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diff --git a/43756-0.txt b/43756-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ead8cf1 --- /dev/null +++ b/43756-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5364 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43756 *** + +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. + +The cover of this ebook was created by the transcriber and is hereby +placed in the public domain. + + + + +TALES OF MY TIME. + + +BY THE AUTHOR OF BLUE-STOCKING HALL. + + +IN THREE VOLUMES. + + +VOL. I. + +WHO IS SHE? + + +LONDON: + +HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY, +NEW BURLINGTON STREET. +1829. + +J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, +25, Parliament Street. + + + + +WHO IS SHE? + + +"As a stranger give it welcome." HAMLET. + + + + +ADVERTISEMENT. + + +The following story is founded on facts which came within the knowledge +of the writer. The precise point at which truth ends, and fiction +begins, it is not necessary to divulge; but in an age when an avidity +for the stimulus of real adventure seems in a great degree to have +superseded the love of mere romance, it may not be uninteresting to +state that the heroine of the following pages is not altogether a +creature of imagination. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +Chapter + + I + II + III + IV + V + VI + VII + VIII + IX + X + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + "Oh! this is trim!"--TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. + + +At not more than a stone's throw from a neat market town, in a certain +shire of England, lived Francis Hartland, Esq. in a well-built square +house, which was separated from the King's high road, by a lawn of +twenty acres. Round this lawn a double row of handsome elms lined a +ring fence, and formed the outer boundary, in that part next the house, +of a bank covered with all sorts of shrubs, which sloped in a gradually +inclined plane, from the shining laurel to the dwarf cistus, and met a +broad belt of gravel, hard and smooth as marble, through which no +upstart weed ever dared to force its way. This walk was fringed by a +border of flowers, in such variety of glowing tints, that lawn and all +might be aptly compared to a robe of green velvet, trimmed with a +phylactery of broidered work, worthy of Sheba's Queen in all her glory, +while the whole exhibited such precision and nicety in the keeping, as +to suggest the idea that its owner, in league with the fairies, +possessed some secret charm against every noxious reptile and devouring +fly. + +This _Snuggery_ was not the hereditary right of Mr. Hartland, but was +purchased for valuable consideration, and he came to live in it, nobody +knew from whence, or how incited. + +His appearance did not afford rich material for romance; for he was a +sleek, mild, contented looking man of forty odd, with an open +countenance. A spacious forehead of pipe-clay whiteness, from which his +hair was making annual recession, surmounted a nose of latinostrous +projection, eyes of rather the "lack lustre" character, and cheeks of +roseate hue, or perhaps more truly, though less poetically, of +brick-dust dye; while the _toute ensemble_ received decoration from a +set of teeth which seemed as if they had been newly chiselled from the +finest block of ivory ever imported from the land of Ophir. But +curiosity can find browsing even where food is most scantily provided; +and accordingly nothing could surpass the sensation produced by Mr. +Hartland's arrival at Henbury Lodge. The industry and zeal set in +motion by this event were rewarded at length to a certain extent by +information that the new comer was related to a noble house, and +possessed a clear independent property of twelve hundred a year. +Farther deponent sayeth not; but it usually happens that where truth +ends, generous fiction takes up the tale, and a thousand stories were +soon in circulation. That which excited most interest, and was +therefore most frequently repeated, though entirely divested of +foundation, gave to understand that a matrimonial disappointment had +driven him from the scene of mortification, and induced his removal to +a region in which he might hope to forget its sting. + +Mr. Hartland's manner and appearances unquestionably contradicted this +surmise; but no matter for that. We know that stubborn facts are +accustomed to bend to theory in cases more impracticable than this; and +therefore, though we may object to the idea that features which seemed +to be moulded for the seat of a perennial smile, had ever been +"sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought," no such incongruity was +perceived in the market-town of which our narrative makes mention; and +not only was Mr. Hartland believed to have suffered all the pangs and +penalties of slighted passion; but by degrees a certain name, locality, +height, complexion, and many other particulars, came to be added +respecting the cruel fair one, with such variance as suited the +character of each reporter. + +The honest truth of the matter was, that Mr. Hartland came to his +present independence late in life, and regulated his mind till then, by +the _pole-star_ maxim, which he imbibed with his alphabet, that the +worst of all poor things was a poor marriage. His father died before he +was born; and his mother, who understood the art of making one pound +perform the work of two in any other hands, had contrived to educate +her darling and only child, by exercising the closest economy; but, +strange to say, instead of placing him in any profession by which he +might support himself, and repay her for the sacrifices she had made, +she preferred keeping him at home, and it was her pride and delight, +that whatever were the privations which _she_ endured, her son should +know no want. Young Hartland had his horse, while his mother assured +him that she _chose_ to walk; his boots and shoes shone like mirrors, +his hat was glossy as a raven's wing, and his whole wardrobe appointed +with as much care as if he only waited for his legal majority to step +into a good estate. + +But one and twenty years had looked at themselves in the glass of one +and twenty more, ere any change occurred; and then the heirship to a +comfortable property put him in possession of easy circumstances only +just three months before death deprived him of her with whom he had +passed his days. This event rendered his home intolerable, and ability +to quit the scene of his loss coinciding with inclination to do so, Mr. +Hartland sought in all directions for an eligible residence. Being a +man of orderly and clock-work habits, who had performed a measured +round of daily action from the time of his earliest childhood, he felt +no desire to alter the manner of his life, but only wished to continue +its wonted routine upon a different stage. It never once occurred to +his imagination that foreign travel, or even the recreation of a +neighbouring watering place, might afford diversion to the uneasy +thoughts which possessed his mind; but lighting accidentally upon an +advertisement, which set forth that Henbury, with its appurtenances, +was to be sold, he immediately resolved on being the purchaser. There +were just as many acres as constituted his _beau ideal_ of a snug +abode, and he lost no time in transplanting thither every biped and +quadruped on which he was accustomed to rest his eyes, insomuch that +when first he opened them after sleeping in his new _domicile_, every +thing around was so tranquilly arranged that he would have been +scarcely sensible of having quitted his ancient abiding place, had not +the painful feeling been removed of association with the image of his +poor mother, whose arm-chair and work-basket no longer rose upon his +view, empty and unoccupied in their allotted corner. + +Now it may easily be conceived that Mr. Hartland, such as we have +depicted him, though himself unperturbed, caused an active stir in the +neighbourhood of his new habitation. The tradespeople all gave +testimony to his being "a pure substantial man, who paid for every +thing he had like a true gentleman." The regularity of his attendance +at church gained him the rector's marked approval; while the apothecary +sighed as he contemplated the damask of a cheek which seemed to hold +out little hope of requiring aid from the leech's skill, or the rosy +conserves of his shop. But the chief commotion was among the female +part of the community, who, some for themselves, and others for their +daughters, set a longing eye on Henbury's "crisped shades and bowers," +where revelled "the spruce and jocund spring." On Sundays a general +determination of gay hats and bonnets was observable towards that part +of the church which was occupied by Mr. Hartland, where such a stream +of floating ribbons might be remarked converging to his pew, as to +authorise the belief that a current of the electrid fluid set in that +direction, and drew the silken pennants thus to a point. The new comer +was visited and invited by all the inhabitants of the neighbourhood, +and declared to be an acquisition wherever he appeared. "Upon my word, +a very sensible steady man is Mr. Hartland," was the usual panegyric +pronounced by his hosts, while the old ladies protested that he played +a capital game of whist, and the young confessed that though he had +passed the first season of youth, he had not seen out its bloom. + +Now it so happened that in the centre of the market-place, and in a +house distinguished by two bay windows so prominent and closely set, +that they looked like the eyes of a prawn, and served as spectacles to +her who dwelt within, there lived a maiden yclept Jemima Ferret, whose +name remarkably coincided with her character and vocation. Nature had +originally bestowed upon her features divested of all attraction, and +the small-pox had fatally confirmed the decree which had been issued in +her cradle against the chances of a husband. Jemima had attained the +age of fifty without a single proposal, though her favourite adage, and +one which she repeated with such emphasis as to prove that she believed +it in her heart, was, that "every Jack has his Jill." + +When, however, half a century had fairly glided down the stream of +time, Miss Ferret transferred with honest zeal all those exertions +to the circle which surrounded her, which had hitherto proved +inefficacious while applied to her own use; and as the materials upon +which she worked were often widely different from those on which her +skill had been originally employed, the success was proportionate; +and Jemima Ferret rose to the highest pinnacle of consideration, as +the most adroit and judicious negociator who ever made a match, and +brought together two individuals in the holy bands of wedlock. Such +was the profound sagacity, such the acknowledged ability and discretion +of this hymeneal plenipotentiary, that she was always given _carte +blanche_ to proceed according to her own views, and there was a general +understanding that whatever she "_brought about_," was effected in the +very best manner. + +In fact, such was the confidence which she inspired, that her +neighbours frequently avoided betraying their wishes in any direct +_commission_, relying upon her tact and penetration for discovering the +secret purpose of their hearts, and forwarding their wishes if no +pre-arrangement of her own militated against them; in which case it was +well known that her manoeuvring so far surpassed any tactics which +could be brought in opposition, as to secure the crown of victory, and +render vain every effort at competition. + +Not to lead our readers into any false conclusions, which a little +trouble in the way of explanation might prevent, it may be well to +state the motives which induced an activity of zeal so very striking +and conspicuous. Be it known, then, that Miss Ferret's income was a +very small one, and though since she had given up all hope of bettering +her fortune by a lucrative barter of such qualifications as she had to +exchange for their money price, she had improved her means, by sinking +her little capital for an annuity, it was not so liberal a stipend as +to render her by any means indifferent to increase of comfort; and she +prudently considered that the next best thing to forming a good +establishment for herself, which we have hinted had hitherto proved +impracticable, would be to secure as many settlements as she could for +her friends, amongst whom she might pass from house to house much to +the solace of her spirits and the relief of her purse. + +In this office of match-making, then, which she raised to the dignity +of a regular trade, or profession, she put forth all the strength of +her talents, and prospered exceedingly. She had all sorts, sizes, and +descriptions under her patronage; and her powers were so generally +known, that though people did not like to own their obligation to a +third person in matters of so delicate a nature, they were nevertheless +secretly felt to be of such importance, that to conciliate Miss +Ferret's regards became a point of rivalry in and about the town in +which she resided. + +Mr. Hartland, without being aware of the honour, was placed at the head +of her list for matrimonial preferment as soon as he had come into +possession of Henbury; but for _once_, Jemima was puzzled about a +help-mate for him, some objection having occurred to three several +young ladies, whom she kept constantly in mind, and who were still on +the unattached service. When things are least expected, however, they +often come to pass, and it so chanced, that while Hymen's _chargé +d'affaires_ was at fault for her game, Miss Robinson came to pay a +visit at Colbrook, the seat of Sir Roger Goodman, an opulent and +corpulent Baronet, who lived within the district which Miss Ferret +resolved should limit the circuit of her exertions; because to have +engaged in distant experiment would have increased difficulties, and +diminished the probability of successful result. + +The arrival of this lady, who deserves to be the heroine of a chapter, +as she was soon destined to be head of a house, at once furnished a +subject to animate the genius of our fair undertaker. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + "The first springs of great events, like those of great rivers, are + often mean and little."--SWIFT. + + +Miss Robinson, the heroine of our present chapter, was just five and +thirty, tall, thin, and well dressed, with something in her manner +smart, clever, cheerful, and _offhand_, but free from boldness, which +rendered her particularly agreeable to _shy_ men, with whom she was +observed to be a wonderful favourite. _Then_ Miss Robinson had a +"pretty fortune" of five thousand pounds entirely at her own disposal; +and the only possible manner of accounting for her protracted "single +blessedness," was by the supposition that either some "disappointment" +had occurred in early life, which she was too proud or too independent +to turn to advantage, or that she had been "over nice" in making her +election, and discovered now that people might be too fastidious for +the rapidity with which youth and bloom wing their cruel flight. + +This at least was the way in which the point was decided by general +report, and how the case really stood is not material to our present +purpose to determine. The reader may perhaps imagine that Miss Ferret +was not of such a grade in society, as to admit of her insinuating +herself amongst the guests in a baronet's house, and that her ambition, +confined to an humbler walk, would scarcely aspire so high as to rule +the destinies of two such people as Miss Robinson and Mr. Hartland, but +the fact was otherwise. A _downright_ country neighbourhood, far +removed from metropolitan fastidiousness, admits of occasional mixtures +unknown to high life in town, and when we consider that the Ferret +family, of which Jemima was the last remnant, had lived with credit, +and voted steadily for Sir Roger during a course of years, as also that +Miss Ferret's central position close to the market-place, afforded her +opportunity of forestalling the scanty and uncertain supplies of fish, +sweetbreads, and other delicacies which are the pivots on which turns +the fame of a dinner entertainment in a remote situation, it cannot +surely surprise any reasonable person that Miss Ferret should often be +invited to mount her pony, and with her dinner dress tied in a +handkerchief, and suspended from the pummel, solicited to partake of +the good cheer which her late and early vigilance had provided. She +was, besides, a woman of address. If she passed a carriage on the road, +she drew her veil over her face, and never rode up to the front door. + +She had likewise a permanent deposit of flowers, feathers, and +furbelows, which were left in a bandbox at Colbrook, under the +guardianship of Lady Goodman's maid, with whom she was a prime +favourite; as, however multifarious the concerns on her hands, she +never forgot to slip a volume of the last novel into her bundle for +Mrs. Hopkins. If a servant was to be hired, Miss Ferret inquired the +character; if a bargain was to be had, Miss Ferret heard of, and +recommended it to her friends, and when all her various _utilities_ +were performed, the _dulce_ was not neglected. Enriched with a +countless fund of _on dits_, and freighted with charades, epigrams, +epithalamiums, and pasquinades, this active member of society defied +all the powers of dulness to produce stagnation of tongues, whenever +she was one of the company. + +Well, in brisk spirits and iron-sided health, after executing a list of +commissions, half a yard in length, for Lady Goodman, off cantered Miss +Ferret, in joyous anticipation of a pleasant week at Colbrook. Her +reception was gladdening. "My dear creature, welcome," said Lady +Goodman, "you are actually my right hand; I do not know what in the +world I should do without you. Did you remember the wax candles, and +the snuff for Sir Roger, and the cards, and my watch which I sent to +have a new crystal, and did you pay Farquar's bill?" + +"I have done, ordered, and paid every thing." + +"Welcome, my dear, a thousand times!" replied Lady Goodman; "come, and +tell me all the news." + +"Ah! Ferret," exclaimed Sir Roger, who entered at this moment, "I +rejoice to see you. Sad weather this; I have been as dead as ditch +water, I can tell you, and am glad that you are come to keep me awake. +The glass too is rising; you bring good luck with you; but here is Mr. +Hartland riding up the avenue; I must go and meet him." + +"Oh! I'm glad that you have asked Mr. Hartland; that's a nice man; I've +seen a great deal of him lately," said Miss Ferret, as she turned to +Lady Goodman; "but have'nt you got Miss Robinson with you? I long to +see her: How does she look? when did she come? does she stay long?" + +"She arrived on Wednesday, stays a month, and I never saw her looking +better," answered Lady Goodman. + +"A nice thing," said Miss Ferret, "if we could make up a match between +Mr. Hartland and Miss Robinson, wouldn't it, Lady G.?" + +"So it would;" replied her Ladyship; "but though your fame stands high, +I think you'll hardly have ingenuity to bring _that_ matter to bear. +They say that he's not at all a marrying man, and if he's one of the +bashful fraternity, there will not be time to get over the horrors of +presentation to a stranger, before Harriet will leave us to go to her +sister in Scotland." + +"We must only not lose time," said Miss Ferret, "but make hay while the +sun shines." + +The door opened, and Sir Roger presented Mr. Hartland to the ladies. +Though not an elegant man, there was nothing either coarse or revolting +in his demeanour. On the contrary, he comported himself extremely well, +in a plain and equable manner, without effort or perturbation, whatever +were the society into which he happened to fall. A phlegmatic +temperament, combining with constitutional prudence, and his mother's +counsel, had preserved Mr. Hartland in early life from those exciting +circumstances which often plunge young people into love entanglements; +and incredible as it may seem to those who have been differently +situated, it is not the less true, that he had lived so little in mixed +society, and had been so little in the way of _flirtation_, that no +rumour of marriage had ever been coupled with his name; and thus at an +age when others have _handed over_ their sensibilities to a new +generation, this serene and unaffected man was only commencing his +career of life, with all the simplicity of untried youth. + +The company assembled; and such as have experienced the up-hill work +of conversation at a country dinner, when the subjects of weather, +crops, the moon, and the roads are _pumped dry_, will easily believe, +that if Miss Ferret were not the most polished woman in the world, +her animation rendered her, notwithstanding, the most agreeable +ingredient upon many occasions, in those assemblies which her presence +enlivened. She had the art to shake a drawing-room together, if we may +use such a simile; and wherever she was she contrived to prevent that +_stratification_ of men and women which madame de Staël has so happily +described, as characteristic of an English provincial half hour before +dinner. Miss Ferret had seen the _last_ newspaper, or talked with "an +intelligent man who had stepped from the coach" in the precise moment +of her setting out; or she had heard a paragraph read from a London +letter; or had a conference with the post-master immediately before +she quitted home; in short she knew something either true or false, +which no one else happened to know, of every thing and every body. +Thin and active, she glided about the room, and brought people into +actual contact who had never interchanged a look till she appeared. +Like the grouting of a wall she compacted and cemented what was +nothing but a heap of loose disjointed stones, till her vivacious +tongue poured in its eloquence amongst them. + +When the glad announcement was sounded, that dinner was served, Miss +Ferret, who had laid her plan of operations, commenced them by keeping +up such a cross fire of talk, while the company were in the act of +descending the stairs, that by the time they reached the +dining-parlour, she now marshalled the guests without being perceived +by any one, and contrived to slide herself into a chair between Miss +Robinson and Mr. Hartland. The more obvious arrangement which, by +placing the gentleman in the centre, would have given both ladies an +equal claim on his attention, might not have been so judicious; but by +Miss Ferret's disposition of affairs, she constituted herself the "soft +intermediate" through whom any intercourse held by the extremes must +pass; and she was thus enabled to regulate and guide it as was most +conducive to her ultimate ends. Before the dessert came upon the table +she had ventured to insinuate that there was a wonderful sympathy in +the tastes of her _protegés__protegés_; and as she conveyed their +sentiments from one to the other upon the comparative merits of roast +and boiled, fricassee and fry, hot and cold, town and country, with +sundry other interesting opposites which she herself suggested, there +certainly did appear to be a harmony of opinion which bid fair for +domestic union in that state of life which, we are taught to believe, +traces much of the unhappiness by which it is, alas! so frequently +embittered, to a fatal talent for disputation upon such like topics of +daily recurrence. + +The perpetual succession of single drops will wear out a rock, and +therefore Miss Ferret seemed to be guided by sound discretion in her +admiration of minor harmonies, life being, as she always observed, +"made up of _little things_." From generals it was natural to descend +to particulars, and Henbury itself was on the _tapis_ ere the ladies +withdrew. Miss Ferret asked Miss Robinson, if she, who was _so_ +partial to the pursuit of rural objects, and knew "_every_ thing about +plants from the oak to the daisy," had ever seen a cork tree? + +On being answered in the negative, Miss Ferret exclaimed, "Oh I am +_so_ glad that we have any thing new to shew you! By the bye, _madcap_ +that I am, I am reckoning without my host, and must have Mr. +Hartland's leave to perform my promise, as it is at Henbury that the +curiosity which I have mentioned is to be found. They say that it was +brought over a sapling from Cintra, near Lisbon, fully an hundred +years ago, by an officer who gave it to my poor grandfather, who then +rented the lands which now belong to Mr. Hartland." + +Mr. Hartland blushed, and his skin being thin and fair, the suffusion +was manifest to a degree which augured well for setting fire to the +train which was laid in Miss Ferret's mind, as he replied, "I have +horses which cannot be employed in a better service, and at any time I +shall be happy to engage their best offices in procuring such an honour +as you kindly design for their master." + +"Upon my word, Mr. Hartland, you are very polite, and much more than I +deserve after such a liberty as I have taken; but I mean to profit by +it, I assure you. Miss Robinson ought not to suffer for my inadvertence +in forgetting, that with my poor grandfather all _my_ interest in +Henbury passed away. We will accept your friendly invitation, though +not your horses; for I am sure, that unless the rheumatism pinched +severely, Sir Roger could not refuse his favourite Miss Robinson any +thing. You know, my dear, that Sir Roger admires you more than any one; +and I often tell Lady Goodman, that she is the best tempered, amiable +creature in the world not to be jealous; but she dotes upon you quite +as much. So you see that I have no chance of breaking the peace at +Colbrook, which is mortifying, as it is proverbially, you know, an old +maid's province and privilege to make mischief wherever she goes." + +What with blushing, bantering, laughing, and complimenting, a very fair +measure of execution was done before the party re-assembled above +stairs, and Miss Ferret, who, like all wise people, was a keen observer +of portents, remarked that Mr. Hartland was the first gentleman to +leave the dining-room; upon which she gave a significant wink, +accompanied by a smile, the meaning of which was only understood by +Miss Robinson, to whom Miss Ferret had just whispered previously that +she saw strange things in her tea-cup. + +To talk of fortunes and fortune-tellers might have been too direct a +mode of attack. So thought one who was never mistaken in her +calculation, and turning rapidly to a little black dog which sat +wagging his tail at Lady Goodman's side, Miss Ferret, with masterly +presence of mind, said, as if continuing the previous conversation, +"Well, it shall be submitted, as Miss Robinson _will have it so_, to +Mr. Hartland. Oh! here he is! Come here, Duke--shew yourself to this +gentleman. Mr. Hartland, Miss Robinson and I have had almost a duel +about this little animal, which she declares is not of the true +Norfolk breed; while I maintain that it is; and moreover that the +first of the kind was brought here by my poor uncle Jacob Ferret, who +got him at Arundel Castle, and carried him, when a puppy, many a weary +mile in his bosom. Now I think _my_ informa tion decisive; Miss +Robinson however will not yield; but to settle the dispute, she says +that you shall be umpire." + +Mr. Hartland looked evidently highly gratified, and proceeded directly +to an examination of Duke's mouth, Lady Goodman laughing _à gorge +deployée_ at the ready witted Ferret and the confusion of Miss +Robinson, who, all astonishment at our diplomatist's facility of +invention, was completely nonplused. To have contradicted Miss Ferret's +statement, however, would only have made matters worse, and proved +still more unequivocally to Mr. Hartland that he had been the subject +of discussion; so quietly acquiescing, she waited in silence for +judgment to be pronounced. + +"Miss Robinson is quite right," said Mr. Hartland. "Duke is a beautiful +creature, but all his ancestors are not from Arundel." + +"Well, well, needs must, and I give up," answered Miss Ferret; "but it +is enough to provoke a saint that Miss Robinson is always right, and I +am always wrong. I firmly believe that she bribes all our judges." + +Her next _coup d'essai_ was at the card-table. She had accomplished the +point of involving Miss Robinson and Mr. Hartland in a descant upon all +manner of spaniels, pointers, pugs, and poodles, which ramified into +sundry other topics, and she now thought it high time to look after +Sir Roger, for whom she soon arranged a rubber of whist; and after +manoeuvring for some time, set down the Baronet and an excellent player +who lived in his neighbourhood, against the pair whom she determined to +bring together in a partnership of a more durable continuance. + +"Come, my dear," said she, "Lady Goodman always makes me her _aide de +camp_. I am beating up for recruits. Here are Sir Roger and Mr. Gresham +ready: Mr. Hartland will play, I know; but unless _you_ are kind enough +to take a hand, we shall be badly off. Do you begin, and I will cut in +by and by. I know that you are not fond of cards, but you are always +fond of obliging." + +So saying, she bustled the people into their places, talking +unceasingly--cut for partners herself, to save time she said, and had +them all seated and the first deal commenced, before any one was aware +how he or she came to be so disposed and employed. + +When Miss Ferret had skimmed round the room, setting every body and +mind in motion, she returned to a post where she was always welcome, +particularly when fortune favoured, namely, at the corner of the +card-table, _all but_ in Sir Roger's pocket. From this vantage-ground +she viewed the game; remembering every card, and gave a casting voice +on sundry contested questions. From the same situation she likewise +dispensed between the deals the pungent jest, the lively sally, or +smart repartee; raised the sinking spirits of a vanquished foe, or +curbed the too triumphant crowing of success. Here too she sat ready to +ply her host with a pinch of snuff, or a judiciously tempered dose of +flattery, as the case required. No genius ever elicited in the corps +diplomatique is on record for a nicer trait of generalship than was +exhibited on this evening by our female politician, who had calculated +to a hair, and now shewed the perfection of her practice by bringing +out her scheme with flying colours. Miss Ferret knew that Miss Robinson +was no whist player, and though Mr. Hartland was a remarkably good one, +the inferior skill of his partner would, she equally knew, so far +counteract his sagacity as to prevent any chance of victory over the +well-sustained game of two such antagonists as Sir Roger Goodman and +Mr. Gresham. It was Miss Ferret's design that the Baronet should win; +and in order to explain the rationale of her plan, it may not be amiss +to give a brief sketch in this place of this worthy's character. + +Sir Roger was descended from an ancient house, and inherited a fine +place, but small fortune, which occasioned a perpetual strife between +family pride and poverty. He had been at school what is called a +plover-pated boy, and in fact arrived at manhood's prime with as light +a burthen of learning as any dunce need ever desire to carry. The +sports of the field, however, gave him ample occupation, and he married +the daughter of a wealthy trader, whose well lined coffers would have +supplied the deficiency of his patrimonial inheritance, if an ill timed +bankruptcy had not frustrated his hopes. This was a severe stroke; it +was however irremediable, and while health and strength continued, +matters went on tolerably well. Sir Roger became the most skilful +farmer in the whole country, and Lady Goodman, who was a virtuous and +prudent woman, managed her department with cleverness and economy. + +But as time revolved, reverses occurred; two or three infant children +dropped off--Colbrook was left without an heir--and a chronic +rheumatism succeeded, which called for more temper, resignation, and +resource of mind than poor Sir Roger possessed to meet the demand. His +decline of life, therefore, exhibited the sorry picture of a nervous, +growling old man, who revenged every cloud in the sky which produced a +sharper twinge, on every body who came in his way. His temper was +graduated like the barometer, and rose or fell with the elasticity of +the atmosphere. + +Amongst the most exasperating trials of his life was loss at cards; and +yet to abstain from playing was a still greater cross to one so +entirely dependent, as was Sir Roger, on external excitement. He +delighted in the company of Miss Ferret, who acted like sal volatile on +his spirits, and Lady Goodman was so glad to have her at Colbrook, that +it might always have been the residence of this useful personage, if +her pride had not revolted at the idea of being called "_a companion_." + +Such then was the outline of domestic affairs in the family of Goodman, +and Miss Ferret knew what she was about, when she resolved that Sir +Roger should find his purse much heavier at the end than beginning of +the evening. But how did Mr. Hartland feel respecting these +arrangements of which he appeared to be the victim? He was amply +compensated by the partnership in which his losses were sustained; and +which furnished occasion for several allusions, artfully improved by +Miss Ferret, to fate--fortune--identity of interests--and sympathy in +adversity, which never advancing in _direct_ allusion beyond the +literal precincts of the game in hand, suggested, notwithstanding, +pleasing thoughts of an undefined nature which were as new to Mr. +Hartland as if he had just entered his seventeenth year, and +experienced for the first time, the stimulus and delight which is felt +by a boy when taken notice of in female society. + +So happy was the progress of affairs, that when the cards were shuffled +in the last deal by Miss Robinson, and she summed up in a _total_ the +various items of apology which had preceded, by saying, "Well, Mr. +Hartland, my bad play has been visited severely on you; your temper has +indeed been tried in the furnace, and you have reason to remember the +evil star which condemned you to such a destiny this evening:" her +partner was observed to colour, while he replied, with more animation +than could have been anticipated in one who had lost every rubber, +"Miss Robinson, it is more agreeable to fail in some company than +succeed elsewhere. I can remember nothing but the _pleasures_ of this +day." + +"Why, my dear creature," said Miss Ferret, as she addressed Miss +Robinson, "you have been horribly unlucky. I protest you have nothing +for it left but selling out of the funds to pay off your debts, and +though all _you_ Change-alley people have been turned to _coiners_ by +the late rise of stock, it will not do to lift one's capital." + +The table broke up; Mr. Gresham rubbed his hands self complacently, and +moving briskly towards a window, said, "Somebody mentioned a star just +now, which reminds me to look for some friendly ray to guide me home." + +Mr. Hartland, who was equally interested in the light of the firmament, +followed slowly, and was the first to exclaim, "How dark it is!" + +"_It is indeed_," answered Miss Ferret. "Look out, Sir Roger, it +is black as soot. I think you will have to answer to Mrs. Gresham for +her husband's life if you let him go home to-night." + +Sir Roger was in the highest state of good humour, and seizing directly +on the hospitable hint, declared that neither of his guests should +"stir a foot." Lady Goodman, ever ready to second a kind feeling, +praised the merits of a well-aired bed to each of the gentlemen. Miss +Ferret knew that Mr. Gresham would refuse to stay, which he did, +alleging that Mrs. Gresham would be uneasy were he not to return, and +she wished, as well as thought, that Mr. Hartland would remain if +invited; in which speculation, accordingly, she was also right, and +seeing him hesitate, she ran towards the bell, saying, "I assure you it +would be folly to attempt riding home; there is no necessity at least +for Mr. Hartland to break his neck." + +"No," said Sir Roger, laughing heartily; "though Hartland lives at +Henbury, there is no _henpecker_ there yet." + +This sally was met by Miss Ferret with "Excellent, upon my honour! Lady +Goodman, is'nt that the best thing you ever heard? Well," added our +voluble _go-between_, "I thought that this would be the end of it, +when you gentlemen wedged yourselves into that far window before +dinner, and prosed about new moons, full moons, and harvest moons, till +you wearied the moon to sleep, and now you are left without any lamp in +the sky." + +To be brief, Mr. Hartland was easily prevailed upon. Mr. Gresham took +his departure, and the circle at Colbrook, after partaking of a +comfortable old fashioned supper, retired to their apartments. If all +secrets must be discovered when we set about telling a story, we must +reveal the fact that two of the party passed a restless night. How it +happened may be thus accounted for. + +Whatever may be thought, and however unnatural it may seem, that a man +of forty-two should be visited by those agitations which the young +imagine to belong exclusively to their fresh sensibilities, and the +hacknied do not believe in at all, it will not appear incredible to +those who are accustomed to look into the human heart with a +philosophic eye, if we assert that Mr. Hartland's spirits were thrown +into considerable flutter by the events of the past day. + +Since his accession to an unexpected fortune he had heard many hints +thrown out, both at home and abroad, upon the propriety of his +"settling in life;" and _any_ thing often repeated will produce +impression. How much more then a matter of such importance as +matrimony! His old nurse used now to shake her head and say, "Ah! Sir, +since my poor Missess is gone you looks quite lonesome." The tenants +who came to visit their new landlord, as they drank his health, always +tacked a good wife as the climax of their wishes for his prosperity; +and he was assailed by all the old women of the parish, gentle and +simple, with some allusion to his single state. The words old bachelor +began to fret and gall him in a manner entirely unwonted. It was no +wonder then, perhaps, that with a mind thus pre-disposed, the +machinations of Miss Ferrett found the soil prepared and ready to aid +their purpose. Several circumstances of the evening rose in a sort of +pleasing phantasmagoria on Mr. Hartland's recollection. He thought Miss +Robinson very agreeable and genteel, neither too young nor too old, +lively without being all on wires, like Miss Ferrett, quiet without +being dull like some of the young ladies whom he had seen in the +neighbourhood. As he continued to commune with his pillow, several +obliging sentiments expressed towards him by Miss Robinson recurred to +memory, and just as he at length fell off in a doze, the faint +reminiscence of something concerning the funds glided in shadowy vision +across his brain. + +Miss Robinson had waking dreams the while of Mr. Hartland. She was five +and thirty; he was of suitable age; she had five thousand pounds; a +small provision to _live_ upon in the decline of one's days, yet a +snug little dower too, if well bestowed and carefully settled. Mr. +Hartland's complexion was fine, his teeth superb, and his general air +that of a very comely person. Altogether, Miss Robinson thought that +she had not seen for a long time any one more amiable in appearance. +Then he lost his money with such a good grace as promised well for +domestic concord, and as _she_ fell asleep the last words which she +remembered were those of the not too refined Miss Ferret, when she +wished good-night at her chamber-door. "Take him, my dear, if you can +catch him; depend upon it you may go farther and fare worse." + +Aurora unbarred the East with her rosy fingers, and sent a flood of +golden sunshine over the fields. Nothing is so cheering to the heart of +man as fine weather, and though Samuel Johnson, of lexicographical +memory, doubted the fact, we honestly believe that few inhabitants of +this terrestrial ball are altogether uninfluenced by clear air and a +fine day. + +A ride to Henbury was proposed, accepted, and arranged. Mr. Hartland's +groom was sent forward to proclaim approach, and a _quartetto_, +composed of the lovers (for such we may venture already to call them), +Sir Roger and Miss Ferret followed quickly after. A narrow part of the +road soon afforded opportunity, of which advantage was taken, and a +double tête-à-tête was the order of the cavalcade, till the gates of +Henbury flew open to receive the visitors. The cork-tree, and every +other tree, plant, herb, and flower, was duly displayed and +appreciated. The interior was also pronounced to be without a fault, +and so complacently did the party feel towards each other, that Mr. +Hartland, who thought himself bound as a true Knight to escort his fair +guests half way back, was induced to go the other half through pure +charity towards Sir Roger, who gave so many solid reasons for wishing +to enjoy society while rheumatism would permit, that his neighbour, to +say nothing of politeness, would have deemed it unchristian to refuse. +So at Colbrook he dined again; again lost at whist, and again, deserted +by the "conscious moon," ruminated on his pillow concerning the charms +of Miss Robinson's person, mind, and manners. + +Dull people must be told every tittle of a tale; but a lively reader, +for whom alone we would fain weave the storied web, will anticipate +results, and spare us the details of a courtship, brief as it was, +which had its rise, progress, and conclusion in three short weeks; +terminating a few days before the appointed period of Miss Robinson's +visit to Sir Roger and Lady Goodman, in the regular proposals of Mr. +Hartland of Henbury Lodge, to that young lady. