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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7633.txt b/7633.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..96d2c23 --- /dev/null +++ b/7633.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2945 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook The Disowned, by Edward Bulwer-Lytton, V3 +#61 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Disowned, Volume 3. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7633] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 4, 2004] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISOWNED, LYTTON, V3 *** + + + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger + + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + +Mrs. Trinket. What d'ye buy, what d'ye lack, gentlemen? Gloves, +ribbons, and essences,--ribbons, gloves, and essences. + ETHEREGE. + +"And so, my love," said Mr. Copperas, one morning at breakfast, to his +wife, his right leg being turned over his left, and his dexter hand +conveying to his mouth a huge morsel of buttered cake,--"and, so my +love, they say that the old fool is going to leave the jackanapes all +his fortune?" + +"They do say so, Mr. C.; for my part I am quite out of patience with +the art of the young man; I dare say he is no better than he should +be; he always had a sharp look, and for aught I know there may be more +in that robbery than you or I dreamed of, Mr. Copperas. It was a +pity," continued Mrs. Copperas, upbraiding her lord with true +matrimonial tenderness and justice, for the consequences of his having +acted from her advice,--"it was a pity, Mr. C., that you should have +refused to lend him the pistols to go to the old fellow's assistance, +for then who knows but--" + +"I might have converted them into pocket pistols," interrupted Mr. C., +"and not have overshot the mark, my dear--ha, ha, ha!" + +"Lord, Mr. Copperas, you are always making a joke of everything." + +"No, my dear, for once I am making a joke of nothing." + +"Well, I declare it's shameful," cried Mrs. Copperas, still following +up her own indignant meditations, "and after taking such notice of +Adolphus, too, and all!" + +"Notice, my dear! mere words," returned Mr. Copperas, "mere words, +like ventilators, which make a great deal of air, but never raise the +wind; but don't put yourself in a stew, my love, for the doctors say +that copperas in a stew is poison!" + +At this moment Mr. de Warens, throwing open the door, announced Mr. +Brown; that gentleman entered, with a sedate but cheerful air. "Well, +Mrs. Copperas, your servant; any table-linen wanted? Mr. Copperas, +how do you do? I can give you a hint about the stocks. Master +Copperas, you are looking bravely; don't you think he wants some new +pinbefores, ma'am? But Mr. Clarence Linden, where is he? Not up yet, +I dare say. Ah, the present generation is a generation of sluggards, +as his worthy aunt, Mrs. Minden, used to say." + +"I am sure," said Mrs. Copperas, with a disdainful toss of the head, +"I know nothing about the young man. He has left us; a very +mysterious piece of business indeed, Mr. Brown; and now I think of it, +I can't help saying that we were by no means pleased with your +introduction: and, by the by, the chairs you bought for us at the sale +were a mere take-in, so slight that Mr. Walruss broke two of them by +only sitting down." + +"Indeed, ma'am?" said Mr. Brown, with expostulating gravity; "but then +Mr. Walruss is so very corpulent. But the young gentleman, what of +him?" continued the broker, artfully turning from the point in +dispute. + +"Lord, Mr. Brown, don't ask me: it was the unluckiest step we ever +made to admit him into the bosom of our family; quite a viper, I +assure you; absolutely robbed poor Adolphus." + +"Lord help us!" said Mr. Brown, with a look which "cast a browner +horror" o'er the room, "who would have thought it? and such a pretty +young man!" + +"Well," said Mr. Copperas, who, occupied in finishing the buttered +cake, had hitherto kept silence, "I must be off. Tom--I mean de +Warens--have you stopped the coach?" + +"Yees, sir." + +And what coach is it?" + +"It be the Swallow, sir." + +"Oh, very well. And now, Mr. Brown, having swallowed in the roll, I +will e'en roll in the Swallow--Ha, ha, ha!--At any rate," thought Mr. +Copperas, as he descended the stairs, "he has not heard that before." + +"Ha, ha!" gravely chuckled Mr. Brown, "what a very facetious, lively +gentleman Mr. Copperas is. But touching this ungrateful young man, +Mr. Linden, ma'am?" + +"Oh, don't tease me, Mr. Brown, I must see after my +domestics: ask Mr. Talbot, the old miser in the next house, the +havarr, as the French say." + +"Well, now," said Mr. Brown, following the good lady down stairs, "how +distressing for me! and to say that he was Mrs. Minden's nephew, too!" + +But Mr. Brown's curiosity was not so easily satisfied, and finding Mr. +de Warens leaning over the "front" gate, and "pursuing with wistful +eyes" the departing "Swallow," he stopped, and, accosting him, soon +possessed himself of the facts that "old Talbot had been robbed and +murdered, but that Mr. Linden had brought him to life again; and that +old Talbot had given him a hundred thousand pounds, and adopted him as +his son; and that how Mr. Linden was going to be sent to foreign +parts, as an ambassador, or governor, or great person; and that how +meester and meeses were quite 'cut up' about it." + +All these particulars having been duly deposited in the mind of Mr. +Brown, they produced an immediate desire to call upon the young +gentleman, who, to say nothing of his being so very nearly related to +his old customer, Mrs. Minden, was always so very great a favourite +with him, Mr. Brown. + +Accordingly, as Clarence was musing over his approaching departure, +which was now very shortly to take place, he was somewhat startled by +the apparition of Mr. Brown--"Charming day, sir,--charming day," said +the friend of Mrs. Minden,--"just called in to congratulate you. I +have a few articles, sir, to present you with,--quite rarities, I +assure you,--quite presents, I may say. I picked them up at a sale of +the late Lady Waddilove's most valuable effects. They are just the +things, sir, for a gentleman going on a foreign mission. A most +curious ivory chest, with an Indian padlock, to hold confidential +letters,--belonged formerly, sir, to the Great Mogul; and a beautiful +diamond snuff-box, sir, with a picture of Louis XIV. on it, +prodigiously fine, and will look so loyal too: and, sir, if you have +any old aunts in the country, to send a farewell present to, I have +some charming fine cambric, a superb Dresden tea set, and a lovely +little 'ape,' stuffed by the late Lady W. herself." + +"My good sir," began Clarence. + +"Oh, no thanks, sir,--none at all,--too happy to serve a relation of +Mrs. Minden,--always proud to keep up family connections. You will be +at home to-morrow, sir, at eleven; I will look in; your most humble +servant, Mr. Linden." And almost upsetting Talbot, who had just +entered, Mr. Brown bowed himself out. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + He talked with open heart and tongue, + Affectionate and true; + A pair of friends, though I was young + And Matthew seventy-two.--WORDSWORTH. + +Meanwhile the young artist proceeded rapidly with his picture. +Devoured by his enthusiasm, and utterly engrossed by the sanguine +anticipation of a fame which appeared to him already won, he allowed +himself no momentary interval of relaxation; his food was eaten by +starts, and without stirring from his easel; his sleep was brief and +broken by feverish dreams; he no longer roved with Clarence, when the +evening threw her shade over his labours; all air and exercise he +utterly relinquished; shut up in his narrow chamber, he passed the +hours in a fervid and passionate self-commune, which, even in suspense +from his work, riveted his thoughts the closer to its object. All +companionship, all intrusion, he bore with irritability and +impatience. Even Clarence found himself excluded from the presence of +his friend; even his nearest relation, who doted on the very ground +which he hallowed with his footstep, was banished from the haunted +sanctuary of the painter; from the most placid of human beings, Warner +seemed to have grown the most morose. + +Want of rest, abstinence from food, the impatience of the strained +spirit and jaded nerves, all contributed to waste the health while +they excited the genius of the artist. A crimson spot, never before +seen there, burned in the centre of his pale cheek; his eye glowed +with a brilliant but unnatural fire; his features grew sharp and +attenuated; his bones worked from his whitening and transparent skin; +and the soul and frame, turned from their proper and kindly union, +seemed contesting, with fierce struggles, which should obtain the +mastery and the triumph. + +But neither his new prospects nor the coldness of his friend diverted +the warm heart of Clarence from meditating how he could most +effectually serve the artist before he departed from the country, It +was a peculiar object of desire to Warner that the most celebrated +painter of the day, who was on terms of intimacy with Talbot, and who +with the benevolence of real superiority was known to take a keen +interest in the success of more youthful and inexperienced genius,--it +was a peculiar object of desire to Warner, that Sir Joshua Reynolds +should see his picture before it was completed; and Clarence, aware of +this wish, easily obtained from Talbot a promise that it should be +effected. That was the least service of his zeal touched by the +earnestness of Linden's friendship, anxious to oblige in any way his +preserver, and well pleased himself to be the patron of merit, Talbot +readily engaged to obtain for Warner whatever the attention and favour +of high rank or literary distinction could bestow. "As for his +picture," said Talbot (when, the evening before Clarence's departure, +the latter was renewing the subject), "I shall myself become the +purchaser, and at a price which will enable our friend to afford +leisure and study for the completion of his next attempt; but even at +the risk of offending your friendship, and disappointing your +expectations, I will frankly tell you that I think Warner overrates, +perhaps not his talents, but his powers; not his ability for doing +something great hereafter, but his capacity of doing it at present. +In the pride of his heart, he has shown me many of his designs, and I +am somewhat of a judge: they want experience, cultivation, taste, and, +above all, a deeper study of the Italian masters. They all have the +defects of a feverish colouring, an ambitious desire of effect, a +wavering and imperfect outline, an ostentatious and unnatural strength +of light and shadow; they show, it is true, a genius of no ordinary +stamp, but one ill regulated, inexperienced, and utterly left to its +own suggestions for a model. However, I am glad he wishes for the +opinion of one necessarily the best judge: let him bring the picture +here by Thursday; on that day my friend has promised to visit me; and +now let us talk of you and your departure." + +The intercourse of men of different ages is essentially unequal: it +must always partake more or less of advice on one side and deference +on the other; and although the easy and unpedantic turn of Talbot's +conversation made his remarks rather entertaining than obviously +admonitory, yet they were necessarily tinged by his experience, and +regulated by his interest in the fortunes of his young friend. + +"My dearest Clarence," said he, affectionately, "we are about to bid +each other a long farewell. I will not damp your hopes and +anticipations by insisting on the little chance there is that you +should ever see me again. You are about to enter upon the great +world, and have within you the desire and power of success; let me +flatter myself that you can profit by my experience. Among the +'Colloquia' of Erasmus, there is a very entertaining dialogue between +Apicius and a man who, desirous of giving a feast to a very large and +miscellaneous party, comes to consult the epicure what will be the +best means to give satisfaction to all. Now you shall be this +Spudaeus (so I think he is called), and I will be Apicius; for the +world, after all, is nothing more than a great feast of different +strangers, with different tastes and of different ages, and we must +learn to adapt ourselves to their minds, and our temptations to their +passions, if we wish to fascinate or even to content them. Let me +then call your attention to the hints and maxims which I have in this +paper amused myself with drawing up for your instruction. Write to me +from time to time, and I will, in replying to your letters, give you +the best advice in my power. For the rest, my dear boy, I have only +to request that you will be frank, and I, in my turn, will promise +that when I cannot assist, I will never reprove. And now, Clarence, +as the hour is late and you leave us early tomorrow, I will no longer +detain you. God bless you and keep you. You are going to enjoy +life,--I to anticipate death; so that you can find in me little +congenial to yourself; but as the good Pope said to our Protestant +countryman, 'Whatever the difference between us, I know well that an +old man's blessing is never without its value.'" + +As Clarence clasped his benefactor's hand, the tears gushed from his +eyes. Is there one being, stubborn as the rock to misfortune, whom +kindness does not affect? For my part, kindness seems to me to come +with a double grace and tenderness from the old; it seems in them the +hoarded and long purified benevolence of years; as if it had survived +and conquered the baseness and selfishness of the ordeal it had +passed; as if the winds, which had broken the form, had swept in vain +across the heart, and the frosts which had chilled the blood and +whitened the thin locks had possessed no power over the warm tide of +the affections. It is the triumph of nature over art; it is the voice +of the angel which is yet within us. Nor is this all: the tenderness +of age is twice blessed,--blessed in its trophies over the obduracy of +encrusting and withering years, blessed because it is tinged with the +sanctity of the grave; because it tells us that the heart will blossom +even upon the precincts of the tomb, and flatters us with the +inviolacy and immortality of love. