsed with agitation, his brain
+seemed contracted by a spasm, the thread of life appeared suddenly to
+snap, a thick mist obscured his sight, and before his newly found son
+could rush forward to his support, he had fallen to the ground as if
+shot.
+
+The room was immediately cleared of strangers, and the Abbe Mordaunt
+fled without delay to the continent, where he soon after buried himself
+in the monastery of La Trappe.
+
+During several succeeding days, all that mortal man could do was done
+to restore Lord Doncaster, while Henry watched over his
+recently-discovered parent with incessant attention, and hoped, but
+hoped in vain, that Lord Doncaster might live to recognise and bless
+him; but the varied and vehement emotions of the last few hours had
+been too much for his aged frame. He continued during some time
+insensible, and, at length, after a short but severe struggle, expired.
+
+Henry was acknowledged, however, before long, and recognised by the
+world, as not a doubt could remain on any mind of his identity and his
+claims, after those papers had been read bequeathed to him by the
+Anstruthers, and before the wretched Mary had quitted the earthly scene
+of her misfortunes and crimes, she was consoled by the forgiveness and
+the prayers of young De Lancey, now Marquis of Doncaster.
+
+The whole unfathomable abyss of Henry's feelings and affections was now
+irradiated with hope, and he felt himself almost overwhelmed by the
+torrent of happiness about to pour upon him, when, hiding his face with
+his hands, tears of indescribable--of almost insufferable joy gushed
+from his eyes. The change seemed sudden as spring, bursting forth
+amidst the arid deserts of Siberia, after the snow has been melted away
+in the night, and the barren ground is, as by magic, clothed with
+blossoms, and warmed with sunshine. It appeared as if a word might yet
+break the charm--as if he might awaken and find the whole a dream of
+enchantment, but the crowning of all his earthly joy, was, when he at
+length claimed, in the open face of day, that true, constant, and
+disinterested affection of Caroline Smythe, which had so long been to
+him like a spring of water in the desert to a lonely traveller,
+cheering and refreshing his heart in the long pilgrimage of life.
+
+    Oh, doubly sweet is sunshine after rain,
+    Rest after toil, port after stormy seas.
+
+The language of happy love, interesting above all else to the parties
+themselves, is uninteresting to others, but who ever had a brighter lot
+than Caroline and Henry, while they looked far into the future,
+anticipating together a long life of mutual confidence, cheered by "the
+soul's calm sunshine, and the heart's best joy."
+
+"I begin now to fancy nobody in the world happy but myself!" exclaimed
+Henry, gaily. "I am almost ashamed to be so much better off than I
+deserve! but, as Lady Townly says, Caroline, 'We must squeeze as little
+as possible of the lemon into our matrimonial sherbet!'"
+
+"Must I actually give up the delightful romance of loving you as a
+friendless adventurer, Henry? What would Lydia Languish have said to
+such a droll, every-day, common-place reality? I do not absolutely hate
+you," said Caroline, with a conscious laugh, and a slight relapse into
+her usual capricious vivacity, "but we must have one little quarrel
+yet! There is a circumstance respecting me, which has hitherto, for
+very good reasons, been kept secret, and now, it must, most
+unfortunately, come out!"
+
+"What can that be?" asked Henry, smilingly watching the variations of
+Caroline's countenance. "I am quite as ready for a quarrel as you are;
+therefore tell me the worst at once!"
+
+"It is an objection against me which I heard you once say would, in any
+case, be insuperable!" added Caroline, archly. "When all is told, you
+will certainly change your mind!"
+
+"Then I shall be much changed, indeed! What magical spell do you intend
+to use?"
+
+"Henry! you made a rash vow once, in my hearing, never to marry an
+heiress," said Caroline, trying to speak in a tone of gravity, and
+looking away. "Would you not abhor and avoid the heiress of Howard
+Abbey, including all the broad acres of Beaujolie Manor?"
+
+Henry looked at Caroline in silent perplexity; but the blush, the
+frolicsome laugh, and the air of arch caprice with which she spoke, all
+at once enlightened his mind, and, seizing her hand with the most
+lover-like _empressement_, he gaily exclaimed, "Well, Caroline! since
+it must be so, I forgive you for being an heiress; but in no one whom I
+liked less could I have endured this! I love you in spite of it! I do,
+indeed! You merited already more than I ever can offer; but, Caroline,
+we love each other truly; and, for better, as well as for worse, I
+shall love you forever!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XLVII.