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "I will dance and eat plums at your wedding." + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +It is said somewhere in the Spectator, that "a woman seldom asks advice +before she buys her wedding clothes." Now Miss Robinson neither asked +advice before nor after; for, being an orphan, and of full age, there +was no necessity to go through any such ceremony; she therefore decided +for herself, that having no aversion in the abstract towards the holy +state of wedlock, she could not make a particular sacrifice of that +liberty which she had not, perhaps, found such a panacea for all the +evils of life as Poets and Romancers teach, in a better cause than the +present. Mr. Hartland was every thing which a reasonable woman could +desire in a spouse, and accordingly his suit was not rejected. No +projected alliance ever gave more general satisfaction; and not a +single dissentient voice was raised against its prosperous completion, +except that of Mrs. Bunn, the house-keeper at Henbury, who, in common +with all persons holding the same situation under a bachelor's roof, +never could abide the bare idea of "the Master's" marriage, even though +it were to a Duchess in her own right. + +On the first day, when Trotter the groom rode on with orders to have +the best of every thing prepared for luncheon, and the gardener was +desired to bring in the finest fruit that could be had, Mrs. Bunn +augured ill of the message, which she considered symptomatic; but when +it came to her being called upon for a fresh supply of linen, and +informed moreover that Mr. Hartland was going back to Colbrook, her +heart, as she expressed it, "died within her;" and not being able to +find the hartshorn-bottle in a moment of such flurry, she is said to +have had recourse to brandy, so completely were her spirits subdued by +the prospect too fatally realized of a finished reign. To abdicate was +preferable, however, to being deposed; and when Mrs. Bunn's agitation +subsided, she came to that conclusion, resolving to avoid the disgrace +of a dismissal, and by resigning the seals of office, while affairs of +higher interest occupied the mind of our Benedict, prevent too keen a +scrutiny into past conduct. Thus ended the dynasty of Bunn; and we must +forgive her for casting "a lingering look behind," as she quitted the +"flesh pots" of Henbury, for which she seemed to have as decided a +taste as ever Sancho discovered. + +With this single exception, as has been observed, all was smooth +assent; and great was the sensation produced through town and country, +when Miss Ferrett, cantering her pony at a quicker gait than usual, +suddenly drew up opposite to the post-office door, and communicated to +an expectant group of some four or five _quidnuncs_ who were waiting +the arrival of the coach, that "everything was settled." She was in +her element; and in such a state of stimulus that she could scarcely +control the effervescence of her spirits. Finishing her proclamation +with "God save the King," she pushed forward to cry another "O yes!" at +the milliner's and the apothecary's; after which she hastened home to +set in movement sundry preparations in furtherance of the great event, +which, with better foundation than is common in general to swelling +pretensions, she justly considered as all "her own doing." We are +usually partial to whatever owes its existence to ourselves, and +therefore Miss Ferret's excitement was nothing extraordinary, and may +be excused. + +Our readers are by this time sufficiently acquainted with the _carte +du pays_ of Colbrook within and Colbrook without, to know in what +part of the newspaper to look for the registry of a wedding conducted +under the auspices of its goodly possessors and their auxiliaries. The +sagacious and informed will not expect a detached paragraph, exhibiting +such a host of Lords and Ladies that the happy pair are scarcely +distinguishable in the brilliant mob; and which, were it not for the +heading of "Marriage in High Life," might be mistaken for the list of +arrivals at a London hotel; but the announcement of _our_ nuptial +rites will be sought, and found in that column, which, at one +comprehensive view, presents a picture of human life, and directs the +moral eye from the cradle to the grave. + +We must not anticipate, however; for much is to be done before the +printer sets his types to the titles of Francis Hartland, Esq. of +Henbury-lodge, and Harriet, eldest daughter of a goodly 'Squire, John +Robinson by name, and gentleman by degree. Lady Goodman wrote to her +friend Mrs. Palmer, to send patterns of all sorts from town; while Sir +Roger, who was as much delighted as Miss Ferret with the coming event, +set to work with Mr. Points, the Solicitor, who rode off post haste to +Colbrook at three several times, as if he was an express; and when +arrived, bustled into the breakfast-parlour (for there was no library, +there being no readers at Colbrook,) with such stir and importance, and +made notes of the intended settlement with such pompous solemnity, that +an inhabitant of another planet, suddenly introduced to the scene, +might be fully borne out in the supposition, that our "special" was +employed in taking depositions against a state prisoner, chargeable, at +the very least, with design to overset the Constitution and compass the +death of our beloved Sovereign. + +Let it not be imagined that Miss Ferret's was a sinecure office, during +this season of occupation. On the contrary, her dwelling in the +market-place might be styled the very centre, heart, or focus, of these +interesting proceedings. Her drawing room was the place of congress for +dress-makers, stay-makers, shoe-makers, and plain workers, while her +bed-chamber was the repository of boxes and bundles without end or +measure, from town and country. These same apartments were likewise the +scene of all the putting off, and trying on: the fault-finding and +approval; the lively criticism on shapes and colours; fashionable and +unfashionable, becoming and unbecoming, which naturally belongs most +peculiarly to that period of grand climacteric in a lady's wardrobe, +which Miss Robinson's was now to undergo; not to mention that Henbury +Lodge, being out of the mail-coach line, Miss Ferret's abode was, +moreover, a bank of deposit for innumerable and cumbersome packages +from tailors, hatters, hosiers, "_et hoc genus_," &c. insomuch that the +painstaking partisan, to whose official exertions this chapter is +principally indebted for its subject, might be justly compared to the +supple animal whose name she bore, when, with all its prying energies +elate, and with persevering industry prosecuting its vocation in the +bowels of the earth, the light crumbling soil falls in on every side, +and incloses the ferret's slender form, overwhelmed in the destruction +which itself had worked. But as it is not requisite to the appositeness +of a simile that the analogy should agree in all its parts, we are +happy to think that _our_ Ferret had well grounded prospect of +outliving her temporary sepulture, and hailing the bright beam of +Hymen's torch to guide her through the lumbering piles of paper parcels +by which she was almost suffocated; though it must on the other hand be +confessed that, after she had leisure to reflect in the still hour of +retirement on that busy crisis, she has been frequently heard to say, +that nothing short of the most devoted friendship could possibly have +sustained her; and in after times Mr. and Mrs. Hartland were often +reminded of all they owed to her unwearied zeal. + +As Miss Ferret studied the _portable_ in all things, her wisdom +was condensed in aphorisms, amongst which, "there is a time for all +things," instructed her to choose the period of Christmas more +especially for stirring up the memory, and the gratitude of her +friends, when a plenitude of game, mince-pies, spiced meats, bottled +ale, and other seasonable reflections, furnished festive opportunity of +lightening a burthen on the heart, by reciprocating obligations on the +stomach. "Turn about is fair play," was another maxim which lent its +aid on these occasions. + +At length matters appeared to be winding up to a point: Miss Robinson's +paraphernalia, after due exhibition, and the sly purloining of many a +useful hint, snatched hastily with scissors and brown paper, from +collar, cape, and cuffs, was all sent home; and Mr. Points witnessed +the due execution of the marriage articles at Colbrook, where Sir Roger +and Lady Goodman had from the first signified their wishes that the +approaching solemnity should be performed. The only hitch which arose, +(just enough to prove that every human scheme is less than perfect,) +occurred in the impossibility of Mr. and Mrs. Gordon's attendance on +the auspicious ceremony. Mrs. Gordon was younger sister to Miss +Robinson, and lived in Aberdeenshire, but indisposition would not +permit her to leave home, and her husband would not go without her; so +it was ordained that Sir Roger, in quality of guardian, should perform +the father's part, and that the bride and bridegroom should make a +visit to their relations in Scotland, before they sat down for life at +Henbury Lodge. + +These matters being adjusted, it only remained to fix the day and the +hour for our espousals, which was accordingly done, and now succeeded +cares of no less magnitude. + +It has been hinted that Sir Roger Goodman's mansion was larger than his +means of living in it. _Space_, indeed, was the first idea by which a +stranger was struck on entering the doors; for the fact was, that +besides the really capacious dimensions of each apartment, there was +such a dearth of furniture, that the eye was not interrupted in its +progress as it travelled over them. Four walls, handsomely paneled with +carved work of green and gold, enclosed an area, which was called the +billiard-room, with no other apparent object than that of exciting +attention, to remark that not a sign of table, mace, or ball, was to be +seen. In like manner the _place_ of a saloon was to be found with +nothing in it, and a chapel without provision for prayers. The "state" +bed-chambers were reserved for such momentous purposes that they were +never used at all, and therefore beds were superfluous; so they had not +any in them. + +From this outline it follows that the disposable forces of hospitality +were confined at Colbrook within very straitened limits, +notwithstanding the large size of the building; and an entertainment in +this mausoleum of ancient grandeur, like a poem which we remember to +have seen somewhere or other, in imitation of Ossian, might very +appropriately be 'yclept a "feast of empty shells." Miss Ferret, +however, undertook the arrangements under the controlling direction of +Lady Goodman, and began her operations with the encouraging cheer, +"Faint heart never won fair Lady. We must put our best foot foremost." + +To work she set, and what with rummaging out, scrubbing up, turning, +twisting, nailing, scouring, dying, and borrowing, things were put in +some sort of order, and accommodation provided for a numerous company +at breakfast. It was the custom of Lady Goodman's day, for the bride +and bridegroom to sit in full dress during a week, and receive +congratulations from all the neighbouring gentry: and sorely did she +regret the impossibility of reviving so venerable a pageant on the +present happy occasion; but there was no option, and fortunately the +fashion of setting out in a chaise and four, relieved her from the +mortification of confessing that the festivities of a hymeneal scene +could not be protracted under her roof beyond the cake-cutting hour. + +The waste suites of unfurnished apartments were decked out with green +branches, and flowers disposed in arches and alcoves, so that Miss +Ferret converted the whole house into one mighty bower. She rooted out +some old moth-eaten banners, which were kept as an heir-loom in the +attic story, where, reposing under lock and key, they bore mouldering +testimony to the ancestral valour of Sir Roger's blood; also a stand of +colours which had been presented to his father, who raised a regiment +of Yeomanry; some Free-Masonry insignia, which glittered with +embroidery of tarnished gold and silver; elks' horns, which had been +sent as a curiosity; two American bows; a pair of snow shoes; some +halberts, and a trumpet which were taken in the rebellion of +forty-five, with other articles which had not seen the light for years, +but now came forward, however incongruously, to vary the sylvan +decorations, and were judiciously commingled with family portraits in +massive frames; an ivory ship, which, covered with a glass bell, made a +great figure; a canoe; two plaster-of-paris cupids; a leaden fawn; +Harlequin and Columbine; Neptune and Hebe of the same material, and +King William on horseback, well executed in bronze; so as altogether to +produce an imposing and animated effect, along a vista of the entire +front, including corridors, and enliven the "eternal shade" which would +otherwise have resulted from the great quantity of laurel, spruce, fir, +and other evergreens forced into company to fill the void. + +Poor Lady Goodman, who knew better things than this ignorant medley +exhibited, sighed as she acquiesced in all Miss Ferret's manifestations +of taste, which would have been better suited to the preparations for +enacting a puppet-shew in a country barn, than the embellishment of a +fine feudal palace of the olden time, inhabited by those who boasted +armorial bearings and descent from the brave and fair of other days. +There was no help for it, however. It was Hobson's choice, and no +alternative presented itself, were Miss Ferret's suggestions repressed, +except absolute vacuity. Now Lady Goodman loved Miss Robinson +affectionately, and could not endure to appear deficient in friendship, +while her excellent heart overflowed with kindness. She therefore +preferred giving free scope to the fantastical vagaries of a +merry-andrew, to seeming less than she really was, to Sir Roger's ward, +and her own protegée. + +It was in the servant and equipage department, that the greatest +difficulties arose. A solitary domestic, styled butler, but who +exercised no dominion, for the best reason, namely, that he had no +subjects, was the sole attendant at Colbrook. Dressed in a suit of +snuff-coloured clothes which had once been black, he answered the +hall-door bell. In jacket of fustian, with turned up sleeves, he might +next be seen, cleaning knives and forks; or should + + ----"the earlier season lead + To the tanned haycock in the mead," + +you might again behold this worthy jack-of-all-trades, armed with rake +and pitch-fork, tossing high and wide the meadow's fragrant crop. An +old coachman, who performed as many parts in the stable as old Hasty +did within the house, completed the male part of the establishment, and +his rusty livery and antique wig were in perfect keeping with the heavy +machine which it was his lot to guide, and the ancient pair of roan +Barbarys which drew it. "What a turn-out for a wedding!" exclaimed Miss +Ferret, as she gazed upon the carriage which was to appear on the +following day first in the bridal procession. + +"My dear Lady Goodman, I am ready to sink at the idea of such a tub +being drawn up at your door, and really know not what to do. So few +servants too!--it is quite confounding on such an occasion." + +"My dear," replied Lady Goodman, "we must make the best of it. Your +genius has done much, but you cannot make our old coach any other than +it is. It is vain to fret yourself about what admits of no remedy." + +"I cannot change, but I will manage yet to conceal it," answered Miss +Ferret, who flitted off to give her directions and arrange her measures +for the morning, which was ushered in by a brilliant dawn. + +No sooner was the sun above the horizon, than our fair field marshal +persuaded Sir Roger that he should go on to church, and be ready to +hand the bride elect from her carriage, adding, that she hoped he would +not lose a moment in sending back his own to accommodate some of the +rest of the party. Though Sir Roger did not see any reason for what he +was desired to do, and had no mind to sit by himself in the vestry-room +for such a length of time as was contemplated by Miss Ferret, yet she +was so urgent, that she gave him no time for deliberation, and half +pushing, half entreating, had him fairly shut up in the coach and +whirled with unaccustomed celerity from the door, before he had power +to recollect that he should inevitably have a fit of the rheumatism in +consequence of so long a sitting in a draught of air, much cooler than +that of his own house. But David, who was perched up on high upon an +immense old-fashioned hammer-cloth, large enough to bear the city arms +on every side, like the lord mayor's equipage, received strict orders +_not to hear_ if his master called, but proceed, blow high, blow low, +to Weston church. Now he argued, that as weddings do not occur every +day, and Miss Ferret was chief governor on the present occasion, it +might be better to obey her implicitly. Besides he was in the habit of +turning a deaf ear to the word "stop," as having no footman except on +great emergencies, when Hasty the butler stepped up behind, he knew +that his porpoise-like body must be put in movement were he to indulge +every whim of halting here and there; and a descent from the altitude +at which David sat was no trifling exertion to a man "so scant of +breath" as he was. He grumbled, indeed, _sotto voce_, at not "heading +the procession," as he said; but Miss Ferret assured him that though +she had an offer of all the carriages to marshal in whatever manner she +thought proper, she would not suffer Sir Roger to be driven in any +vehicle but his own, or by any less careful charioteer than his +coachman. She likewise informed David that on account of the honour +which she designed him of enacting _avant courier_ on the occasion, she +had made his wedding favours twice as large as those of any body else, +which was true, for she used three yards of extraordinary white satin +ribbon with silver edges, in this instance to cover certain defects in +David's hat and coat. + +This argument prevailed, insomuch that he took his seat aloft with much +self-complacency, and from the prodigious breadth of his chest, and the +monstrous size of the star-like platforms which Miss Ferret pinned upon +it, quite as large as the sod in a thrush's cage, David looked at a +little distance, so like a target, that had the archers been out, he +might have received an arrow through the heart, before he could have +had time to bless himself. He was next commissioned to return from +Weston by a circuitous route, the pretext for which was to deliver a +message at the house of a work-woman who had not brought home all Miss +Robinson's linen, but the real object of which was to delay the +carriage till all the party should have proceeded, and so avoid the +display of that unwieldy concern amongst the gay chariots and landaus +of the neighbouring gentry, several of whom graced our hymeneals with +their presence. Miss Ferret then took occasion, when the company were +all assembled on the steps just ready for departure, to say aloud to +Lady Goodman, "Upon my word, your ladyship has left us this morning +without a single servant to do any thing. Two gone on with Sir Roger; +one despatched to order post horses, as if a note would not have been +sufficient; and there is Barnett who has already drunk so many healths +to this happy event, that he was not able to stand straight, so I have +sent him off to bed." + +So saying, she bustled and fidgeted about till by one contrivance or +other, she got the whole train in motion, and contrived to bring them +all back again, without giving any one leisure to remark how or by +which way they returned to Colbrook, where a beautiful breakfast +awaited them. + +What with cutting cake, sticking pins, wrapping, and directing parcels, +with compliments from Mrs. Hartland, and sealing packets of white +gloves, while the gentlemen strolled through the beautiful, but +neglected demesne of Colbrook, Time flew on more rapid wing than he is +used to plume upon a wedding-day in the country, till a "trim-built" +travelling carriage with trunks, cap-case, and imperial drove up to the +door. Sir Roger handed to the bride, who was followed by her _setting +off_ and a shower of congratulations; and off wheeled the _nouveaux +Mariés_ towards Drumcairn, the romantic abode in Aberdeenshire of Mr. +and Mrs. Gordon. Part of the company left Colbrook immediately after, +while a select assembly was retained to dine and drink a bumper toast +to the health and happiness of Henbury Lodge. + +Here again Miss Ferret's talents were felt, if not acknowledged, and +perhaps her chief ability lay in the circumstance, that while dulness +and ceremony, which are the bane of English society vanished before +her, she wisely took special care to seem no more than a useful +instrument in the hands of others, though in reality she was the +governing principle of all that ease and hilarity which her presence +inspired. Miss Ferret might be compared to an able mechanic who, +discovering the causes of inertion in whatever piece of workmanship is +submitted to his inspection, clears away rust, removes impediments, +rectifies the balance, oils the joints, and sets every spring into +active play, without presuming to claim any merit in the contrivance +that should interfere with the patentee. Had she not possessed such +perfect tact, (which is a quality much more dependent on quick natural +perception than the refinements of education,) that she always gave +other people that credit which she deserved herself, she would soon +have been taught to feel her inferiority; but she never was suspected, +and people thought that they were particularly well, cheerful, and +agreeable without supposing for an instant that they were indebted to +her influence. She was by nature all that Lord Chesterfield vainly +endeavoured to make his son by art, and knew that the whole secret of +popularity consists in putting every one into good humour with himself. + +The dinner was abundant, and its deficiency in _setting off_ was +but little observed where all the guests were kindly disposed. In +fact that paltry criticism which is the terror and scourge of a +country neighbourhood, is much oftener the offspring of stupor than +malevolence. Keep a company alive, and they will seldom be able to tell +whether your damask is of Scotch or Hamburgh manufacture, your china, +Indian or Worcester, your glass, cut or plain. People only ask to be +_happy_, and how this is accomplished is never enquired into; but +if tongues are not employed eyes will be busy. Miss Ferret was aware of +this, and her vigilance was unremitting. The boldest stroke, and one at +which Sir Roger's mind at first revolted, succeeded to admiration, and +green gooseberry wine in long necked bottles passed muster for +sparkling champagne. + +The trick had been played at a great race dinner, and Miss Ferret's +convincing argument for making an experiment of a like nature at +Colbrook, was contained in the following laconicism, "what has been, +may be." Sir Roger succumbed, and no one detected the fraud. "Depend +upon it," said Miss Ferret, "that all the French wines are made at +home, and you are no greater cheat than your wine merchant." + +The young danced, the elders played whist, carriages were heard rolling +in the court, the party dispersed, and as all things must, sooner or +later, come to a conclusion, thus ended the wedding-day, and Miss +Ferret had laid the plan of another ere the sun was set. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "----What now remains + But that once more we tempt the wat'ry plains, + And wandering homewards, seek our safety hence." + + DRYDEN. + + +Amongst the many contested questions which perplex conversation, and +seem destined to remain undecided, is comparison between the sum of +happiness derivable by those who are easily pleased, from frequently +recurring and commonly procurable resources, and that resulting from +the seldom tasted but vivid raptures of the fastidious, who, too +refined for average gratification, find life a desert, in which, like +"angel visits few and long between," the thinly scattered spangles of +verdure glow with intensity of freshness amid surrounding gloom. We +confess that our own minds suffered vacillation upon this important +topic, till, having witnessed the every-day felicity of Henbury Lodge, +we were enabled to cast the make-weight of its _beau rivant_ into +the scale of "little things." + +As a flat road, however, admits of quick driving, we shall not detain +the reader unmercifully in describing a scene which presented no +alterations of light and shade, no moral vicissitudes of hill and dale, +to vary the landscape; but satisfy ourselves with a short sketch of +connubial contentment in a welcome-home to Mr. and Mrs. Hartland, who +after a brief aberration from their domestic settlement, returned to +the delights of clipped hedges, rolled terrace, and trim bowers. + +It may be remembered that our wedded pair had each passed the term when +people of both sexes in the presumption of life's springtide, talk of +marriage as a common event which "comes to all;" and toss their +fortunes to and fro, with lavish prodigality, altogether unprophetic of +succeeding dearth. + +This was precisely the case with _ci-devant_ Miss Robinson, who, having +rejected a crowd of aspirants, had begun to feel a chill frost creeping +over the season of youth, and the joy of seeing herself now +prosperously "_established_," and contemplating a well sized, well +furnished mansion, in which she ruled by the style and title of "_Mrs._ +Hartland," produced a degree of self-gratulation proportioned to the +fears which had preceded her present elevation. She was a common place, +prudent woman, and we must not be too severe on the weaknesses which +were we, however, so stupid as not to observe, we should exercise no +charity in forgiving. We do confess then, though not in the spirit of +ill-nature, that no happiness ever transcended that of our recent +matron, when seated in a new post-chaise, the pannels of which were +like mirrors in which you might have shaved yourself, every strap and +brace polished to black satin, postilion light and dapper, dressed in a +fresh suit of green and silver, horses prancing, sun shining, she took +her joyous course along her own smoothly gravelled approach, armed with +a ticket-case of carved ivory in her hand, to perform the first circuit +of country visits in return for those which had been unsparingly +lavished on the late event. Neither did this gladness perish through +its vivacity, as is the case with the generality of powerful +stimulants, but there was a constantly recurring bliss in the sounds of +"My _own_ house, my _own_ carriage, my _own_ servants," &c. which +produced new impression at every repetition. + +Mr. Hartland's situation was not less enviable. Having passed all his +youthful prime without considering marriage as practicable, he had +thought less than any body during early life of changing his condition; +and since he had attained competency, and became desirous of uniting +himself suitably to a virtuous partner, the difficulties of seeking, +finding, choosing, proposing, and wedding, rose upon his view like Alps +beyond Alps, and presented such a formidable barrier against hope, that +he could not see how the matter was ever to be undertaken, much less +how it would ever come to pass. + +The husband, therefore, was just as much enchanted as the wife. He felt +himself raised in the scale of creation; he was now a person of more +consequence than he had ever been before. Then his affections, which +had been arrested by his mother's death, and which might be said to +have suffered a blockade since that event, were all set flowing again +with redoubled tenderness and activity. His former poverty, too, having +prevented him from being an object of competition, his vanity had never +been excited, and he was a total stranger, in his own person, to those +attentions, which, we are sorry to say, are often disgustingly paid to +men by the fair sex, when rank or fortune furnishes motive for +entrapping them. Mr. Hartland's gratitude, therefore, to Miss Robinson, +for having married him, was as sincere as it was unbounded; and thus +this favoured pair were, in the language of the nursery tales of olden +time, "as happy as the day is long;" reminding us of the spider, who +spinning her web from her own vitals, "lives along the line" of her own +daily occupation; or (as we are given to comparison), the Hartlands +frequently suggested to our memory the Epicurean aspiration of the +celebrated Quin, "Oh, that I had a throat half a mile in length, and +palate all the way." Now, the moral palate of Henbury's inhabitants +extended to the utmost verge of their possessions; and they might be +said to taste and relish whatever they found in their path. + +They had neither of them seen much of the world, and neither knew any +thing of that high and towering intellect, which, like the lofty eagle, +quits the level of the plain, and builds its eyrie in an upper world +all its own. The Hartlands had sharp common understandings, good +nature, and discretion; but they rose not above mediocrity, and were of +that class whose _natural_ walk is on the earth. They were _busy_ all +day long about every thing; interested alike in the gravest or minutest +concerns, and never tortured their brains with any subject of +contemplation beyond the reach of sense. Healthful in mind, as well as +in body; gay, and continually employed; they talked, and walked, and +rode, and drove, dined out, and gave dinners at home, and were never +weary of themselves, or of the society around them. + +But the cup of existence is never unmixed. If the wormwood leaf float +not on its surface, it will be found lying at the bottom. Three years +glided by. The first was one of such novelty and incessant excitement, +that no yawning chasm was seen, felt, or understood; the second was +sometimes slightly tinged by anxiety lest the pleasant hedge-rows of +Henbury Lodge should one day encircle another race, and stranger feet +should press its smiling lawns; but when a third year closed its barren +account with blighted hopes, expectation died away; and though Mr. and +Mrs. Hartland were still the envy of the region in which they grew, and +were universally declared to be worthy of an annual flitch, it was +nevertheless remarked, and especially by Miss Ferret, whose penetration +stood high in public regard, that "all was not right at Henbury." + +At first her hints conveyed nothing more determinate, than was +communicated in the adage, "All is not gold that glisters;" but this +had the effect of setting those who were less intimate than herself +with the friends whose undefined sorrows she zealously published, +writhing with curiosity, while her own gained time for such inquisition +as should bring her to the true cause of that change, the effects of +which only her quick eye had as yet discerned. Besides, it was more +consonant with Miss Ferret's idea of _true friendship_ to set other +wits upon the discovery of any thing disagreeable, should such exist, +than _directly_ to proclaim it herself; and therefore every purpose +was gained of stimulating the industry of other gossips, while her +innuendoes, darkly dropped, persuaded the entire vicinage that she knew +a great deal more than she chose to reveal, and was only withheld from +promulgating to the full extent of her information, by "the sincere +regard which she entertained for the Hartlands." + +But what is there which a union of talents and diligence will not +compass and achieve? Miss Ferret's were soon crowned with success, and +happily the cloud that overcast the horizon of Henbury was of that +nature which might be trumpeted to the four corners of the earth (if +indeed the round world have such convenient recesses for playing hide +and seek), without the violation of those feelings which our busy blab +professed for her _protegés_. + +It was well known throughout the country that both Mr. and Mrs. +Hartland were particularly partial to children; so much so, that +whenever they appeared, the fond mothers of the neighbourhood used +constantly to ring the nursery chimes for their edification or +amusement, and many a morning call has been inconveniently protracted +to the visitors, for the purpose of "seeing the baby," whose tedious +delay after summons issued, and elaborate dress when produced, proved +the complete metamorphosis which it had undergone in the interval, +before it was considered to be fitly attired for exhibition in the +drawing-room. But Miss Ferret, happening to be in company one day when +the large family of a neighbouring curate was mentioned, remarked that +Mrs. Hartland, who never gave herself the habit of _generalizing_ +in conversation, replied rather pensively, "Alas! how unequally the +gifts of Providence are distributed!" + +Miss Ferret expressed herself to have felt as if she had been _shot_ +when this observation fell from her friend; and it furnished a clue by +which the whole labyrinth of her secret thoughts came to be developed. +Pursuing the light which now glimmered, Miss Ferret immediately +acquiesced in the justice of the remark, and proceeded to tell of a +gentleman and lady who were the happiest people in the world, "_all +but_ having no heirs to their fine estate," and added, "They have been +married fully five years, and you may _suppose_ what their feelings +are; for we must acknowledge that it is the most natural thing in the +world to wish that one's name should not be cut off; and, as I often +say, an extinguisher put over one's grave is enough to lower one's +spirits; for the grave in itself is sufficiently gloomy in all +conscience, without putting an end to the whole _stock_, who might +live a little longer, all at a blow." + +Mrs. Hartland sighed, while a faint colour was observed to glance +across her countenance. After a slight pause, she said, as though she +had often pondered the subject, "Yes, hope deferred, they say, maketh +the heart sick." + +The whole mystery was now unravelled, or as Miss Ferret expressed the +same idea in her peculiar phraseology, "the cat was out of the bag;" +and it was evident that the Henbury _thorn_ stood revealed, in the +childless condition of that house. This point once established, it may +be imagined that joy was at its height, on the actual expectation of an +event, the delay of which only seemed _now_ to the grateful hearts of +Mr. and Mrs. Hartland to have been expressly ordained for the purpose +of enhancing its value. How readily we acknowledge the providence of +divine interposition when we are pleased! + +But we cannot stop to moralize, it is our duty to recount; and if we +could bring our minds into full sympathy with those whose history we +are narrating, there are few subjects of sufficient importance to +alienate attention from the theme of our present consideration. The +dread of disappointment rendered Mrs. Hartland very cautious in +divulging her hopes; but at length prospects of the most gratifying +nature opened to her view, and Miss Ferret received permission to +diffuse tidings which appeared to tell the acme of human felicity. +Doctors and apothecaries, nurses and nurse-tenders, frocks, pinnafores, +cradles, and caps, tops and bottoms, goats' whey, rennet-whey, +asses'-milk, cows'-milk, and a thousand other appliances equally +interesting of this important season, which was now unequivocally +approaching, absorbed the thoughts, and occupied the conversation at +Henbury. Mrs. Hartland reclined upon a sofa, and issued her orders from +thence through the faithful Ferret, with as much pomp and ceremony as +ever hung upon the Ottoman Divan; while Mr. Hartland's anxious office +was to forestal the newspapers, seize upon the letter-bag, and prepare +every visitor by regular instruction upon the topics of their +discourse, lest the slightest imprudence in communicating the current +rumours of the day, might disturb the nervous system of his wife. + +To this end, he generally took his station in an ante-room in which a +sort of probationary noviciate was performed, and people, after being +examined, admonished, and duly qualified, received admission tickets to +the presence chamber. + +As the fulness of time advanced, several weighty consultations were +held, which called forth every power of taste and understanding which +the Hartlands possessed, to meet the opposite arguments which were +propounded in them. Two debates of longer and more difficult +deliberation than all preceding, were however happily adjusted to the +entire satisfaction of the parties, and the perfect reconcilement of +contending opinions. In one of these it was decreed that if a son were +to bless the parent eyes, he should be christened Algernon Robinson; +and if the soft smiles of a daughter were destined to awaken love, +rather than ambition, Melasina was to be her name. Mr. Hartland's +father had unfortunately been called Peter, Mrs. Hartland's progenitor +Jacob; and the reader will admit that two more impracticable +appellations were never unluckily brought together to perplex the +counsels of a pair who were looking forward with eager raptures to the +baptismal font, and habitually impressed at the _same time_, with +the propriety of sending family echoes to the latest posterity. + +How to harmonize sounds without compromising respect was the question, +and no small exertion of skill did it require to balance the pros and +cons. Many cogent reasons were urged by Sir Roger and Lady Goodman for +the regular descent of Peter, Jacob, or both; while a hint, which gave +a climax to perplexity was thrown out by the latter, who said that she +should not think the addition of her worthy husband's name an +_unnatural_ appendage by way of compliment to him. Mrs. Hartland's rest +was broken by this harassing choice of evils. At last she resolved on +bursting her fetters, and declared the bold resolve to waive precedent, +and not in compliance with an antiquated prejudice, entail on future +generations the quaint appellations, which she determined to sacrifice +to what she considered the true interests of her son. + +"The junction of sur-names," said she, "may appease the shades of his +dead grandfathers, and Goodman may bring up the rear. Whether boy or +girl, the only sounds which need be uttered shall delight the ear, and +all the rest may be smuggled away under initial letters. I am +_resolved_ on Algernon or Melasina." + +Mr. Hartland was in the habit of acquiescing in the decrees of his +better half: and remembered how pleasantly his favourite Sterne has +declared that a man who might have made a flourishing figure in the +world as an Alexander might be Nicodemus'd into nothing. He therefore +gave his assent and consent to Algernon for the male sex, Melasina for +the female, and the debate was at an end. + +The second dispute of magnitude which was settled about the same time, +related to sponsors. Mr. Hartland belonged to a noble house, and the +Earl of Marchdale, who held a high office under government, was his +first cousin. Those who know any thing of the world, are aware that +consanguinity to great men, unless in the nearest degrees, is more +frequently a disadvantage than the contrary. A brother cannot be left +in obscurity, and perhaps a nephew may have some chance of preferment, +but cousins are generally shaken off and made to know their distance. +Mr. Hartland's mother had once made an effort to seek for her son the +countenance and protection of his noble relative, but received such +peremptory repulse that a second experiment was never hazarded. + +Times however were changed, and circumstances altered likewise. It had +reached Lord Marchdale's ears that Mr. Hartland was no longer a poor +man; and curiosity prompted him to ask where the newly acquired +property of his kinsman was situated, which led to information that it +lay in a certain county where he wished to increase his influence. +Something a kin to shame at the recollection of former rough treatment +exerted towards his relation, withheld his Lordship from offering his +congratulations on an accession of fortune which might immediately +suggest a remembrance of his former unkindness; but he formed the +benevolent design of seizing on the first convenient opportunity for +some token of conciliatory recognition of his cousin. Mr. Hartland's +marriage would have afforded an auspicious occasion, but unluckily Lord +Marchdale was making a tour on the Continent when that event took +place, and to have written an epithalamium after his return, might not +have had the desired effect. + +"I should not have thanked any one for wishing _me_ joy on my nuptials, +six months after date," thought his Lordship; and acting in this +instance by the rule of doing to others, as he desired others should do +towards him, he waited--and waited not in vain. Actuated by the motives +to which we have alluded, to make more minute inquisition into the +affairs of his uncle's only son than had been his wont, he became +acquainted with the bright hopes which, like a morning in Spring, were +breaking over the destiny of one whose prosperity promised now to +transcend his own, for he was childless. Lord Marchdale therefore lost +no more time, but hastened on receiving the intelligence to write the +following epistle: + + "DEAR FRANK, + + "I am not one of those who advocate the perpetuation of family + feuds. Your poor father and mine never agreed, but that is no + reason why you and I should feel any hostility towards each other, + though I fear that appearances are against me. My utter inability + to serve you, when Mrs. Hartland applied to me in your behalf, + having formerly obliged me reluctantly to disappoint her wishes, I + learn now, with sincere satisfaction, that you no longer stand in + need of aid, but are enabled proudly to raise your head amongst + England's best protectors, her resident country gentlemen. I hear + also the interesting news, that your happiness is likely to + experience increase through an unexpected event; and am desirous + that the young stranger should be a bond of re-union between us. If + a boy, I wish that you may name him Algernon; and represent me at + his baptism as godfather. If Mrs. Hartland should present you with + a daughter, Lady Marchdale requests me to announce her disposition + to stand sponsor. Believe me, dear Frank, + + "Very truly yours, + + "MARCHDALE." + +The familiar style of this letter did not impose on Mr. Hartland, who +saw through the kindliness of its contents; but it was agreed in full +conclave, that it would be imprudent in the extreme to repel this +advance; and as the possibility of succeeding to the Marchdale titles +and estates had often in secret served as foundation for air built +castles, which soothed Mrs. Hartland's solitary hours, she had already +anticipated a part of her noble connexion's petition, by resolving on +giving her child, should it prove a son, the only high sounding name in +the family. Nothing could be more flattering to maternal ambition than +the coincidence, which resolved all past solicitude into the pleasing +certainty, that the expected progeny was to be ushered into life with +due pretension. If a son, as it was earnestly prayed that the offspring +should prove, Lord Marchdale and Sir Roger Goodman were to be his +sureties; if a girl, Lady Marchdale and Lady Goodman were to perform +the like office; and Miss Ferret, of whose adhesive assiduities it was +impossible to get rid, was to be an honorary or supplemental corps of +reserve. Nothing would tempt her to abandon the honour of "standing for +the child;" and, to pacify her, Mrs. Hartland consented to her bearing +it to the font, where she hoped that her over-zealous friend might be +mistaken for a mere proxy. + +All things being prepared, and the minds of all composed into +tranquillity, Mrs. Hartland felt the moment arrived which was to crown +her hopes and raise her consequence. But an event of such importance +deserves a separate Chapter, and therefore we close this. Muffle the +knocker, scatter straw round the house and offices, forbid all approach +of horse or wheel that might disturb the anxious hour, and commit the +invalid, with our blessing, to her medical attendants. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + "He talks to me, who never had a son."--KING JOHN. + + +We remember to have been shown once upon a time, as a marvellous +curiosity, the stump of a large bay-tree, which had been cut down to +make way for certain architectural improvements, and actually converted +into a chopping-block, in which capacity it was employed during several +years; but at length the family, to whom it appertained, quitted their +dwelling, and the aforesaid stump, which had not been defunct, but only +slumbering, was cast into a heap of earth, where, fertilized by the +beams of the sun and the dews of the morning, it struck root amid the +garden rubbish, and sent forth branches which flourished proudly, and +spread their verdant foliage to the wondering skies. What joyful +surprise would this neglected trunk have expressed had power of speech +been granted! and with what grateful pride would it not have called on +the admiring universe to behold and glorify its transformation! + +Some such sentiments as we are supposing to have emanated from our bay +tree, glowed in the hearts of Mr. and Mrs. Hartland as they gazed in +rapture on a boy of uncommon symmetry and beauty; and, forgetful of the +lavish prodigality of that vivifying principle which is employed at +every moment in giving life from the palace to the cottage, the cottage +to the kennel, and the kennel downwards to the lowest grade of +organised existence, thanked Heaven with such alacrity of transport as +seemed to intimate that they considered the effort of nature which +animated the vital energies of Henbury as astonishing and unexpected as +that which caused the chopping-block to put forth leaves and blossoms. + +The innocent vanity which Mrs. Hartland had formerly felt at finding +herself a wife, dwindled into insignificance in comparison with the +elation of her spirits when the dignity of mother was added to her +former honours; and the words "_son and heir_" might be read in +every look, and traced in every gesture in characters which seemed to +say, that none but herself had ever produced this mighty combination. + +We have formerly stated, that literature was not the prevailing taste +of the neighbourhood in which Henbury was planted, and as it is a +common rule "to do as the Romans do while one is at Rome," Mr. and Mrs. +Hartland may, for all we can tell to the contrary, have suppressed +their own inclination to accommodate their manners and habits to the +fashion of those amongst whom they dwelt. Certain it is that, from +whatever cause it proceeded, there was an abstinence from books at +Henbury till the birth of Algernon Robinson Goodman Hartland, and +though his father had gone through school and university, and his +mother played well enough for carpet dancers, sang a little, painted +birds and flowers on velvet, and worked like a Moravian, neither the +one or the other found time, amid the multiplicity of their daily +pursuits, for reading. + +The revolution which was effected by the little stranger's arrival was +therefore the more striking. Every thing now was made subservient to +the one great leading object. During the first year after this +agreeable surprise, Henbury appeared a temple dedicated to Lucina, in +which all the insignia of a new birth were displayed in cradle and +pillows, saucepans and panada, blankets and wraps. Whichever way the +eye were turned, the present deity of the place reigned from the attic +to the basement story; and all distinct purposes, and applications of +the several apartments were set aside for a season, to render the +dwelling a universal nursery. Then came on the time of go-carts and +corals; and every publication on teething, vaccination, and each +disease to which infant flesh is heir, poured from the press by all the +coaches, as if authors and printers were in league to pay their court +to Mr. and Mrs. Hartland. + +Three years passed away, and with them the scaffolding which, becoming +unnecessary, was now thrown aside. The young Algernon, who, it must be +confessed, was beautiful as we are taught to believe the little god of +love, happily surmounted the host of enemies who take their stand at +the entrance-gate of life to oppose the mortal wayfarer, and was the +admiration of all beholders, as well as the centre of all joy and pride +to his parents. He was a child of extraordinary loveliness and most +noble bearing; and fortunately for him his father and mother had often +remarked, that the peasant children were a healthier race than the +offspring of a higher class, which procured for him the inestimable +privilege of breathing fresh air, and exercising his little limbs out +of doors. + +The cares of home became gradually so engrossing as to wean Mr. and +Mrs. Hartland from the social circle, of which they had hitherto been +the chief pillar and support, in their neighbourhood. They were now +employed from morning till night in studying plans of education, +mooting the comparative merits and demerits of schools, canvassing the +question of public and private instruction, discussing the respective +characters of Oxford and Cambridge, and laying schemes for futurity, as +though time were to have no end. + +The natural consequence of these things was a considerable loss of +popularity. People began to think both Mr. and Mrs. Hartland, who had +been prime and general favourites, grown dull and selfish, forgetting +that it was selfishness which passed the rigorous decree in adjudging +that disagreeable quality to them. Mrs. Hartland, who never till now +talked of books, soon obtained the opprobrious appellation of a Blue, +and all Miss Ferret's efforts were unavailing to conciliate those who +could not bear to think that the Hartlands were happy enough to do +without them. + +Jemima, however, though she did her best to obtain forgiveness for her +friends, did not fail to warn them in private of their improvidence. +"Out of sight out of mind," was an apothegm which she urged with +reiterated pathos, to deter the inhabitants of Henbury from renouncing +the world, which she assured them "could not be drawn on and off like a +glove." Nothing, in fact, could be more hostile to Miss Ferret's views +than divisions and schisms, which, by splitting a neighbourhood into +parties, diminished its general hospitality; or those withdrawings from +society through sickness or sorrow, which lessened the gregarious +tendencies of the people amongst whom she lived. We may therefore give +her full credit for not leaving, as she herself expressed it, "a stone +unturned" to bring our pair of recluses to reason, and induce them to +seek their felicity where she found her own, namely, in the festive +coterie. But Mrs. Hartland in the course of her new studies had, some +how or other, stumbled upon the remarkable sentence which Charles the +Twelfth of Sweden, when a boy, wrote with a pencil at the bottom of a +map of Riga, demonstrative of those talents which were one day to +astonish the world: "Dieu me l'a donnée et le diable ne me l'otera +pas," and with maternal energy she replied in these celebrated words, +intimating by their appropriation to her own case, the same heroic +resolutions which inspired the Swede, to preserve that which had been +granted to _her_ arms. + +"My dear Jemima," added she, unconsciously drawing up her head as she +spoke, "there is nothing easier than for people to talk who are not +mothers. I cannot perform by halves, the momentous duty which it has +pleased heaven to devolve upon me. The sacred task can only be +fulfilled by an entire devotion, and we must give ourselves up to the +faithful discharge of this awful trust. Lady Goodman, too, has never +known what it is to be a mother (raising her head still higher); and +really, my dear, it is impossible, even for the best intentioned of +one's friends who are _inexperienced_, to enter into the tremendous +responsibilities of a parent." + +"No, thank heaven," answered Miss Ferret; "I know only by hearsay of +the great pangs and perils, through the martyrdom of which you boast +your new title; though our curate Mr. Pew, who had been but just +appointed before your confinement, seeing me at your side when I +accompanied you to the communion-table, stupidly churched me also, and +gave me a share in all your thanksgivings for a son and heir. But +depend upon it, my dear friend, that you will be tired of all this +sort of thing by and by, and wish that you had not affronted your +neighbours. Remember, after all said and done, that there cannot be any +_great_ distinction in bringing a bantling into the world, when every +beggar-woman in the parish has a troop at her heels. Your child will +fare the better for not being thought so much of. I always say that +'the watched pot never boils,' and people are constantly disappointed +themselves, besides being intolerable to others, when they make too +great a fuss about any thing that belongs to them." + +Mrs. Hartland was deeply offended, and thus ended an intercourse which +had ceased to please on either side, and the _go-between_ quitted +Henbury and its inhabitants for ever, enlisting herself from that +moment amongst the most active of the oppositionists, who ridiculed +their folly and resented their pretensions. + +Matters proceeded in this train till our once social pair had scarcely +a neighbour with whom they interchanged the usual hospitalities. They +were, however, so absorbed by their domestic interests, that no void +was felt, and the only serious grief which disturbed their happiness +was the want of a companion about his own age for their idol Algernon, +who improved in beauty as he advanced in growth, and gave evidence of +talents at five years old which might have been deemed uncommon at +double that age. + +As may be imagined, Algernon experienced the very worst effects of the +spoiling system. Every possible error in education seemed likely to +lend its aid in making the child selfish, and the man, if he lived to +become one, insignificant and disagreeable. Mrs. Hartland read every +treatise which had ever been published on her favourite theme, and +endeavoured to put every theory in practice. Like all late converts to +any thing from its opposite, she was mad upon the subject of reading. +Literature, next to the love of young Algernon, became her ruling +passion, and the most tiresome pedantry of language succeeded her +natural manner of expressing herself. Exercising a limited capacity on +topics new to her understanding, and often above its calibre, our good +dame's mind became the strangest mass that could be conceived of +ill-digested systems, the principles of which she could not comprehend, +but the practical results of which, however contradictory, she +attempted to realize. Algernon was to be a miracle of early knowledge; +yet his mind was not to be over-wrought. He was to be a prodigy of +courage, while every living animal was banished from his presence, lest +any injury should reach the child. Of self-denial he was to be a +shining example, because Mrs. Hartland found that quality much insisted +upon in the works which were now her chief delight; but at the same +time her son's spirit was not to be broken by opposition, nor his +temper soured by contradiction. From this specimen it is easy to judge +of the whole, and the reader has no need of further insight into the +chaos which we have sufficiently described. + +Mr. Hartland, though Greek and Latin had been driven into his cranium, +and he was rather proud of his skill in prosody, was a person of still +flatter intellect than his wife. Constitutional indolence also added +lead to the dullness of his faculties. It is therefore not to be +wondered at, that, mistaking his fair partner's activity for genius, +and her dictatorial harangues, delivered in words, each of which was as +long as a tape-worm, for the profoundest wisdom; he honestly believed +that Minerva herself had stepped down from her niche in the celestial +Pantheon, to assume the outward similitude of his better half. + +Now it so happened that, about the period of which we are speaking, a +monstrous quarto, with prodigious margins, which professed to impart +the newest and most approved method of teaching the young idea how to +shoot like a vine along the march of modern intellect, arrived at +Henbury-lodge. Mrs. Hartland flew at the prize, and disinterring the +volume from the superincumbent mass of brown paper and twine by which +it was environed, hastened to her sanctum, and opening at random, after +the manner of the Virgilian lots, she chanced to light upon the +following paragraph, which struck upon her eye and understanding as +especially directed to her peculiar case: + +"Nothing is more essential to the healthful developement of infant +mind, than congenial society. A child should associate with his +_fellows_, and while the bodily organs are kept in wholesome exercise, +the mental energies are thus directed to the natural objects of +childish pursuit. To this end children should be allowed to consort +together, and exhibit the true bearings of individual character, +uncontrolled by the bias which is given to youth by a constant and +injurious companionship with adults. In fine, a child should always be +provided with at least one playmate of his own age." + +This paragraph rested on the mother's mind, and was the Mordecai of her +peace. Her intercourse with the neighbouring gentry was reduced to an +occasional exchange of morning visits, which afforded no opportunity of +introducing her boy to the children of her acquaintance, and there +seemed to be no probability of his having brother or sister with whom +to associate at home. In this dilemma Mrs. Hartland often turned in her +mind the temporary adoption of a peasant-child, who might serve the +desired purpose; but as frequently rejected the idea, through dread of +vulgar habits and low thoughts coming in contact with the mind of her +son. + +While anxiously ruminating on what was best to be done, it happened +that Mr. Ackland, a gentleman who lived a few miles distant from +Henbury, called to enquire for the family, and in the course of +conversation of that miscellaneous kind which morning visits usually +supply, turned to Mrs. Hartland, and asked whether she had been to +Hazle-moor? + +"Why to that desolate heath?" replied she. "I should not prefer a drive +to Hazle-moor for any beauty which that part of the country can boast." + +"No," said Mr. Ackland, "the landscape is certainly not very alluring; +but you have heard of the lovely little Spaniard. Have you not?" + +"I have not the least idea of what you allude to," answered Mrs. +Hartland. "What Spaniard do you speak of?" + +"Oh!" replied Mr. Ackland, "I thought that every one within a circuit +of twenty miles at least had heard of our beautiful infant stranger. It +is upwards of a week since a troop of gipsies appeared upon Hazle-moor, +and there they might have held their station ever since without +exciting particular attention, were it not for the extraordinary +perfections of a child, who has in some mysterious manner fallen into +their hands. Two or three portrait-painters have already come to take +likenesses of the fascinating little creature; and the wild community +to which she belongs having discovered the profit which may be realized +through her means, are daily making money by exhibiting the symmetry of +her baby-form to all who are prompted by curiosity to visit this tiny +enchantress." + +"Who is she?" said Mrs. Hartland. + +"That is precisely the question which every body asks, and none can +answer," replied Mr. Ackland. "If her owners are acquainted with her +parentage, they do not choose to tell more than that they purchased her +from a soldier's wife, who seemed a worthless sort of person. Her +little mantle, hat, and plume, together with her country's dialect, +proclaim the land which gave her birth. She speaks fluently, though +with lisping tongue, and calls herself Zoé, as the nearest +approximation which she can make to the more difficult pronunciation of +Zorilda, which is the name she bears." + +"Dear babe!" exclaimed Mrs. Hartland, "what will become of her?" + +"Alas!" said Mr. Ackland, "the parents who have been robbed of such a +child are objects of one's tenderest commiseration; and as to the +little one herself, it is but too easy to foretell that her course +cannot prosper. She is now only three years old or thereabouts; and for +a short time to come may not imbibe the poison of personal flattery, +but a race of vanity will terminate in destruction. Were I not the +father of a family, and fearful of introducing perhaps the murderer of +future repose amongst my children by bringing a dangerous non-descript +under my roof, I would certainly purchase Zorilda from her present +possessors, and take her home to Newlands, in the hope of being able to +restore her some day or other to her relations. Yet, on the other hand, +she may be the property of people who are not desirous to reclaim her, +and might entail a weighty responsbility on my head. Such a romantic +importation into my household could not fail of working mischief in the +fulness of time, and therefore I have resolved silencing all the +_yearnings_ of impulse; but I recommend both you and Mr. Hartland +to go and see her, as the wandering group who are intent on showing her +to all who will pay them for the sight, will speedily pack up in all +probability for some other scene." + +A sudden thought, which she refrained from promulging, darted across +the mind of Mrs. Hartland, and she pondered intently on what had fallen +from Mr. Ackland till the following day, when, ordering her carriage +immediately after breakfast, she set out, accompanied by her husband, +young Algernon, and his nurse, for Hazle-moor. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + "Beauty provoketh Thieves sooner than Gold." + + AS YOU LIKE IT. + + +The day was fine, and Algernon in high sprightliness and bloom, while +his delighted mother, stimulated by the opportunity of comparison which +now presented itself, secretly doubted in the pride of her heart that +any "mortal mixture of Earth's mould" could furnish such a specimen of +infant grace, as feasted her raptured eyes whenever they rested on her +darling, who had now attained the fifth anniversary of his birth. +Arrived at the Gipsey encampment, the party from Henbury descended from +their carriage and approached a crazy tent, the back of which was +turned towards the road by which our visitors had arrived at +Hazle-moor. Mrs. Hartland, snatching her boy's hand, pressed eagerly +forward, seeking with all her eyes, in every direction, for the little +Zorilda. A group of rustic looking children were at play in front of +the tent, and Mrs. Hartland darted into the midst of the circle, but +not seeing any thing attractive in the coarse physiognomy of these +youthful boors, she was seized with sudden alarm lest the object of her +curiosity had been borne away by some fortunate rival, in the very +scheme which she was herself meditating at that moment. + +While she paused, not perceiving any grown person to whom she could +direct an enquiry, a woman came running from a little distance and +called out, "the Spanish child is here, Ma'am, please to walk this +way." So saying, she conducted the party to the distance of a few +hundred yards, till they reached a great mound of peat which had been +piled together by the peasants of the country for firing, and formed a +main source of incitement to the gipsies in selecting this spot for +their temporary encampment. + +The woman preceded, followed by Mr. and Mrs. Hartland, Algernon, and +his nurse, and as they turned round the corner of the peat-rick, they +were arrested with astonishment at sight of the perfection of human +loveliness which burst upon their impatient view. Nothing, which was +ever fashioned in the laboratory of Nature in her most plastic mood, +could surpass the exquisite beauty of the cherub who lay fast asleep +upon a cushion of newly gathered heath, the rich purple blossoms of +which, mingling with curls of glossy jet, seemed to breathe their +perfumes in token of grateful pleasure, as the mountain breeze playing +amongst the tender branches wafted their delicate sprays across the +infant's polished brow, as if to guard the little angel from the sun's +too fervid beams. + +Mr. and Mrs. Hartland gazed in silent rapture, but Algernon's +transports were not so easily repressed; and Zorilda was wakened by the +inconsiderate demonstration of his joy at sight of her. The pretty +creature started from her fragrant pillow, and, frightened by the +presence of strangers, opened wide the most splendid dark eyes, which +till then had been reposing within their silken curtains, and, looking +wildly round, stretched her dimpled arms towards the gipsey woman, to +whose features she was accustomed; but ere the movement was finished, +her attention was caught by the little boy, and springing forward to +him, these charming children were in an instant locked in each other's +embraces. + +Mrs. Hartland's tears bespoke the feelings of her heart, and the gipsey +woman, desirous to heighten the effect of the scene by flattery, +assured her that the little Spaniard had never before exhibited such +sensibility to a stranger. + +The children played together with a kid which had attached itself to +Zorilda, and lay cropping the stray sprigs of her flowery couch while +she slept. As Mrs. Hartland retired back a few paces to indulge her +emotion, the young Spaniard fancied that she was going away, and +seizing her hand, pointed to Algernon with a look of deep anxiety, +crying, in the sweetest possible accent, "Lady, no, no go." The spell +was now firmly bound around the mother's affection, and she resolved, +that if money could purchase the child, she would not return home +without Zorilda. Mr. Hartland was in the habit, as has been stated, of +yielding to every suggestion of his wife, whose prudence he respected +as much as he admired her wisdom; and as he doted on his son, in common +with her, and was as much delighted with Zorilda as Mrs. Hartland could +possibly be, he entered warmly into the idea of securing such a +treasure of companionship for Algernon, and set about negotiating the +purchase with all the zeal of one who wished to succeed. + +The husband of the gipsey woman returned ere long, and much time did +not elapse before a bargain was concluded, the terms of which were, +that the child should accompany the party to Henbury, leaving the best +part of her little wardrobe behind, and fifty guineas were to be +exchanged for her in cash. The gipsies were in reality very anxious to +sell the infant, as, though the avidity of gain rendered them desirous +to exhibit her for profit, they suffered continual uneasiness from the +dread of her being claimed. They had, it is true, stolen her in a +distant part of the kingdom, and reached Hazle-moor by forced marches +and by intricate bye ways; but much farther concealment could not be +hoped for, and the mere loss of their booty was not the worst which +these lawless plunderers apprehended. They would be punished for the +flagrant violation of the laws which they had committed, and therefore +gladly availed themselves of the first offer to take the little girl +off their hands for a pecuniary price. + +The business was arranged, and Zorilda, who clung with the greatest +solicitude to her new acquaintance, as if she felt it more natural as +well as agreeable to associate with them than her late masters, was put +into the carriage. Algernon followed, and Mrs. Hartland was just +raising her foot to the step, when Zorilda's kid made a spring, and +took precedence most ungallantly of the lady. The children were charmed +with nanny-goat's agility, clasped it in their arms, and begged that it +might be left with them. Half a guinea settled this second sale, and +the happy family drove away; Mr. Hartland having stipulated to redeem +his promissory note on the next market-day at the Tholsel, and an +engagement having been agreed to by the wandering horde, that no +enquiries should ever be made by any of them again concerning the +Spanish foundling. + +"Who _can_ this little darling be?" said Mrs. Hartland. It was in +vain that she catechised the child. "Zoé," was the only reply to the +question, however frequently repeated, of "what is your name?" + +The little stranger speedily adopted the sounds of "papa and mamma," +the happy children lived in each other's smiles, unconscious that a +time might ever come when joy should be exchanged for grief; and what +is more extraordinary, such is the contraction of a selfish spirit, +parents who ought to have been able to take a wider survey of causes +and effects, were satisfied with present expediency, and resolved that +futurity should shift for itself. + +Time rolled on; the same lessons, the same amusements, occupied the +opening minds of Algernon and Zorilda; yet in reality how dissimilar +was the education which they received! Admired, and even cherished as +was the latter, she was in point of fact a purchased slave, while the +former was the hope, the promise, the prop, and pillar of his father's +house. As we have never obtained a phrenological survey of these +childrens' heads, we shall not say any thing of original configuration +with reference to faculties and positions, nor fraudulently entrap our +readers into a new edition of Locke on the human understanding, when +they expect to find a narrative relating to individuals and events. It +suffices us as faithful biographers to state that, while Algernon was +theoretically informed, Zorilda was practically instructed; and as +early impressions are generally conceived to possess considerable +influence on subsequent character, we hope to be pardoned for briefly +describing the opposite results of two systems essentially different +from each other. Were the children at their meals? Algernon was told +that good boys were never greedy, but he was always helped first. Were +the little friends at play? Algernon often heard that the eldest, who +had most sense, should always give up, and "the young gentleman yield +to the young lady." Yet Algernon who was selfish, contended, conquered, +and was never reprimanded. He was _recommended_ to be polite, but the +little Zorilda was _commanded_ to bring him whatever he wanted. Matters +in short were so managed, or rather mismanaged, that _words_ were +employed with one, and _actions_ with the other; _shadows_ were the +portion of Algernon, while all the _substance_ of discipline was +bestowed on Zorilda. + +As the children advanced they read the same books, they were taught by +the same masters, they learned the same accomplishments, but literary +or ornamental acquirement is only the surface of education. The +foundation of character, such as forms the real distinction between +individuals of the human species, must be laid in the heart, and +whether a man is the blessing or the curse of that society in which he +possesses influence in after life, generally depends upon the practical +nature of those views by which his natural propensities are regulated, +his vicious tendencies repressed, and every noble, virtuous indication +strengthened and encouraged. Profession is not principle; saying is not +doing; and the fruits will correspond with the methods pursued in +training the youthful mind. Algernon and Zorilda doted on each other, +but the former loved himself better than his little companion. He could +not endure her absence, but it was because her sweet temper, cheerful +acquiescence and inventive talents, increased the measure of his +enjoyment by constant study to please, and perpetual variety in the +means of amusement. Zorilda's affection on the contrary was +unadulterated by the alloy of selfishness. She could not imagine +pleasure separate from the happiness of those who were dear to her +little heart. Though her childish sports lost all their charm when +Algernon did not share them, she would at any moment endeavour to +promote his gratification by the sacrifice of her own; and employed her +irresistible eloquence in furthering the indulgence of a ride upon the +favourite pony at Mr. Hartland's side, which would deprive her of all +she valued till the return of her beloved play-fellow from his +excursion. + +At length arrived the important hour of decision upon the long agitated +question of a public school or a private tutor; and the latter was +agreed upon. Mr. Playfair's credentials were unexceptionable, and he +commenced his course with every prospect of mutual liking. He was a +middle-aged man, of pleasing manners, and an excellent scholar; but as +he was given to understand that no moral instruction was required at +his hands, he soon learned to desist from interfering with a department +placed beyond the bounds of his jurisdiction. + +"I would not allow any mortal," said Mrs. Hartland, "to supersede me in +the pleasing task of forming the mind and manners of my son;" and we +have already seen how she was qualified for the work which she +determined on executing without substitute or auxiliary. + +Algernon wept over the Latin Grammar, and chiefly, because he did not +see any one else condemned to the labours which were inflicted on him. + +"Why does not Mr. Playfair make Zoé as unhappy as I am, and give her +this hard lesson to get by heart?" said the boy, as he sobbed upon his +mother's breast. + +Zoé was also drowned in tears; but it was because Algernon was +afflicted, and her question, urged in the softest tenderest accent, +was, "Oh, why may not I learn his lesson? I will then teach it to him." + +These two short and simple queries furnish the clue by which to follow +the entire labyrinth of these childrens' course. Mr. Playfair, who was +charmed with Zorilda's beauty and docility, readily undertook to aid +her generous purpose, by becoming her tutor, to which Mrs. Hartland +willingly consented; "_not_ that Greek and Latin," said she, "are +necessary for a young lady, but as dear Zoé, who in point of fact is +_nobody_, much as we love her, may turn all that we can do for her +to future account, she may now be made useful to Algernon as well as +herself, by sharing _all_ his labours." + +This fiat, though pronounced in an under voice, struck on Zorilda's ear +and attention. She was now only six years old, but the remarkable +acuteness of her sensibility, as well as understanding, rendered a +thousand appeals to both, which were beyond the reach of much older +children, comprehensible to her young mind; and the word _nobody_ +suffused her expressive countenance with a blush of deepest die. She +had often heard the question asked, "Who is she?" "Zoé," was her only +reply, and she had never tarried to hear another answer. This +_nobody_ perplexed her little heart, and, running into the arms of +Mrs. Hartland, she buried her glowing face in the bosom of her +protectress. + +"What do you mean, dear Mamma? sure Algernon is somebody; and though I +am younger, is not Zoé somebody too? we are both _your_ children." + +Mrs. Hartland sighed, and, caressing the child, disengaged herself from +the tender pressure, while a "Yes, my love," hastily uttered as she +left the room, had the effect of brushing away the tear which, at Zoé's +age, "is dried as soon as shed." + +Mr. Playfair was a man of distinguished learning, but he possessed +qualities of much rarer character than scholarship. He was a man of +strong sense and deep feeling. + +Mrs. Hartland on quitting the room had given him a look of +intelligence, which he understood, and following her to another +apartment, he listened, for the first time, to the history of Zorilda's +introduction at Henbury. + +When the story was finished, Mr. Playfair ventured to suggest a hint of +future inconvenience from this lovely child's domestication in the +family. + +"A day will come," added he, "in which the truth _must_ be revealed, +and I foresee at least the possibility of great misery and +embarrassment." + +Selfish people seldom take long views even for themselves, but happily +for the rest of mankind, are generally so uncompromising and +precipitate in endeavouring to compass their ends, as to put others on +their defence, and enable them sometimes to counteract, always to +anticipate the bearing of an illiberal spirit, intent on its own +exclusive gratification. + +Mr. Playfair possessed discrimination, and took in at a glance the +entire _carte du pays_. Though the little Zorilda was affectionately +treated at Henbury, he clearly perceived that she would be +unrelentingly sacrificed to the interests of ambition, and shaken off +without any attention to her feelings whenever a period arrived in +which it might be deemed prudent to get rid of her; but she was an +unfriended orphan, and to snatch her from present positive good in +order to avoid future contingent evil, might perhaps have been scarcely +justifiable, even though ability to do so had seconded inclination. In +Mr. Playfair's case it was impossible. He had no resources, and was a +single man. All that his situation permitted, he determined on +contributing for the benefit of his interesting charge, and never were +exertions more fully repaid. Zorilda's talents were of the first order, +and what is not usual, the solidity of her understanding equalled its +extraordinary quickness. She learned with surprising facility, and +discovered such a thirst for knowledge, that, never satisfied with +superficial glimmerings, she loved to probe the depths of every subject +which lay open to her pursuit. + +Algernon's sloth bore strict proportion to Zorilda's industry, of which +he knew how to reap the profit in a manner most congenial to his taste. +Certain of having his exercise written, and his translation parsed by +the companion of his studies, before she looked at her own task, he +gave himself as little trouble as possible; but, aware that the measure +of his idleness must continually depend on that of Zoé's diligence and +application, he encouraged in her what he neglected in his own +instance, and thus was instrumental in assisting Mr. Playfair's +benevolent design of storing the mind of the young unknown against the +hour of adversity. Whatever was the subject of instruction, Zorilda's +intuitive clearness of perception anticipated the labours of her tutor, +and she actually learned faster than he could teach; yet vanity was a +stranger to her young heart. Conscious of ignorance, while she sought +information, it appeared to her nothing extraordinary that she should +understand what the wisdom of others supplied: she transferred all +honour to her instructor, and as Mr. Playfair had too sincere an +interest in the welfare of his pupil to flatter her, our little heroine +passed her early spring of life without guessing that her talents +exceeded the common faculties of her fellow-creatures. Algernon +breathed, on the contrary, an atmosphere of continual praise, with +which his injudicious mother endeavoured to stimulate his progress. The +two children might be compared to plants, the one of which put forth +its sickly bloom in the artificial soil of a hot-bed; while the other, +fanned by the breezes, and fertilized by the dews of heaven, flourished +in full luxuriance of natural strength and beauty; but as the gardener, +who digs, prunes, trains, and waters, is the only person interested in +the gradual unfolding of those "leafy honours," which it is enough for +the casual visitor to see fully developed, we shall now draw a curtain +over the scene of budding hopes; or, if we may be allowed to conclude +our present Chapter with another simile, we will dive like the wild sea +bird into the ocean of time, on the surface of which we have been +slowly sailing, and hiding beneath the billows for a season, start up +anew after a temporary submersion. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + We were as twinned lambs that did frisk i' the sun + And bleat the one at the other: what we changed + Was innocence for innocence. We knew not + The doctrine of ill-doing. No, nor dreamed + That any did. + + WINTER'S TALE. + + +As we are not shackled by those inconvenient unities which fetter the +discursive propensities of the dramatist, binding him to time and +place, we have been permitted to take a ramble or a doze as our +inclinations prompted, and re-assemble at Henbury, after an interval of +some years. + +On our return, we are naturally struck with the changes which such a +lapse has effected. Many alterations have taken place amongst our old +friends in the Hartland family since our last domestication amongst +them. On our return we found, it is true, the same dramatis personæ; +but the aspect of things was changed. The master of the mansion was the +first to appear as we approached his dwelling; and though men of his +temperament are remarkable for wearing well, the perennial smile which +used to illumine his features with the dead-light of a peat-coal fire, +was darkened by a cloud, if not of contemplation, certainly of care, +which had destroyed the only redeeming expression of a mindless +countenance. He was riding over his farm, with his eyes fixed on +vacancy, while he went at a snail's pace, and his horse's bridle lay +floating on the pummel of the saddle. We next discovered that Mrs. +Hartland was not far off, as we heard her speak before we had the +pleasure of seeing her, and learned, on inquiry, that we were not +mistaken in our recollection of her voice, though it was now employed +in scolding, which was a novelty to our ears. + +"Ay," said the gardener, with whom we held some conversation before we +were enabled to judge for ourselves, "Missess has taken latterly to +thrift, and her eye is every where. We say that, like what is remarked +of the Bristol men, she sleeps with one eye open, for nothing escapes +her. She is all for the lucre of gain. The family is kept as bare as +can be, and she sends off the best of every thing to market. Miss +Ferret now supplies the whole country round with Henbury pork, and +Henbury fowls, and Henbury cheese, vegetables, fruit, and flowers. +Nothing will go down that doesn't come from Henbury; and it is +lamentable to see a lady scuffling about early and late, in her thick +shoes and rug cloak; battling with every body, and grinding people to +powder with her tongue; and all this to puff up pride, by heaping up +treasure for him who will not have the heart to spend it as he ought. +If it wasn't for that angel, Miss Zoé, who keeps the young Squire in +check, he would be just as great a skin-flint as his mother." + +Accuracy of observation is not to be measured by refinement of phrase; +and though this rough sketch was delivered in coarse language, it was a +correct delineation. Mr. Hartland's strictness of economy had grown out +of circumstances, the chief amongst which was a decline in the health +of Lady Marchdale. Should she die, there was danger that Lord Marchdale +would marry again, and thus the remotest chance might be cut off of +Algernon's succession to the title and estates of his noble relative. +As matters stood, though _hope_ fluttered her golden pinion, and +sometimes dazzled the mother's eye, _expectation_ could not be said to +live in her breast, for she knew that Lord Marchdale had levied fines, +and could alienate his property if he pleased; but he was fond of his +name, and her son bore not only that of the family, but the Earl's +Christian name in addition; besides, the relation of godfather was +_something_, and the best look-out of all was, that a nobleman so +situated might delay making his will; in which case, were he to die +intestate, Algernon was next heir after his own father. These were +strong points, but not sufficient ground to _rest_ upon, and therefore +Mrs. Hartland prudently resolved to act as if the hedge-rows of Henbury +formed the extremest horizon of her view. Having taken the lead in her +son's education for several years, and perhaps believing that he was +_quite_ faultless, she gradually relaxed the severity of her studies, +and, ranging the ponderous volumes over which she had pored during many +a day upon the shelf, she devoted herself to active concerns, and +became so expert in buying and selling, farming and feeding, that every +year found a new deposit in the hands of Mr. Fairly, the stock-broker. + +"My dear," said Mrs. Hartland to her husband, "we must not depend on +accidents. Our duty is to lay up for our child. If he comes to the +family title and fortune, well and good; no harm is done, and a +nest-egg in the funds is never amiss. If, on the other hand, we are +disappointed, Algernon may still hold up his head amongst our +neighbours, if we scrape together our pence, and live as we ought to +do." + +Mr. Hartland nodded assent, and the screwing system commenced, not, +however, without a keen eye to appearances, which were to be observed +so as to maintain a show of gentility suited to prospective +contingencies. The warm, broad, laughing fire was exchanged for the +sullen brasier or the sulphurous stove; and though Mr. Playfair more +than once reminded Mrs. Hartland of the anecdote of Alexander and +Diogenes, she contrived to exclude the brightness of the sun, along +with the caloric of his beams, from affording compensation for the +deficiency of coals, by blocking up half the windows in the house, to +avoid the tax upon daylight. The _form_ of two courses certainly +graced the table; but in the first, the smoking joint had given way to +scraps and messes dished up nobody knew how, or from what material, +while never-ending Jerusalem artichokes, skerrets, and celery, played +an unfailing part in furnishing the second. We were assured that Mrs. +Hartland's parsimony had even descended to mixing the wines with water, +before they were put down after dinner. + +But where were the young people, and how had time dealt with them? The +old lord of the scythe and hour-glass had performed the promise which, +during their infancy, he made to each. Algernon, who had reached his +nineteenth year, was strikingly handsome. Nearly six feet in height, he +had nothing of the awkwardness which usually marks that age; but +presented the appearance of full-grown five-and-twenty. Algernon was, +however, still the same indolent and selfish being of our former +acquaintance. He had imbibed just enough of knowledge and acquirement +to shew how much more he might have attained, and possessed abilities +capable of far higher cultivation than he could be prevailed upon to +employ; but self was the deity of his worship, and we need say no more +of him. + +Of Zorilda--what words can be found to convey an adequate idea of her +perfections? She had numbered nearly seventeen years, and in face and +figure exhibited a model of female loveliness. The exquisite beauty of +her form, the natural grace of every movement, and the penetrating +sensibility of her countenance, would have rivetted all beholders, even +though her features had wanted that symmetry which is requisite to +charm the artist's eye; but Zorilda might have defied the painter's +skill to find a fault in the proportions of her face, and that face +bespoke the soul which dwelt within, and was worthy of such a casket to +contain such a gem. Never did imagination create a more delightful +fiction than was realized in the person of the youthful Spaniard. Was +it wonderful, then, that all who looked upon her, saw and loved? + +For two young people to have lived from infancy together without having +ascertained that they were not related to each other by even the +remotest tie of consanguinity, would be ridiculous to suppose, and was +not the fact, though Mr. and Mrs. Hartland had been silent, and ordered +their household to abstain from any communication which might destroy +the illusion of brother and sister, which, if established into habitual +belief, might never be questioned, and prevent the growth of those +sentiments which the anxious parents at _last_ dreaded to anticipate. +Blinded by her wishes, as well as natural presumption, Mrs. Hartland +had long refused to open her eyes to the possible consequences of her +imprudent conduct, in domesticating her only son with the most +attractive of her sex, unless she desired a union between them. She saw +nothing but the accomplishment of her own views in _any_ arrangement; +and even after the warning voice of Mr. Playfair had put her on her +guard, thought it only necessary to employ an increased reserve upon +the topic of Zoé's origin, to secure against an unfortunate result, and +continue to Algernon the happiness of companionship, without +endangering his future repose. + +"Should a time ever arrive," said the coarse-grained Mrs. Hartland, +"when it may become requisite to take stronger measures, it is only +necessary to tell Algernon the truth. _My_ son will never disgrace +himself by alliance with a gipsey. We can remove Zoé at any time, as I +say, Mr. Playfair. I appeal to _you_, rather than Mr. Hartland, on +this point, because he is absurdly fond of the girl, and I often tell +him that I am certain he loves that _enfant trouvé_ better than his own +flesh and blood." + +"If he did not love his ward," replied Mr. Playfair, "he would be less +than human. Every body loves her, and when she is called hence amongst +her kindred of the skies, the angels will greet her, not as a stranger, +but beloved companion, who had been detached from the heavenly ranks +for a season, to teach earth better things than mortals could have +learned without her. Madam, you know my opinion; I have often told you +that the young people are bound in cords of affection for each other, +which it will be a heart-break to dissever. Your son may not suffer +much; the world lies before him; he will soon go to the University, and +find new friends as well as amusements; but not so the gentle, the +tender Zorilda, of whose happiness you seem to make small account. May +I ask what are your intentions respecting her? She is already a woman +in growth, and her acquirements would do honour to any age; believe me, +the danger increases daily, and an indissoluble engagement may bind +your son in chains, which having forged yourself, you could not desire +him to break; you would not have him act dishonourably, and sully his +name for ever in the eyes of virtue and delicacy." + +"Nonsense! Mr. Playfair," said Mrs. Hartland, with vehemence, "virtue +and delicacy indeed! There would be much of these fine qualities +required to make me keep my temper, if I feared the fulfilment of your +prediction. I _must_ say that, after so many years passed in my +family, I might naturally expect that you would enter a little more +into the feelings of a mother, and the interests of our house; but +truly, gratitude is a rare return now-a-days for the most valuable +friendship. I cannot conceive why you should not see the impossibility +of a marriage between Algernon, the stay, the support, I may surely +add, the heir apparent, of a noble house, and an orphan out-cast. Who +is Zorilda?" + +Mr. Playfair's cheek burned with honest indignation, but he determined +to control himself, and calmly replied:-- + +"The period of our separation. Madam, is drawing near, and I do not +wish to embitter the last moments of sojournment under your roof by +useless inquiries into the measure of my gratitude. For _kindness_ I am +always acknowledging, but if you allude to my pecuniary obligations, +which if I mistake not, take the lead in _your_ estimate of favours +conferred, I must beg leave to observe that I have dearly earned my +salary as tutor to your son, and may perhaps be presumptuous enough to +think that, on casting up the amount of mutual benefit, the balance of +debt may lie against you. But we were talking of a worthier theme; you +inquire of me, Who is Zorilda? I am sure if you who introduced her here +are ignorant of her birth and parentage, it would be difficult for me +to have discovered them. I can only say that whoever her parents may +be, they are enviable as having given being to such a creature, and +pitiable for having lost her. The only particle of rebellion in her +whole soul against the wisdom of that Providence to which she bows in +all things else with meek submission, may be traced in the anguish +which she endures on the score of her mysterious history. Her +suspicions have been long confirmed. She knows that she is not your +child, and is likewise aware of the obscure destiny from which she was +redeemed, through a money price paid by you. 'Alas!' she often exclaims +to me, 'what have I done to deserve this cruel punishment? Am I one of +those who fall under condemnation for the sins of their forefathers? +Why am I a cast-away? Is it like the abundant mercy of a gracious God, +who sendeth rain on the just and the unjust with prodigal bounty, thus +to visit a guiltless being so severely? Death would be preferable to +this brand of disgrace. It is like the mark set upon Cain, and shame +overwhelms me when I think of my lot. Yes, dear Mr. Playfair, there is +a worm which dieth not, gnawing incessantly at my heart's core.' + +"In this way, Madam, does Zorilda pour out her grief to me. You know +nothing of it, for she thinks it her duty not to broach a subject which +you have never touched upon with her. She is wretched as she is lovely +and virtuous! Spare her, I conjure you, and let not her feelings be +wounded; you may have to answer for her life. When I leave Henbury, I +may be able to devise some scheme for the future. I have a sister who +lives in Switzerland, and I will----" + +Just as Mr. Playfair uttered these words, the door opened, and Zorilda +entered the room, radiant with bloom, such as the breath of morn +dapples on the velvet cheek of youth. Her long dark eye-lashes were +moistened by a tear, and looked like the silky grass which waves on the +streamlet's verge before the sun has smiled away the dew-drop which +glitters through its graceful fringes, while with light and gentle step +she pressed forward to Mrs. Hartland, holding in her hand a bunch of +half-blown roses. + +"Here is my first offering from the little tree which Algernon brought +me last year, from Marchdale Court; I have kept it secret to surprise +dear Mamma." + +It was an unlucky moment, and the association of ideas produced by the +few words which Zorilda had spoken, was at that instant peculiarly +unfortunate. Mrs. Hartland forced a reluctant smile, accompanying a +frigid "Thank you," which chilled Zoé to the heart. + +"What is the matter, dearest Mamma? are you ill? or has any thing +happened to displease you?" + +"Do not tease me, Zoé; I was speaking on business of importance with +Mr. Playfair; and, my dear, you are growing too old to say _Mamma_. I +wish that you would begin to call me Mrs. Hartland." + +Zorilda had an intuitive delicacy of character which gave her +sufficient command over her feelings to prevent a _scene_. Mrs. +Hartland was too unlike her in almost every respect to have ever been +the friend of her choice; but she was the only one who had occupied the +place of Mother to her, and her whole soul was formed to gratitude and +affection; but she had now for the first time experienced repulse, and +minds of sensibility do not require to be told what misery may be +inflicted on a confiding spirit, by the rejection of its tender +sympathies. Zorilda was stung to the quick, but restraining every +expression of excitement, she glided hastily from the apartment, +carrying with her the unwelcome flowers, which she perceived afforded +no gratification. + +Without stopping to be informed whether Algernon had returned from his +ride, Zorilda flew to an arbour of acacias at some distance from the +house, and throwing herself upon a rustic seat, beneath its shade, gave +vent to a full tide of sorrow. When the oppression of her bosom was in +some measure relieved, she knelt down, and clasping her hands with +uplifted energy of supplication, prayed for fortitude to bear the ills +which seemed impending. The Divine aid is never asked in vain, and +Zorilda rose strengthened by the fervency of her petition. Her soul was +soothed and tranquillized, and she thanked the Almighty for a friend +who had in some degree prepared her for events which she now perceived +in prospect. + +"Yes! Mr. Playfair has sometimes almost appeared unkind, in dwelling on +my misfortunes, and prophecying this evil hour, when I should no longer +be loved by the protectors of my youth. How _picturesque_ they love a +purchased stranger? The sad truth is now revealed. While yet children, +our infant sports caused no uneasiness, and we enjoyed happiness +unmixed with care. We are children no longer, and I am not wanted here. +The unknown Zorilda, the wandering gipsey, the dependent orphan, is not +considered meet companion for Algernon, advanced to manhood. What shall +I do? I must quit the asylum of my youth, the loved partner of my +playful hours, the venerable instructor of my early days, and remove +this weight of anxiety from the breast of my benefactress." + +"Never!" exclaimed Algernon, who, rushing impetuously into the arbour, +caught Zorilda in his arms. "What means this emotion? Zoé, you must be +my wife, and then you shall stay here as in your natural home. In the +mean time leave it all to me. You know my influence with my mother; I +will come to the bottom of these whims, and you shall hear no more of +them." + +"Speak not disrespectfully of your mother, Algernon; she is right, we +should either of us perhaps pursue the same course were we in her +situation. She once said that I was "nobody." All ask "Who is she?" to +which painful question there is no answer to be given; and why should I +delude myself any more. I thought the world was kind because every one +caressed me, but when they did so I was a mere plaything. Those who +once cherished are now ashamed of me, and this is what I can never +bear. Mr. Playfair has taught me many things, and your mother (oh! must +I never again call her mine) has not neglected to make me useful. I +will earn my bread, and be a willing sacrifice if my departure can +restore the peace which I have disturbed." + +Algernon, though spoiled by indulgence, and rendered vain by flattery, +was as yet uncorrupted by the cold maxims of worldly wisdom, and loved +Zorilda with all the devotion of which a narrow soul was capable. She +was the confidant of all his pains and pleasures. In her society the +former were always mitigated, the latter constantly enhanced. He had +gazed upon her beautiful countenance, which reflected every ray that +cheered or cloud that darkened his own from infancy to youth; and he +could not realize to his mind the possibility of a separation from a +being so habitually necessary to his comfort. + +"I will threaten my mother to shoot myself if she plagues you any +more," vociferated Algernon; and before the gentle Zoé could reply, he +darted from the arbour and ran to seek his agitated parent; while +Zorilda bent her steps towards a walk where she thought it likely that +she should meet Mr. Playfair, in which hope she was not disappointed. A +conversation with him was always sure to give her comfort; and never +had she so much needed the balm of kindness as on the present occasion. +Zorilda wept with bitterness as she expressed her grief and surprize at +the altered tone of Mrs. Hartland, and an impatient desire to sacrifice +every consideration to that of removing a source of disquietude from +her breast. + +"Softly, my dear child," said Mr. Playfair, as he kindly pressed the +hand of his pupil. "We must not allow ourselves to act on mere +impulses, however amiable. There are _picturesque_ sorrows which must +not be allowed to tempt us out of the broad high way of a sober march. +We must not talk of victims and sacrifices, altars and shrines. Though +I know your heart, and how sincere are your wishes to promote the +happiness of others, even to the forgetfulness of your own, I cannot +permit you to be romantic. There is a vanity in heroic deeds which dims +the purity of action. My dear Zoé will act, I trust, in all things with +a _single_ purpose, and that purpose is to endeavour at the performance +of _duty_, the most difficult part of which, in morals as in the field +of war, is to _forbear_. Your path is sown with thorns, but I have +often warned you against repining. Believe and trust, pray to Him who +alone appoints the issue of events, for patience to _submit_. You +cannot see why you are thus grieved--you do not understand why you are +a nameless, solitary, insulated being, unknown, unclaimed, unconnected; +while all whom you see around are encircled in the social bands of fond +relationship. You do not behold the _end_. A day may come in which you +shall be suffered to comprehend the mysteries which now obscure your +sight; or, should it not please God to send a lamp to your feet, you +may learn to bless the darkness by which you are enveloped, and rejoice +in that uncertainty which you now consider your greatest misfortune. +You must not leave Henbury. Mrs. Hartland is bound to protect you, and +will do so. You will correspond with me, and I will watch your +interests with an anxious eye." + +The ingenuous Zorilda confessed that some pride and impetuosity were +perhaps mingled with better feelings, in her hasty resolution to quit +the friends of her youth; and promising implicit acquiescence in her +Mentor's advice, prepared to return to the house. In her way thither +she met Algernon, who hastened to inform her that he had settled every +thing with his mother. "I told her fairly that I would never marry any +one but you; and that unless she chose to quarrel with me, she must +behave as she used to do in former times towards you. You know that I +can do any thing with my mother, and therefore you need not fret +yourself any more. Do dry your eyes, for I hate to see you in this +deplorable state. Come and feed the pheasants, I have not been to visit +them to day." + +The disinterestedness of a noble mind attributes its own qualities to +every other, and Zorilda could perceive no motive in Algernon's conduct +at any time which would not have actuated her own in a similar +situation. She thanked him affectionately, but, gently rebuking him for +not speaking more kindly of his mother, added, + +"You vex her I am sure by talking of marrying. You and I are very +young; we cannot see into futurity. I do not like engagements that bind +one to do what perhaps the free heart might reject at an after-time. +You are going away, and will find new pleasures in the world, and of +which you never dreamed before. You will not, it may be, always think +of poor Zoé as you do now, and I could not be satisfied with the cold +performance of a vow. I shall never love any beside Algernon, but +_you_ must be free." + +Zorilda's tears gushed afresh as she uttered these words; to which her +youthful lover impatiently replied, + +"You know, Zoé, that I have no _taste_ for this _larmoyante_ mood; I +love the laughing philosophers; they are the only true ones after all. +Tottham, our bailiff, told me lately that my godfather cannot live +long. When he dies my father succeeds to a certainty. Then I shall be +Lord Hautonville, with the higher title of Marchdale in prospect; and +may do what I please. Now I please to marry you, and let me hear what +is to prevent me from following my inclination." + +Zoé sighed. "Dear Algernon, I do not love to build a life of happiness +upon the death of friends. I love you as you are, and do not like the +titles in your family half so well as your own pretty name. Besides, I +am sure from what Mr. Playfair says of the world, that I should never +enjoy its gay pageants. I would rather feed our gold and silver +pheasants than see myself decorated with all the jewels which you often +tell me shall one day be mine." + +"You will not always think so," replied Algernon; "and I should be +sorry if you did. Nothing, it is said, is more annoying to a man of +fashion than a rustic wife who does not know her situation." + +"Alas!" said the artless Zoé, "I do not like the only specimen of high +life that I have seen amongst young men, and ever since you and the +Marquess of Turnstock have taken so many rides together, you have +picked up several new notions unlike your former self. I wish that his +Lordship would go away, and leave our sober country." + +"That he will not do till the shooting season is over," answered +Algernon; "and I can tell you, that our acquaintance is only in the +bud. He is an Oxford man, and I expect that we shall be much together. +Here comes my mother. She has made me promise not to call you my wife, +nor talk any more of our marriage in her presence. So upon the +principle of 'any thing for a quiet life,' I shall indulge her during +my short remaining stay, and she will be all civility and good-humour +with you. Are you not much obliged to me?" + +Zorilda sighed again. Mrs. Hartland came up; took her son's arm; +discovered that some overhanging branches required lopping, and sent +Zorilda off with affected unconstraint to call the gardener, and see +the job executed. + +Mrs. Hartland now felt that her innocent ward was a grievous encumbrance, +but she rejoiced to see her son attach himself _con amore_ to the society +of the young nobleman of whom we have made mention, and who had lately +come to pay a visit in the neighbourhood of Henbury. + +"Mr. Playfair is right," said she to herself, as she soliloquized on +this subject, which now absorbed all her thoughts: "I ought not to +take this thing to heart. Opposition only rivets faster whatever we +resist in a young mind, and matters which are often spoiled by our +interference, would rectify themselves if we let them alone. Algernon +will be cured of his _first love_ by the sight of newer faces, and +I am resolved to give a hint to Lord Turnstock, to serve as a cue +hereafter, for ridiculing low matches, in the presence of my dear boy, +who will grow wise in time. Poor Zoé is useful to me, and I should +certainly lose a great deal by giving her up, besides appearing cruel +and capricious. No, no; all will come about in the end, and a little +flirtation in early life never leaves lasting impression, now that the +days of romance have vanished. My sister Gordon too, is a valuable +_corps de reserve_. She will come to visit me ere long, and will +dote on Zorilda, who is just formed in the very mould for her. I +_will not_ torment myself: 'All's well that ends well.'" + +With the help of these reflections Mrs. Hartland allayed the ferment of +her temper, and went to give orders that due preparation should be made +for the Marquess, who was invited to dine at Henbury, by way of +securing his future friendship for the Oxonian elect. How comically do +people in middling life deceive themselves respecting the nature of an +occasional intercourse with the great! A hum-drum pair, in a remote +situation, ransack the entire district to get up a dull dinner at +enormous cost; and the noble stranger, for whom this unusual expense is +incurred, does penance for a banquet which is supposed to be as fine a +thing in his eyes as in those of his unpractised entertainers, and to +create a sense of obligation never to be forgotten. The Marquess of +Turnstock was precisely one of those young men of fashion who consider +their presence ample requital for a lavish expenditure of the best +viands, and the choicest wines; and as the country afforded little +variety, an invitation from the Hartlands arrived seasonably enough in +aid of killing a day. A cook was sent for to the county town; and fish, +flesh, and fowls, in accredited rotation, were provided from all +quarters. The Marquess brought three or four gentlemen, who were, he +said, "brother sportsmen," along with him; and Mrs. Hartland expressed +herself as particularly gratified with this indication of his desire to +cultivate an intimacy with her son. "It was such an easy friendly act, +and shewed how completely his Lordship felt _at home_" that she augured +every thing from such a beginning. + +Zorilda entreated leave to absent herself from the dinner table, to +which Mrs. Hartland at first objected, from a secret hope that some one +of the strangers might be captivated by her beauty, but was prevailed +upon to acquiesce, from an irresistible argument, that the eye of her +protegée might be advantageously employed behind the scenes, in +marshalling the servants, and regulating affairs in a house +unaccustomed, generally speaking, to any other than a plain family +dinner. + +Few motives are altogether unmixed. Zorilda's private incentive on the +present occasion was to evade the awkwardness, which till of late had +never been practically distressing to her feelings, of having _no +name_. "The little gipsey," "The Spanish girl," passed lightly over +her ear at an early period, but now planted a dagger in her heart; and +she courted solitude, flying from the presence of even a casual guest. +Mrs. Hartland, however, would not dispense with Zoé's company at the +tea-table, at which she was obliged to preside; but as the gentlemen +were not aware that any metal more attractive than the society of Mrs. +Hartland awaited them in the drawing-room, they were slow in making +their appearance; and when they did leave the dining parlour, some of +the party were certainly not the best society themselves. Elate with +wine, they talked and laughed on their way up stairs, in full +demonstration of having sacrificed too devoutly at the shrine of the +rosy god; but when the drawing-room door was opened, and Zorilda, +glowing with modest loveliness, met their astonished view, their +boisterous mirth received a sudden check, and they all seemed to feel +simultaneously, "how awful beauty is." + +The Marquess and his satellite wassailers, were struck with amazement +at sight of the vision which now presented itself to their eyes, and +appeared instinctively to avoid the tea-table at which she sat. A sort +of general introduction took place, in which no name, except that of +the Marquess, was distinctly heard; while Mr. Playfair, who had +protracted his sitting below stairs, in order to act, as far as +hospitality would permit, as a _buff-stop_ on the festive gaiety of his +pupil, took his station on one side of Zorilda, and Mr. Hartland took +possession of a chair on the other. Well pleased to find herself thus +guarded, the timid Zoé smiled sweetly on her supporters, and proceeded +to perform the mysteries of tea and coffee as priestess of the rites. + +The reader is not to understand that our guests were inebriated. That +expression conveys too strong a meaning. "Flushed with the Tuscan +grape," they were still _compos_, and after a short pause the _rumble_ +of conversation, like that of a mill-wheel, was heard again to succeed +a temporary suspension. + +"My friend Forbes, Mrs. Hartland," said Lord Turnstock, "is an +Irishman, and we have been bantering him on his country. I was just +making these gentlemen laugh with the story of an old woman who came to +me some time ago requesting my interference to prevent her grandson, +who had enlisted, from being sent to the Island of Saints with his +regiment. 