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + Cannot I create, + Cannot I form, cannot I fashion forth + Another world, another universe?--KEATS. + +The next morning Clarence, in his way out of town, directed his +carriage (the last and not the least acceptable present from Talbot) +to stop at Warner's door. Although it was scarcely sunrise, the aged +grandmother of the artist was stirring, and opened the door to the +early visitor. Clarence passed her with a brief salutation, hurried +up the narrow stairs, and found himself in the artist's chamber. The +windows were closed, and the air of the room was confined and hot. A +few books, chiefly of history and poetry, stood in confused disorder +upon some shelves opposite the window. Upon a table beneath them lay +a flute, once the cherished recreation of the young painter, but now +long neglected and disused; and, placed exactly opposite to Warner, so +that his eyes might open upon his work, was the high-prized and +already more than half-finished picture. + +Clarence bent over the bed; the cheek of the artist rested upon his +arm in an attitude unconsciously picturesque; the other arm was tossed +over the coverlet, and Clarence was shocked to see how emaciated it +had become. But ever and anon the lips of the sleeper moved +restlessly, and words, low and inarticulate, broke out. Sometimes he +started abruptly, and a bright but evanescent flush darted over his +faded and hollow cheek; and once the fingers of the thin hand which +lay upon the bed expanded and suddenly closed in a firm and almost +painful grasp; it was then that for the first time the words of the +artist became distinct. + +"Ay, ay," he said, "I have thee, I have thee at last. Long, very long +thou hast burnt up my heart like fuel, and mocked me, and laughed at +my idle efforts; but now, now, I have thee. Fame, Honour, +Immortality, whatever thou art called, I have thee, and thou canst not +escape; but it is almost too late!" And, as if wrung by some sudden +pain, the sleeper turned heavily round, groaned audibly, and awoke. + +"My friend," said Clarence, soothingly, and taking his hand, "I have +come to bid you farewell. I am just setting off for the Continent, +but I could not leave England without once more seeing you. I have +good news, too, for you." And Clarence proceeded to repeat Talbot's +wish that Warner should bring the picture to his house on the +following Thursday, that Sir Joshua might inspect it. He added also, +in terms the flattery of which his friendship could not resist +exaggerating, Talbot's desire to become the purchaser of the picture. + +"Yes," said the artist, as his eye glanced delightedly over his +labour; "yes, I believe when it is once seen there will be many +candidates!" + +"No doubt," answered Clarence; "and for that reason you cannot blame +Talbot for wishing to forestall all other competitors for the prize;" +and then, continuing the encouraging nature of the conversation, +Clarence enlarged upon the new hopes of his friend, besought him to +take time, to spare his health, and not to injure both himself and his +performance by over-anxiety and hurry. Clarence concluded by +retailing Talbot's assurance that in all cases and circumstances he +(Talbot) considered himself pledged to be Warner's supporter and +friend. + +With something of impatience, mingled with pleasure, the painter +listened to all these details; nor was it to Linden's zeal nor to +Talbot's generosity, but rather to the excess of his own merit, that +he secretly attributed the brightening prospect offered him. + +The indifference which Warner, though of a disposition naturally kind, +evinced at parting with a friend who had always taken so strong an +interest in his behalf, and whose tears at that moment contrasted +forcibly enough with the apathetic coldness of his own farewell, was a +remarkable instance how acute vividness on a single point will deaden +feeling on all others. Occupied solely and burningly with one intense +thought, which was to him love, friendship, health, peace, wealth, +Warner could not excite feelings, languid and exhausted with many and +fiery conflicts, to objects of minor interest, and perhaps he inwardly +rejoiced that his musings and his study would henceforth be sacred +even from friendship. + +Deeply affected, for his nature was exceedingly unselfish, generous, +and susceptible, Clarence tore himself away, placed in the +grandmother's hand a considerable portion of the sum he had received +from Talbot, hurried into his carriage, and found himself on the high +road to fortune, pleasure, distinction, and the Continent. + +But while Clarence, despite of every advantage before him, hastened to +a court of dissipation and pleasure, with feelings in which regretful +affection for those he had left darkened his worldly hopes and mingled +with the sanguine anticipations of youth, Warner, poor, low-born, +wasted with sickness, destitute of friends, shut out by his +temperament from the pleasures of his age, burned with hopes far less +alloyed than those of Clarence, and found in them, for the sacrifice +of all else, not only a recompense, but a triumph. + +Thursday came. Warner had made one request to Talbot, which had with +difficulty been granted: it was that he himself might unseen be the +auditor of the great painter's criticisms, and that Sir Joshua should +be perfectly unaware of his presence. It had been granted with +difficulty, because Talbot wished to spare Warner the pain of hearing +remarks which he felt would be likely to fall far short of the +sanguine self-elation of the young artist; and it had been granted +because Talbot imagined that, even should this be the case, the pain +would be more than counterbalanced by the salutary effect it might +produce. Alas! vanity calculates but poorly upon the vanity of +others! What a virtue we should distil from frailty; what a world of +pain we should save our brethren, if we would suffer our own weakness +to be the measure of theirs! + +Thursday came: the painting was placed by the artist's own hand in the +most favourable light; a curtain, hung behind it, served as a screen +for Warner, who, retiring to his hiding-place, surrendered his heart +to delicious forebodings of the critic's wonder and golden +anticipations of the future destiny of his darling work. Not a fear +dashed the full and smooth cup of his self-enjoyment. He had lain +awake the whole of the night in restless and joyous impatience for the +morrow. At daybreak he had started from his bed, he had unclosed his +shutters, he had hung over his picture with a fondness greater, if +possible, than he had ever known before! like a mother, he felt as if +his own partiality was but a part of a universal tribute; and, as his +aged relative, turning her dim eyes to the painting, and, in her +innocent idolatry, rather of the artist than his work, praised and +expatiated and foretold, his heart whispered, "If it wring this +worship from ignorance, what will be the homage of science?" + +He who first laid down the now hackneyed maxim that diffidence is the +companion of genius knew very little of the workings of the human +heart. True, there may have been a few such instances, and it is +probable that in this maxim, as in most, the exception made the rule. +But what could ever reconcile genius to its sufferings, its +sacrifices, its fevered inquietudes, the intense labour which can +alone produce what the shallow world deems the giant offspring of a +momentary inspiration: what could ever reconcile it to these but the +haughty and unquenchable consciousness of internal power; the hope +which has the fulness of certainty that in proportion to the toil is +the reward; the sanguine and impetuous anticipation of glory, which +bursts the boundaries of time and space, and ranges immortality with a +prophet's rapture? Rob Genius of its confidence, of its lofty self- +esteem, and you clip the wings of the eagle: you domesticate, it is +true, the wanderer you could not hitherto comprehend, in the narrow +bounds of your household affections; you abase and tame it more to the +level of your ordinary judgments, but you take from it the power to +soar; the hardihood which was content to brave the thundercloud and +build its eyrie on the rock, for the proud triumph of rising above its +kind, and contemplating with a nearer eye the majesty of heaven. + +But if something of presumption is a part of the very essence of +genius, in Warner it was doubly natural, for he was still in the heat +and flush of a design, the defects of which he had not yet had the +leisure to examine; and his talents, self-taught and self-modelled, +had never received either the excitement of emulation or the chill of +discouragement from the study of the masterpieces of his art. + +The painter had not been long alone in his concealment before he heard +steps; his heart beat violently, the door opened, and he saw, through +a small hole which he had purposely made in the curtain, a man with a +benevolent and prepossessing countenance, whom he instantly recognized +as Sir Joshua Reynolds, enter the room, accompanied by Talbot. They +walked up to the picture, the painter examined it closely, and in +perfect silence. "Silence," thought Warner, "is the best homage of +admiration;" but he trembled with impatience to hear the admiration +confirmed by words,--those words came too soon. + +"It is the work of a clever man, certainly," said Sir Joshua; "but" +(terrible monosyllable) "of one utterly unskilled in the grand +principles of his art--look here, and here, and here, for instance;" +and the critic, perfectly unconscious of the torture he inflicted, +proceeded to point out the errors of the work. Oh! the agony, the +withering agony of that moment to the ambitious artist! In vain he +endeavoured to bear up against the judgment,--in vain he endeavoured +to persuade himself that it was the voice of envy which in those cold, +measured, defining accents, fell like drops of poison upon his heart. +He felt at once, and as if by a magical inspiration, the truth of the +verdict; the scales of self-delusion fell from his eyes; by a hideous +mockery, a kind of terrible pantomime, his goddess seemed at a word, a +breath, transformed into a monster: life, which had been so lately +concentrated into a single hope, seemed now, at once and forever, +cramped, curdled, blistered into a single disappointment. + +"But," said Talbot, who had in vain attempted to arrest the criticisms +of the painter (who, very deaf at all times, was, at that time in +particular, engrossed by the self-satisfaction always enjoyed by one +expatiating on his favourite topic),--"but," said Talbot, in a louder +voice, "you own there is great genius in the design?" + +"Certainly, there is genius," replied Sir Joshua, in a tone of calm +and complacent good-nature; "but what is genius without culture? You +say the artist is young, very young; let him take time: I do not say +let him attempt a humbler walk; let him persevere in the lofty one he +has chosen, but let him first retrace every step he has taken; let him +devote days, months, years, to the most diligent study of the immortal +masters of the divine art, before he attempts (to exhibit, at least) +another historical picture. He has mistaken altogether the nature of +invention: a fine invention is nothing more than a fine deviation +from, or enlargement on, a fine model: imitation, if noble and +general, insures the best hope of originality. Above all, let your +young friend, if he can afford it, visit Italy." + +"He shall afford it," said Talbot, kindly, "for he shall have whatever +advantages I can procure him; but you see the picture is only half- +completed: he could alter it!" + +"He had better burn it!" replied the painter, with a gentle smile. + +And Talbot, in benevolent despair, hurried his visitor out of the +room. He soon returned to seek and console the artist, but the artist +was gone; the despised, the fatal picture, the blessing and curse of +so many anxious and wasted hours, had vanished also with its creator. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + What is this soul, then? Whence + Came it?--It does not seem my own, and I + Have no self-passion or identity! + Some fearful end must be-- + . . . . . . + There never lived a mortal man, who bent + His appetite beyond his natural sphere, + But starved and died.