+
+
+Events come in clusters; and the very same day on which Henry was
+publicly recognised as Marquis of Doncaster, Marion received a letter
+from Sir Patrick, announcing his intention immediately to return home.
+He alluded, with a degree of feeling which surprised and deeply
+affected her, to the death of Sir Arthur, and spoke of happy days yet
+to come, when he hoped she might, at length, be united to "the man
+whom, above all others on earth, he esteemed the most, and liked the
+best." In reading these words, Marion felt a pang of melancholy
+sympathy for her brother, believing, of course, that they alluded to
+his friend Captain De Crespigny; and deeply did she deplore the grief
+he was about to suffer, when first he should hear of that appalling
+event which had filled every heart with grief and consternation.
+
+It was on a gloomy evening in the month of February, when the sun,
+having all day failed to disperse a thick fog, had sunk into darkness,
+that Marion, expecting her brother's return, used all the little
+ingenuity of affection to render his reception cheerful. The fire
+blazed brightly; the tea urn was on the table, and she herself had
+taken more than usual pains with her dress, besides having decked her
+face with unwonted smiles for the occasion.
+
+When Sir Patrick at last arrived, there was a tone of unusual kindness
+in his manner to both Agnes and Marion, who were surprised by the
+genuine warmth with which he expressed his happiness on seeing them
+again, and at the subdued melancholy in his voice. The fatal news of
+Captain De Crespigny's death had reached him on the road, and there
+appeared a profound solemnity in his manner when he alluded to it, more
+affecting than the loudest expressions of grief; but it was a subject
+on which he seemed incapable of speaking; while Marion scarcely thought
+a human countenance could have expressed so much anguish. While Agnes
+preserved an almost statue-like silence, Marion took her brother's hand
+in her own, and endeavored, by every affectionate endearment, to
+testify her sympathy, till at length he clasped her in his arms,
+saying, in accents almost choked with agitation, "Your sisterly
+kindness, Marion, has survived all my neglect and misconduct. Let me
+thank you for that; but could it survive if I were to tell you of a
+cruel and heartless treachery?"
+
+"It can survive anything--everything," whispered Marion, earnestly.
+"Say nothing that distresses you, Patrick! Never think of it again!"
+
+"I must not only think of it for ever, Marion, but show my regret by
+telling you all," replied he, in a tone of deep, concentrated feeling.
+"But not now, Marion; not yet! I could not bear to do so in the full
+tide of our happiness at meeting. You deserve to be loved as you are
+loved by one who is every way worthy of you."
+
+The color rushed over Marion's countenance, and vanished as rapidly
+again; but her eyes, which had been fixed on those of Sir Patrick with
+sparkling affection, now fell sadly to the ground, while she made no
+reply, evidently trying to avoid her brother's notice, who seemed bent
+on reading her thoughts.
+
+"Marion," said he, gravely, "to what do you attribute Richard
+Granville's strange and unjustifiable silence?"
+
+"It is strange, Patrick; but I could pledge my life it is not
+unjustifiable," replied Marion, in tremulous accents. "When I gave him
+my heart, it was with a perfect conviction that he is incapable of
+deceit or dishonor, and I believe him so still. I trust him as I would
+be trusted myself. In this world or in another we shall understand each
+other again."
+
+Marion's features kindled as she spoke; bright and beautiful tears
+gathered in her eyes; her manner became more energetic; her whole heart
+seemed on her lips, and the deep melody of her voice was eloquence
+itself, as she advocated the cause of her absent lover.
+
+"But surely, Marion," said Agnes, turning round, as she was about to
+leave the room, "there are pen, ink, and paper to be found on the
+Continent, if he pleased to use them."
+
+"Yes," added Sir Patrick; "and if Granville ever returns, Marion, you
+will of course receive him coldly, give yourself all the airs of
+injured merit, and, in short, treat him from the very first as a
+flagrant criminal."
+
+"Not at all, Patrick!" replied Marion, surprised at the lurking smile
+she traced on her brother's countenance. "I place no dependance on my
+own attractions, or I might indeed despair; but my reliance rests on
+the consistency and generosity of Richard himself, in which I cannot be
+mistaken. The features of his character, like the features of his
+countenance, are unalterable; and I could not believe in his identity,
+if he were deficient in honor and truth. Even at the worst, Patrick,"
+added Marion, while her glittering, wet eye-lashes drooped on her
+glowing cheek, "where we love it is a pleasure to forgive; but my
+confidence as yet is unshaken."