'Oh my Lord,' said she, 'I shall never see my poor boy again. +They says as how that the Romans are all romancing so furious in +Hireland.' Was'nt it excellent?" + +Mrs. Hartland laughed heartily, and Mr. Forbes, a very handsome fine +young man, stepped forward, still addressing her as _Chairman_ of +the Committee in defence of his native Erin: + +"I can allow them to amuse themselves, Mrs. Hartland," said the young +Hibernian. "I grant that amongst vulgar people the peculiar tone of my +country, which you may have heard called _brogue_, is not harmonious, +but I would fight it against your Somersetshire, Lancashire, or Cornish +dialects, any day in the year; and as for Irish _character_, it +stands too high to need my championship. Whether I turn my eyes to the +cabinet or the field, whether I contemplate scholarship or divinity, +powers of penmanship or conversation, I find myself standing on such +exalted ground that I can endure the merriment of his Lordship with the +calm dignity of a lion, round whose head the harmless fly is humming. +He shall divert himself as much as he likes with the Anglo-Irish, +provided he sets his hand and seal to the truth of my statement." + +"You are too strong to need his Lordship's vote," said Mr. Playfair; +"you have no occasion to solicit, you may command assent; at least this +is not the age for triumph over you. Whichever way we turn Irishmen +meet our eyes in the first situations of the state; and as to the fair +daughters of your Emerald Isle----" + +"In _this_ company I withdraw _their_ claim," answered Mr. Forbes; "at +least I am forced to be modest in asserting it." + +Zorilda coloured violently; and the Marquess, apparently apprehensive +of not being considered _first_ actor in the scene, looked at his +watch, and ringing the bell, ordered his carriage, which was in fact +already at the door; then apologizing for the lateness of the hour to +which he had been detained by agreeable society, a general leave taking +succeeded, and the guests departed without having exchanged three words +with her who had excited all their curiosity. + +"Who is that magnificent girl, Hartland?" said the Marquess, as he +reached the hall door, and got rid of the civilities of his elder host, +who stuck closely to his side all the way down stairs. + +"Where was she during dinner-time?" inquired Mr. Forbes. + +"Why did you not apprize us of this rural divinity?" asked young Cecil; +"I should gladly have paid her an earlier homage." + +As these questions were put all in a breath, Algernon contrived to +evade them; and in the bustle of calling for hats, gloves, &c. they +were never answered. "She can hardly be a sister of Hartland's, she is +so unlike the family," said Lord Turnstock. "I wonder you none of you +asked her name." "One would imagine that she has not any name," replied +one of his companions; "probably the truth is, that this country +_belle_ is affianced to the _heir apparent_ of Henbury, and the +youth is an Othello. I saw him frown like Jupiter while we gazed at +his beloved; and I am sure that the fellow will dream to-night of +rope-ladders, post chaises and four, elopements, and the blacksmith of +Gretna Green." + +The Marquess laughed, and fell asleep. Some of his associates followed +his example, and thought no more of Zorilda till they reached Thornton +Abbey; but Cecil and Forbes were not of the number. + +"Did you hear the servants say who that young lady is whom I saw at Mr. +Hartland's?" said his Lordship to his valet when he retired to his +bed-chamber. + +"No, my Lord, I took no notice, except that I recollect somebody said +that a Virginia nightingale, which I saw in a cage, belonged to Miss +Zoé, or some such name; perhaps she may be the young lady that your +Lordship means." + +"Aye i'faith, she is worthy of a Grecian appellation," muttered the +Marquess, as his servant went out of the room. "This fair incognita is +certainly an exotic, and the banks of the Ilissus may have given her +birth. She would make a noise in London, there is no doubt of that." +With this sentence the young Nobleman concluded his meditations; and +having desired to be called betimes to go upon a shooting expedition, +consigned himself to repose. The morning brought its own pursuits, and +Zorilda was either effaced from memory, or so little was elicited +respecting her that inquiry ceased, and the party at Thornton Abbey +dispersed in all directions. + +The present age is one of too much refinement for trouble of any kind; +and we have long been spared the slavish toil of thinking for +ourselves. We talk indeed of _free_-thinkers, and make an unusual stir +about liberty of opinion; but that is a _façon de parler_ which +satisfies, while in reality we are more completely led than at any +former period of the world. "Whatever facilitates weakens." The human +mind is strengthened by labour; and now that we have grown too polished +to work, we cannot look for strong judgment; consequently individuality +is not the character of our time, and we are accustomed to praise or +abuse _en masse_. Zorilda with a _title_ would have set the capital on +fire, and filled every eye and tongue; but Zorilda, untrumpeted, +unknown, was soon forgotten. _Name_ is everything; whether of player or +preacher, beauty or book, a fashionable paper or review sounds the key +note, and the chorus is universal. + +Preparations were now advancing at Henbury for Algernon's departure to +Oxford; and the desolation of Zoé's heart may be more easily imagined +than described. To lose the beloved companion of her life, her more +than self, seemed wretchedness enough for mortal lot; but in parting +with Mr. Playfair too, she was deprived of the only solace which might +have remained in her affliction, namely, that of talking over the +subject of it with a true friend. Mr. Hartland was good-natured, and +had always been affectionate in his bearing; but there was "no +speculation in his eye," no intelligence in his mind. He was a mere +recipient, and too dull even to reflect with vividness the thoughts of +another. With Mrs. Hartland, Zorilda had ceased to communicate, except +on household affairs. + +Young and shrinking sensibility, like the opening rose, will only +diffuse its fragrance while we refrain from rudely touching its +delicate fabric; once decompose the tender structure by unhallowed +finger, and no skill of chemic art can restore its organization. + +The dread hour arrived, and Zorilda, convulsed with grief, saw the gate +close upon all that she best loved on earth. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + ----"I'm sorry + That he approves the common liar, Fame, + Who speaks him thus at Rome." + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +How wisely, how mercifully is the future hidden from our view! Who +could bear to look into the book of fate, and see the blighted hopes, +the unfulfilled expectations, which await all human dreamers? But +though ever ready with sufficient vain glory to refer each prosperous +issue to our own prudence and sagacity, we cautiously avoid to charge +ourselves with the least co-operation in unfortunate results. Success +constitutes the hero, and it is with the triumphant only that we desire +to identify ourselves. + +Algernon was now sent forth to make his _debut_ in society, and we +shall see how strictly his progress coincides with the previous +training of his mind. + +He loved Zorilda with as much fervour as his nature would permit, and +therefore his tears flowed in copious stream as he bid her farewell. +Poor Mrs. Hartland ascribed the grief of her son to his separation from +her maternal arms. She loved him with entireness of senseless devotion, +and fondly flattered herself that she was in return the principal +object of his affections. "Dear boy, he will in vain look round for his +indulgent mother," sobbed the afflicted parent; but even the love of +Zorilda, which was by far the most powerful impression on Algernon's +heart, did not long exclude the joy which gained upon his short-lived +sorrow with every mile of increasing distance from Henbury. He was +going to be his own master in a wider sense than he had ever +experienced. He might do _as he pleased_. Mr. Playfair's vigilant +eye would no longer watch every movement, and he should meet again with +the associates whose short sojournment in the neighbourhood of his +father's house had given him so much pleasure, besides forming many +other similar acquaintances. It was not Algernon's design from the +first to distinguish himself in any kind of scholarship. The assiduity +of his tutor had done something, but even the best talents will not +achieve learning unaccompanied by application. Young Hartland intended +to render his college course as little irksome as possible, and +possessed the means of realizing his views. There is no description of +person, generally speaking, so well supplied with money as an only son +of a private family, in whom, as the sole object of pride and +solicitude, all parental effort is concentrated. + +While the young nobleman issues forth depending on his title, and +frequently on that alone for consideration; the child, it may be, of a +half ruined house, hemmed in on every side by mortgages and bonds, and +relying on Jewish facilities of accommodation for keeping up the +present ball, to the destruction of future competency; the _son and +heir_ of _middle_ life sets out with purse well lined. He has no +"lordship" with which to gild poverty, but must pay his way, and +transfer to his pocket the popularity which he is not provided with any +other secret for securing to his person. Algernon was plentifully +supplied, and as soon as he found himself unrestrained by the +expostulations of Mr. Playfair, he began to spend so lavishly that his +rooms were soon the favourite lounge, and he found his acquaintance +universally courted. His vanity was flattered, and he never suspected +the reality of the case, but gave into the delusive belief that he was +sought after for his agreeable qualifications. He wrote letters to his +mother which delighted her. They spoke of viscounts, earls, and +marquesses, as the familiar companions of his hours; and generally +concluded with reminding her that such excellent society as it was his +good fortune to have got into, had only one counteracting evil +attending on its pleasures, which was expense. + +"How considerate is our dear fellow!" said Mrs. Hartland; "but he must +not be fettered by too rigid an economy in the opening scene. +Frugality, if necessary, may come hereafter; but first impressions are +of the highest importance, and the most useful connections are often +made in school and college days. A private education has hitherto +deprived my son of this advantage, and it is therefore doubly requisite +to stretch a point at present, and supply him liberally. I have +foreseen all this, and laid by a little _preserve_. We may pinch at +home, and ought to do so, that we may not be said to burn our candle at +both ends; but our boy must be enabled to hold up his head amongst the +best of them." + +Mr. Hartland groaned assent, and the amiable Zoé rejoiced in an +opportunity of contributing her mite to Algernon's comfort at Oxford, +by courting all sorts of privation at Henbury during his absence. + +It is not surprising that an _outfit_ regulated by these principles, +inspired a belief of riches, and obtained for the freshman such a +reputation for affluence that he was surrounded at once as a honey-pot +is by flies; while credulity supports the illusion from one generation +to another, that a titled herd collected by such means, are to be the +props of after life, compensating by future patronage for the loss of +independence incurred in the pursuit of their friendship. The bubble +bursts, the gull is undeceived, but as experience seldom rectifies the +confidence of hope, a few exceptions are always sufficient to make men +reject the general rule, and expect to find themselves added to the +"glorious minority" of fortune's favoured exceptions. Alas! the prizes +are few, and the blanks are many in the lottery of life, and those are +the wisest who speculate the least on lucky _chances_. + +Algernon was quickly initiated, and became the soul and centre of every +scheme which had pleasure for its aim and object. He gave the best +champagne, pulled the best oar, rode the best horse, was always ready +to take up a bet, or accept a boxing challenge, and wasted twice as +much money as any one else thought of expending, in whatever was the +amusement of the day; seeming to render compensation to himself for the +long fast which he had undergone, by devouring pleasure not only with a +knife and fork, but a spoon to boot. He wrote frequently to Zorilda, +and received letters from her in return. + +Mrs. Hartland fretted at the correspondence, but had encouraged her son +in the habit of assuming authority to such a degree, that she feared to +resist his will; and was obliged to tolerate what she had lost all +power to control. + +Algernon's letters were at first filled with wishes and laments; the +pain of parting; the joy of re-union; interspersed with animated +accounts of new scenes and associates. After a time he became less +punctual, and proposed that Zoé should not balance too strictly the +debtor and creditor sides of their correspondence, but write without +waiting for replies, alleging occupation at his studies as a cause for +the request. Whatever Algernon suggested was right in Zoé's opinion, +and as she was only called on to renounce a self-indulgence, though the +greatest which she could enjoy while separated from her friend, she +acquiesced without a murmur, though not without a sigh. + +A longer silence than usual occurred, and Zoé could not sleep from +agitation, fearing that indisposition might occasion the delay. At last +the often-wished-for packet arrived; but though well filled, and giving +details of what Algernon called "pleasant parties," it was the least +satisfactory which Zorilda had ever received. She read it over and +over, yet was less pleased at each re-perusal. We shall give our +readers an opportunity of trying how far they sympathize with poor +Zoé's feelings, by transcribing this letter as a specimen of our young +Oxonian's improvement since he quitted home: + + "Dearest Zoé, + + "I am guilty of a long pause, and you are very angry; but you + little know how my time is taken up. We have had several rowing + matches, and I have been taking lessons from some of the _fancy_. + Every day confirms the disagreeable conviction that I am half a + century behind my contemporaries. What a cursed folly it is not to + send boys to a public school! If I had been despatched to Eton + instead of having been tied to my mother's apron-string all my + days, I should not have everything to learn, as is my case at + present. However, they say I am an apt scholar, and I do not + despair of being soon up with the best of them here. + + "The little Marquess did not return till ten days ago. He received + me quite like a brother, and we are a great deal together. He says + he should not know me again, I have lost so much of the '_country + bumpkin_' already. By the bye, we had a very pleasant party at + his rooms the other night, but you cannot imagine how foolish I was + made to look, about you. + + "I wish to heaven you had a name, for it is quite confounding to be + asked at every turn, 'Who is she?' without being able to get rid of + farther inquiry, by such a simple answer as can be given of every + body except yourself from the royal family down to one's + washerwoman. If I knew the name of the gipsey from whom my good + papa and mamma ran away with you, I would call you after her; but I + assure you that rather than encounter another such attack as I have + endured in your service, I shall christen you, so prepare for being + called Miss Hazlemoor, or Moor, if you like the monosyllable + better, on the principle of the old song which Rachael sings, with + a line in it something like this following: + + "For the least said, the sooner amended;" + + and amended it will all be one of these days, when I marry you. It + will little signify when you are my wife--_perchance_ a titled + one--what name you were known by before. Do not be cast down, my + pretty Zo. I have promised, you know, to raise you from your + present obscurity, and I can tell you, it is no small proof of my + love, that I do not mean to forget my engagement; but I must tell + you how they fell upon me the other night. + + "Turnstock gave champagne, and some five or six assembled by + appointment at his rooms. We were going on very gaily, when my evil + genius put it into the Marquess's head to turn shortly round, and + say to me, 'Hartland, who the devil is that fair enchantress whom + your mother has got _cooped_ up at Henbury; not your _sister_, I + presume, eh?' + + "Unprepared for the question, I was completely at a nonplus, and + losing all presence of mind, I hummed, and hawed, and stammered + out--Zorilda. + + "'A fine romantic appellation truly,' said his Lordship; 'Donna + Zorilda! but to what noble house does she belong?' + + "'I cannot tell,' answered I. 'To tell you the truth, a mystery + hangs over her birth which I am not permitted to unravel.' + + "'Oh! I cry you mercy,' replied the Marquess; 'I shall not make + further inquisition; I see how it is, 'A rose by any other name + would smell as sweet;' so says the poet. A little mystery, they say + is never _amiss_. Now it _is a Miss_, and nobody knows _who_, upon + the present occasion; but n'importe; Zorilda is a lovely girl; and + Zoé, as your servants call her, is better still, associated, as are + those three letters, with all the nectar and ambrosia of Grecian + song. We will place the Amaranth wreath on Zoé's brow, and drink to + her health in a bumper of champagne. Come, Hartland, fill your + glass. You shall not undergo any farther catechism. You are too + wise a man to marry an 'inexpressive she:' and as for a little of + the doubtful in any other relation of life, there is no need of + taking it to heart.' + + "Now I know that all this sort of thing will fret and vex you, but + never mind, we will talk of other matters. Turnstock is uncommonly + clever, and I can assure you that we have often very deep + conversation. He brought a young man with him from town who + received his education here, but as he wants money and has plenty + of brains, he has taken to writing for the Reviews. The little + Marquess talks of getting up a periodical here under his own + inspection. It is to be called 'The Freeman;' so if you see it + advertised you will know whence it springs. We had a sort of + _rehearsal_ last night, when some contributions were brought in. A + friend of mine had a hit against his Lordship which made me laugh. + The former brought an Essay on the Paradise Lost, which was read, + but the Marquess condemned it. 'No, Caulfield, that will not do,' + said he. 'I do not patronize your sentiments on Milton. You must + try your pen at something else.' + + "'I thought, my Lord,' answered Caulfield, 'that we were to write + for the _Freeman_, but I find that it is for the _Bondsman_.' + + "'Free or Bond, I shall not insert your Essay, my good fellow,' + answered his Lordship. 'I mean to have this my own way. I set my + face against all prosing; not a word of any poet older than Byron + of immortal fame; and I will give a prize of his works, bound in + russia, to whoever brings me the best satire on our modern novels, + which are growing so decidedly moral, metaphysical, and soporific, + that I would as lief sit down to Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity as + open a volume of any of the last half dozen which have issued from + the press. I think I shall write a novel myself, and call it + 'Re-action; or, the Extinguisher.' + + "You would not like any of my friends I am afraid, who are + certainly not _religious_ men. The Marquess cavils at holy writ: I + was going to stand up its advocate, but found it better to hold my + tongue. There are many good people here, but Turnstock calls them + _Spoonies_, and I do not feel any ambition to be ridiculed as + one of the fraternity. Remember that I am only talking of my own + set; so my father need not take alarm, and accuse me of a libel on + his favourite Oxford. Things, however, are changed every where + since his day. The Marquess declares that religion is only a + political consideration now with strong heads. The march of mind, + he says, has outstripped superstition and all her train. I do not + say that he is right, for I am not much versed as yet in matters of + this nature. The miserable error of bringing me up at home has + prevented me, amongst many other things, from knowing what general + opinion really is. In fact, Turnstock, who gives me more insight + into these subjects than any one else, and who ought to be good + authority, is eloquent in decrying all narrow limitations of sect + or nation. He says that all mankind should be considered as a great + family, claiming equal rights, and entitled to equal privileges; + that all qualifications which exclude any individual from the + attainment of power are infractions of natural justice; and all + religious establishments are the offspring of persecution. He + speaks beautifully, and uses very convincing arguments. For + instance, he says, that to be born and to die are common to the + whole created species, and no favour or partiality distinguishes + one man from another in these two extreme events. The same pangs + usher every mortal into existence--helpless, naked, and like his + fellows in all things. Death again sweeps away irrespectively the + beggar and the king, who both lie down in the grave where all their + thoughts perish, and both are resolved alike into dust. 'What right + then,' reasons Turnstock, 'has man to play such antic tricks before + high heaven, and parcel out the intermediate term so unequally in + his generation, that some shall lord it triumphantly, while others + starve? Some rule with tyrannous sway, while thousands cringe in + chains, and are forced to obey the few who usurp dominion over + them?' I wish that you could hear him declaim upon these topics. + Caulfield, who is always ready with some vexatious question or + remark, but who had listened, as I thought, with as much + satisfaction as I did myself to the whole harangue yesterday + evening, asked rudely enough at its close, 'And pray, good my Lord, + why are you the Marquess of Turnstock? Your guardians went through + a tedious litigation to procure the title for you which another + claimed, and fiercely contested. Though not called, like + Cincinnatus, exactly from the plough, your Lordship's situation now + is very different from what it was. Yet you do not object to these + inequalities in your own case!' + + "Turnstock looked contemptuously round, and silenced the inquirer + in a summary manner, 'Pooh, pooh, Caulfield. You are like a fly, + for ever buzzing in one's ears. It is a pity you do not enter at + Cambridge, _ad eundem_; you are a _Wrangler_ without the trouble of + learning, and all competitors will make way for you.' + + "There was a great laugh against Caulfield, and so ended the + dispute. I have enlisted under Turnstock's banner. I like his + Epicurean philosophy, and think that his doctrines would tend to + render mankind a far happier race than they are. Remember what I + told you about writing with lemon-juice, and be sure to hold all my + letters to the fire after you have read them through. Like Janus we + must wear two faces, you know, while we are watched. A day will + come when we may defy all vigilance, and interchange our thoughts + in ink of any colour. Farewell, my Zoé, how I long to see you!" &c. + +Zorilda vainly attempted to counteract the influences which she found +increasing reason to perceive were exercised over Algernon's mind to +the injury of his character. Her young heart poured forth its +entreating eloquence, but the poison had begun to work, and she had not +sufficient power to arrest its deadly progress. In vain did she appeal +to the memory of happier days in strains like the following, which we +extract from one of her letters: + + "Oh, my Algernon! is it for this that I have submitted to the mean + device of dissimulation, and joined in a plot to deceive your + mother by writing that which she is not to see? When I complied + with your proposal to adopt this mode of frustrating her + penetration, it was that I might spare her pain, and exert the + power which I fondly imagined I possessed over your mind to your + advantage, by constantly reminding you of the lessons which our + dear and valued preceptor left us as a parting legacy. Algernon, I + am punished for forgetting that we must not do evil in hope of + future good. Yet after once o'erstepping the barrier which + separates truth from falsehood, the noble ingenuousness of virtue + for the mean accommodations of artifice, how difficult to regain + the track of probity and honour! I feel with bitterness, how + greatly I have erred; yet before I for ever abjure this dishonest + method of conveying to you my secret thoughts, I will for once + express the anguish of my heart, as I trace in your altered + language a different Algernon from him who was the brother of my + infant years, the beloved friend of riper age. Have _you_, too, + become ashamed of the nameless Zorilda? and do _you_ ask 'Who is + she?' with scornful reproach? Then indeed is my cup of affliction + filled to overflowing. Talk no more of a day to come, when raised + to the dignity of your wife. That question, which has been the + blight of my Spring--the spectre of my solitude--the besetting + demon of a ceaseless persecution; shall no longer scare me with + humiliation and debasement. Zorilda will never purchase repose at + Algernon's cost. How can such things be? Does not true affection + identify itself with the object on which it rests? Would not 'Who + was she?' be a death knell of my happiness still more appalling + to my heart than the inquiry which now condemns me _alone_ to + obscurity and shame! Never will I repay by base ingratitude the + kindness which fostered a houseless child of want. I will fulfil my + sad destiny, and pray for courage to meet the sting which awaits + me. I shall be assisted from above, and Mr. Playfair's counsel will + support my tottering steps. The path of duty is often one of + difficulty and fatigue, but it is safe. There are no precipices + along the way. + + "Algernon, my heart is breaking, and my selfish pen lingers amongst + its sorrows, instead of exercising what little energy remains in + the endeavour to recal you from a road which will lead to + destruction if you continue to pursue its course. You have fallen + amongst evil advisers, who are beginning their work by shaking + those principles which Mr. Playfair says are our only pillars of + strength--our only rock and refuge in the hour of temptation. Your + self-denying parents intend to sacrifice the joy of holding you in + their arms this summer, that you may profit by Lord Turnstock's + invitation to accompany him on the Continent--_profit_ did I say? + Alas! how foreign from my thoughts is the idea which that word + conveys. No, dear Algernon, you will never gain by his example, and + I weep as I contemplate your growing attachment to his society. I + find in all your letters now something that spoils the pleasure + which I used to feel in talking to you. Why is this, unless because + the sympathy which was wont to knit our pursuits is fading away? + + "You tell me, too, that I must change; you say that I am a + rustic--that I am not skilled in music--that I am too independent, + and want that softness (perhaps from your description I should + rather call it langour), which you tell me is the most attractive + feature of female character. Alas! that I am very imperfect and + very ignorant, a very cursory glance into my own heart too fatally + convinces me every day; but my self reproach does not fall where + you would point it. Why should I desire to be no longer a rustic? + Is not the retirement in which I live better suited to the + unhappy--the nameless orphan, than those scenes in which 'Who is + she?' would be the brand of degradation? Is not my simple song, to + which you once loved to sit and listen, adapted to my lowly lot, + and the natural language of a sorrowing heart? Why should I regret + that I am not versed in the mechanism of instrumental music. What + have I to do with an admiring audience? + + "Yet do not believe me insensible to the charms of melody. I am + young, and might improve with opportunity. To make the harp respond + to the sadness which dwells within, would be a delightful + companionship, but it is denied to me, and I must not repine. Oh + no, there is but one murmur in my breast, but one murmur on my + tongue, and from my pen. + + "Why am I thus forsaken? Why this homeless, houseless, friendless + thing? This is the rankling thorn--the sharp arrow which festers + and corrodes my vitals--which haunts me in visions of the night, + and paralyzes every energy of soul by day. All other ills I can + bear; and believe that they are good for me. You tell me that the + pretty folly, the imploring weakness, the passive non-resistance of + Lord Turnstock's sister, are fascinating; and you want me to copy + without having seen the original. Much as I love to try and please + you, and grateful as I feel for your wish to render me more capable + of doing so, I cannot promise docility in this respect. Dear Mr. + Playfair's words are engraven on my memory, and his very last + letter repeats them. He bids me follow nature, and avoid every + species of affectation. He reminds me that there are two glossaries + which interpret the same words by different methods; that the timid + supplication, the credulous innocence, the nervous sensibility, so + captivating in a young beauty, are explained by far other terms in + wives, sisters, daughters, and known in them by the harsher + epithets of troublesome helplessness, ignorance, and fatiguing + egotism, when the vapouring dreams of a youthful gallant are + sobered into the honest but too often uncourteous phrase of + husband, father, brother. + + "This advice may seem to have no application to one who is a + stranger to _all_ the endearing relations of life, who has never + known the blessing of those tender ties which bind the heart in + sweet, yet wholesome, bondage; but truth is always the same. Let me + pursue my homely track unseen. It will lead me to the quiet grave, + where all my sorrows will have an end, but oh! my dearest Algernon, + beware of the vortex into which _you_ are gliding; your parents can + not supply your increasing demands upon their resources. They + already feel your extravagance. Fly temptation, while it is still + in your power to break the spell. You are undone if you accompany + the Marquess. Oh! do not plunge us in despair. Mr. Playfair has the + worst opinion of your associates, and I believe has written a + warning letter to your father, suggested by his knowledge of Lord + Turnstock's general character; I write in secret, and this will + reach you by a private hand; farewell," &c. + +Zoé's voice would once have roused Algernon to any enterprise, or +deterred him from any undertaking; but though he loved her better than +all things else, she was distant, pleasure present. Her melancholy +forebodings cast a gloom over his mind, and at length grew so +distasteful, that he resolved to adopt a new language in his +correspondence with her; pretending to be influenced by her advice, he +promised to be on his guard against the allurements which she dreaded, +assuring her that, sensible of the errors into which young men might be +led, he designed to be very particular in his selection of acquaintance, +should he feel himself so far engaged to accompany his friends to the +Continent, that he could not break through the arrangement. The heart +is of easy faith, when it wishes to believe, and the innocent Zorilda, +who knew nothing of the world, except what she had heard of its snares +from the instructor of her youth, seized with joy on the happy omen; +and the roses of health again bloomed on her pallid cheek, with all the +freshness of spring. + +"Beloved Algernon," she would exclaim, while training the jessamine +which was taught to decorate his favourite seat, or visiting with +thoughtful tenderness the animals committed to her care, "you will +never be led away from these pure delights. The blandishments of vice +shall vainly attempt to dazzle, and its wicked artifices to entangle, +my Algernon, who will return unpolluted by the influence of bad +example. These sweet flowers will have new charms for him, and I shall +proudly deliver up my trust when I show him these birds of brilliant +wing, his dogs, and all his play-fellows so grown, so beautified, under +my guardianship." + +Zorilda's hours now glided swiftly as the weaver's shuttle. She was +full of employment, and Algernon was the inspiring object of all she +did or imagined; improving daily in loveliness of face and form, and +glowing with animation, she seemed by her presence to cheer creation, +and, like the blessed sun, to dispel every cloud that gathered on the +horizon. + +While Algernon was away from home, his mother, who never reflected much +on any thing, the immediate pressure of which on her external senses +did not force itself upon her mind, resumed her cheerfulness, and +finding in Zorilda all that the sweetest filial duty could bestow, +treated her once more with as much affection as her selfish nature +could feel. Mr. Hartland loved her as a daughter, and amongst the +dependents of every degree she was considered as an angel of light who +had descended from Heaven, to shower mercy and consolation on the poor, +the sick, and the afflicted. As Zorilda avoided strangers with the +greatest anxiety, she was seldom seen, and as she never left Henbury, +except to go to the parish church, in which a curtain round the pew +where she sat, and a veil on her bonnet, afforded all the privacy which +she sought, it is not surprising that the fame of her beauty had not +gone much abroad. + +While Algernon was absent too, the motive for seeing company being +removed, the family assumed more than their usual habits of economy, to +enable Mrs. Hartland to indulge her vanity, in providing for the +excesses of her son, whose constantly increasing demands were founded +on false pretences; and his parents were imposed upon, by a belief that +they were aiding his advancement in life, while in reality they +ministered to every species of extravagance. Zorilda was the presiding +genius, who by her skill and activity achieved all Mrs. Hartland's +purposes without compromising a single duty; and though every expense +was regulated with the strictest attention, the interests of those +whose claims on benevolence had ever been accredited, were not +forgotten; and this admirable girl contrived to transfer to her friends +the praises which were due to herself alone. The cultivation of her +mind was her sole recreation: a fine talent for drawing, diversified +her amusements, and had it not been for the thorn at the heart, which +busy occupation sometimes concealed, but which no effort could extract, +her life might have presented as near a resemblance to what may be +imagined of higher spirits, whose existence is compounded of love and +knowledge, as had ever been witnessed on earth. + +Algernon went abroad with his friend the Marquess without returning +home to take leave; and Mrs. Hartland revelled in all the novelty of an +heroic act of self-denial, which would bring about the accomplishment +of her object in the natural death, as she prognosticated, of that +attachment which was the bane of her ambition. + +It was many years since Mrs. Gordon, the younger sister of Mrs. +Hartland, had visited her friends in England; and low spirits +occasioned by her son's departure having been urged by his mother as +an additional plea in her present invitation, it obtained a favourable +answer; and the pleasure of a family meeting in prospect in some +degree compensated for the privation to which she had condemned +herself; while Zorilda, whose eye governed every department, found in +making preparation for the coming guests a source of added employment +which helped to banish painful thoughts. She had heard much of Mrs. +Gordon from Mr. Playfair, and longed, with eager curiosity, to see +with her own eyes one of whom he spoke with such enthusiastic +admiration, and of whom she could only remember how kind she was to a +gipsey child. At _that_ time Zorilda was a prodigal of friendship, +because she did not want any larger store than Henbury supplied; but +she felt now, that if indeed Mrs. Gordon were to prove such a being as +she had been represented, her society would be a jewel above all +price. + +The Gordons arrived, and Mr. Playfair's portrait was not exaggerated. +Much has been said against those sudden and sentimental attachments, to +which the female sex is accused of being especially addicted: and we +are not desirous of weakening the force of ridicule, which is justly +ascribable to vows of eternal friendship made at sight; but there is a +sympathy between kindred souls, which, as it will always exist in +nature, we may be permitted to hope will escape condemnation, and never +be confounded with the transitory illusions of romance. Such a sympathy +almost immediately drew Mrs. Gordon and Zorilda to each other, and +every day's experience confirmed the mutual attraction. Mr. and Mrs. +Gordon inspired the idea of having been shut up in an ark with a chosen +band, and "all appliances and means to boot," for preserving every +intellectual and social energy in constant play, untainted by the vices +or the follies of a surrounding world. + +It may be imagined by some, who hold a widely extended intercourse with +mankind to be requisite to liberal views and enlightened +understandings, that such a description must necessarily imply narrow +minds, and limited information; but nothing could be more mistaken than +such a conclusion. In our present state of civilization, dark and +secluded must be that recess into which books and opinions do not find +their way, and perhaps it may be truly said of various kinds of +knowledge, that it is not unusually found in an inverse proportion with +the distance from its source. Whatever may be the truth, as a general +remark, the fact was, that in the particular instance with which we are +concerned at present, the Scotch visitors who now added to the family +circle at Henbury, appeared to Zorilda to be no other than the genii of +some more favoured planet, invested with the keys of all those sacred +stores from which the best possessions of mankind are derived. Her +clear intelligence and brilliant fancy, which had never before +"sparkled in collision," now expanded in a congenial atmosphere, and +the innocent Zoé was surprised by the powers of comprehension awakened +in her mind by the talisman of such society as she enjoyed for the +first time in her short life. + +Mr. Playfair had been a mine of intellect, but the parental interest +which he felt for his pupil, induced caution in the encouragement of +those quick sensibilities which he foresaw would prove the bane of her +happiness. He had therefore always led her to such studies as exercised +her reason more than her imagination; and had endeavoured to repress +every tendency to excitement in a character of such refined texture and +vivid glow, that he dreaded its future contact with a world in which so +little would be found in sympathy with its delicate structure. What +rapture, was it not natural to think, did Zorilda now experience in +meeting with her _beau ideal_ of female friendship in Mrs. Gordon, +of whom she became almost a worshipper! + +No human beings, born in the Antipodes of each other, could be more +entirely unlike than Mrs. Hartland and her sister. The latter, who was +by some years the younger of the two, had lived from her childhood with +an uncle who resided in Edinburgh, and held a high place amongst the +literati of his time. Under the auspices of this relation, who was +equally distinguished by his learning and worth, Eugenia Robinson had +enjoyed advantages which few young females possess, and of which still +fewer at the present day, are inclined to avail themselves when +offered. Mingling continually in company with men whose conversation +bore testimony to their genius and pursuits, she had opportunity for +indulging a thirst after all manner of solidly valuable acquisition, +without, happily for herself, incurring any of those stupid taunts with +which ignorance so frequently and successfully frightens away a spirit +of inquiry, or on the other hand attracting that sickly applause, +which, by flattering human weakness, often substitutes a contemptible +vanity for the genuine desire of improvement in mental cultivation. + +Eugenia Robinson was not set up as a prodigy, nor was there the +slightest parade in her education; but she lived in a capital where it +is still the fashion to wear heads and hearts, and where she therefore +found that she might think without being called a _Blue_, and feel +without being styled a _romancer_. In the midst of that society which +her uncle brought together at his house, Eugenia met Mr. Gordon, +and after a time, marriage cemented a union which had long been +acknowledged by reciprocal preference, before it was confirmed at the +altar. Never did Hymen's torch light home a happier pair, and the +flame is not extinguished, but burns more purely and brightly in the +tranquil atmosphere of domestic life, than while it was hurried to and +fro, along the varying currents of hope and fear. + +The wise man's prayer, "give me neither poverty nor riches," was +granted to them, and retiring to Drumcairn, a pleasant spot in +Aberdeenshire, they realized all that poets dream of conjugal felicity. +They had no children, but this was not a source of repining, first +because they firmly believed that every dispensation of Heaven is +ordered by unerring judgment, while that of mortal man is fallible and +short sighted; and secondly, because they were happy in each other, and +there was no craving void for vain wishes to occupy. Their days were +passed in the exercise of practical benevolence, not wasted in the busy +idleness of fashionable life; and their amusements were inspired by +rural objects, music, in which Mrs. Gordon was a proficient, and an +excellent library, which was constantly augmenting its stores, by the +addition of every new book worthy of a place upon its shelves. + +Contentment, activity, and independence brought forth all their fruit +at Drumcairn, and Zorilda, who had felt through secret instinct that +such things _might_ be, though she had never seen them, opened her +whole soul to the genial influence of her new associates, as the +butterfly unfolds its radiant wing to the sunbeam. + +Mrs. Gordon understood her thoughts before they found expression, and +entered into all her feelings while yet she believed them hidden in her +own breast; sympathizing or repressing, correcting or informing, as +acquaintance increased, and occasion suggested; but the grateful heart +of our gentle Zoé was not estranged from its early ties by the novelty +of that enchantment which an ardent mind experiences in gazing, for the +first time, on its own image in the bosom of a friend; like that of Eve +reflected from the clear waters of Paradise, when newly awakened from +sleep, she approached with timid step, now advancing, now retiring, to +grasp the lovely form which gave a second self to view. Zorilda, in the +retirement of her chamber, often breathed the silent murmur, "Oh why do +sisters differ thus?" but her heart replied, that Mrs. Hartland +deserved her gratitude, and she was Algernon's mother. Her innocent +prayers were then sent up to Heaven for strength to perform her course +in the path of duty, and she would fall into a rosy slumber, dreaming +of happy virtuous love and devoted friendship. + +The character of Mr. Gordon resembled that of her friend and tutor, +which quickly secured him a place in her affections. She was charmed +with the clearness of his views, and the straight forward integrity of +his practice; but the more Zorilda was captivated by society thus +congenial, the more sedulously did she endeavour, by redoubled +attention, to avoid exhibiting to her benefactors how much they lost by +comparison with their guests. Every moment which could be snatched from +those cares which Zorilda never neglected, was employed in cultivating +the present opportunity of enjoyment; and Mrs. Hartland secretly +triumphed in the fulfilment of her project. She saw, in the mutual +attachment of her sister and her ward, the future feasibility of +sending the latter off to Scotland, should Algernon's travels not have +effaced all dangerous recollections; and in this view she had for the +first time an appearance of unselfishness by promoting a companionship +which afforded gratification to those around her. Pride prevented her +from divulging her fears. + +"If," said she to herself, "my son is cured of his childish folly, +there is no use in exposing it. If, on the other hand, he should +relapse into any nonsense, it will be time enough to act. 