--KEATS: Endymion. + +On entering his home, Warner pushed aside, for the first time in his +life with disrespect, his aged and kindly relation, who, as if in +mockery of the unfortunate artist stood prepared to welcome and +congratulate his return. Bearing his picture in his arms, he rushed +upstairs, hurried into his room, and locked the door. Hastily he tore +aside the cloth which had been drawn over the picture; hastily and +tremblingly he placed it upon the frame accustomed to support it, and +then, with a long, long, eager, searching, scrutinizing glance, he +surveyed the once beloved mistress of his worship. Presumption, +vanity, exaggerated self-esteem, are, in their punishment, supposed to +excite ludicrous not sympathetic emotion; but there is an excess of +feeling, produced by whatever cause it may be, into which, in spite of +ourselves, we are forced to enter. Even fear, the most contemptible +of the passions, becomes tragic the moment it becomes an agony. + +"Well, well!" said Warner, at last, speaking very slowly, "it is +over,--it was a pleasant dream,--but it is over,--I ought to be +thankful for the lesson." Then suddenly changing his mood and tone, +he repeated, "Thankful! for what? that I am a wretch,--a wretch more +utterly hopeless and miserable and abandoned than a man who freights +with all his wealth, his children, his wife, the hoarded treasures and +blessings of an existence, one ship, one frail, worthless ship, and, +standing himself on the shore, sees it suddenly go down! Oh, was I +not a fool,--a right noble fool,--a vain fool,--an arrogant fool,--a +very essence and concentration of all things that make a fool, to +believe such delicious marvels of myself! What, man!" (here his eye +saw in the opposite glass his features, livid and haggard with +disease, and the exhausting feelings which preyed within him)--"what, +man! would nothing serve thee but to be a genius,--thee, whom Nature +stamped with her curse! Dwarf-like and distorted, mean in stature and +in lineament, thou wert, indeed, a glorious being to perpetuate grace +and beauty, the majesties and dreams of art! Fame for thee, indeed-- +ha-ha! Glory--ha-ha! a place with Titian, Correggio, Raphael--ha--ha +--ha! O, thrice modest, thrice-reasonable fool! But this vile daub; +this disfigurement of canvas; this loathed and wretched monument of +disgrace; this notable candidate for--ha--ha--immortality! this I +have, at least, in my power." And seizing the picture, he dashed it +to the ground, and trampled it with his feet upon the dusty boards, +till the moist colours presented nothing but one confused and dingy +stain. + +This sight seemed to recall him for a moment. He paused, lifted up +the picture once more, and placed it on the table. "But," he +muttered, "might not this critic be envious? am I sure that he judged +rightly--fairly? The greatest masters have looked askant and jealous +at their pupils' works. And then, how slow, how cold, how damned +cold, how indifferently he spoke; why, the very art should have warmed +him more. Could he have--No, no, no: it was true, it was! I felt the +conviction thrill through me like a searing iron. Burn it--did he +say--ay--burn it: it shall be done this instant." + +And, hastening to the door, he undid the bolt. He staggered back as +he beheld his old and nearest surviving relative, the mother of his +father, seated upon the ground beside the door, terrified by the +exclamations she did not dare to interrupt. She rose slowly, and with +difficulty as she saw him; and, throwing around him the withered arms +which had nursed his infancy, exclaimed, "My child!--my poor--poor +child! what has come to you of late? you, who were so gentle, so mild, +so quiet,--you are no longer the same,--and oh, my son, how ill you +look: your father looked so just before he died!" + +"Ill!" said he, with a sort of fearful gayety, "ill--no: I never was +so well; I have been in a dream till now; but I have woke at last. +Why, it is true that I have been silent and shy, but I will be so no +more. I will laugh, and talk, and walk, and make love, and drink +wine, and be all that other men are. Oh, we will be so merry! But +stay here, while I fetch a light." + +"A light, my child, for what?" + +"For a funeral!" shouted Warner, and, rushing past her, he descended +the stairs, and returned almost in an instant with a light. + +Alarmed and terrified, the poor old woman had remained motionless and +weeping violently. Her tears Warner did not seem to notice; he pushed +her gently into the room, and began deliberately, and without uttering +a syllable, to cut the picture into shreds. + +"What are you about, my child?" cried the old woman "you are mad; it +is your beautiful picture that you are destroying!" + +Warner did not reply, but going to the hearth, piled together, with +nice and scrupulous care, several pieces of paper, and stick, and +matches, into a sort of pyre; then, placing the shreds of the picture +upon it, he applied the light, and the whole was instantly in a blaze. + +"Look, look!" cried he, in an hysterical tone, "how it burns and +crackles and blazes! What master ever equalled it now?--no fault now +in those colours,--no false tints in that light and shade! See how +that flame darts up and soars!--that flame is my spirit! Look--is it +not restless?--does it not aspire bravely?--why, all its brother +flames are grovellers to it!--and now,--why don't you look!--it +falters--fades--droops--and--ha--ha--ha! poor idler, the fuel is +consumed--and--it is darkness." + +As Warner uttered these words his eyes reeled; the room swam before +him; the excitement of his feeble frame had reached its highest pitch; +the disease of many weeks had attained its crisis; and, tottering back +a few paces, he fell upon the floor, the victim of a delirious and +raging fever. + +But it was not thus that the young artist was to die. He was reserved +for a death that, like his real nature, had in it more of gentleness +and poetry. He recovered by slow degrees, and his mind, almost in +spite of himself, returned to that profession from which it was +impossible to divert the thoughts and musings of many years. Not that +he resumed the pencil and the easel: on the contrary, he could not +endure them in his sight; they appeared, to a mind festered and sore, +like a memorial and monument of shame. But he nursed within him a +strong and ardent desire to become a pilgrim to that beautiful land of +which he had so often dreamed, and which the innocent destroyer of his +peace had pointed out as the theatre of inspiration and the nursery of +future fame. + +The physicians who, at Talbot's instigation, attended him, looked at +his hectic cheek and consumptive frame, and readily flattered his +desire; and Talbot, no less interested in Warner's behalf on his own +account than bound by his promise to Clarence, generously extended to +the artist that bounty which is the most precious prerogative of the +rich. Notwithstanding her extreme age, his grandmother insisted upon +attending him: there is in the heart of woman so deep a well of love +that no age can freeze it. They made the voyage: they reached the +shore of the myrtle and the vine, and entered the Imperial City. The +air of Rome seemed at first to operate favourably upon the health of +the English artist. His strength appeared to increase, his spirit to +expand; and though he had relapsed into more than his original silence +and reserve, he resumed, with apparent energy, the labours of the +easel: so that they who looked no deeper than the surface might have +imagined the scar healed, and the real foundation of future excellence +begun. + +But while Warner most humbled himself before the gods of the pictured +world; while the true principles of the mighty art opened in their +fullest glory on his soul; precisely at this very moment shame and +despondency were most bitter at his heart: and while the enthusiasm of +the painter kindled, the ambition of the man despaired. But still he +went on, transfusing into his canvas the grandeur and simplicity of +the Italian school; still, though he felt palpably within him the +creeping advance of the deadliest and surest enemy to fame, he +pursued, with an unwearied ardour, the mechanical completion of his +task; still, the morning found him bending before the easel, and the +night brought to his solitary couch meditation rather than sleep. The +fire, the irritability which he had evinced before his illness had +vanished, and the original sweetness of his temper had returned; he +uttered no complaint, he dwelt upon no anticipation of success; hope +and regret seemed equally dead within him; and it was only when he +caught the fond, glad eyes of his aged attendant that his own filled +with tears, or that the serenity of his brow darkened into sadness. + +This went on for some months; till one evening they found the painter +by his window, seated opposite to an unfinished picture. The pencil +was still in his hand; the quiet of settled thought was still upon his +countenance; the soft breeze of a southern twilight waved the hair +livingly from his forehead; the earliest star of a southern sky lent +to his cheek something of that subdued lustre which, when touched by +enthusiasm, it had been accustomed to wear; but these were only the +mockeries of life: life itself was no more! He had died, reconciled, +perhaps, to the loss of fame, in discovering that Art is to be loved +for itself, and not for the rewards it may bestow upon the artist. + +There are two tombs close to each other in the strangers' burial-place +at Rome: they cover those for whom life, unequally long, terminated in +the same month. The one is of a woman, bowed with the burden of many +years: the other darkens over the dust of the young artist. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + Think upon my grief, + And on the justice of my flying hence, + To keep me from a most unholy match.--SHAKSPEARE. + +"But are you quite sure," said General St. Leger, "are you quite sure +that this girl still permits Mordaunt's addresses?" + +"Sure!" cried Miss Diana St. Leger, "sure, General! I saw it with my +own eyes. They were standing together in the copse, when I, who had +long had my suspicions, crept up, and saw them; and Mr. Mordaunt held +her hand, and kissed it every moment. Shocking and indecorous!" + +"I hate that man! as proud as Lucifer," growled the General. "Shall +we lock her up, or starve her?" + +"No, General, something better than that." + +"What, my love? flog her?" + +"She's too old for that, brother; we'll marry her." + +"Marry her!" + +"Yes, to Mr. Glumford; you know that he has asked her several times." + +"But she cannot bear him." + +"We'll make her bear him, General St. Leger." + +"But if she marries, I shall have nobody to nurse me when I have the +gout." + +"Yes, brother: I know of a nice little girl, Martha Richardson, your +second cousin's youngest daughter; you know he has fourteen children, +and you may have them all, one after another, if you like." + +"Very true, Diana; let the jade marry Mr. Glumford." + +"She shall," said the sister; "and I'll go about it this very moment: +meantime I'll take care that she does not see her lover any more." + +About three weeks after this conversation, Mordaunt, who had in vain +endeavoured to see Isabel, who had not even heard from her, whose +letters had been returned to him unopened, and who, consequently, was +in despair, received the following note:-- + +This is the first time I have been able to write to you, at least to +get my letter conveyed: it is a strange messenger that I have +employed, but I happened formerly to make his acquaintance; and +accidentally seeing him to-day, the extremity of the case induced me +to give him a commission which I could trust to no one else. +Algernon, are not the above sentences written with admirable calmness? +are they not very explanatory, very consistent, very cool? and yet do +you know that I firmly believe I am going mad? My brain turns round +and round, and my hand burns so that I almost think that, like our old +nurse's stories of the fiend, it will scorch the paper as I write. +And I see strange faces in my sleep and in my waking, all mocking at +me, and they torture and aunt met and when I look at those faces I see +no human relenting, no! though I weep and throw myself on my knees and +implore them to save me. Algernon, my only hope is in you. You know +that I have always hitherto refused to ruin you, and even now, though +I implore you to deliver me, I will not be so selfish as--as--I know +not what I write, but if I cannot be your wife--I will not be his! +No! if they drag me to church, it shall be to my grave, not my bridal. + ISABEL ST. LEGER. + +When Mordaunt had read this letter, which, in spite of its +incoherence, his fears readily explained, he rose hastily; his eyes +rested upon a sober-looking man, clad in brown. The proud love no +spectators to their emotions. + +"Who are you, sir?" said Algernon, quickly. + +"Morris Brown," replied the stranger, coolly and civilly. "Brought +that letter to you, sir; shall be very happy to serve you with +anything else; just fitted out a young gentleman as ambassador, a +nephew to Mrs. Minden,--very old friend of mine. Beautiful slabs you +have here, sir, but they want a few knick-knacks; shall be most happy +to supply you; got a lovely little ape, sir, stuffed by the late Lady +Waddilove; it would look charming with this old-fashioned carving; +give the room quite the air of a museum." + +"And so," said Mordaunt, for whose ear the eloquence of Mr. Brown +contained only one sentence, "and so you brought this note, and will +take back my answer?" + +"Yes, sir; anything to keep up family connections; I knew a Lady +Morden very well,--very well indeed, sir,--a relation of yours, I +presume, by the similarity of the name; made her very valuable +presents; shall be most happy to do the same to you, when you are +married, sir. You will refurnish the house, I suppose? Let me see; +fine proportions to this room, sir; about thirty-six feet by twenty- +eight; I'll do the thing twenty per cent cheaper than the trade; and +touching the lovely little--" + +"Here," interrupted Mordaunt, "you will take back this note, and be +sure that Miss Isabel St. Leger has it as soon as possible; oblige me +by accepting this trifle,--a trifle indeed compared with my gratitude, +if this note reaches its destination safely." + +"I am sure," said Mr. Brown, looking with surprise at the gift, which +he held with no unwilling hand, "I am sure, sir, that you are very +generous, and strongly remind me of your relation, Lady Morden; and if +you would like the lovely little ape as a present--I mean really a +present--you shall have it, Mr. Mordaunt." + +But Mr. Mordaunt had left the room, and the sober Morris, looking +round, and cooling in his generosity, said to himself, "It is well he +did not hear me, however; but I hope he will marry the nice young +lady, for I love doing a kindness. This house must be refurnished; no +lady will like these old-fashioned chairs." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + Squire and fool are the same thing here--FARQUHAR. + + In such a night + Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew, + And, with an unthrift love, did run from Venice.