+
+"Then, Marion, you deserve to be happy--happier than I ever was, or
+ever shall be; and never, believe me, had any one a brighter lot in
+prospect. Those tears have no business there! They will soon, I hope,
+be strangers to your eyes!"
+
+There was a look of joyous emotion in the countenance of Sir Patrick as
+he spoke, which made the heart of Marion leap to her very lips with
+agitation, while in broken and hurried accents he continued,
+
+"I did intend to give you a long and painful explanation of my
+conduct--to tell you of my recent dangerous illness abroad, during
+which I was attended by the most inestimable of friends; to describe
+how the slow progress of my recovery left me leisure for the counsels
+and conversation of the best of men; to say how the death of De
+Crespigny has overawed and afflicted me, taking the gloss from my whole
+future existence on earth; and to tell you that the loss of Clara
+Granville, and the last scene we had together, have put a climax to the
+entire change of all my thoughts and feelings in life. I am returned,
+Marion, now, to do justice wherever it is due; by years of careful
+restriction to discharge the uttermost farthing of my debts, and to
+make two persons happy who deserve it."
+
+A bright, quick flush passed across Marion's cheek, and a bewildering
+hope darted into her mind, when Sir Patrick smilingly added, with a
+thrilling tremor still in his voice,
+
+"A stranger is waiting for me below, who can explain all better than
+myself. May he come up? I am too much agitated to be distinct!"
+
+Scarcely had her brother left the room, before Marion heard a light,
+springing step on the stairs. The door was flung open; and if joy ever
+killed, it would have been now, when Marion, with almost incredulous
+astonishment, again beheld Richard Granville; his features lighted up
+by the smile of former days; his eyes radiant with joy, and his
+countenance almost convulsed with agitation, while, giving an
+exclamation of rapturous delight, he presented himself before her.
+
+If Marion's life had depended on her speaking a word, she could not for
+some moments have uttered it; but there is a silent eloquence in deep
+emotion, more powerful than language; and, giddy with excessive
+astonishment, tears and smiles seemed to struggle for the mastery in
+her countenance, like the summer light and shade upon an aspen tree.
+
+All was mutual confidence, and mutual affection now, while Richard
+Granville rapidly, and almost incoherently, conveyed to Marion's heart
+the surpassing felicity of his own, telling her how the long hours of
+his absence had each and all of them been counted over with
+unimaginable impatience; that, she had never been a moment absent from
+his thoughts, and that, having seized the first instant to hasten to
+his happiness, he had now returned to claim his promised bride, and in
+the sight of heaven and earth, to dedicate to her all his earthly
+affections--to make her his own forever.
+
+With a deep sob of gratified emotion, Marion listened; her feelings
+were strained to the uttermost; but she frankly received all his joyful
+protestations of unchanged and unchangeable attachment, and attempted
+not to conceal her own, saying, in low, tremulous accents, as soon as
+she could command her voice to speak,--
+
+"I think the more of myself for being loved by you. It will take a
+life-time to testify how deeply I value your affection."
+
+"My happiness would be nothing if it could be expressed in words,"
+continued Richard, in accents of the deepest tenderness. "But let
+future years, my Marion, speak for me. It is said that no man would
+willingly consent to live his life exactly over again; but we shall be
+so happy in each other, that nothing would make us hesitate except the
+hope of a still better life to come."
+
+"And now," said Sir Patrick, entering, with some degree of his old
+vivacity restored, "your sails are full set, with a brisk breeze, for
+the haven of happiness! May you both obtain everything you have been
+disappointed of in former years, and find nothing left to wish for in
+the future."
+
+"That would be misery, rather than happiness," replied Mr. Granville,
+smiling. "No, Dunbar, for myself, and for my Marion, my still dearer
+self, I trust that we shall contentedly see the stream of events flow
+on, in sunshine or shadow, without a wish to change them. We shall be
+one on earth, one in heaven, and one throughout eternity, confiding in
+each other with entire and unalterable affection; while every action of
+our lives and every thought of our hearts shall be consecrated by
+implicit obedience to that Beneficent Being who has bestowed on us so
+much."
+
+    Our mutual bond of faith and truth
+    No time can disengage;
+    Those blessings of our early youth
+    Shall cheer our latest age.
+
+    Those ills that wait on all below
+    Shall ne'er be felt by me;
+    Or gently felt, and only so,
+    As being shar'd with thee.
+
+    COWPER.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Modern Flirtations, by Catherine Sinclair
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43358 ***