'Sufficient +to the day is the evil thereof.' I might restrain my sister's affection +for Zoé were I to clog it with future demands, so I will let things +work their own way, and take advantage of results as occasion may +require." + +This was Mrs. Hartland's policy; Zorilda had other motives for her +silence, and a tremulous delicacy of feeling prevented her from +reposing in the bosom of her dearest friend those hopes and fears which +disturbed the serenity of her own; but Mrs. Gordon knew human nature, +and her sister's individual character. The first taught her to believe +it very possible that her nephew might not be proof against such +attractions as those of her young friend, while the latter assured her +that nothing could be less consonant with the wishes of his mother than +that Zorilda should exercise any influence over his affections. These +abstract surmises were brought to clearer testimony by a conversation +after dinner one day, which turned on genealogy. + +"There is nothing like a good family," said Mrs. Hartland; "even money +is not of so much consequence; and for my part I would rather see my +only child dead at my feet than that he should bring disgrace upon +himself and all belonging to him by marrying any one of low birth." + +Though Zorilda had resolved to command her actions, she had no power to +control her looks; and the sudden transition from a crimson blush to +deadly pale, expressed more than she wished to communicate, and +revealed sentiments which no force of language could contradict. + +"My love," said Mrs. Gordon, as she rose hastily from her chair, and +went towards Zorilda, "I told you that you had walked too far. I saw +that you were greatly fatigued. You are quite overcome now by the heat +of this room, and must come with me directly into the fresh air." Zoé +pressed the hand which was extended towards her, and accompanied her +kind conductress. + +When relieved from the restraint of observation on the part of those +who knew all her little history, she burst into tears; and when the +soothing caresses of Mrs. Gordon had tranquillized her spirits +sufficiently to permit of utterance, her first anxiety was to explain +her emotion without touching on its principal spring. + +"Oh!" exclaimed Zorilda, "what a misfortune, is it not? to be thus a +prey to the most agonizing sensations upon a subject altogether beyond +the scope of my power to elucidate or control! I am ashamed of my +weakness, of my rebellion against that Almighty Being who decrees my +trials, who my bible teaches me to believe, 'loveth whom He chasteneth, +and scourgeth the son whom he would save.' Is it a crime to be thus +forlorn; the sport of every wind, or like the wreck of some +sea-foundered skiff, a severed fragment floating on the ocean of life, +unknown, unclaimed, unacknowledged? Alas! I have tried to school my +warring soul, and bend it to its burthen. I have prayed to Him who can +alone strengthen our frail nature, but I have prayed in vain; I am not +heeded. I am an outcast in Heaven as on earth." + +"Beloved child," replied the tender friend, who now sought to pour +balsam on a wounded spirit, "you pray not yet in fulness of _trust_; +you importune, but you do not confide. It is sometimes permitted us to +understand the discipline inflicted by Him who desireth not the death +of a sinner, who will never allow us to be tempted beyond our power to +endure. In Heaven there are no pedigrees; God will have your whole +heart, give it freely to Him who gives you all. Bless Him for the +dangers which you have escaped; His mercy has snatched you from the +perils which encompassed your infant head, and a day may come----" + +"Never! never!" answered Zorilda, "it is a vain hope. Perhaps I shewed +less presence of mind to day than I might have summoned to my aid on +another occasion, because that long walk, which you, dearest Mrs. +Gordon, chid me for adventuring, was undertaken this morning in quest +of some information respecting my hapless tale. While resting yesterday +beneath the hawthorn hedge, I overheard a labourer telling our gardener +that a young man had lately come into the neighbourhood to marry one of +our farmers' daughters, and professed to have seen me in former days, +as well as to know how I fell into the hands of a gipsey horde. +Breathless and agitated I listened with the deepest attention, but the +men were walking forward, and I caught no more of their conversation. +On my return to the house I consulted with Rachael, that faithful +creature who was placed by the kindness of Mrs. Hartland to watch over +my tender years. She loves me dearly, and her affection has often been +a refuge for my sorrows. She knew at once, by my account, who the +person was to whom the labourer alluded, and promised to make minute +inquiry; but my impatience would not brook delay, and after a sleepless +night, I set off, accompanied by her, at early dawn to see and speak +myself to the stranger. Buoyed up at one moment by hope; at another, +trembling with fear, I flew along, regardless of distance, and reached +the cottage were he was to be found; I saw, and conversed with him. My +curiosity has been punished. Alas! the little he could tell, has only +served to add bitterness to my former ignorance. He told me that he +pursued the gipsey group, to which I afterwards belonged, for the +purpose of obtaining payment for a horse from the very man who +purchased me, and who was the greatest rogue of the whole party, as +also their chief. At length my informer found these wild people +encamped upon the southern coast, and while he remained to transact his +own business, he witnessed a negotiation, which put the lawless band in +possession of the miserable Zoé. A woman, dressed in mean attire, and +having the appearance of a soldier's wife, offered me for sale. The +bargain was made. The man who bought me inquired my name, and the +unfeeling wretch who could so barter her weeping infant for a sum of +money, replied, 'You may call her Zorilda. I have just landed with her +from Spain, and the sooner you change your quarters the better.' The +gipsey chief next inquired of the woman whether she had a husband, +fearing that the father might follow, to reclaim his child. 'No, no,' +answered the she wolf, whom, I am now tortured by supposing to have +been my mother; 'he is laid low enough. He was killed, and will not +rise from the grave to trouble you. I must not linger here. Hide the +child till you arrive in another part of the country, and set off with +your prize as fast as you can.' + +"This is the sum and substance of all the information I could glean. +The woman who made traffic of her offspring, would not tell the gipsies +to what regiment her husband belonged, nor mention his name. I have, +therefore, not the slightest clue by which to make further scrutiny, +and the only knowledge which I have gained, deprives me of the humble +consolation which I before enjoyed, of dreaming that I was once folded +in the arms of an adoring parent, who, however lowly her lot of life, +still loved and pressed me to a mother's bosom. The keenness of this +disappointment, and the certainty that the moral qualities of her who +gave me birth were as debased as her station, peculiarly unfitted me to +bear with calmness the sentence which Mrs. Hartland pronounced to-day +upon a vulgar origin. + +"Oh, why are my feelings so acute? Sprung from the lowest abyss, the +very dregs of my species, why are my thoughts so proud? Why is my will +thus rebellious? If, like the humble hind who tills the earth, I could +be satisfied with the rank assigned by Providence, I could be happy; I +could raise my hands to heaven, and bless my creator in the temple of +nature; bend to my rustic toil, and repose in peace; but there is a war +within, which murders rest. I feel as if I had been formed for another +destiny, and my spirit cannot submit in meekness to this degradation." + +"My Zorilda," answered Mrs. Gordon, "you have not reduced religion to +practice, and your trials have been sufficient to render the task of +obedience severe; but it must be learned. The morbid sensibility which +you encourage blinds your understanding, and you draw false +conclusions. The inference which _I_ derive from your dialogue +with the stranger this morning is directly opposite to that which you +deduce. The soldier's wife was not your mother. Nay, I should decide +against her having even been your nurse. The strong instincts of nature +are seldom violated, and amid all the depravity of human kind there are +few instances of such unnatural character as you take for granted in +the present case. Zorilda is not a name by which an English soldier's +wife would have been likely to call her daughter; neither would a woman +who sold her own child, and whose husband was no longer living to +upbraid her, or seek its recovery, have had any apparent motive for the +concealment which she desired, in the speedy decampment of the gipsies. +Be assured that you are rather the offspring of Spanish parents, +probably of rank and consideration. Silk and velvet, of which materials +your dress was made when first my sister saw you, are not the common +manufactures which clothe inferior people. Who has had the misfortune +to lose you, is a mystery which I wish we were enabled to solve, but +all that I _do_ know convinces me that you are not the child of her +who sold you to the gipsey gang." + +"Dear and kind friend," exclaimed Zorilda, "how grateful am I for the +tender feeling with which you try to mitigate my pain. I will not repel +your efforts--I will adopt your creed--it shall be mine, and I will +endeavour to believe that I was indeed stolen from my home by the cruel +being who passed me again into stranger hands. But what a fate is mine, +when such a surmise is the best consolation which can be offered. Had I +been left in my native land, though torn from all I loved, I might have +been brought up in the religion of my ancestors, and found an asylum in +some friendly convent. You have no such refuge here for the unhappy." + +"All England is the refuge of the destitute," replied Mrs. Gordon; "her +bounteous shores have been pressed by royal fugitives, and this +glorious land, this favoured soil, has sheltered kings as well as +slaves from the tyranny of other climes. Shall my Zoé repine at having +imbibed the doctrines of a purer faith than that of Spain? The heart +may freely dedicate itself to God without the call of matin or of +vesper bell. We have altars every where, and do not want the convent's +gloomy pile to enshrine our prayers. Those sad receptacles are +frequently the scene of guilt, and the prison walls of the religious +recluse, too often contain devotion of every kind but that to Heaven." + +"Oh forgive my impetuosity; I stand convicted of my error. Be my +counsellor; speak peace to a wounded spirit, and you shall find in +Zorilda a docile as well as a grateful heart," said the lovely +Spaniard, with an expression of countenance so contrite, so imploring, +as to touch Mrs. Gordon to the soul; but afraid of indulging affection +which would be soon interrupted by her own departure from Henbury, she +repressed the tear which rose to her eye, and looking at her young and +beautiful companion with an air of encouraging kindness, she kissed, +raised her gently from the seat on which they had been conversing, and +leading her towards the house, emphatically uttered those inspired +words of the royal Psalmist, "Whom have I in Heaven but thee; and whom +do I desire on earth beside thee?" adding, "When we can answer this +passionate and affecting inquiry with sincerity, and feel that there is +no idol dividing the empire of our hearts with that being who will not +reign over a disputed kingdom, then, and not till then, shall the +distracted bosom find repose." + +Zorilda started, coloured violently, and looked as if her heart would +burst its prison without permission from her will, but just as her lips +were going to obey its impulse, she checked the accents as they were +escaping, and after a momentary pause, during which a short but +dreadful conflict seemed to convulse her frame, she caught the arm of +her friend, and calling up all the fortitude of virtuous resolution to +her aid, exclaimed-- + +"Yes! be it so; God is the orphan's portion. He is the defender of the +fatherless. You have touched a hidden chord. The world is of Proteus +form; and even in such seclusion as this, its roses or its thorns can +occupy the imagination, and divert the soul from its devotion to the +Supreme. I will bind your words upon my heart! I will remember that +within my own breast there is an altar of dedication to receive my +vows. The offering only is wanting to complete the sacrifice, and you +have furnished the test by which I am to seek the victim." + +"Make no vows, my child," said Mrs. Gordon; "freedom is with noble +minds the straitest bondage. Endure your trials; kiss the rod. Believe +that affliction comes not from the dust; it is sent from on high to +purify and exalt. The murmur of irritability, and the gloomy silence of +a sullen temper, are alike remote from that submission which your God +requires to fit you for the glorious society of angels. Should an +earthly friend be wanted by my Zoé, while I live, remember Drumcairn, +and fly to its peaceful retreat." + +These words sank too deeply for reply. The Gordons returned to +Scotland; and in an hour after they drove from the door. While Zorilda +was plunged in the deepest grief and lamentation, a letter arrived to +announce the approach of Algernon. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + "Oft expectation fails, and most oft there where most it promised." + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +The difference between hope and fruition is a hacknied theme, and there +are few pleasures belonging to man, of which it may not be said, with +Congreve, that + + "'Tis expectation makes the blessing dear." + +Scarcely had Zorilda bid adieu to the friends whose society had +afforded that fulness and variety of enjoyment which constitute the +longest as well as most delightful measure of remembered time, when in +an hour of such desolation as a heart like hers, alive to the strongest +impressions, could alone experience; the current of her grief was +disturbed, as is the rivulet's gentle flow, when a fragment from the +mountain side dashes into the midst of the stream, breaking its silent +waters into a thousand troubled eddies. + +A letter from Algernon came to announce his intended return, and one +brief fortnight would now give him back to the eyes and heart of her +whose agitated spirits bore speaking testimony to the powerful hold +which he possessed on her affections. + +Two years had intervened since our hero left Henbury for Oxford. He had +contrived, on various pretences, to lengthen his stay at Paris, till +the University appeared to be altogether abandoned. Mrs. Hartland felt +her son's absence severely, but it was some consolation to believe that +he was extending his connections advantageously amongst people whose +rank and consequence were conformable to the future dignity of his +prospects. She likewise trusted, that present sacrifice of his society +would be repaid by the perfect cure of his first love. + +Algernon never failed to flatter the weakness of his parents, and while +time and money were wasted in profligacy, a list of distinguished names +deceived them, gratified their vanity, and cheated them, through a +series of vaunting lies, into the fond assurance, that their darling +was the principal ornament of the Court of France. He had quarrelled +with the Marquess of Turnstock, but concealed his separation from him, +and the true motive of his present design to re-visit home at this +moment, was in order to anticipate conjecture which might naturally +arise when his Lordship's arrival in England unaccompanied by him, +would lead to inquiry why they had parted from each other after being +the "Castor and Pollux" of Oxford. + +Zorilda had indeed often wondered at the frigid nature of that +affection which could impose upon itself the pangs and penalties of +such lengthened absence. She had often asked herself what spell had the +power to charm the wanderer, and would then chide her heart for its +jealous doubts. The intervals between Algernon's letters were much +increased since he commenced his foreign travel, but Zorilda could +account for this. "He knows that I have no money, and would spare me +his mother's reproaches for the cost of frequent postage," said the +innocent Zoé, who judged of others by herself. Every letter, too, when +tried by the test which revealed its hidden sentiments, contained +assurance of undying love which kindred flames developed, when, spite +of her prohibition, inspired by + + "Hope, kind cheat, fair fallacy," + +she held the paper to the fire, "pardoning the treason for the +traitor's sake." + +Zorilda's quick penetration had also remarked sundry abbreviations and +blots in Algernon's late _despatches_, which might be truly so called +in every sense of the word, and sighed as she recollected that a +celebrated Madame de Staal, who lived in the age of Louis Quinze, had +discovered the refrigeration of a lover's affection, in his voluntary +choice of a short road when he used to conduct her home to her +convent, after passing the day with her friends in Paris. Two sides of +the triangle which formed the court of the convent would have afforded +a longer _tête-à-tête_ than the diagonal; yet the lover abridged +opportunity by preferring the diagonal, and the young Frenchwoman at +once decided that he had ceased to be one, and would see him no more. + +She was right, but though Zorilda felt the shortened words as much as +Madame de Staal in her youth had felt the shortened way, she pleaded +unavoidable haste, to excuse all apparent negligence or contempt, +though the acuteness of her sensibility made her alive to the slightest +change of temperature in affection. Even had her reasoning been more +severe, it would not have stood proof against the first sound of the +carriage wheels which announced Algernon's arrival within the gates of +Henbury. The most subtile arguments are but feeble weapons when opposed +to true love, when the latter is re-inforced by presence of the beloved +object. One look is sufficient to put to flight a world of reasoning, +and Zorilda did not wait to see her truant, before her beating heart +proclaimed full pardon of every omission or commission of which he had +ever been guilty. Algernon's letter inclosed an open note, which his +mother as usual read before she suffered it to leave her hands. To +_her_ eyes it only contained a few careless words, calculated to +lull every apprehension of repose. She could find nothing more than-- + + "Dear Zo, I am coming and am in too great a bustle to say more than + a few words. I am longing to see all my four-footed favourites. + Send to Norton for my greyhound and setters, which I left with him; + and tell him that I expect their _education to be finished_ by + the time I see them again. I long also to re-visit my hawks and + pheasants, which you have been nursing for me; and I long to see + you too, and tell you of all my adventures. Your's truly, dear Zo, + in _fire_ haste, A. H." + +Mrs. Hartland contrasted this meagre demonstration with the "dearest +mother" and "most affectionate son," addressed to herself, and +presented this blotted billet to the blushing girl with an air of +triumph. + +Zorilda read it without making any comment, but longed to be alone to +try whether "fire haste" might not extract something more from the +paper which she held in her trembling hand. + +The intelligent reader has, no question, often remarked, that people +whose tempers are not governed by any other director than their +passions, are kind or unkind to others as they happen to be pleased or +displeased themselves. This was Mrs. Hartland's habit, and Zorilda's +patience was often put to severe trial; but the mother's spirits were +now elated, and all around shared their _couleur de rose_. She folded +up her packet, and smiling benignantly on her young friend, desired +her to go, and give the necessary orders to prepare for her son's +return. + +"Algernon will be of age on the 25th," said Mrs. Hartland, "and this +is an event of importance in my family. If he comes before his +birthday, we shall have a double joy to celebrate. Childish things +must henceforth be put away, and my son must now assume the manly +character in which he is called from this time to act a new part upon +the stage of life; aye, and I trust also a _distinguished_ one. The +boyish follies of Algernon's early youth are no longer to be +remembered, and one-and-twenty is an age----" + +The young Spaniard's eloquent cheek and eye were beginning to betray a +painful consciousness of the secret meaning which these words were +designed to convey. She understood, with rapid comprehension, the full +tenour of this commencing oration; but the entrance of a servant, who +came to say that a messenger had just arrived on horseback at full +speed, bringing a letter which he had orders not to confide to any +other hands than those of Mr. or Mrs. Hartland, offered an opportunity +which Zorilda instantaneously seized to glide out of the room, and +snatching up her straw hat as she passed quickly through the hall, she +flew into the open air to give free vent to feelings too agonizing to +be suppressed, too proud to be revealed, to her who had excited them. + +"Break not yet, poor heart," said Zorilda aloud, as she gained her +favourite solitude; "such tumult of the soul can find no place in +Heaven, whither all my thoughts should bend. _There_ all is peace, +celestial peace! Oh, she is a skilful archer; every arrow is securely +aimed, every poisoned shaft is winged unerringly. Did she not say that +"childish things are to be laid aside?" and what _so_ childish as love +for the nameless, friendless, orphan-gipsey? I understand it all too +well, yet why _too_ well? Ungrateful that I am! Shall I repine that I +am enabled to perceive the dangers which beset my path? and do I call +myself unfriended while the spirit of her who so lately blessed me +with almost a mother's tenderness, still hovers here? Yes, in this +spot used we to hold sweet counsel. Here did I listen to the soothing +voice of comfort, here taste the balm of sacred wisdom as from her +lips distilled the pure stream of divine instruction, which poured +daily on my ear. Though absent, she shall teach me still, and I will +pray in the silence of this fragrant breeze, to that Being who is +never deaf to the supplicant's cry." + +What breast unvitiated by the artificial world is not alive to the soft +influence of nature, and what soul ever sought its God in sincerity and +humiliation without finding relief? Zorilda rose from the mossy shrine, +strengthened, refreshed, consoled, and sitting down where she had knelt +before, exclaimed with fervour, "Remember Drumcairn!" "Those were her +parting words as she folded me to her bosom. Yes, I will remember, and +with thankfulness, that there is yet an earthly asylum for Zorilda." A +slight rustling amongst the branches which formed a screen behind where +she sat, and threw their protective shade over her head, disturbed her +meditations; and starting up she looked around, but could only discover +by an increased movement of the leaves, that something had brushed +through them. + +"What a fool I am!" said she; "shall I fear my old and faithful +companions, and start at a bird? But hah! what is here? a letter, and +for me!" She seized the paper with trembling haste, and casting a timid +glance around, hurried breathlessly back to the shrubbery from which +she had strayed, and closed its gate before she dared venture to break +the seal, and read the following lines: + + "ZORILDA, + + "There is one at least in the world who asks not '_Who is she?_' + but who knows you to be virtuous, lovely, and unhappy; one who can + behold in you the pedigree of a noble soul, whencesoever it be + derived; who has gazed more than once unseen upon your streaming + eyes uplifted in prayer to Heaven; and listened to those sighs + which rend your heart, yet without intrusion on your sorrows. The + friend who now addresses you, has not taken advantage of his + situation to possess himself of your secrets, if you have any + which you desire should be unrevealed, and his motive in thus + alarming, is to warn you against dangers which threaten your + peace. Walk no more beyond the enclosure of your shrubbery, till + you bear from your unknown guardian that you are safe in doing so; + and rely on the fidelity of one, who cannot tell you more at + present than that he is devoted to your interests, over which he + watches with constant vigilance. Beware of wandering by moonlight, + and alone." + +Zorilda was nearly overcome with terror and astonishment. Unused to +consider herself an object of interest to any one, the liveliest +gratitude would have possessed her unsuspecting heart, if the dread of +some impending ill did not predominate over every calmer feeling. From +whence came the warning which she had just received? It was not the +hand-writing of Mr. Playfair, and if it were, why should he be thus +mysterious? He would have pointed explicitly to the approaching danger, +and as openly advised the best means of avoiding it. This anonymous +intimation was perhaps itself a snare; yet it prescribed caution, and +seemed to be dictated by truth and kindness. + +"What shall I do? Oh whither shall I turn for counsel?" said Zorilda. +"If I tell Mr. Hartland, what profit will accrue? He cannot lock me up, +nor place a guard in attendance on my steps. Mrs. Hartland would call +me a heroine of romance, and I should be derided, ridiculed, insulted. +What a time is this to have lost the true friends who would have been +my pilots! But God is every where, He will direct me, if with a single +heart, I implore His heavenly guidance." + +The sound of hasty footsteps put an end to Zorilda's reflections. She +folded the paper quickly, over which she had been musing, and had +scarcely time to conceal it, when Rachel, a faithful domestic already +introduced to the reader, ran towards her, out of breath-- + +"Miss Zoé, Miss Zoé, make no delay; my mistress is calling for you, and +angry that you cannot be found. Master is from home too; not expected +till dinner, which is ordered an hour later than usual, and we have +been put into a great flutterment by news at the house; but I am not to +tell you any thing about it, only to find, and send you in, without +loss of time." + +Zorilda trembled so exceedingly, that she could hardly obey the +summons, and immediately concluded, that whatever circumstances had +occurred in her absence, bore some reference to the mysterious +communication which had been made to her. Bewildered by the variety of +alarms which thronged upon her mind, she advanced with breathless +agitation, and having reached the house, heard Mrs. Hartland's voice +loudly employed in giving directions to have a horse saddled, and a +servant in readiness to set off in quest of her husband, who had gone +that morning to attend a board of magistrates at some distance from +Henbury. + +Zorilda, pale as death, gained the apartment from whence she heard +these orders issuing, and felt sinking with apprehension and +exhaustion, when she was met by a countenance in which exultation, +impatience, resentment, and solicitude struggled for mastery. + +"Where is it that you hide yourself in this unfeeling manner?" said +Mrs. Hartland, with impetuous eagerness. "Is it not too provoking that +I should be left alone, and that nobody can be found in a moment of +such agitation as the present. Lord Marchdale lies at the point of +death. He has had a paralytic stroke, and is speechless. Mr. Humphries, +the head steward, who has long been in our interests, has sent off an +express to give secret intelligence of the event; and here, by the most +unlucky chance imaginable, my son is far away, and I know not how to +direct to him. Mr. Hartland, who hardly ever leaves home, is absent; +and even you too are moping idly in some hole or corner, and can +nowhere be found. _You_ have no personal interest, it is true, in +the matter, but it is intolerable that you should be out of the way +when my hand shakes so that I cannot hold a pen." + +The harshness, as well as unreasonableness, of this attack, repelled +the softer sympathies of Zorilda's heart, which were ever ready at the +call of affection; and summoning as much firmness as she could command, +she calmly replied, + +"Madam, as you had no cause to anticipate this event, you would have +been the first to censure Mr. Hartland's indolence, had he neglected +the business which engages him this morning; and as to me, I am not +aware of disobeying your commands in taking a walk at no great +distance from the house. I am ready now, though _my_ hand is not very +steady, to write as you shall dictate." + +"I shall remember your insolent coldness," said Mrs. Hartland; "write +directly to Mr. Humphries, thank him in my name for the zeal which +_he_ has shewn in our affairs, desire him to keep a strict eye +over the property, and to refuse admittance to all interlopers, +and----" + +"Oh," interrupted Zorilda, "do not accuse me of that which is foreign +from my nature. Can any good or evil happen at Henbury in which I do +not share? Are you not my benefactors? But you reject my sympathy with +disdain, and then reproach me for the want of it. Let me prove how much +I feel upon the present occasion by conjuring you not to commit +yourself by writing such a letter as you propose to the steward. If, as +I have heard you say, Mr. Hartland is heir to the estates, as well as +to the title of Marchdale, you will owe nothing to the officiousness of +this Humphries; but should Lord Marchdale have had power over his +fortune, and exercised it to your disadvantage, how will this +precipitancy advance your claims, or redress the evil? Again, a +paralytic stroke is not always fatal. Lord Marchdale may recover, and +then you are at the mercy of a sycophant who may turn your impatience +to account with his master, and represent you in unfavourable colours, +to your future ruin. Let me return your acknowledgments for a letter +which you have opened in the absence of Mr. Hartland, and enter no +farther into the subject of it." + +"You are right, Zoé; I forgive you," answered Mrs. Hartland; "make +haste, give a guinea to the messenger, see that he is properly taken +care of, and despatch him without delay." + +Zorilda executed the task which her own good sense and delicacy had +suggested; but who can describe the state of her mind, when, having +performed her commission, she had time to reflect on her own situation, +rendered doubly precarious and painful, by the increased distance which +she perceived the near prospect of rank and fortune would place between +her and all she loved? + +Mr. Hartland returned, and even his phlegmatic temperament was excited +by the news which awaited him. Visions of future greatness now +absorbed the attention of him and his wife, though they took various +hues, according with the difference of their characters. Mr. Hartland +shewed no impatience, but, assuming a sort of sullen pomp, seemed to +feel himself already in possession of the distinction which he +anticipated; while Mrs. Hartland, in an agony of "hope deferred," +endured a perpetual fever of mind from the restlessness and impotent +activity of her disposition. Day after day passed without bringing +farther tidings, and the _final_ account from Marchdale-court was +necessary to allay those apprehensions which embittered her golden +dreams. + +There is one character still more irritating than that of an _ex post +facto_ prophet, and that is a person who, not waiting for events, +begins, while they are yet pending, to foresee disastrous issues in +the interval between causes and effects, without casting a shadow of +blame upon themselves for having acquiesced in that very conduct, on +the failure of which their angry sagacity is afterwards employed too +late to prevent whatever may be its result. Mrs. Hartland was of this +description. The mob principle, that every one must be wrong who does +not glide with full sails before the wind, influenced all her +decisions of every kind; and though in the present case it was +obvious, that while Lord Marchdale _lived_ she could not receive the +joyful information of his _death_, she could not impute the silence of +Mr. Humphries to any other source than offence at the frigid style of +Zorilda's reply to his letter. "I _saw plainly_ how it would be. I +_knew_ that Mr. Humphries would be affronted. We have evidently lost a +friend who would have watched over our interests, and all because I +was too much agitated to write myself. I should have conciliated this +worthy man, and flattered his vanity with assurance of my entire +reliance on his zeal and discretion; but people who know nothing of +the world will put in a word of advice, and woe to all who give ear to +their stupid counsels." + +To these, and such like taunts, Zorilda had to listen, whenever her +evil genius brought her within hearing of Mrs. Hartland's unceasing +complaints; which were now received with less submission by her +husband, as he began to feel himself rising in the scale of human +dignity, and remembered that it was through _him_ that the expected +honours were to come. + +"For Heaven's sake," he would sometimes say, "let my relation die in +peace, my dear. Would you have Mr. Humphries administer a dose of +poison to hasten your victim out of the world, in order to accommodate +your ambition?" + +"Mr. Hartland you are becoming insufferable. Your torpor is more +exasperating than the rage of a lion. I am sure, were it not for the +sake of posterity, I wish that your relation may recover, and keep you +out of an earldom which you are not fit for, and have too little +feeling to value. My _son_, however, will one day grace a coronet +of which his father is little