---SHAKSPEARE. + +The persecutions which Isabel had undergone had indeed preyed upon her +reason as well as her health; and, in her brief intervals of respite +from the rage of the uncle, the insults of the aunt, and, worse than +all, the addresses of the intended bridegroom, her mind, shocked and +unhinged, reverted with such intensity to the sufferings she endured +as to give her musings the character of insanity. It was in one of +these moments that she had written to Mordaunt; and had the contest +continued much longer the reason of the unfortunate and persecuted +girl would have totally deserted her. + +She was a person of acute, and even poignant, sensibilities, and these +the imperfect nature of her education had but little served to guide +or to correct; but as her habits were pure and good, the impulses +which spring from habit were also sinless and exalted, and, if they +erred, "they leaned on virtue's side," and partook rather of a +romantic and excessive generosity than of the weakness of womanhood or +the selfishness of passion. All the misery and debasement of her +equivocal and dependent situation had not been able to drive her into +compliance with Mordaunt's passionate and urgent prayers; and her +heart was proof even to the eloquence of love, when that eloquence +pointed towards the worldly injury and depreciation of her lover: but +this new persecution was utterly unforeseen in its nature and +intolerable from its cause. To marry another; to be torn forever from +one in whom her whole heart was wrapped; to be forced not only to +forego his love, but to feel that the very thought of him was a +crime,--all this, backed by the vehement and galling insults of her +relations, and the sullen and unmoved meanness of her intended +bridegroom, who answered her candour and confession with a stubborn +indifference and renewed overtures, made a load of evil which could +neither be borne with resignation nor contemplated with patience. + +She was sitting, after she had sent her letter, with her two +relations, for they seldom trusted her out of their sight, when Mr. +Glumford was announced. Now, Mr. George Glumford was a country +gentleman of what might be termed a third-rate family in the county: +he possessed about twelve hundred a year, to say nothing of the odd +pounds, shillings, and pence, which, however, did not meet with such +contempt in his memory or estimation; was of a race which could date +as far back as Charles the Second; had been educated at a country +school with sixty others, chiefly inferior to himself in rank; and had +received the last finish at a very small hall at Oxford. In addition +to these advantages, he had been indebted to nature for a person five +feet eight inches high, and stout in proportion; for hair very short, +very straight, and of a red hue, which even through powder cast out a +yellow glow; for an obstinate dogged sort of nose, beginning in snub, +and ending in bottle; for cold, small, gray eyes, a very small mouth, +pinched up and avaricious; and very large, very freckled, yet rather +white hands, the nails of which were punctiliously cut into a point +every other day, with a pair of scissors which Mr. Glumford often +boasted had been in his possession since his eighth year; namely, for +about thirty-two legitimate revolutions of the sun. + +He was one of those persons who are equally close and adventurous; who +love the eclat of a little speculation, but take exceeding good care +that it should be, in their own graceful phrase, "on the safe side of +the hedge." In pursuance of this characteristic of mind, he had +resolved to fall in love with Miss Isabel St. Leger; for she being +very dependent, he could boast to her of his disinterestedness, and +hope that she would be economical through a principle of gratitude; +and being the nearest relation to the opulent General St. Leger and +his unmarried sister there seemed to be every rational probability of +her inheriting the bulk of their fortunes. Upon these hints of +prudence spake Mr. George Glumford. + +Now, when Isabel, partly in her ingenuous frankness, partly from the +passionate promptings of her despair, revealed to him her attachment +to another, and her resolution never, with her own consent, to become +his, it seemed to the slow but not uncalculating mind of Mr. Glumford +not by any means desirable that he should forego his present +intentions, but by all means desirable that he should make this +reluctance of Isabel an excuse for sounding the intentions and +increasing the posthumous liberality of the East Indian and his +sister. + +"The girl is of my nearest blood," said the Major-General, "and if I +don't leave my fortune to her, who the devil should I leave it to, +sir?" and so saying, the speaker, who was in a fell paroxysm of the +gout, looked so fiercely at the hinting wooer that Mr. George +Glumford, who was no Achilles, was somewhat frightened, and thought it +expedient to hint no more. + +"My brother," said Miss Diana, "is so odd; but he is the most generous +of men: besides, the girl has claims upon him." Upon these speeches +Mr. Glumford thought himself secure; and inly resolving to punish the +fool for her sulkiness and bad taste as soon as he lawfully could, he +continued his daily visits and told his sporting acquaintance that his +time was coming. + +Revenons a nos moutons. Forgive this preliminary detail, and let us +return to Mr. Glumford himself, whom we left at the door, pulling and +fumbling at the glove which covered his right hand, in order to +present the naked palm to Miss Diana St. Leger. After this act was +performed, he approached Isabel, and drawing his chair near to her, +proceeded to converse with her as the Ogre did with Puss in Boots; +namely, "as civilly as an Ogre could do." + +This penance had not proceeded far, before the door was again opened, +and Mr. Morris Brown presented himself to the conclave. + +"Your servant, General; your servant, Madam. I took the liberty of +coming back again, Madam, because I forgot to show you some very fine +silks, the most extraordinary bargain in the world,--quite presents; +and I have a Sevres bowl here, a superb article, from the cabinet of +the late Lady Waddilove." + +Now Mr. Brown was a very old acquaintance of Miss Diana St. Leger, for +there is a certain class of old maids with whom our fair readers are +no doubt acquainted, who join to a great love of expense a great love +of bargains, and who never purchase at the regular place if they can +find any irregular vendor. They are great friends of Jews and +itinerants, hand-in-glove with smugglers, Ladies Bountiful to pedlers, +are diligent readers of puffs and advertisements, and eternal haunters +of sales and auctions. Of this class was Miss Diana a most prominent +individual: judge, then, how acceptable to her was the acquaintance of +Mr. Brown. That indefatigable merchant of miscellanies had, indeed, +at a time when brokers were perhaps rather more rare and respectable +than now, a numerous country acquaintance, and thrice a year he +performed a sort of circuit to all his customers and connections; +hence his visit to St. Leger House, and hence Isabel's opportunity of +conveying her epistle. + +"Pray," said Mr. Glumford, who had heard much of Mr. Brown's +"presents" from Miss Diana,--"pray don't you furnish rooms, and things +of that sort?" + +"Certainly, sir, certainly, in the best manner possible." + +"Oh, very well; I shall want some rooms furnished soon,--a bedroom and +a dressing-room, and things of that sort, you know. And so--perhaps +you may have something in your box that will suit me, gloves or +handkerchiefs or shirts or things of that sort." + +"Yes, sir, everything, I sell everything," said Mr. Brown, opening his +box. "I beg pardon, Miss Isabel, I have dropped my handkerchief by +your chair; allow me to stoop," and Mr. Brown, stooping under the +table, managed to effect his purpose; unseen by the rest, a note was +slipped into Isabel's hand, and under pretence of stooping too, she +managed to secure the treasure. Love need well be honest if, even +when it is most true, it leads us into so much that is false! + +Mr. Brown's box was now unfolded before the eyes of the crafty Mr. +Glumford, who, having selected three pair of gloves, offered the exact +half of the sum demanded. + +Mr. Brown lifted up his hands and eyes. + +"You see," said the imperturbable Glumford, "that if you let me have +them for that, and they last me well, and don't come unsewn, and stand +cleaning, you'll have my custom in furnishing the house, and rooms, +and--things of that sort." + +Struck with the grandeur of this opening, Mr. Brown yielded, and the +gloves were bought. + +"The fool!" thought the noble George, laughing in his sleeve, "as if I +should ever furnish the house from his box!" Strange that some men +should be proud of being mean! The moment Isabel escaped to dress for +dinner, she opened her lover's note. It was as follows.-- + +Be in the room, your retreat, at nine this evening. Let the window be +left unclosed. Precisely at that hour I will be with you. I shall +have everything in readiness for your flight. Be sure, dearest +Isabel, that nothing prevents your meeting me there, even if all your +house follow or attend you. I will bear you from all. Oh, Isabel! in +spite of the mystery and wretchedness of your letter, I feel too +happy, too blest at the thought that our fates will be at length +united, and that the union is at hand. Remember nine. + A. M. + +Love is a feeling which has so little to do with the world, a passion +so little regulated by the known laws of our more steady and settled +emotions, that the thoughts which it produces are always more or less +connected with exaggeration and romance. To the secret spirit of +enterprise which, however chilled by his pursuits and habits, still +burned within Mordaunt's breast, there was a wild pleasure in the +thought of bearing off his mistress and his bride from the very home +and hold of her false friends and real foes; while in the +contradictions of the same passion, Isabel, so far from exulting at +her approaching escape, trembled at her danger and blushed for her +temerity; and the fear and the modesty of woman almost triumphed over +her brief energy and fluctuating resolve. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + We haste,-the chosen and the lovely bringing; + Love still goes with her from her place of birth; + Deep, silent joy, within her soul is springing, + Though in her glance the light no more is mirth.--Mrs. HEMANS. + +"Damn it!" said the General. + +"The vile creature!" cried Miss Diana. + +"I don't understand things of that sort," ejaculated the bewildered +Mr. Glumford. + +"She has certainly gone," said the valiant General. + +"Certainly!" grunted Miss Diana. + +"Gone!" echoed the bridegroom not to be. + +And she was gone! Never did more loving and tender heart forsake all, +and cling to a more loyal and generous nature. The skies were +darkened with clouds,-- + + "And the dim stars rushed through them rare and fast;" + +and the winds wailed with a loud and ominous voice; and the moon came +forth, with a faint and sickly smile, from her chamber in the mist, +and then shrank back, and was seen no more; but neither omen nor fear +was upon Mordaunt's breast, as it swelled beneath the dark locks of +Isabel, which were pressed against it. + +As Faith clings the more to the cross of life, while the wastes deepen +around her steps, and the adders creep forth upon her path, so love +clasps that which is its hope and comfort the closer, for the desert +which encompasses and the dangers which harass its way. + +They had fled to London, and Isabel had been placed with a very +distant and very poor, though very high-born, relative of Algernon, +till the necessary preliminaries could be passed and the final bond +knit. Yet still the generous Isabel would have refused, despite the +injury to her own fame, to have ratified a union which filled her with +gloomy presentiments for Mordaunt's fate; and still Mordaunt by little +and little broke down her tender scruples and self-immolating +resolves, and ceased not his eloquence and his suit till the day of +his nuptials was set and come. + +The morning was bright and clear; the autumn was drawing towards its +close, and seemed willing to leave its last remembrance tinged with +the warmth and softness of its parent summer, rather than with the +stern gloom and severity of its chilling successor. + +And they stood beside the altar, and their vows were exchanged. A +slight tremor came over Algernon's frame, a slight shade darkened his +countenance; for even in that bridal hour an icy and thrilling +foreboding curdled to his heart; it passed,--the ceremony was over, +and Mordaunt bore his blushing and weeping bride from the church. His +carriage was in attendance; for, not knowing how long the home of his +ancestors might be his, he was impatient to return to it. The old +Countess d'Arcy, Mordaunt's relation, with whom Isabel had been +staying, called them back to bless them; for, even through the +coldness of old age, she was touched by the singularity of their love +and affected by their nobleness of heart. She laid her wan and +shrivelled hand upon each, as she bade them farewell, and each shrank +back involuntarily, for the cold and light touch seemed like the +fingers of the dead. + +Fearful, indeed, is the vicinity of death and life,--the bridal +chamber and the charnel. That night the old woman died. It appeared +as if Fate had set its seal upon the union it had so long forbidden, +and had woven a dark thread even in the marriage-bond. At least, it +tore from two hearts, over which the cloud and the blast lay couched +in a "grim repose," the last shelter, which, however frail and +distant, seemed left to them upon the inhospitable earth. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + Live while ye may, yet happy pair; enjoy + Short pleasures, for long woes are to succeed.--MILTON. + +The autumn and the winter passed away; Mordaunt's relation continued +implacable. Algernon grieved for this, independent of worldly +circumstances; for, though he had seldom seen that relation, yet he +loved him for former kindness--rather promised, to be sure, than yet +shown--with the natural warmth of an affection which has but few +objects. However, the old gentleman (a very short, very fat person; +very short and very fat people, when they are surly, are the devil and +all; for the humours of their mind, like those of their body, have +something corrupt and unpurgeable in them) wrote him one bluff, +contemptuous letter, in a witty strain,--for he was a bit of a +humourist,--disowned his connection, and very shortly afterwards died, +and left all his fortune to the very Mr. Vavasour who was at law with +Mordaunt, and for whom he had always openly expressed the strongest +personal dislike: spite to one relation is a marvellous tie to +another. Meanwhile the lawsuit went on less slowly than lawsuits +usually do, and the final decision was very speedily to be given. + +We said the autumn and the winter were gone; and it was in one of +those latter days in March, when, like a hoyden girl subsiding into +dawning womanhood, the rude weather mellows into a softer and tenderer +month, that, by the side of a stream, overshadowed by many a brake and +tree, sat two persons. + +"I know not, dearest Algernon," said one, who was a female, "if this +is not almost the sweetest month in the year, because it is the month +of Hope." + +"Ay, Isabel; and they did it wrong who called it harsh, and dedicated +it to Mars. I exult even in the fresh winds which hardier frames than +mine shrink from, and I love feeling their wild breath fan my cheek as +I ride against it. I remember," continued Algernon, musingly, "that +on this very day three years ago, I was travelling through Germany, +alone and on horseback, and I paused, not far from Ens, on the banks +of the Danube; the waters of the river were disturbed and fierce, and +the winds came loud and angry against my face, dashing the spray of +the waves upon me, and filling my spirit with a buoyant and glad +delight; and at that time I had been indulging old dreams of poetry, +and had laid my philosophy aside; and, in the inspiration of the +moment, I lifted up my hand towards the quarter whence the winds came, +and questioned them audibly of their birthplace and their bourne; and, +as the enthusiasm increased, I compared them to our human life, which +a moment is, and then is not; and, proceeding from folly to folly, I +asked them, as if they were the interpreters of heaven, for a type and +sign of my future lot." + +"And what said they?" inquired Isabel, smiling, yet smiling timidly. + +"They answered not," replied Mordaunt; "but a voice within me seemed +to say, 'Look above!' and I raised my eyes,--but I did not see thee, +love,--so the Book of Fate lied." + +"Nay, Algernon, what did you see?" asked Isabel, more earnestly than +the question deserved. + +"I saw a thin cloud, alone amidst many dense and dark ones scattered +around; and as I gazed it seemed to take the likeness of a funeral +procession--coffin, bearers, priests, all--as clear in the cloud as I +have seen them on the earth: and I shuddered as I saw; but the winds +blew the vapour onwards, and it mingled with the broader masses of +cloud; and then, Isabel, the sun shone forth for a moment, and I +mistook, love, when I said you were not there, for that sun was you; +but suddenly the winds ceased, and the rain came on fast and heavy: so +my romance cooled, and my fever slacked; I thought on the inn at Ens, +and the blessings of a wood fire, which is lighted in a moment, and I +spurred on my horse accordingly." + +"It is very strange," said Isabel. + +"What, love?" whispered Algernon, kissing her cheek. + +"Nothing, dearest, nothing." + +At that instant, the deer, which lay waving their lordly antlers to +and fro beneath the avenue which sloped upward from the stream to the +house, rose hurriedly and in confusion, and stood gazing, with +watchful eyes, upon a man advancing towards the pair. + +It was one of the servants with a letter. Isabel saw a faint change +(which none else could have seen) in Mordaunt's countenance, as he +recognized the writing and broke the seal. When he had read the +letter, his eyes fell upon the ground, and then, with a slight start, +he lifted them up, and gazed long and eagerly around. Wistfully did +he drink, as it were, into his heart the beautiful and expanded scene +which lay stretched on either side; the noble avenue which his +forefathers had planted as a shelter to their sons, and which now in +its majestic growth and its waving boughs seemed to say, "Lo! ye are +repaid!" and the never silent and silver stream, by which his boyhood +had sat for hours, lulled by its music, and inhaling the fragrance of +the reed and wild flower that decoyed the bee to its glossy banks; and +the deer, to whose melancholy belling be had listened so often in the +gray twilight with a rapt and dreaming ear; and the green fern waving +on the gentle hill, from whose shade his young feet had startled the +hare and the infant fawn; and far and faintly gleaming through the +thick trees, which clasped it as with a girdle, the old Hall, so +associated with vague hopes and musing dreams, and the dim legends of +gone time, and the lofty prejudices of ancestral pride,--all seemed to +sink within him, as he gazed, like the last looks of departing +friends; and when Isabel, who had not dared to break a silence which +partook so strongly of gloom, at length laid her hand upon his arm, +and lifted her dark, deep, tender eyes to his, he said, as he drew her +towards him, and a faint and sickly smile played upon his lips,-- + +"It is past, Isabel: henceforth we have no wealth but in each other. +The cause has been decided--and--and--we are beggars!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + +We expose our life to a quotidian ague of frigid impertinences, which +would make a wise man tremble to think of.--COWLEY. + +We must suppose a lapse of four years from the date of those events +which concluded the last chapter; and, to recompence the reader, who I +know has a little penchant for "High Life," even in the last century, +for having hitherto shown him human beings in a state of society not +wholly artificial, I beg him to picture to himself a large room, +brilliantly illuminated, and crowded "with the magnates of the land." +Here, some in saltatory motion, some in sedentary rest, are dispersed +various groups of young ladies and attendant swains, talking upon the +subject of Lord Rochester's celebrated poem,--namely, "Nothing!"--and +lounging around the doors, meditating probably upon the same subject, +stand those unhappy victims of dancing daughters, denominated "Papas." + +The music has ceased; the dancers have broken up; and there is a +general but gentle sweep towards the refreshment-room. In the crowd-- +having just entered--there glided a young man of an air more +distinguished and somewhat more joyous than the rest. + +"How do you do, Mr. Linden?" said a tall and (though somewhat passe) +very handsome woman, blazing with diamonds; "are you just come?" + +And, here, by the way, I cannot resist pausing to observe that a +friend of mine, meditating a novel, submitted a part of the manuscript +to a friendly publisher. "Sir," said the bookseller, "your book is +very clever, but it wants dialogue." + +"Dialogue!" cried my friend: "you mistake; it is all dialogue." + +"Ay, sir, but not what we call dialogue; we want a little conversation +in fashionable life,--a little elegant chit-chat or so: and, as you +must have seen so much of the beau monde, you could do it to the life: +we must have something light and witty and entertaining." + +"Light, witty, and entertaining!" said our poor friend; "and how the +deuce, then, is it to be like conversation in 'fashionable life'? +When the very best conversation one can get is so insufferably dull, +how do you think people will be amused by reading a copy of the very +worst?" + +"They are amused, sir," said the publisher; "and works of this kind +sell!" + +"I am convinced," said my friend; for he was a man of a placid temper: +he took the hint, and his book did sell! + +Now this anecdote rushed into my mind after the penning of the little +address of the lady in diamonds,--"How do you do, Mr. Linden? Are you +just come?"--and it received an additional weight from my utter +inability to put into the mouth of Mr. Linden--notwithstanding my +desire of representing him in the most brilliant colours--any more +happy and eloquent answer than, "Only this instant!" + +However, as this is in the true spirit of elegant dialogue, I trust my +readers find it as light, witty, and entertaining as, according to the +said publisher, the said dialogue is always found by the public. + +While Clarence was engaged in talking with this lady, a very pretty, +lively, animated girl, with laughing blue eyes, which, joined to the +dazzling fairness of her complexion, gave a Hebe-like youth to her +features and expression, was led up to the said lady by a tall young +man, and consigned, with the ceremonious bow of the vieille tour, to +her protection. + +"Ah, Mr. Linden," cried the young lady, "I am very glad to see you,-- +such a beautiful ball!--Everybody here that I most like. Have you had +any refreshments, Mamma? But I need not ask, for I am sure you have +not; do come, Mr. Linden will be our cavalier." + +"Well, Flora, as you please," said the elderly lady, with a proud and +fond look at her beautiful daughter; and they proceeded to the +refreshment-room. + +No sooner were they seated at one of the tables, than they were +accosted by Lord St. George, a nobleman whom Clarence, before he left +England, had met more than once at Mr. Talbot's. + +"London," said his lordship to her of the diamonds, "has not seemed +like the same place since Lady Westborough arrived; your presence +brings out all the other luminaries: and therefore a young +acquaintance of mine--God bless me, there he is, seated by Lady Flora-- +very justly called you the 'evening star.'" + +"Was that Mr. Linden's pretty saying?" said Lady Westborough, smiling. + +"It was," answered Lord St. George; "and, by the by, he is a very +sensible, pleasant person, and greatly improved since he left England +last." + +"What!" said Lady Westborough, in a low tone (for Clarence, though in +earnest conversation with Lady Flora, was within hearing), and making +room for Lord St. George beside her, "what! did you know him before he +went to ----? You can probably tell me, then, who--that is to say-- +what family he is exactly of--the Lindens of Devonshire, or--or--" + +"Why, really," said Lord St. George, a little confused, for no man +likes to be acquainted with persons whose pedigree he cannot explain, +"I don't know what may be his family: I met him at Talbot's four or +five years ago; he was then a mere boy, but he struck me as being very +clever, and Talbot since told me that he was a nephew of his own." + +"Talbot," said Lady Westborough, musingly, "what Talbot?" + +"Oh! the Talbot--the ci-devant jeune homme!" + +"What, that charming, clever, animated old gentleman, who used to +dress so oddly, and had been so celebrated a beau garcon in his day?" + +"Exactly so," said Lord St. George, taking snuff, and delighted to +find he had set his young acquaintance on so honourable a footing. + +"I did not know he was still alive," said Lady Westborough, and then, +turning her eyes towards Clarence and her daughter, she added +carelessly, "Mr. Talbot is very rich, is he not?" + +"Rich as Croesus," replied Lord St. George, with a sigh. + +"And Mr. Linden is his heir, I suppose?" + +"In all probability," answered Lord St. George; "though I believe I +can boast a distant relationship to Talbot. However, I could not make +him fully understand it the other day, though I took particular pains +to explain it." + +While this conversation was going on between the Marchioness of +Westborough and Lord St. George, a dialogue equally interesting to the +parties concerned, and I hope, equally light, witty, and entertaining +to readers in general, was sustained between Clarence and Lady Flora. + +"How long shall you stay in England?" asked the latter, looking down. + +"I have not yet been able to decide," replied Clarence, "for it rests +with the ministers, not me. Directly Lord Aspeden obtains another +appointment, I am promised the office of Secretary of Legation; but +till then, I am-- + + "'A captive in Augusta's towers + To beauty and her train.'" + +"Oh!" cried Lady Flora, laughing, "you mean Mrs. Desborough and her +train: see where they sweep! Pray go and render her homage." + +"It is rendered," said Linden, in a low voice, "without so long a +pilgrimage, but perhaps despised." + +Lady Flora's laugh was hushed; the deepest blushes suffused her +cheeks, and the whole character of that face, before so playful and +joyous, seemed changed, as by a spell, into a grave, subdued, and even +timid look. + +Linden resumed, and his voice scarcely rose above a whisper. A +whisper! O delicate and fairy sound! music that speaketh to the +heart, as if loth to break the spell that binds it while it listens! +Sigh breathed into words, and freighting love in tones languid, like +homeward bees, by the very sweets with which they are charged! "Do +you remember," said he, "that evening at ---- when we last parted? and +the boldness which at that time you were gentle enough to forgive?" + +Lady Flora replied not. + +"And do you remember," continued Clarence, "that I told you that it +was not as an unknown and obscure adventurer that I would claim the +hand of her whose heart as an adventurer I had won?" + +Lady Flora raised her eyes for one moment, and encountering the ardent +gaze of Clarence, as instantly dropped them. + +"The time is not yet come," said Linden, "for the fulfilment of this +promise; but may I--dare I hope, that when it does, I shall not be--" + +"Flora, my love," said Lady Westborough, "let me introduce to you Lord +Borodaile." + +Lady Flora turned: the spell was broken; and the lovers were instantly +transformed into ordinary mortals. But, as Flora, after returning +Lord Borodaile's address, glanced her eye towards Clarence, she was +struck with the sudden and singular change of his countenance; the +flush of youth and passion was fled, his complexion was deadly pale, +and his eyes were fixed with a searching and unaccountable meaning +upon the face of the young nobleman, who was alternately addressing, +with a quiet and somewhat haughty fluency, the beautiful mother, and +the more lovely though less commanding daughter. Directly Linden +perceived that he was observed, he rose, turned away, and was soon +lost among the crowd. + +Lord Borodaile, the son