worthy." + +"I suppose that you would kill me also, to make way for your idol," +retorted Mr. Hartland; "but we may all prove too tough for your wishes. +Mind, I tell you that a paralytic stroke is not always a stroke unto +death; and you may be punished yet for committing murder in your heart, +if not with your hands. Take my advice, good lady, and keep yourself +cool; or in vulgar phrase, do not reckon your chickens before they are +hatched." + +This was a new style of dialogue at Henbury, and exceedingly shocked +the gentle Zorilda; who, endeavouring to forget her own anxieties as +much as possible, tried every effort in her power to soften these +asperities and mediate between the belligerent parties, who never had +quarrelled till now, when they seemed upon the eve of attaining the +grand object of their common wishes. + +"How strange the effect of what the world calls prosperity!" exclaimed +this child of nature, when relieved from the irksome society of those +with whom it was her lot to drag the heavy hours. "Who would desire to +possess a few ideal distinctions, brief as shadowy, at the expense of +all that is dear to the heart?" + +Zorilda was debarred the luxury, not denied to many in this age, of +communicating her thoughts to a distant friend. The power of purchasing +this gratification was more than she could command, so entire was her +dependence; and even if it had been permitted her to correspond with +Mrs. Gordon, the necessity of shewing every line which she either wrote +or received, would have neutralized the privilege. + +"Let me thank God," said she, "that I have still the power of thought; +still the blessed boon of self-communion left; and, oh may I use the +gift to profit! examine my heart, probe its most secret recesses, and +cultivate resignation to the will of Him who sees it good that I should +be thus severely tried!" + +When aspirations such as these would escape her lips, a bright gleam of +hope sometimes succeeded, and painted Algernon in all the bloom of +youthful joy, returning to the home of his happy childhood; called +thither to embellish a higher sphere, elate with glad prospects, and +placed in possession of power to shed happiness in every smile. Spite +of every effort to repress the fond dreams of imagination, they would +sometimes, too, indulge in weaving a golden future for herself. If +Algernon had ceased to love, why did his letters still breathe the +honied accents of a sentiment which he might pretend to forget? Was it +generous to doubt his truth because his words were few? Was it +reasonable to expect more lavish demonstration of an attachment so +constrained by circumstances? Arrived at full age, and raised to +dignity and independence, might he not prevail with his parents to +enter into his views? + +Thoughts such as these were too welcome not to force their way, and if +Zorilda had inclination, she wanted strength to banish them always from +her mind. A secret feeling would even picture the pleased surprise with +which Algernon would hear her voice, already flexible and melodious, +now improved by science and cultivation, and accompanied by the "mellow +minstrelsy" of a Spanish guitar, on which Mrs. Gordon's tasteful +tuition had rendered her a proficient. + +How lovely was the expression of that eloquent eye! How touching the +sounds which flowed from those ruby lips when hope's delightful +inspirations came o'er her mind, + + "Like the sweet south + That breathes upon a bank of violets, + Stealing and giving odour." + +At length the time arrived which was to realize or blast the timid +promises of faithful love; and on the same day, the evening of which +was to be blessed by Algernon's return, the dawn was ushered in by an +express to announce the death of Lord Marchdale. + +Suspense and irritation had brought Mrs. Hartland's mind to a state of +quiescence through exhaustion, without effecting any improvement of +temper. On the contrary, the spirit of bickering against her husband +was ready as before, on the present occasion, and broke out into the +following fretful complaint: + +"Ay! when one is worn out with expecting, here comes this empty title +at last; but not a word about the estates. As to the coronet, that was +a thing of course, and no gratitude is due on that score; but if the +property is left away, it would be much better that the title had gone +along with it. You have always neglected my advice, Mr. Hartland, or we +should not be indebted now to back-stairs informers for what we ought +to know ourselves. It is ten to one but you have ruined the fortunes of +your son by your indolent supineness." + +"Can you not wait till the dead are buried?" answered the exasperated +husband. "Did any mortal, but yourself, ever hear of prying into a will +before the body is laid in the grave? even the commonest decencies of +life are violated by your rapacity." + +"Pretty language, _indeed_," replied the ruffled dame; "but you may +find, bye and bye, that my '_rapacity_,' or prudence, or whatever else +you may please to call it, may have saved you from a jail." + +Each party quitted the room by opposite doors in no very harmonious +frame of mind; yet, spite of ill humour with each other, they were +irresistibly excited by the intelligence just received. Men are said to +be but "children of a larger growth," and certain it is that we should +often be ashamed to confess to the world how a bauble can charm our +imaginations. + +Mr. Hartland was met, on quitting the apartment, by eager faces of +attempted condolence and congratulation, mingled with the slavish +wonder and submissiveness generated in vulgar minds by sudden accession +of rank. The servants and dependants were peeping on tip-toe, shoving +each other backwards and forwards to catch the first glimpse of their +master, and see whether he looked differently from his former self, +since he had become a great lord; but the dread of discovering how much +he was pleased with his new dignity, as also a certain fear of upstart +claims which might at least be vexatious, and delay its attainment, +induced him to refrain from his usual ride, and issue orders that no +one should address him by any other than the ordinary appellation, till +his return from Marchdale-court, for which place it would be necessary +that he and his son should set out on the following day. + +Mrs. Hartland gratified the people and herself by going out into the +shrubbery, garden, farm-yard, etcetera; and wherever she could find a +human being to greet her with the delightful sounds of "my Lady," and +"your ladyship," she condescended to expatiate on the lofty +acquirements which had descended on her house. One old woman, in the +effervescence of her zeal and ignorance, styled her "your Majesty," +which flattered so bewitchingly, that the salutation scarcely seemed +ridiculous. + +The express of the morning produced a very different effect on Zorilda, +whose agitation was sufficient for her delicate frame, without this +increase. These new honours had no charm for her, but seemed to raise a +barrier in her path. Algernon was no longer Algernon; she was to meet +Lord Hautonville, and a chill came over her heart as she tried to +practise the unwonted and unwished-for sounds. Then the object of her +soul's dearest attachment was to be snatched from her eyes, almost in +the moment of meeting them: and though the recollection of her own +danger was the last consideration to present itself, yet when +remembrance of the letter which she had in her possession forced upon +her mind a consciousness of the defenceless condition in which a few +hours would leave her, she shuddered with terror of she knew not what, +but felt such instinctive repugnance to proclaim her fears, and the +cause of them, that she resolved, under accumulating difficulty, still +to place her sole trust in that merciful assistance, the support of +which her heart began to acknowledge experimentally in moments of +trial. + +"Oh! will not one look repay me for all this uneasiness, if it beams +with the affection of dear old times; and why do I admit these mean +doubts to overwhelm me? I will cast them from me, and sit musing here +no longer!" + +So saying, Zorilda started from her reverie, and ran to put the last +finish to her little preparations, by dressing every part of the house +with fresh gathered flowers. After which she culled a bunch of + + ----"Valley Lilies, whiter + Than Leda's love;" + +with which to decorate her marble brow, and had scarcely ended her +simple toilette, when carriage wheels were heard. Mr. and Mrs. +Hartland, followed by the servants, hastened to the hall. Zorilda, with +beating heart, blanched cheek, and trembling knees, lingered on the +stairs, unable to move, but the first accents of the well-known voice +were, "Where is Zoé?" The vital glow re-animated her countenance, and +in a few short seconds she was folded in the arms of Algernon. + +Never was the meeting of two lovers more rapturous. Zorilda's innocent +and confiding nature tasted such blessed assurance in this joyful +instant, as repaid an age of keenest anguish, while Algernon's +astonished gaze, seemed to declare that no such loveliness had ever +burst upon his senses, as met his eyes in the modest, yet dazzling +beauty of her on whom they now were rivetted. + +Zorilda drew back, surprised in her turn by the changes which time had +wrought. Algernon was a perfect model of manly grace, and all the easy +elegance and polish of fashionable society were added to the native +symmetry which distinguished his appearance. A reproachful call from +Mrs. Hartland, quickly interrupted this short-lived transport of +uncertain bliss. Alas! it was never to return. Zorilda loved, and was +beloved; but, she knew not why, she had not the same pleasure which she +formerly felt in Algernon's company. There was a fire in his manner of +looking at her, and a bold familiarity in his mode of address, which +discomposed her, and made her desire to shrink into herself, without +being able to explain to her own breast the reason why she did so. +While he was summoned to hear the story of his altered fortunes, she +threw herself, exhausted by the variety of her emotions, into a chair +near a window, that opened on a trellised alcove, which she had +carefully entwined with every sweet climber that perfumes the garden, +to breathe a welcome for him she loved. Bursting into an agony of +tears, she looked upon her work and exclaimed: + +"Flowers! you have lost your fragrance. The simple joys of nature are +no longer here. They are become 'dim recollected feelings of the days +of youth and early love.' Dreamer! thy doom is sealed! What has Zorilda +in common with the world's attractions? Algernon is lost to me! Yes, +these are not the looks of Algernon! Why do I turn abashed from the +companion of my childhood?" + +Zorilda's meditations were interrupted by a summons from Mr. Hartland, +who informed her that he must leave Henbury early on the following day, +and desired to commit several matters of importance to her care during +his absence. Dinner succeeded, and the evening was chiefly occupied in +preparations of one kind or other for the ensuing journey; but +notwithstanding the vigilance of Mrs. Hartland, and her constant +endeavour to monopolize her son, he found opportunity from time to +time, to say a few words in secret to Zorilda. + +"Keep up your spirits, Zoé; you shall be Lady Hautonville one of these +days! I am resolved upon it, so do not be frightened; but we have much +to do, and you have much to learn. You must be _schooled_ for the new +order of society which you are about to enter. Nothing can be more +unlike the world than your present style of manners, dress, appearance. +_My_ wife can never be such a country lassie as you are; but I will +have you put in the right way. I know a charming person, La Baronne de +Torsi, who will be happy to do me a kindness. She will have pleasure in +forming you to the standard of good taste. The materials, my Zoé, are +perfect, but you want the air, the fashion, the indispensable tone of +society, which you could not attain in this wretched place. What a pair +are these poor old souls, my father and mother! They seem to have the +year _one_, printed in large letters on every look, word, and gesture. +We must bury them in the woods at Marchdale-court, while you and I +figure away on the theatres of glorious France and Italy. I am sick of +Old England's roast beef, and find nothing good or agreeable off the +Continent. Good night, my lovely Zo; we will make all our arrangements +on my return from this horrible funeral." + +Algernon wished to seal these words, which were but jarring sounds to +Zorilda's ear, by a kiss, but she turned, and hastily disengaging her +hand from his, flew to the sanctuary of her chamber, there to reflect, +through a sleepless night, upon the miseries of her destiny. + +"La Baronne de Torsi! a stranger, a foreigner; _she_ to form my mind, +my manners, my tastes anew, to the frivolous and artificial? I will +have no such monitress. Is this the language of true love? I know it +not by these signs. There is no prison, however dreary, no wilderness +however wild, into which Zorilda would not accompany the being whom she +loved, to suffer pain and privation, and if not permitted her to +shield, yet still to share each pang, would be her bosom's joy; but +thus scorned, thus disdained, it must not, cannot be." + +Morning came, and found the poor mourner still a prey to the tortures +of wounded sensibility. Mr. Hartland and his son were to set out so +early, that she was spared the humiliation of shewing how much power +Algernon possessed over her affections. As he went down stairs he +knocked at Zorilda's door, and slipped a bit of paper underneath, on +which were hastily written, with a pencil, the following words: + +"In the tumult of yesterday's meeting, I forgot to warn you against +receiving any communication, either by letter or visit, from any one +till my return. _Addio, carissima, Algernon_." + +"Hah!" thought Zorilda, "Can this be the explanation? Is Algernon the +unseen guardian who has been watching over me, and to whose friendly +care I have been indebted for avoiding danger, though I know not of +what nature? But no: the letter which I received is not in his +hand-writing, and the sentiments which it expresses, so full of +delicate consideration for the unhappy Zorilda, are alas! little in +unison with the language of yesterday evening, which still echoes +through my heart. Nothing but mystery appears to surround me whichever +way my eyes are directed." + +On meeting Mrs. Hartland in the breakfast-parlour, Zorilda's looks too +plainly bespoke the state of her mind to leave a doubt of what she +endured. A few constrained questions and answers broke the rigid +silence which would otherwise have marked this unsocial meeting. + +Mrs. Hartland rang the bell, and ordering the tea things to be taken +away, desired her young companion to wait her return; and quitting the +room, left Zorilda in new perplexity at what was next to happen. + +Mrs. Hartland re-appeared in a few minutes, bringing an ink-stand and +paper in her hand. Shutting the door, and laying these upon a table, +she ordered Zorilda, in a stern voice, to sit down opposite to her, +with which the latter having complied, she proceeded to unfold her +object. + +"It is no longer possible," said Mrs. Hartland, "to be silent. The +time is come when it is necessary to explain my views, and come to an +open understanding with you. Your attachment to my son cannot be +mistaken, and I must tell you plainly, that it highly displeases Mr. +Hartland and me. _You_ should recollect our relative positions: you, +an unknown orphan, discovered, accidentally, in a gipsey camp, without +name, family, or pretensions; redeemed from the infamy of associating +with a lawless horde by the charity which brought you here, are finely +repaying the protectors of your childhood! Can you suppose, for a +moment, that because you were permitted during infancy to be the +companion of my son, and allowed, in after life to share the +instructions which were bestowed on him by Mr. Playfair; can you, I +repeat, imagine for a single instant that you were ever designed to be +his wife? Do you think that a pretty face is sufficient qualification +for the future Countess of Marchdale, or that Lord Hautonville's +parents would ever look upon him again, were the wiles of an artful +girl to betray his honourable mind into a remembrance of the boyish +vows which children make to each other before they comprehend the +nature of a promise? There is only one act by which you can ease my +mind, and restore yourself to that place in my regards from which, I +confess with regret, that you have fallen. Here are paper, pen, and +ink; I have never found you untrue, and shall depend with confidence +upon your written assurance, regularly signed, for my _full_ +satisfaction, that from this moment, you not only renounce all +pretension to an alliance with my family; but should a romantic spirit +of chivalry induce Algernon to forget what he owes to himself, and his +father and mother, by offering his hand to you, that you here pledge +yourself solemnly to repel such proposals, and reject every advance on +the part of one whose death would be preferable, in my eyes to a +marriage inconsistent with his rank in society. I have now spoken +without reserve. You know my feelings, and if you are disposed to +gratify me by the sacrifice which I require, there is nothing which I +will leave undone to forward your interests. I will prevail on my son +to settle something handsome upon you. I will write to my friends, and +obtain some situation for you as soon as possible, in which your +talents may secure your future independence; or it may be, that when +you are seen and known out of this deep retirement, some suitable +match may present itself, and----" + +Zorilda had resolved to hear out Mrs. Hartland's harangue in patient +silence, and restrain every emotion which it might excite; but though +she had prepared for want of kindness, she did not anticipate the +coarseness by which she had just been assailed. Notwithstanding every +effort, or rather, perhaps, because she exerted herself beyond her +powers, her eyes grew dim, her head became giddy, and she fell back +senseless in her chair. + +When she revived from the state of insensibility into which she had +been thrown by the indelicacy of Mrs. Hartland's proceedings, she found +herself alone with Rachel, whose tender assiduity restored her +faculties once more. She had been removed to her apartment, and was +laid on her bed, from which she now rose in haste, and, dismissing her +faithful attendant with thanks, she summoned up all the resolution of +her character, entered Mrs. Hartland's dressing-room, where she found +that lady seated at her table, writing with perfect sang froid, and +calmly addressed her: + +"Madam," said Zorilda, in a gentle but unfaltering voice, "I come to +give you an answer, which the accident of sudden indisposition has +delayed. I thank you for your care of my infant years. I am grateful +also for the asylum which I have since found under your roof. These +acknowledgments are all that I have to bestow, and I confess that they +are a poor remuneration for the favours which you have conferred upon a +hapless stranger." + +"My dear girl," said Mrs. Hartland, interrupting the lovely but +unfortunate Zorilda, "you can make a return which will more than repay +me. Certainly I _have been_ every thing to you, and I am glad that you +appreciate as you ought to do that kindness which snatched you from +perils worse than death, and has cherished you ever since in the +enjoyment of every comfort. You have sense enough to be conscious that +you have not been a costless charge; but I only mention your _entire_ +destitution, your dependence for every morsel of bread, every article +of clothing, protection, tenderness, education, companionship, only, I +say, to show how _greatly_ I shall estimate the act by which you, who +are aware of the extent of your obligations, are enabled at one stroke +of your pen to cancel them all. Here, my love, I have drawn up the +_promissory note_, as I may call it, which wipes off all scores +between us. Here, my dear, though you have no sirname, nor for the +matter of _that_, perhaps, Christian either, for you may have been +born amongst the Turks or the Jews, and never baptized at all, for any +thing that we can tell to the contrary; sign the three syllables, +Zorilda, whether given to you at the font or in the gipsey's camp, it +is all the same to me. Write your name in a fair hand, opposite to +this seal; declare it to be your act and deed; I will call Rachel to +witness the transaction, and our business is done; I demand no legal +forms, as my confidence in your truth----" + +"Must be your only guarantee, Madam," replied Zorilda. "I will not sign +any document to resign possessions to which I lay no claim. Whatever +kindness may be manifested towards me during my pilgrimage on earth, +must be freely given and as freely received; but you need not dread me; +I will not requite ungratefully the obligations which I owe. If you +really confide in my truth, prove it by relying on what I say; and as +to my future fate, discharge your mind, I pray you, of all anxiety upon +that account. Grant me but a short time to make some trifling +arrangements for my departure, and you shall be satisfied in all +things. I can never be too thankful for the instructions which you +permitted me to derive from that much valued friend, Mr. Playfair, and +upon these I shall depend for being no longer a tax upon your bounty. +The God in whom I trust, will hear the orphan's prayer, and bless my +humble exertions." + +"Then, Madam," answered Mrs. Hartland, "am I to understand, that you +refuse to sign the paper which I hold in my hand?" + +"It is most reluctantly that I refuse to comply with any requisition of +yours," said Zorilda; "but I am determined not to sign that paper. +Possessing no rights, making no demand, I will not assume the merit of +renouncing that to which I do not assert a title. Were I bound by an +engagement such as terrifies you to anticipate, I should be unworthy of +the choice, undeserving of the affection with which I could basely +trifle, and of which I could thus make a cruel, cold, and heartless +surrender----" + +"Quit my presence this instant, artful and unnatural girl," retorted +Mrs. Hartland: "If you are resolved not to comply with my reasonable +desire, I am equally so, that you shall not reap any harvest from your +obstinacy and disobedience. Quit me, I say, this moment, and do not +presume to leave your apartment. I give you one week to consider of +your conduct; if at the end of that time you repent of your behaviour +to me, and declare yourself ready to submit, all shall be forgotten; +but if you persevere in your present shameful resistance to my will and +pleasure, prepare to depart. I shall take measures in the interim for +your removal, and shall not consult your convenience as to the time or +manner of it." + +Zorilda withdrew, and having gained her prison-chamber, laid her aching +head upon the pillow, revolving in her mind this crisis of her present +circumstances. The cup of sorrow seemed now filled to the brim; one +drop more, and it would overflow; and death, the last friend of +despair, would come, she thought, to her aid, and terminate her trials. +It was not the rigorous treatment which she had just experienced--it +was not confinement--that she deplored; on the contrary, solitude and +repose were as soothing as they were become necessary to her harassed +spirits; but the gentle, the affectionate Zorilda, had never till now +rebelled against the authority of her whom she still reflected on as +her benefactress; and she reproached herself with having inflicted +pain. Unaccustomed to resist, she wondered how she could have denied a +request of Mrs. Hartland's. Yet to yield was as repugnant to every +sentiment of love and delicacy as to every principle of truth and +honour. Here, then, was the final dissolution of all her airy dreams. +Here was the extinguishment of hope, the end of wishes, the last blow +to expectation. + +"How merciful the 'blindness kindly given' which prevents us +penetrating the dark veil of future events!" exclaimed the meek +sufferer; "but the time is come. How little did I imagine it so close +at hand when the friendship of my beloved Mrs. Gordon is to be tried! +_Her_ friendship will not fail me in the hour of need!" + +Zorilda was at a loss whether or not to apprise the family at Drumcairn +of her intentions by a letter which should precede her arrival in +Scotland, but after a short consideration determined against doing so. +Her departure, she felt, had become too necessary to leave any option, +and it was better not to hazard the possibility of Mrs. Gordon's +recommending her to postpone so adventurous an undertaking. Besides, if +her elopement were to excite a desire in those she left behind to trace +her retreat, inquiry would naturally be directed, in the first +instance, to the only quarter from which it might be supposed that +authentic information respecting her movements and designs might be +obtained. She therefore resolved on prosecuting her journey without +giving Mrs. Gordon any reason to expect her, certain as she felt of the +welcome that awaited her coming at all times in the breast of that true +friend. + +Those only whose hearts are capable of such attachment as dwelt within +Zorilda's bosom can form any idea of the overwhelming grief with which +she contemplated bidding farewell to the scenes of her childhood, and +with them to every object round which her strong, but tender affection, +had entwined itself from earliest infancy; yet as misfortune had begun +to teach her the happy art which can draw good from apparent evil, as +the bee extracts honey from the vilest weeds, she felt glad that the +prohibition which forbade her usual exercise preserved her from the +pain of dwelling in detail on every leaf and flower associated with +fondest memory. "Mrs. Hartland's decree is a kind one," said she. "I +shall break my bonds at once, and not weaken resolution by re-visiting +those objects, which to gaze upon again would but enfeeble its powers. +Algernon--once beloved--oh _still_ beloved, must I tear _you_ from +this heart? _There_ is the sting; but the sacrifice shall be +finished." + +Some days elapsed; Zorilda made an effort to occupy herself in +preparation for her intended flight. Rachel's watchful care ministered +all the consolation which kindness could impart, and through her +activity and address, the manner of the journey was planned with so +much circumspection, that nothing further remained to impede its +commencement. The approaching alterations in the establishment at +Henbury afforded Rachel an opportunity of disengaging herself from +further services as a domestic without exciting suspicion respecting +her future intentions; and having given notice to Mrs. Hartland that +she meant to leave her, she determined on accompanying Zorilda wherever +her fortunes might lead the way. At the end of a week, just as the +time was drawing near when some account might be expected from +Marchdale-court, Rachel, gliding softly into Zorilda's apartment with +a packet in her hand, + +"This is for you, my dear young lady; but it is not the letter which +you were hoping for from the North." + +Zorilda started, and remembering the caution which she had received +from Algernon at parting, concluded this to be the communication +against which he had warned her in the slip of paper which he thrust +under her door just before he left Henbury. She seized the packet with +tremulous eagerness. It was of large dimensions, and contained some +hard substance. Whence could it come? what could it be? were questions +which might well interest a girl of eighteen. Perhaps, if truth were +told, there are few of either sex or any age exempt from such a measure +of curiosity as would tempt to break the seal in such a case; but in +Zorilda's circumstances every trifle was raised into importance; even +the parcel which she held in her hand might elucidate her history and +influence her fate. Yet Algernon had bid her beware of receiving any +thing of this nature. He therefore knew whence it came, and if +advantageous to her, would he have advised her to return it unopened? +Certainly not, and he should find, that however he might conduct +himself in the end towards her, she would not begin by doubting either +his truth or kindness. After a moment's pause, she gave back the packet +to Rachel, who stood gaping with expectation, and longing for the +unfolding of its contents. + +"Here, Rachel, I am afraid to open this. I know nothing of it, and +think that there is some mistake. It may be a parcel of Mrs. +Hartland's; it cannot be for me; at least I will inquire who sent it, +before I take off the packing." + +"Lord ha' mercy, my dear child," answered Rachel, "did I not tell you +that it comes from your old and fast friend Mr. Playfair? I'm sure if I +did not, it was the joy I felt in bringing it to you, that made me +neglect to name him. I thought you would know all about it the minute +you set your two eyes upon the cover, and wondered to see you so slow +in coming at the inside." + +"Thank heaven!" ejaculated Zorilda. "Here is assistance in the hour of +need. Here at least is sympathy, when my dejected spirit is cast down." + +Tearing off the wrapping paper with eagerness, she found a letter, +directed to "My dear Pupil," in the well known hand of her tutor, +accompanied by a large packet without any address. + +"This will explain the other," said Zorilda, "and comes, I know, from +one in whom I may confide. I will read his letter first. Now, dear +Rachel, leave me, and if I have any good news to communicate you may be +sure of hearing it. You are the only being here who will care to listen +to aught that affects me, and you shall not be kept long in ignorance." + +Rachel quitted the room while Zorilda unfolded the letter, and to her +astonishment read as follows: + + "I have, my dear child, always endeavoured to impress upon your + young heart a _practical_ belief in the God who watches over + His people. Your quick sensibility has been more inclined to + murmuring than thankfulness, and the apparent hardness of that + dispensation which left you like a fallen star, dropped from the + clouds upon earth without home or parents or worldly provision of + any kind, seemed to furnish excuse for the tardiness of your + submission; but, inasmuch as you have felt inclined to doubt the + care of an Almighty ruler, as relating to yourself, in such + proportion will you now assuredly pour out the incense of gratitude + and wonder, when you hear the tale which I have to unfold, and + ponder on those remarkable coincidences which render me the medium + of an accompanying packet, which I have taken means to convey by a + safe hand through which it will find its way to yours, without the + knowledge of any one at Henbury except the faithful Rachel. May + this interesting document, which I now send you, prove the + forerunner of future good, and may you experience as much + satisfaction in receiving as I feel in imparting it! + + "I am yet to tell you how this packet most unexpectedly fell into + the possession of your old and affectionate friend. On my way to + Paris I lingered at Abbeville, with intention of revisiting those + haunts endeared to memory by our favourite Petrarch. While staying + at the inn a message was brought to me, saying that a dying + gentleman, who lived at no great distance, was desirous to speak + with me, and requested my immediate attention to his request. At a + loss to account for such an invitation, yet fearful of giving pain + to a fellow-creature in extremity, if I waited to make further + inquiry, I followed a servant who led the way, and in a few minutes + was introduced to the bedside of Colonel Dalton. He had a manly and + noble countenance, but appeared in the last stage of decline. + Fixing his fine expressive eyes, which were lighted by that meteor + gleam which burns brightest on the confines of the tomb, upon my + face, as if to read my character there--he extended his emaciated + hand, and said, with a feeble voice, + + "'I thank you Sir. This is an act of kindness which will relieve my + mind, and soothe the last moments of a departing spirit. Since I + have been sensible that my hour is at hand, and that I shall never + leave this place, the packet which I am now going to give into your + care, has been subject of deep solicitude to me. I lately sent a + faithful servant, on whose integrity I could have relied for its + safe delivery--to prepare my sister, who lives in Sussex, for my + arrival--but Heaven has ordered otherwise. I reached Abbeville a + few days ago, attended only by my groom, whom I have not known long + enough to depend upon. This packet contains some property of value, + and a narrative which I drew up years ago. These are of the deepest + interest to a young and lovely Spaniard who resides somewhere in + England, with a family of the name of Hartland. The only name I + know for her is Zorilda, but I do not mean to trouble you with + seeking her out. Convey this, together with a box which I shall + commit to your keeping, to my sister, Lady Carleton, whose address + I will give you. She will do the rest, if you explain my wishes now + expressed to you. You will greatly oblige me by this act of + benevolence. Strength fails me. Your countenance inspires belief + that you will fulfil the sacred trust which I repose in you. I am a + soldier, and honour is the soldier's bond.' + + "He grew faint. I gave him some reviving drops, which were at hand, + and, after promising to execute his commission with my best zeal, + proceeded at intervals, as he could listen to the recital, to + inform him of the extraordinary providence which had thrown in his + way the very person of all others most suited to his purpose. He + was much struck with the detail which I gave him, and during three + succeeding days entirely devoted to him, I had the satisfaction of + holding such conversation, as, with the blessing of Heaven upon its + motive, I have good reason to believe deprived death of its sting. + I took charge of his will, and other papers of value, for his + family. He expired without a struggle, and having stayed to attend + his mortal remains to the tomb, I travelled back to perform my vow. + Having seen Lady Carleton, I have discharged my mission as far as + regards her; but send your parcel, of which I made no mention to + her ladyship, by a sure conveyance to your own hands. On my return + to England (for I am once more setting out for the Continent) I + hope to see you. Having now fortified your mind, I trust, by the + proof which I send you of your Heavenly Father's care, I feel it my + duty to put that faith and confidence, which such assurance ought + to inspire, to a severe test, by communicating intelligence of + another kind; but I should not be your true friend were I to + suppress what has come to my knowledge; and through a cowardly + dread of inflicting a present pang, incur the danger of + contributing, by my silence, to your far greater suffering at a + future day. + + "I am too well acquainted, my dear Zorilda, with the human heart, + and the signs by which its feelings are naturally expressed, to be + ignorant of the attachment which sprang up under my own observation + between Algernon and you. I beheld its rise and progress, and + lamented what I was unable to prevent. I knew the dissimilarity of + your characters, and the difference of those motives by which you + were severally actuated. Algernon, selfish and domineering from his + birth, regarded no object except inasmuch as it increased the sum + of his own gratification. You were ever generous, affectionate, and + disinterested. Such disparity I was well aware could never produce + a happy union; but I had no means of averting the perils which I + foresaw. Events have confirmed my presages, and Algernon's career + since he left home has been marked by an utter dereliction of every + principle with which I vainly sought to imbue his mind. It is with + grief I inform you that his extravagance and dissipation have + arrived at a fearful height, and the last account which I have + heard of him, is the worst. Overwhelmed with debt, for the payment + of which his future prospects are pledged beyond, it is said, what + the estates of Marchdale, if bequeathed to him, can liquidate, + burthened as they are already; he has supplied present necessities + by borrowing at usurious interest, till, on the failure of even + this ruinous resource, he has condescended to receive pecuniary + assistance from an opera singer, to whom many people believe that + he is married, and in whose company he is gone to England. + + "Whatever be the nature of the tie which binds Algernon to such + society, it is your part, my child, to wean your affections from a + man who is unworthy of them. The effort will be painful, but it is + necessary to your peace." + + "Farewell, my dear young friend, may you be sustained through every + trial of life, by the divine protection," &c. &c. &c. + +Zorilda's emotions as she concluded Mr. +Playfair's letter, may be imagined but cannot +be described. Surprise, curiosity, grief, and +indignation took alternate possession of her +mind. The packet accompanying the letter was +still unopened. What mysterious interference +of Providence in her behalf could it contain, +and coming too from a stranger's hand, that +should call forth her gratitude to God? She +broke the seals and found an agate box with a +roll of paper inscribed, + + "A TRUE NARRATIVE." + +Laying the former aside, she read as follows: + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + "This is indeed a tiding! + That fellow is a precious casket to us + Enclosing weighty things." + + WALLENSTEIN. + + + "On a fine evening of autumn, I arrived at Grenada. Fatigued after + a toilsome journey, I determined to halt for the night in this + ancient city, and strolling into one of its magnificent churches, + from which the congregation had just issued, I wandered up and down + the spacious aisles, indulging in silent solitude my admiration for + the grand obscure of their noble architecture. + + "As I moved slowly forward, musing on a scene which peculiarly + harmonised with my love for the sublime, a female figure, habited + like a nun, and whose features were studiously concealed by a long + veil, glided swiftly from behind one of the enormous pillars which + supported the building, laid her hand hastily upon my arm, and in a + low tone, addressed the following words to me in the Spanish + language: + + "'I have marked your countenance; it