and heir of the powerful Earl of Ulswater, was +about the age of thirty, small, slight, and rather handsome than +otherwise, though his complexion was dark and sallow; and a very +aquiline nose gave a stern and somewhat severe air to his countenance. +He had been for several years abroad, in various parts of the +Continent, and (no other field for an adventurous and fierce spirit +presenting itself) had served with the gallant Earl of Effingham, in +the war between the Turks and Russians, as a volunteer in the armies +of the latter. In this service he had been highly distinguished for +courage and conduct; and, on his return to England about a twelvemonth +since, had obtained the command of a cavalry regiment. Passionately +fond of his profession, he entered into its minutest duties with a +zeal not exceeded by the youngest and poorest subaltern in the army. + +His manners were very cold, haughty, collected, and self-possessed, +and his conversation that of a man who has cultivated his intellect +rather in the world than the closet. I mean, that, perfectly ignorant +of things, he was driven to converse solely upon persons, and, having +imbibed no other philosophy than that which worldly deceits and +disappointments bestow, his remarks, though shrewd, were bitterly +sarcastic, and partook of all the ill-nature for which a very scanty +knowledge of the world gives a sour and malevolent mind so ready an +excuse. + +"How very disagreeable Lord Borodaile is!" said Lady Flora, when the +object of the remark turned away and rejoined some idlers of his +corps. + +"Disagreeable!" said Lady Westborough. "I think him charming: he is +so sensible. How true his remarks on the world are!" + +Thus is it always; the young judge harshly of those who undeceive or +revolt their enthusiasm; and the more advanced in years, who have not +learned by a diviner wisdom to look upon the human follies and errors +by which they have suffered with a pitying and lenient eye, consider +every maxim of severity on those frailties as the proof of a superior +knowledge, and praise that as a profundity of thought which in reality +is but an infirmity of temper. + +Clarence is now engaged in a minuet de la tour with the beautiful +Countess of ----, the best dancer of the day in England. Lady Flora +is flirting with half a dozen beaux, the more violently in proportion +as she observes the animation with which Clarence converses, and the +grace with which his partner moves; and, having thus left our two +principal personages occupied and engaged, let us turn for a moment to +a room which we have not entered. + +This is a forlorn, deserted chamber, destined to cards, which are +never played in this temple of Terpsichore. At the far end of this +room, opposite to the fireplace, are seated four men, engaged in +earnest conversation. + +The tallest of these was Lord Quintown, a nobleman remarkable at that +day for his personal advantages, his good fortune with the beau sexe, +his attempts at parliamentary eloquence, in which he was lamentably +unsuccessful, and his adherence to Lord North. Next to him sat Mr. +St. George, the younger brother of Lord St. George, a gentleman to +whom power and place seemed married without hope of divorce; for, +whatever had been the changes of ministry for the last twelve years, +he, secure in a lucrative though subordinate situation, had "smiled at +the whirlwind and defied the storm," and, while all things shifted and +vanished round him, like clouds and vapours, had remained fixed and +stationary as a star. "Solid St. George," was his appellative by his +friends, and his enemies did not grudge him the title. The third was +the minister for ----; and the fourth was Clarence's friend, Lord +Aspeden. Now this nobleman, blessed with a benevolent, smooth, calm +countenance, valued himself especially upon his diplomatic elegance in +turning a compliment. + +Having a great taste for literature as well as diplomacy, this +respected and respectable peer also possessed a curious felicity for +applying quotation; and nothing rejoiced him so much as when, in the +same phrase, he was enabled to set the two jewels of his courtliness +of flattery and his profundity of erudition. Unhappily enough, his +compliments were seldom as well taken as they were meant; and, whether +from the ingratitude of the persons complimented or the ill fortune of +the noble adulator, seemed sometimes to produce indignation in place +of delight. It has been said that his civilities had cost Lord +Aspeden four duels and one beating; but these reports were probably +the malicious invention of those who had never tasted the delicacies +of his flattery. + +Now these four persons being all members of the Privy Council, and +being thus engaged in close and earnest conference were, you will +suppose, employed in discussing their gravities and secrets of state: +no such thing; that whisper from Lord Quintown, the handsome nobleman, +to Mr. St. George, is no hoarded and valuable information which would +rejoice the heart of the editor of an Opposition paper, no direful +murmur, "perplexing monarchs with the dread of change;" it is only a +recent piece of scandal, touching the virtue of a lady of the court, +which (albeit the sage listener seems to pay so devout an attention to +the news) is far more interesting to the gallant and handsome +informant than to his brother statesman; and that emphatic and +vehement tone with which Lord Aspeden is assuring the minister for +---- of some fact, is merely an angry denunciation of the chicanery +practised at the last Newmarket. + +"By the by, Aspeden," said Lord Quintown, "who is that good-looking +fellow always flirting with Lady Flora Ardenne,--an attache of yours, +is he not?" + +"Oh! Linden, I suppose you mean. A very sensible, clever young +fellow, who has a great genius for business and plays the flute +admirably. I must have him for my secretary, my dear lord, mind +that." + +"With such a recommendation, Lord Aspeden," said the minister, with a +bow, "the state would be a great loser did it not elect your attache, +who plays so admirably on the flute, to the office of your secretary. +Let us join the dancers." + +"I shall go and talk with Count B----," quoth Mr. St. George. + +"And I shall make my court to his beautiful wife," said the minister, +sauntering into the ballroom, to which his fine person and graceful +manners were much better adapted than was his genius to the cabinet or +his eloquence to the senate. + +The morning had long dawned, and Clarence, for whose mind pleasure was +more fatiguing than business, lingered near the door, to catch one +last look of Lady Flora before he retired. He saw her leaning on the +arm of Lord Borodaile, and hastening to join the dancers with her +usual light step and laughing air; for Clarence's short conference +with her had, in spite of his subsequent flirtations, rendered her +happier than she had ever felt before. Again a change passed over +Clarence's countenance,--a change which I find it difficult to express +without borrowing from those celebrated German dramatists who could +portray in such exact colours "a look of mingled joy, sorrow, hope, +passion, rapture, and despair;" for the look was not that of jealousy +alone, although it certainly partook of its nature, but a little also +of interest, and a little of sorrow; and when he turned away, and +slowly descended the stairs, his eyes were full of tears, and his +thoughts far--far away;--whither? + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + Quae fert adolescentia + Ea ne me celet consuefeci filium.--TERENCE. + + ["The things which youth proposes I accustomed + my son that he should never conceal from me."] + +The next morning Clarence was lounging over his breakfast, and +glancing listlessly now at the pages of the newspapers, now at the +various engagements for the week, which lay confusedly upon his table, +when he received a note from Talbot, requesting to see him as soon as +possible. + +"Had it not been for that man," said Clarence to himself, "what should +I have been now? But, at least, I have not disgraced his friendship. +I have already ascended the roughest because the lowest steps on the +hill where Fortune builds her temple. I have already won for the name +I have chosen some 'golden opinions' to gild its obscurity. One year +more may confirm my destiny and ripen hope into success: then--then, I +may perhaps throw off a disguise that, while it befriended, has not +degraded me, and avow myself to her! Yet how much better to dignify +the name I have assumed than to owe respect only to that which I have +not been deemed worthy to inherit! Well, well, these are bitter +thoughts; let me turn to others. How beautiful Flora looked last +night! and, he--he--but enough of this: I must dress, and then to +Talbot." + +Muttering these wayward fancies, Clarence rose, completed his toilet, +sent for his horses, and repaired to a village about seven miles from +London, where Talbot, having yielded to Clarence's fears and +solicitations, and left his former insecure tenement, now resided +under the guard and care of an especial and private watchman. + +It was a pretty, quiet villa, surrounded by a plantation and pleasure- +ground of some extent for a suburban residence, in which the old +philosopher (for though in some respects still frail and prejudiced, +Talbot deserved that name) held his home. The ancient servant, on +whom four years had passed lightly and favouringly, opened the door to +Clarence, with his usual smile of greeting and familiar yet respectful +salutation, and ushered our hero into a room, furnished with the usual +fastidious and rather feminine luxury which characterized Talbot's +tastes. Sitting with his back turned to the light, in a large easy- +chair, Clarence found the wreck of the once gallant, gay Lothario. + +There was not much alteration in his countenance since we last saw +him; the lines, it is true, were a little more decided, and the cheeks +a little more sunken; but the dark eye beamed with all its wonted +vivacity, and the delicate contour of the mouth preserved all its +physiognomical characteristics of the inward man. He rose with +somewhat more difficulty than he was formerly wont to do, and his +limbs had lost much of their symmetrical proportions; yet the kind +clasp of his hand was as firm and warm as when it had pressed that of +the boyish attache four years since; and the voice which expressed his +salutation yet breathed its unconquered suavity and distinctness of +modulation. After the customary greetings and inquiries were given +and returned, the young man drew his chair near to Talbot's, and +said,-- + +"You sent for me, dear sir; have you anything more important than +usual to impart to me?--or--and I hope this is the case--have you at +last thought of any commission, however trifling, in the execution of +which I can be of use?" + +"Yes, Clarence, I wish your judgment to select me some strawberries,-- +you know that I am a great epicure in fruit,--and get me the new work +Dr. Johnson has just published. There, are you contented? And now, +tell me all about your horse; does he step well? Has he the true +English head and shoulder? Are his legs fine, yet strong? Is he full +of spirit and devoid of vice?" + +"He is all this, sir, thanks to you for him." + +"Ah!" cried Talbot,-- + + "'Old as I am, for riding feats unfit, + The shape of horses I remember yet'" + +"And now let us hear how you like Ranelagh; and above all how you liked +the ball last night." + +And the vivacious old man listened with the profoundest appearance of +interest to all the particulars of Clarence's animated detail. His +vanity, which made him wish to be loved, had long since taught him the +surest method of becoming so; and with him, every visitor, old, young, +the man of books, or the disciple of the world, was sure to find the +readiest and even eagerest sympathy in every amusement or occupation. +But for Clarence, this interest lay deeper than in the surface of +courtly breeding. Gratitude had first bound to him his adopted son, +then a tie yet unexplained, and lastly, but not least, the pride of +protection. He was vain of the personal and mental attractions of his +protege, and eager for the success of one whose honours would reflect +credit on himself. + +But there was one part of Clarence's account of the last night to +which the philosopher paid a still deeper attention, and on which he +was more minute in his advice; what this was, I cannot, as yet, reveal +to the reader. + +The conversation then turned on light and general matters,--the +scandal, the literature, the politics, the on dits of the day; and +lastly upon women; thence Talbot dropped into his office of Mentor. + +"A celebrated cardinal said, very wisely, that few ever did anything +among men until women were no longer an object to them. That is the +reason, by the by, why I never succeeded with the former, and why +people seldom acquire any reputation, except for a hat, or a horse, +till they marry. Look round at the various occupations of life. How +few bachelors are eminent in any of them! So you see, Clarence, you +will have my leave to marry Lady Flora as soon as you please." + +Clarence coloured, and rose to depart. Talbot followed him to the +door, and then said, in a careless way, "By the by, I had almost +forgotten to tell you that, as you have now many new expenses, you +will find the yearly sum you have hitherto received doubled. To give +you this information is the chief reason why I sent for you this +morning. God bless you, my dear boy." + +And Talbot shut the door, despite his politeness, in the face and +thanks of his adopted son. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + +There is a great difference between seeking to raise a laugh from +everything, and seeking in everything what justly may be laughed at. + LORD SHAFTESBURY. + +Behold our hero, now in the zenith of distinguished dissipations! +Courteous, attentive, and animated, the women did not esteem him the +less for admiring them rather than himself; while, by the gravity of +his demeanour to men,--the eloquent, yet unpretending flow of his +conversation, whenever topics of intellectual interest were discussed, +the plain and solid sense which he threw into his remarks, and the +avidity with which he courted the society of all distinguished for +literary or political eminence,--he was silently but surely +establishing himself in esteem as well as popularity, and laying the +certain foundation of future honour and success. + +Thus, although he had only been four months returned to England, he +was already known and courted in every circle, and universally spoken +of as among "the most rising young gentlemen" whom fortune and the +administration had marked for their own. His history, during the four +years in which we have lost sight of him, is briefly told. + +He soon won his way into the good graces of Lord Aspeden; became his +private secretary and occasionally his confidant. Universally admired +for his attraction of form and manner, and, though aiming at +reputation, not averse to pleasure, he had that position which fashion +confers at the court of ----, when Lady Westborough and her beautiful +daughter, then only seventeen, came to ----, in the progress of a +Continental tour, about a year before his return to England. Clarence +and Lady Flora were naturally brought much together in the restricted +circle of a small court, and intimacy soon ripened into attachment. + +Lord Aspeden being recalled, Clarence accompanied him to England; and +the ex-minister, really liking much one who was so useful to him, had +faithfully promised to procure him the office and honour of secretary +whenever his lordship should be reappointed minister. + +Three intimate acquaintances had Clarence Linden. The one was the +Honourable Henry Trollolop, the second Mr. Callythorpe, and the third +Sir Christopher Findlater. We will sketch them to you in an instant. +Mr. Trollolop was a short, stout gentleman, with a very thoughtful +countenance,-that is to say, he wore spectacles and took snuff. + +Mr. Trollolop--we delight in pronouncing that soft liquid name--was +eminently distinguished by a love of metaphysics,--metaphysics were in +a great measure the order of the day; but Fate had endowed Mr. +Trollolop with a singular and felicitous confusion of idea. Reid, +Berkeley, Cudworth, Hobbes, all lay jumbled together in most edifying +chaos at the bottom of Mr. Trollolop's capacious mind; and whenever he +opened his mouth, the imprisoned enemies came rushing and scrambling +out, overturning and contradicting each other in a manner quite +astounding to the ignorant spectator. Mr. Callythorpe was meagre, +thin, sharp, and yellow. Whether from having a great propensity for +nailing stray acquaintances, or being particularly heavy company, or +from any other cause better known to the wits of the period than to +us, he was occasionally termed by his friends the "yellow hammer." +The peculiar characteristics of this gentleman were his sincerity and +friendship. These qualities led him into saying things the most +disagreeable, with the civilest and coolest manner in the world,-- +always prefacing them with, "You know, my dear so-and-so, I am your +true friend." If this proof of amity was now and then productive of +altercation, Mr. Callythorpe, who was ha great patriot, had another and +a nobler plea,--"Sir," he would say, putting his hand to his heart,-- +"sir, I'm an Englishman: I know not what it is to feign." Of a very +different stamp was Sir Christopher Findlater. Little cared he for +the subtleties of the human mind, and not much more for the +disagreeable duties of "an Englishman." Honest and jovial, red in the +cheeks, empty in the head, born to twelve thousand a year, educated in +the country, and heir to an earldom, Sir Christopher Findlater piqued +himself, notwithstanding his worldly advantages, usually so +destructive to the kindlier affections, on having the best heart in +the world, and this good heart, having a very bad head to regulate and +support it, was the perpetual cause of error to the owner and evil to +the public. + +One evening, when Clarence was alone in his rooms, Mr. Trollolop +entered. + +"My dear Linden," said the visitor, "how are you?" + +"I am, as I hope you are, very well," answered Clarence. + +"The human mind," said Trollolop, taking off his greatcoat,-- + +"Sir Christopher Findlater and Mr. Callythorpe, sir," said the valet. + +"Pshaw! What has Sir Christopher Findlater to do with the human mind?" +muttered Mr. Trollolop. + +Sir Christopher entered with a swagger and a laugh. "Well, old +fellow, how do you do? Deuced cold this evening." + +"Though it is an evening in May," observed Clarence; "but then, this +cursed climate." + +"Climate!" interrupted Mr. Callythorpe, "it is the best climate in the +world: I am an Englishman, and I never abuse my country." + + "'England, with all thy faults, I love thee still!'" + +"As to climate," said Trollolop, "there is no climate, neither here +nor elsewhere: the climate is in your mind, the chair is in your mind, +and the table too, though I dare say you are stupid enough to think +the two latter are in the room; the human mind, my dear Findlater--" + +"Don't mind me, Trollolop," cried the baronet, "I can't bear your +clever heads: give me a good heart; that's worth all the heads in the +world; d--n me if it is not! Eh, Linden?" + +"Your good heart," cried Trollolop, in a passion (for all your self- +called philosophers are a little choleric), "your good heart is all +cant and nonsense: there is no heart at all; we are all mind." + +"I be hanged if I'm all mind," said the baronet. + +"At least," quoth Linden, gravely, "no one ever accused you of it +before." + +"We are all mind," pursued the reasoner; "we are all mind, un moulin a +raisonnement. Our ideas are derived from two sources, sensation or +memory. That neither our thoughts nor passions, nor our ideas formed +by the imagination, exist without the mind, everybody will allow; +[Berkeley, Sect. iii., "Principles of Human Knowledge."] therefore, +you see, the human mind is--in short, there is nothing in the world +but the human mind!" + +"Nothing could be better demonstrated," said Clarence. + +"I don't believe it," quoth the baronet. + +"But you do believe it, and you must believe it," cried Trollolop; +"for 'the Supreme Being has implanted within us the principle of +credulity,' and therefore you do believe it!" + +"But I don't," cried Sir Christopher. + +"You are mistaken," replied the metaphysician, calmly; "because I must +speak truth." + +"Why must you, pray?" said the baronet. + +"Because," answered Trollolop, taking snuff, "there is a principle of +veracity implanted in our nature." + +"I wish I were a metaphysician," said Clarence, with a sigh. + +"I am glad to hear you say so; for you know, my dear Linden," said +Callythorpe, "that I am your true friend, and I must therefore tell +you that you are shamefully ignorant. You are not offended?" + +"Not at all!" said Clarence, trying to smile. + +"And you, my dear Findlater" (turning to the baronet), "you know that +I wish you well; you know that I never flatter; I'm your real friend, +so you must not be angry; but you really are not considered a +Solomon." + +"Mr. Callythorpe!" exclaimed the baronet in a rage (the best-hearted +people can't always bear truth), "what do you mean?" + +"You must not be angry, my good sir; you must not, really. I can't +help telling you of your faults; for I am a true Briton, sir, a true +Briton, and leave lying to slaves and Frenchmen." + +"You are in an error," said Trollolop; "Frenchmen don't lie, at least +not naturally, for in the human mind, as I before said, the Divine +Author has implanted a principle of veracity which--" + +"My dear sir," interrupted Callythorpe, very affectionately, "you +remind me of what people say of you." + +"Memory may be reduced to sensation, since it is only a weaker +sensation," quoth Trollolop; "but proceed." + +"You know, Trollolop," said Callythorpe, in a singularly endearing +intonation of voice, "you know that I never flatter; flattery is +unbecoming a true friend,--nay, more, it is unbecoming a native of our +happy isles, and people do say of you that you know nothing +whatsoever, no, not an iota, of all that nonsensical, worthless +philosophy of which you are always talking. Lord St. George said the +other day 'that you were very conceited.'--'No, not conceited,' +replied Dr. ----, 'only ignorant;' so if I were you, Trollolop, I +would cut metaphysics; you're not offended?" + +"By no means," cried Trollolop, foaming at the mouth. + +"For my part," said the good-hearted Sir Christopher, whose wrath had +now subsided, rubbing his hands,--"for my part, I see no good in any +of those things: I never read--never--and I don't see how I'm a bit +the worse for it. A good man, Linden, in my opinion, only wants to do +his duty, and that is very easily done." + +"A good man; and what is good?" cried the metaphysician, triumphantly. +"Is it implanted within us? Hobbes, according to Reid, who is our +last, and consequently best, philosopher, endeavours to demonstrate +that there is no difference between right and wrong." + +"I have no idea of what you mean," cried Sir Christopher. + +"Idea!" exclaimed the pious philosopher. "Sir, give me leave to tell +you that no solid proof has ever been advanced of the existence of +ideas: they are a mere fiction and hypothesis. Nay, sir, 'hence +arises that scepticism which disgraces our philosophy of the mind.' +Ideas!--Findlater, you are a sceptic and an idealist." + +"I?" cried the affrighted baronet; "upon my honour I am no such thing. +Everybody knows that I am a Christian, and--" + +"Ah!" interrupted Callythorpe, with a solemn look, "everybody knows +that you are not one of those horrid persons,--those atrocious deists +and atheists and sceptics, from whom the Church and freedom of old +England have suffered such danger. I am a true Briton of the good old +school; and I confess, Mr. Trollolop, that I do not like to hear any +opinions but the right ones." + +"Right ones being only those which Mr. Callythorpe professes," said +Clarence. + +"Exactly so!" rejoined Mr. Callythorpe. + +"The human mind," commenced Mr. Trollolop, stirring the fire; when +Clarence, who began to be somewhat tired of this conversation, rose. +"You will excuse me," said he, "but I am particularly engaged, and it +is time to dress. Harrison will get you tea or whatever else you are +inclined for." + +"The human mind," renewed Trollolop, not heeding the interruption; and +Clarence forthwith left the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + +You blame Marcius for being proud.--Coriolanus. +Here is another fellow, a marvellous pretty hand at fashioning a +compliment.-The Tanner of Tyburn. + +There was a brilliant ball at Lady T----'s, a personage who, every one +knows, did in the year 17-- give the best balls, and have the best- +dressed people at them, in London. It was about half-past twelve, +when Clarence, released from his three friends, arrived at the +countess's. When he entered, the first thing which struck him was +Lord Borodaile in close conversation with Lady Flora. + +Clarence paused for a few moments, and then, sauntering towards them, +caught Flora's eye,--coloured, and advanced. Now, if there was a +haughty man in Europe, it was Lord Borodaile. He was not proud of his +birth, nor fortune, but he was proud of himself; and, next to that +pride, he was proud of being a gentleman. He had an exceeding horror +of all common people; a Claverhouse sort of supreme contempt to +"puddle blood;" his lip seemed to wear scorn as a garment; a lofty and +stern self-admiration, rather than self-love, sat upon his forehead as +on a throne. He had, as it were, an awe of himself; his thoughts were +so many mirrors of Viscount Borodaile dressed en dieu. His mind was a +little Versailles, in which self sat like Louis XIV., and saw nothing +but pictures of its self, sometimes as Jupiter and sometimes as Apollo. +What marvel then, that Lord Borodaile was a very unpleasant companion? +for every human being he had "something of contempt." His eye was +always eloquent in disdaining; to the plebeian it said, "You are not a +gentleman;" to the prince, "You are not Lord Borodaile." + +Yet, with all this, he had his good points. He was brave as a lion; +strictly honourable; and though very ignorant, and very self- +sufficient, had that sort of dogged good sense which one very often +finds in men of stern hearts, who, if they have many prejudices, have +little feeling, to overcome. + +Very stiffly and very haughtily did Lord Borodaile draw up, when +Clarence approached and addressed Lady Flora; much more stiffly and +much more haughtily did he return, though with old-fashioned precision +of courtesy, Clarence's bow, when Lady Westborough introduced them to +each other. Not that this hauteur was intended as a particular +affront: it was only the agreeability of his lordship's general +manner. + +"Are you engaged?" said Clarence to Flora. + +"I am, at present, to Lord Borodaile." + +"After him, may I hope?" + +Lady Flora nodded assent, and disappeared with Lord Borodaile. + +His Royal Highness the Duke of ---- came up to Lady Westborough; and +Clarence, with a smiling countenance and an absent heart, plunged into +the crowd. There he met Lord Aspeden, in conversation with the Earl +of Holdenworth, one of the administration. + +"Ah, Linden," said the diplomatist, "let me introduce you to Lord +Holdenworth,--a clever young man, my dear lord, and plays the flute +beautifully." With this eulogium, Lord Aspeden glided away; and Lord +Holdenworth, after some conversation with Linden, honoured him by an +invitation to dinner the next day. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + 'T is true his nature may with faults abound; + But who will cavil when the heart is sound?--STEPHEN MONTAGUE. + + Dum vitant stulti vitia, in contraria currant.