bespeaks intrepidity and + benevolence; if you possess these qualities, meet me to-night + precisely at twelve o'clock without fail, at the western gate of + the ancient palace of the Moors.' + + "The vision vanished, but the solemnity of voice and manner in + which these words were pronounced, convinced me that the adventure + had something extraordinary in its nature. It might be a case of + imprisonment or distress. Conjecture was vain, but there was an + earnestness in the nun's manner which was irresistible. I resolved + on going armed, and taking a friend along with me to guard against + a surprise. Exactly at the appointed hour I reached the western + inlet to that once splendid residence, now superb vestige of former + days, which had been named as the place of rendezvous. At the + moment of my arrival, the same veiled figure whom I had seen in the + church, appeared with a small lamp in her hand. Looking fearfully + around, she inquired whether I was alone. I answered in the + affirmative, having left my companion at a sufficient distance to + prevent our being overheard. + + "'Then,' said my conductress, 'fear nothing; and follow me, if you + are prepared to undertake a commission which requires secrecy and + kindness to execute it efficiently.' + + "I hesitated, and drew back; but instantly perceiving the doubt + which crossed my mind, the Nun added, with eagerness, 'Fear not; I + will detain you but a few minutes. The only trial to which your + courage will be exposed is surmounted in the moment of your + entrance here. You suspect my truth, and the dark labyrinth through + which I am going to lead the way, may well appal a stranger; but + _trust_ me, and I will not deceive you.' + + "Ashamed to express any further unwillingness, and impressed by the + mild dignity of her manner, I suffered myself to be drawn inside a + small door which led down a flight of narrow stone stairs to a long + winding subterranean passage. My guide went swiftly forward, + encouraging me to follow. We made many turnings, and passed several + doors on the right and left, which seemed to lead to other + passages; but all was still and silent as the grave, except when + the large heavy drops, that lined the vaulted roofs, fell to the + ground with loud and sullen splash. My sword was slight defence, if + ambush lurked within these walls; but it was too late to recede. + The faint cry of an infant at length struck upon my ear, and sent a + sudden thrill through my frame. + + "'Hush, beloved babe!' said my companion, as she pushed back a + bolt, and we entered a small vaulted chamber, at the extremity of + which a little silver lamp streamed its feeble rays upon a + spectacle of woe--the lifeless corpse of a young and exquisitely + beautiful woman, who seemed but that moment to have breathed her + last, lay extended on the ground; from the chill damps of which, + her delicate limbs appeared to have been only protected by a + pallet of straw, over which was thrown, by way of coverlet, a rich + mantle of scarlet cloth lined with ermine. The Nun, raising this + splendid pall, discovered to my view a new-born infant within its + folds. The little creature had just awakened from sleep; and my + conductress taking the mantle from the dead body, wrapped it + carefully round the child, which, after pressing affectionately to + her bosom, she delivered into my arms. Then arranging the garments + of the deceased, which resembled her own costume, with pious care, + next placing an ebony cross, or _prie Dieu_, on the breast, and + winding a string of beads round the alabaster arms, which she + folded across the bosom, the friendly Nun threw back her veil, and + with a heavenly expression of devotional tenderness, knelt down at + the side of the corpse, and with uplifted hands and eyes, briefly, + but fervently, implored a blessing on the departed spirit, + committing that which had but just left its earthly tabernacle to + the Eternal Guardian of souls. Then printing a fond kiss on the + cold lips which were unconscious of the tender farewell, she + seized a packet which lay near the head of the dead lady, and + disposing it within her cloak, snatched up the lamp which had + guided our steps to this abode of death, leaving the other to + become fainter and fainter, and then expire over the dead. She + pointed towards the door, which having passed, she bolted, and we + again pursued our way through the same passages by which we + entered the vaults, till, turning short by the foot of a staircase + which I had not seen before, she led me to a different portal from + that at which I met her: stopping there before she proceeded to + unlock the outside door, and uncovering her face, she desired me + to attend to her instructions. She appeared about five and thirty, + of a fine figure, and her countenance was remarkable for its + expression of serenity and sweetness. + + "'Preserve this precious infant,' said she, 'with fidelity and + affection. Take her to your own country; and in this packet, which + I consign to your honourable trust, you will find resources for + giving her the best education. Her father is an English nobleman, + her mother was lovely and virtuous, but deceived. She left the + convent in which I dwell to join her husband; but a fictitious + marriage, which she believed to have been performed according to + the most sacred rites of your Church, left him who had basely + practised on her confidence free to desert his victim, who died of + grief after giving birth to this dear babe. She resumed her Nun's + habit ere she laid her down in death; and made me vow to send her + daughter to England, but not to the guardianship of her father. You + will not disappoint my hopes; I feel assured that you will watch + this little treasure with fostering kindness. Adieu! May the God of + the orphan be with you! Depart in peace!' + + "So saying, she waved her hand; and giving me no time for more than + a sincere but hasty promise, urged me gently forward, and closing + the entrance, she retraced her steps, returning into the building, + while I proceeded to grope along at random in quest of my friend, + who suffered the greatest anxiety, fearing that I had fallen a prey + to my imprudence and foolish thirst for romance. Apprehensive of my + fate, he continued wandering round and round the Moorish palace, + seeking me in every direction. We met at length. I related my + adventure, and shall procure the signature of my friend to this + account of it, that she to whom it is most interesting may + hereafter find the best proof which I can give her of its accuracy. + + "It was but a slight deviation from the truth to proclaim, on my + return to quarters, that I had found the infant. Having procured an + excellent nurse, I placed my little charge in her care. The child + grew in strength and beauty, and became as dear to me as if it had + been my own. My duty obliged me frequently to change place and + encounter peril, which, to spare my young ward, I settled her and + her nurse in a delightful and wholesome situation in the province + of Castille, resolving not to disturb them till I could convey the + child to an English school. During my absence the nurse died. I was + not informed of the event. Zorilda fell into the hands of an + unprincipled wretch, the wife of a soldier, who immediately + perceived that she could turn her theft to lucrative profit. This + woman carefully concealed the child, wandering from place to place + to elude pursuit, and at length, having crossed the sea with her + booty, disposed of the little girl to a band of gipsies. + + "It was a long time before I gained any intelligence respecting + Zorilda's fate, and when at last my mind was relieved from its + solicitude, I was far away in India, and it appeared to me that I + could do nothing better for my young charge, than leave her quietly + in the safe asylum which the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Hartland had + provided for her. My appearing to prefer my claim could not, I + thought, benefit the condition of Zorilda. I was neither enabled to + clear up the mystery of her birth, nor offer any clue to the + discovery of her father. Interference on my part might lessen the + interest conceived towards her by those benefactors who imagined + their rights to be undisputed, while her noble parent, whoever he + might be, coming to the knowledge of circumstances which were not + intended to be divulged, and perhaps alarmed in consequence for his + own reputation, might employ some artful means to obtain possession + of his daughter. This reasoning satisfied me that the wisest plan + was to lie by, and make no stir in the matter; but suffering things + for the present to take their course, wait patiently till the full + age, or marriage of Zorilda, should furnish occasion for the final + relinquishment of my guardianship. + + "The sum originally deposited with me by the Nun has increased to + five thousand pounds British, for which amount, a check upon my + banker in London will be found sealed up in a packet containing a + diamond cross, a bracelet of hair, and a miniature portrait. + + "I had presumed to hope that I might one day deliver these articles + of value with my own hands to their interesting possessor, and + taste the pleasure of recalling to her remembrance the welcome with + which she used to receive me at her nurse Rueda's house, when I + went laden with fruit and flowers to visit my charming little + play-fellow. Providence has ordained it otherwise, and death + arrests my progress. + + "The mantle of scarlet cloth, lined with ermine, which I wished to + preserve and restore with the rest, was stolen from me. I commit + all that remains to the care of Mr. Playfair, that excellent, may I + venture to call him, friend, to whose goodness I am deeply + indebted----" + +The concluding lines of this memoir were scarcely legible, and traced +with a pencil in characters so unlike the writing which preceded, as to +prove that an effort of expiring strength had added them by way of +supplement to the narrative. A certificate was appended to it, sealed +and signed with the name of Charles Russell, who confirmed the +statement which it set forth; and Zorilda having with breathless +impatience devoured the entire, fell upon her knees, to adore that +Power which thus signally interposed to sustain her in the darkest hour +of adversity. + +After a passionate thanksgiving offered with instinctive glow from her +inmost soul, the cruel thought of Algernon returned with all its force. +Oh! had these tidings arrived to crown his virtuous, constant love, how +blest had been Zorilda! But, like a lamp suddenly introduced into the +depths of a dungeon, the light which had just fallen on her history +only seemed to mark more clearly the desolation of her lot. She read +Mr. Playfair's letter again and again, and returned as often to the +narrative of Colonel Dalton, so absorbed in anxious scrutiny of their +contents, that for a long time she totally forgot another inclosure +which still remained unexamined. + +Catching it hastily, with the eagerness of one desirous to repair an +ungrateful omission by increased activity, she unfolded the other +parcel, and opening a box of transparent agate, drew forth a splendid +Maltese cross of the richest brilliants, then a miniature, and lastly, +a bracelet of the finest soft dark hair, to which was fastened a +ticket, addressed "TO MY BELOVED ZORILDA, FROM HER MOTHER." + +The word _Mother_, that magic word, containing within itself all that +the human heart intuitively acknowledges of tender and protective, +struck at this moment on Zorilda's heart with all the power of nature +and novelty, while her emotions almost seemed to threaten existence. + +"Oh, my mother, my adored mother! must I lose and find you in the same +instant of time? Zorilda's arms would grow around that neck, and shield +that heavenly bosom from every grief, but she is dead! cold and dead! +This beaming eye is sealed, the soft glow of this beautiful cheek has +faded, this angelic smile no longer plays upon these coral lips which +it has deserted, and for ever!" + +So raved Zorilda, as she pressed to her bosom the miniature of her +mother, and gazed, in an agony of grief, on the portrait of her whose +presence, could it be restored to her fond embrace, would now, she +thought, fill every void in her heart, and leave no room for any other +love. + +When the feelings are strained to their utmost, the mind falls into +calm, as the raging billows of the ocean subside into repose after a +storm of elemental strife, while resignation sits above, and watches +the moment to whisper peace. Zorilda became gradually more composed, +and the torturing sense of her own loss began to yield to less selfish +considerations. + +"This lovely being," said she aloud, "was unhappy; she is now +inhabiting the mansions of eternal rest. Here, in this cold and cruel +world, contumely and reproach might have pierced her soul; in Heaven +are no tears. _There_, in celestial communion with kindred spirits +of the just made perfect, clothed in white robes, and crowned with +imperishable glory, amongst the highly favoured, who have drank at the +bitter waters of affliction, and risen purified by tribulation, my +blessed mother stands before the throne, joining her voice in the +melodious concert of everlasting hallelujahs: and shall I wish her back +again in this scene of sorrow? No! But Heaven will hear my prayer, and +take me to her. That is all my desire, all for which my longing soul +now pants." + +"Lord love my dear Miss Zoé, what fine things are here!" exclaimed +Rachel, who at this moment entered the room with some refreshment which +she set down on a tray before Zorilda. The latter started from her +seat, and threw her arms round the neck of this affectionate creature; +then, pointing to the papers, told her, that they contained much +interesting matter which should be explained at some future time when +she felt more equal to the task. + +"Heaven be praised," said Rachel, "that you have good news from any +quarter to comfort you, for you have little to spare, and there will be +even less than we enjoy already, if I do not mistake, as my lady is +desperately chop-fallen, by reason of news which she has received +through this day's post; and you and I can both tell how her temper is +likely to be affected. Master writes her word, that he and Mr. Algernon +(Lord Hautonville, I should say,) are to be here the latter end of next +week, and there is a terrible falling off by what I can learn, in the +_property_ part of the story. It seems that my Lord Marchdale had +power to will away all the estates except one, which must go with the +title; and sure enough he did not leave Master a rap that he could keep +from him. All the bulk of his fortune is gone, they say, to a set of +people who have for a long time been eating him out of house and home; +and I hear, moreover, that what is left to the present lord is not +enough to keep up any state or style suitable for a nobleman. Indeed I +wish that we were well out of this before the meeting of the family +again, for I am full certain, that we shall find ourselves in troubled +waters." + +Zorilda appeared lost in reverie during the greater part of Rachel's +harangue; but, suddenly awakened by its cessation, she answered, + +"Yes, dear nurse, it is time to be gone. I will not wait the return of +Lord Marchdale, but I have neither head nor heart to make any +preparation for departure. On your skill and management I rest for so +ordering matters, that the strictest secrecy shall attend upon our +movements. I have the means of re-paying any money necessary for our +journey, but you must contrive to borrow for the present. I have much +to say, but am exhausted, and cannot talk to you more till to-morrow." + +"Do not fatigue yourself, my child," replied Rachel. "Blessed and +praised for all things be that Providence which brings round the most +wonderful changes in its own good time. I had so many dreams about you, +and my sleep of late was so uneasy, that it was foreshewn to me how you +would come to riches and honour, and find out all about your birth and +parentage, and learn who you are, and----" + +"Oh! stop, Rachel, stop, no more of this;" said Zorilda, whose memory +was touched upon a sensitive chord by these allusions to a part of her +history, which remained as much as ever wrapped in clouds. "Go," added +she, "and think how we shall get away in such a manner that we may +avoid the possibility of being traced. My mind is so agitated and +confused, that you must give me time to recover. Moments are precious. +Go, dear Rachel; lose no time; but consider how we shall leave this +without suspicion. No one must be involved in any difficulty or hazard +on my account, and therefore our purpose must be secret as well as its +execution." + +"I will do every thing you desire," answered Rachel; "and moreover the +whole plan is already in my head. Every body knows that I was going +myself, and therefore no questions will be asked about my trunks, in +which there is room for your clothes as well as mine. My brother lives +near, and will lend me whatever I want. All is smooth as a +bowling-green, since you know who you are, and where you are going." + +So saying, Rachel quitted the room, and her young mistress was left to +collect her scattered senses. "Her last words strike upon my heart. +Alas! I know as little as ever, and 'Who is she?' remains unanswered," +sighed poor Zorilda, who had now leisure to reflect, and perceive that +the discovery which she had made was one that left her in all her +original ignorance. "But," added she, as she still mused on this +strange event, "it no longer avails, that I have neither name, nor +house, nor pretensions. More knowledge than I possess, what would it do +for me? Would it not only lead to hatred of a father who could act so +wickedly as mine has done? Why should I wish to know the man who was in +fact the murderer of this angelic being? It is better as it is. Oh! if +all our vain wishes were heard, what wretchedness should we add to our +afflictions! The councils of heaven are wiser than those of earth. We +know not what we ask." + +Rachel returned after some interval of time, elated with her +contrivance, in which Zorilda could find nothing to improve. It was +arranged, that as soon as possible Rachel was to ask for her dismissal, +which Mrs. Hartland was prepared to give her. Her wages were paid, and +the removal of her luggage appeared a matter of course. + +"We will leave the house so early in the morning," said Rachel, "that +there will be no witnesses of our departure. I will tell Mary not to +mind going till late into your room, and not to take notice of your +absence from it, as you must walk for your health, and cannot submit to +such close imprisonment as that to which you are condemned. The +servants will all be glad to think that you are taking the air. +Mistress will ask no questions, for she cares little about you, and her +mind is taken up with her own affairs. I have already borrowed a +covered cart of my brother's, who will meet us at a little distance +from his house. You shall throw a large cloak of mine over your dress, +which will disguise you completely. Even the man who drives us shall +not know that you are with me, and we will leave our vehicle before we +arrive at the next village; so that there will be no clue whatsoever to +our retreat. Let me manage every thing, and it shall be well done, I +promise you. Where are you going?" + +"I am going to Scotland," answered Zorilda. "I leave all to your +sagacity. Take me to my dear Mrs. Gordon in Aberdeenshire, and I ask no +more. I will consult the map, and tell you the route by which we are to +travel. Let your care only be to guard against discovery and pursuit." + +"Mrs. Hartland will not give herself any trouble about you, but will be +very glad to hear that you are out of her way; and as to the gentlemen, +who might not indeed take the matter so easily, they will not be here +till we are many a mile away from Henbury," answered Rachel. "I am now +going to send off my trunks, with a line, to my brother, to let him +know that I must go directly after one who owes me some money. He is +aware that I am frightened about this debt, and will have his cart +ready for me at the orchard-gate, where I have appointed it to attend +me, a quarter of a mile beyond his own house at five o'clock to-morrow +morning. I am come now to take the last of your things: every article +except these books is put up." + +"I will leave these books behind," said Zorilda, bursting into tears; +"and this packet--this precious packet, shall never be separated from +me for an instant. I will take charge of it myself." + +Rachel hastened to finish her preparations, and Zorilda, once more left +alone, gathered together a few volumes and some trifling ornaments, +which had been given her from time to time by Algernon, and after +gazing upon, and kissing fondly each memorial of early affection, which +brought distant circumstances and tender recollections to her mind, she +sealed up a parcel, containing all the little gifts which she had ever +received, and felt as if she had now closed the grave over the last +dear remains of blighted love and murdered hope. Her next act was to +write the following note, addressed to Mrs. Hartland: + +"There was a time when Zorilda believed herself an object of +affectionate interest in the breast of that kind benefactress who first +offered an asylum to the destitute being, now going to requite a deed +of charity by one of gratitude. That time, alas! is past, and with it +all Zorilda's earthly happiness. Circumstances have occurred which +render decision necessary, and these few lines are only left to say, +that they are accompanied by a parcel, and the most earnest prayers for +every good, from the heart of her who now leaves Henbury for ever, and +bids Lady Marchdale a last adieu." + +All being now ready, Zorilda lay down to rest, but not to sleep. "Fast +coming thoughts" troubled repose, and busy memory would not be still. +Weary of her uneasy couch, she rose before day, and looked from her +window by the clear starlight, on that scene to which in a little hour +she was to bid an eternal farewell. + +"Beloved spot! I leave you, and for ever--yes, for ever! Nor time nor +change can alter my resolves. Algernon is dead to me, and my heart +shall prove a faithful widow to its first, its only love. These stars +shall witness my vows; these shrubs and flowers form the altar on which +they are dedicated." + +As Zorilda meditated on the landscape, the eastern clouds began to +glow, and the birds awaked to the first beam of morning. Rachel's +approach interrupted the mournful soliloquy of her young mistress, who +was soon dressed, and, wrapping Rachel's large cloak around her, they +both quitted the apartment, and with light step passed down stairs, +through hall and passages unseen, and gained the pleasure-grounds +without any obstacle to their progress. Zorilda made a sudden stop as +she reached the arbour, which she had wreathed with fragrant climbers +to meet Algernon's return. The sweet breath of new-born day wafted the +perfume towards her, and she clasped her hands in anguish. Rachel's +presence repressed utterance; but here was the bower, she thought, in +which her delighted ear should listen to the tales of foreign travel, +and hear once more the accents of unchanging affection. + +"Come, my dear," said Rachel, taking Zorilda by the arm, and gently +urging her forward, "you must not make yourself melancholy by lingering +here. If we are to go, we should not stand shilly shally. Remember that +you wish to avoid discovery, and the only way to secure privacy is to +use despatch." + +Zorilda suffered herself to be driven on, and was presently in the open +fields, not daring to look round upon the home of her happy childhood. + +As they advanced towards the orchard, near which they were to be met by +Farmer Wilson's cart, Rachel spied this rude equipage at a distance, +and concealing Zorilda behind some bushes, while she spoke to the +driver, and saw that her luggage was safely stowed within, she beckoned +our trembling heroine, and having contrived to place her in the +vehicle, stepped in herself, and ordered the lad to proceed in the +direction which she described to him. Zorilda observed a mournful +silence, which her companion, though not given to taciturnity, had no +inclination to disturb, her own mind being so intent on the practical +concern of executing her present task with ability, that she was not +sorry for the leisure to ponder her schemes, which Zorilda's deep +depression of spirits afforded her. + +At the distance of nearly ten miles from Henbury, our travellers +approached the carrier's station, at which it was Rachel's design to +stop, but to avoid being seen in company with her young mistress, she +had the address to desire her charioteer to alight, and make inquiry in +a cottage by the way-side, whether Mrs. Nixon, an imaginary friend of +hers was to be found in the neighbourhood. While Tom made this inquiry, +Rachel watched her opportunity, and opening the door at the back of the +cart, made Zorilda descend, and walk forward towards the public-house, +which was near at hand. + +This was so dexterously managed, that when the carter returned with his +answer, that no such person as Mr. Nixon was known, Rachel sat in +solitary possession of the lowly conveyance which all along the road +had been shared by another. + +Arrived at the end of her appointed stage, she had the good luck to +find a caravan just ready to start from the door. Zorilda had +directions from her duenna to sit by the road side, under a spreading +tree, till this new vehicle was in motion, while Rachel bustled about, +appeared busy in recognising her acquaintances at the inn, and was +attended to her carriage by the landlord and his wife, who wished her a +pleasant journey, as she drove away from the porch at which they +performed the parting honours. + +Bidding adieu to the group who always assemble on such occasions to +witness a departure, Rachel set off, and a sudden turn in the road, +bore the caravan, though not moving at a very brisk rate, out of sight +in a moment. + +Zorilda was seated under the appointed tree, at a little distance, but +so completely absorbed in her own thoughts, that she would have +suffered the machine to pass unnoticed, if Rachel had not vociferated, +'Driver, driver; don't you hear that gentlewoman calling to you; wont +you stop for a passenger?' + +The caravan stood still; Zorilda was roused from her melancholy +reverie, and appearing with her little basket on her arm, Rachel +shuffled from side to side with officious civility, assuring the +stranger that there was "plenty of room," and so there was, for though +like a snow-ball, they were destined to gather as they rolled, there +were but two other persons already occupying seats, and these were a +brace of sturdy farmers, who were so intent on comparing samples of +corn, which each drew from his pocket, that Rachel had full opportunity +to inform her fellow traveller, whose courage seemed to flag, that all +farther devices to cover her flight would be unnecessary in a few +hours. + +"If they come in search of us, it will be first to my brother's; then +to the inn which we have just quitted, and where, likewise, they will +be foiled. After this stage, we may take our ease, and travel in a +proper manner, like Christians. A little caution for one or two stages +more, and we shall then be at liberty." + +Zorilda sighed assent, and we will leave her and her attendant to their +repose in a quiet country inn, while we return to Henbury. + +Some hours elapsed before it was perceived that the fugitives were +actually missing. Mrs. Hartland, or, as we must not forget henceforward +to entitle her, Lady Marchdale, heard the intelligence with perfect +sang froid, only remarking that it was very extraordinary that her +orders should be disobeyed, and desiring that on Zorilda's return to +her chamber, she should be informed of the circumstance. The servants +had no more suspicion than their Lady of a longer absence than till +evening, and fully believed that Rachel, fearful lest want of customary +exercise might injure "Miss Zoé's health," had prevailed on her to make +a short excursion for change of air. + +Evening came on, however, and no sign of return. The parcel, with +Zorilda's note, which had escaped observation, was now brought to Lady +Marchdale, who was much surprised, but though she summoned all the +household, she could learn no tidings whatsoever of the travellers. +Curiosity was in fact the only motive for her inquiries, as the event +of Zorilda's voluntary flight gave her inexpressible delight. All care +and responsibility were now at an end. She had taken her affairs into +her own hands, and Lady Marchdale not only felt relieved from all +anxiety how to dispose of her, but might expatiate on the various +surmises which she chose to indulge, so unfavourable to female modesty, +youthful timidity, natural affection, gratitude, and the like, as to +strengthen her arguments upon the impropriety of Lord Hautonville's +wasting another thought upon such a graceless adventurer. "And Rachel +too; no doubt _she_ is in the secret. A pretty piece of work, truly, +but they are gone upon their own inventions, which I am afraid are not +of the best, and so I can do no more than leave them to their fate." + +The old butler, to whom these words were principally addressed, shook +his head, and replied: "My lady, I could bear any thing but to hear +Miss Zoé suspected of evil doings. She is an angel on earth, wherever +she is gone, and if all the world were as good as she, there would be +no need of any other heaven." + +"Shut the door," answered Lady Marchdale; "I did not ask your opinion." + +Bernard retired, and all the servants mingled tears and wailing for the +loss of their favourite, while every effort to trace Zorilda was +fruitless. The dairy-maid, who was very superstitious, almost persuaded +the rest at length, that the fairies who she knew to a certainty were +often busy in conveying cows secretly from their pastures, had some +hand in the elopement of Miss Zoé. "Any way, she is gone upon nothing +harmful," was the unanimous decision below stairs. As to Rachel, every +body knew that she was to leave the service, and no one was puzzled at +her disappearance. + +Several days were spent in discussions and controversy before the earl +and his son returned to Henbury. Lord Hautonville had scarcely seen his +mother before he flew off to Zorilda's apartment. The door was open. He +went in, and called. From thence he ran down stairs, and out into the +shrubberies, not waiting to ask a question of any one; but seeking her +through all the places which were familiar to remembrance, and not a +little indignant at her absence in the moment of his arrival. + +The gardener at last appeared, and stunned him by the intelligence that +Zorilda had been missing for several days. + +"Missing! gone!--Where--when--how--with whom? Did she receive any +letters? Did any gentleman visit here? Tell me every thing this moment. +Order fresh horses directly. I will largely reward whoever brings me +intelligence of their route, and be the death of any man who conceals +information. Be quick;--fly!--but tell me before you go all about her +departure." + +Such were the incoherencies which burst all in a breath from Lord +Hautonville, who seemed so completely bereft of his senses as scarcely +to possess the faculty of listening; while Bernard, to whom they were +addressed, endeavoured to reply. + +"My lord, nobody here can throw any light upon the matter. Miss Zoé +_did_ receive a packet, but we heard that it came from Mr. Playfair." + +"Accursed treachery; foul contrivance all. I know who sent the letter. +How did it come; by post or messenger? Who brought it here, and when +did she receive it?" + +"Two days before her departure, my lord," answered Bernard; "a +sallow-looking man, well mounted, a stranger here, rode to the lodge in +the dusk of the evening, and inquired for Rachel, who went to know his +commands, and thought it some message from Marchdale-court. When she +returned to the house we inquired what she had seen or heard; but she +put us off with saying that it was only a friend of Mr. Playfair's who +desired him to call as he passed, and ask after the family. This seemed +plausible enough, but since all this stir, and questioning, it has come +out that little Ben Tyrrel, who held the gate while the gentleman +stopped at it, saw him give Rachel a large packet." + +"Death and fury! I see the whole train. I know it all. The messenger +was a dark devil of an Italian. His own man, whose heart's blood shall +answer for this. Call Rachel; let me see her instantly. But stay--not +so fast. How did she receive it? Did she appear agitated, or seemed +pleased? What did she do? How did she look?" + +"We do not know, my Lord, for my Lady had ordered Miss Zoé not to quit +her apartment for many days. It seems they had some words in my Lady's +dressing-room, and Rachel was the only one who took any refreshment to +our dear and good young lady; and every time that she came from her +room, she used to be in tears herself, and said that it would melt a +heart of stone to see how Miss Zoé would walk all day backwards and +forwards, with her hands clasped, and her eyes streaming. It was a +pitiful sight. Well, when she went, it was so softly and so secretly, +that no mortal man or woman about the place, saw her go out. The very +dogs never barked, and that is no wonder, for they were so fond of her, +that they would follow her to Jamaica, if she was going there." + +"Curse your folly!" exclaimed Lord Hautonville. "Never mind the dogs. +Was it a chaise and four? Where did it meet her?" + +"My Lord, sure I am telling your Lordship as plain as I can speak, that +there was no sign of man, or horse, or carriage, or any thing else, +even to the value of a wheel-barrow, to leave track or trace in the +finest gravel round all Henbury. There wasn't a sign even of her light +footsteps, so much as would crush down a daisy's head, across the +fields, to tell us which way she went; and, as the ignorant people say, +it was as much like Fairies' work as any thing that ever came to pass. +The only one thing that with all our spelling and putting together, we +could remark was, that latterly she grew timoursome about taking long +walks, as she used to do; and Matthew the gardener observed one day +that she came hastily into the shrubbery gate, looking pale, as if she +was frightened; but that was long ago before your lordship returned, +and we concluded that the cattle might have startled her, though she +said nothing, only did not go out of the grounds again." + +"Call Rachel, call Rachel. Bring Ben Tyrrell. Where is my mother? I +will question every one; make haste." + +"My Lord, Rachel is no longer here; she quitted the service on the very +day that Miss Zoé left the house, and went to farmer Wilson's, her +brother; and here is my Lady herself coming to look for you." + +Lady Marchdale entered the room with a reproachful air, and upbraided +her son with his want of affection. "I have," said she, "been calling +you every where. Is this the way in which you meet me after such an +absence?" + +"What have you done with Zorilda?" answered Lord Hautonville, with a +savage countenance, as he looked sternly at his mother. + +"I know nothing of the ungrateful girl," replied Lady Marchdale; "she +has taken herself out of my protection, and proved herself unworthy of +my regard." + +"Madam," answered her son, "we part this moment, and for ever, if you +conceal a single tittle of all you know. Why did you imprison her? +Where is she gone? She is mine, and I will follow her. Nothing shall +prevail upon me to give her up; and you will not accomplish any end by +keeping me in the dark. Tell me all, I beg; I _demand_ that you do +not deceive me. The most fatal consequences may result from this +affair; consequences which you little anticipate." + +Terrified out of her senses, Lady Marchdale now began to repent the +cruel part which she had acted; and told her son, without reserve, all +that she had to tell. Her proposal to Zorilda to reject his suit, and +bind herself by a written promise never to ally herself with the family +of Hartland; Zorilda's refusal--her subsequent imprisonment--farewell +note, and mysterious departure, were all detailed with an effort at +amplification, which seemed as if designed to bury the recollection of +past unkindness and neglect towards an amiable orphan, in the +importance and display of the present statement. + +Algernon's impetuous temper broke out into unmeasured reproaches +against his mother, whom he charged, without any regard to decency, +with selfishness, pride, and barbarity. In the expression, +"Circumstances have occurred," contained in Zorilda's note, he found +ample confirmation of his suspicions, which were no other than that the +Marquess of Turnstock, having first unsuccessfully urged his suit, and +terrified her by an unexpected appearance at Henbury, had afterwards +adopted the artifice of assuming the name of Mr. Playfair, to practise +on her credulity, and decoy her from her friends. Rushing like a +lunatic from the house, Lord Hautonville's first essay was at farmer +Wilson's. There he summoned the boy who had driven Rachel to the +carrier's inn, but could learn no more than that he had performed his +mission; that the good woman travelled alone, and was safely lodged at +her destination. His next resolve was to mount a horse, and go off to +this place, where he obtained no farther satisfaction. Rachel was gone; +and the people of the inn were not sure, but thought they could +recollect that she spoke of being on her way to London, seeking after a +bad debt. Here the clue was lost. To look for Rachel in the metropolis +would have been like searching for a grain of mustard seed in the sands +of the sea. + +In vain Lord Marchdale represented to his son the folly of his conduct, +and the necessity of remaining at home to meet several persons who were +appointed to assemble at Henbury on legal business. It was in vain that +Lady Marchdale alternately stormed and beseeched. Arguments, threats, +and caresses were alike ineffectual. Post horses were ordered; and +before the morning's dawn, on the following day, Lord Hautonville and +his valet were on the high road to London. But we return, to attend on +the steps of our female travellers. + + +END OF VOL. I. + +J. B. Nichols and Son, 25, Parliament-street. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Tales of My Time, Vol. 1 (of 3), by +William Pitt Scargill + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 43756 *** |