-HORACE. + ["The foolish while avoiding vice run into the opposite + extremes."] + +The next day Sir Christopher Findlater called on Clarence. "Let us +lounge in the park," said he. + +"With pleasure," replied Clarence; and into the park they lounged. + +By the way they met a crowd, who were hurrying a man to prison. The +good-hearted Sir Christopher stopped: "Who is that poor fellow?" said +he. + +"It is the celebrated" (in England all criminals are celebrated. +Thurtell was a hero, Thistlewood a patriot, and Fauntleroy was +discovered to be exactly like Buonaparte!) "it is the celebrated +robber, John Jefferies, who broke into Mrs. Wilson's house, and cut +the throats of herself and her husband, wounded the maid-servant, and +split the child's skull with the poker." Clarence pressed forward: "I +have seen that man before," thought he. He looked again, and +recognized the face of the robber who had escaped from Talbot's house +on the eventful night which had made Clarence's fortune. It was a +strongly-marked and rather handsome countenance, which would not be +easily forgotten; and a single circumstance of excitement will stamp +features on the memory as deeply as the commonplace intercourse of +years. + +"John Jefferies!" exclaimed the baronet; "let us come away." + +"Linden," continued Sir Christopher, "that fellow was my servant once. +He robbed me to some considerable extent. I caught him. He appealed +to my heart; and you know, my dear fellow, that was irresistible, so I +let him off. Who could have thought he would have turned out so?" +And the baronet proceeded to eulogize his own good-nature, by which it +is just necessary to remark that one miscreant had been saved for a +few years from transportation, in order to rob and murder ad libitum, +and, having fulfilled the office of a common pest, to suffer on the +gallows at last. What a fine thing it is to have a good heart! Both +our gentlemen now sank into a revery, from which they were awakened, +at the entrance of the park, by a young man in rags who, with a +piteous tone, supplicated charity. Clarence, who, to his honour be it +spoken, spent an allotted and considerable part of his income in +judicious and laborious benevolence, had read a little of political +morals, then beginning to be understood, and walked on. The good- +hearted baronet put his hand in his pocket, and gave the beggar half a +guinea, by which a young, strong man, who had only just commenced the +trade, was confirmed in his imposition for the rest of his life; and, +instead of the useful support, became the pernicious incumbrance of +society. + +Sir Christopher had now recovered his spirits. "What's like a good +action?" said he to Clarence, with a swelling breast. + +The park was crowded to excess; our loungers were joined by Lord St. +George. His lordship was a stanch Tory. He could not endure Wilkes, +liberty, or general education. He launched out against the +enlightenment of domestics. [The ancestors of our present footmen, if +we may believe Sir William Temple, seem to have been to the full as +intellectual as their descendants. "I have had," observes the +philosophic statesman, "several servants far gone in divinity, others +in poetry; have known, in the families of some friends; a keeper deep +in the Rosicrucian mysteries and a laundress firm in those of +Epicurus."] + +"What has made you so bitter?" said Sir Christopher. + +"My valet," cried Lord St. George,--"he has invented a new toasting- +fork, is going to take out a patent, make his fortune, and leave me; +that's what I call ingratitude, Sir Christopher; for I ordered his +wages to be raised five pounds but last year." + +"It was very ungrateful," said the ironical Clarence. + +"Very!" reiterated the good-hearted Sir Christopher. + +"You cannot recommend me a valet, Findlater," renewed his lordship, "a +good, honest, sensible fellow, who can neither read nor write?" + +"N-o-o,--that is to say, yes! I can; my old servant Collard is out of +place, and is as ignorant as--as--" + +"I--or you are?" said Lord St. George, with a laugh. + +"Precisely," replied the baronet. + +"Well, then, I take your recommendation: send him to me to-morrow at +twelve." + +"I will," said Sir Christopher. + +"My dear Findlater," cried Clarence, when Lord St. George was gone, +"did you not tell me, some time ago, that Collard was a great rascal, +and very intimate with Jefferies? and now you recommend him to Lord +St. George!" + +"Hush, hush, hush!" said the baronet; "he was a great rogue to be +sure: but, poor fellow, he came to me yesterday with tears in his +eyes, and said he should starve if I would not give him a character; +so what could I do?" + +"At least, tell Lord St. George the truth," observed Clarence. + +"But then Lord St. George would not take him!" rejoined the good- +hearted Sir Christopher, with forcible naivete. "No, no, Linden, we +must not be so hard-hearted; we must forgive and forget;" and so +saying, the baronet threw out his chest, with the conscious exultation +of a man who has uttered a noble sentiment. The moral of this little +history is that Lord St. George, having been pillaged "through thick +and thin," as the proverb has it, for two years, at last missed a gold +watch, and Monsieur Collard finished his career as his exemplary +tutor, Mr. John Jefferies, had done before him. Ah! what a fine thing +it is to have a good heart! + +But to return. Just as our wanderers had arrived at the farther end +of the park, Lady Westborough and her daughter passed them. Clarence, +excusing himself to his friend, hastened towards them, and was soon +occupied in saying the prettiest things in the world to the prettiest +person, at least in his eyes; while Sir Christopher, having done as +much mischief as a good heart well can do in a walk of an hour, +returned home to write a long letter to his mother, against "learning +and all such nonsense, which only served to blunt the affections and +harden the heart." + +"Admirable young man!" cried the mother, with tears in her eyes. "A +good heart is better than all the heads in the world." + +Amen! + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV. + +"Make way, Sir Geoffrey Peveril, or you will compel me to do that I +may be sorry for!" + +"You shall make no way here but at your peril," said Sir Geoffrey;" +this is my ground."--Peveril of the Peak. + + +One night on returning home from a party at Lady Westborough's in +Hanover Square, Clarence observed a man before him walking with an +uneven and agitated step. His right hand was clenched, and he +frequently raised it as with a sudden impulse, and struck fiercely as +if at some imagined enemy. + +The stranger slackened his pace. Clarence passed him, and, turning +round to satisfy the idle curiosity which the man's eccentric gestures +had provoked, his eye met a dark, lowering, iron countenance, which, +despite the lapse of four years, he recognized on the moment: it was +Wolfe, the republican. + +Clarence moved, involuntarily, with a quicker step; but in a few +minutes, Wolfe, who was vehemently talking to himself, once more +passed him; the direction he took was also Clarence's way homeward, +and he therefore followed the republican, though at some slight +distance, and on the opposite side of the way. A gentleman on foot, +apparently returning from a party, met Wolfe, and, with an air half +haughty, half unconscious, took the wall; though, according to old- +fashioned rules of street courtesy, he was on the wrong side for +asserting the claim. The stern republican started, drew himself up to +his full height, and sturdily and doggedly placed himself directly in +the way of the unjust claimant. Clarence was now nearly opposite to +the two, and saw all that was going on. + +With a motion a little rude and very contemptuous, the passenger +attempted to put Wolfe aside, and win his path. Little did he know of +the unyielding nature he had to do with; the next instant the +republican, with a strong hand, forced him from the pavement into the +very kennel, and silently and coldly continued his way. + +The wrath of the discomfited passenger was vehemently kindled. + +"Insolent dog!" cried he, in a loud and arrogant tone, "your baseness +is your protection." Wolfe turned rapidly, and made but two strides +before he was once more by the side of his defeated opponent. + +"What did you say?" he asked, in his low, deep, hoarse voice. + +Clarence stopped. "There will be mischief done here," thought he, as +he called to mind the stern temper of the republican. + +"Merely," said the other, struggling with his rage, "that it is not +for men of my rank to avenge the insults offered us by those of +yours!" + +"Your rank!" said Wolfe, bitterly retorting the contempt of the +stranger, in a tone of the loftiest disdain; "your rank! poor +changeling! And what are you, that you should lord it over me? Are +your limbs stronger? your muscles firmer? your proportions juster? +your mind acuter? your conscience clearer? Fool! fool! go home and +measure yourself with lackeys!" + +The republican ceased, and pushing the stranger aside, turned slowly +away. But this last insult enraged the passenger beyond all prudence. +Before Wolfe had proceeded two paces, he muttered a desperate but +brief oath, and struck the reformer with a strength so much beyond +what his figure (which was small and slight) appeared to possess, that +the powerful and gaunt frame of Wolfe recoiled backward several steps, +and, had it not been for the iron railing of the neighbouring area, +would have fallen to the ground. + +Clarence pressed forward: the face of the rash aggressor was turned +towards him; the features were Lord Borodaile's. He had scarcely time +to make this discovery, before Wolfe had recovered himself. With a +wild and savage cry, rather than exclamation, he threw himself upon +his antagonist, twined his sinewy arms round the frame of the +struggling but powerless nobleman, raised him in the air with the easy +strength of a man lifting a child, held him aloft for one moment with +a bitter and scornful laugh of wrathful derision, and then dashed him +to the ground, and planting his foot upon Borodaile's breast said,-- + +"So shall it be with all of you: there shall be but one instant +between your last offence and your first but final debasement. Lie +there! it is your proper place! By the only law which you yourself +acknowledge, the law which gives the right divine to the strongest; if +you stir limb or muscle, I will crush the breath from your body." + +But Clarence was now by the side of Wolfe, a new and more powerful +opponent. + +"Look you," said he: "you have received an insult, and you have done +justice yourself. I condemn the offence, and quarrel not with you for +the punishment; but that punishment is now past: remove your foot, or--" + +"What?" shouted Wolfe, fiercely, his lurid and vindictive eye flashing +with the released fire of long-pent and cherished passions. + +"Or," answered Clarence, calmly, "I will hinder you from committing +murder." + +At that instant the watchman's voice was heard, and the night's +guardian himself was seen hastening from the far end of the street +towards the place of contest. Whether this circumstance, or Clarence's +answer, somewhat changed the current of the republican's thoughts, or +whether his anger, suddenly raised, was now as suddenly subsiding, it +is not easy to decide; but he slowly and deliberately moved his foot +from the breast of his baffled foe, and bending down seemed +endeavouring to ascertain the mischief he had done. Lord Borodaile +was perfectly insensible. + +"You have killed him!" cried Clarence in a voice of horror, "but you +shall not escape;" and he placed a desperate and nervous hand on the +republican. + +"Stand off," said Wolfe, "my blood is up! I would not do more +violence to-night than I have done. Stand off! the man moves; see!" + +And Lord Borodaile, uttering a long sigh, and attempting to rise, +Clarence released his hold of the republican, and bent down to assist +the fallen nobleman. Meanwhile, Wolfe, muttering to himself, turned +from the spot, and strode haughtily away. + +The watchman now came up, and, with his aid, Clarence raised Lord +Borodaile. Bruised, stunned, half insensible as he was, that +personage lost none of his characteristic stateliness; he shook off +the watchman's arm, as if there was contamination in the touch; and +his countenance, still menacing and defying in its expression, turned +abruptly towards Clarence, as if he yet expected to meet and struggle +with a foe. + +"How are you, my lord?" said Linden; "not severely hurt, I trust?" + +"Well, quite well," cried Borodaile. "Mr. Linden, I think?--I thank +you cordially for your assistance; but the dog, the rascal, where is +he?" + +"Gone," said Clarence. + +"Gone! Where--where?" cried Borodaile; "that living man should insult +me, and yet escape!" + +"Which way did the fellow go?" said the watchman, anticipative of +half-a-crown. "I will run after him in a trice, your honour: I +warrant I nab him." + +"No--no--" said Borodaile, haughtily, "I leave my quarrels to no man; +if I could not master him myself, no one else shall do it for me. Mr. +Linden, excuse me, but I am perfectly recovered, and can walk very +well without your polite assistance. Mr. Watchman, I am obliged to +you: there is a guinea to reward your trouble." + +With these words, intended as a farewell, the proud patrician, +smothering his pain, bowed with extreme courtesy to Clarence, again +thanked him, and walked on unaided and alone. + +"He is a game blood," said the watchman, pocketing the guinea. + +"He is worthy his name," thought Clarence; "though he was in the +wrong, my heart yearns to him." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV. + +Things wear a vizard which I think to like not.--Tanner of Tyburn. + +Clarence, from that night, appeared to have formed a sudden attachment +to Lord Borodaile. He took every opportunity of cultivating his +intimacy, and invariably treated him with a degree of consideration +which his knowledge of the world told him was well calculated to gain +the good will of his haughty and arrogant acquaintance; but all this +was in effectual in conquering Borodaile's coldness and reserve. To +have been once seen in a humiliating and degrading situation is quite +sufficient to make a proud man hate the spectator, and, with the +confusion of all prejudiced minds, to transfer the sore remembrance of +the event to the association of the witness. Lord Borodaile, though +always ceremoniously civil, was immovably distant; and avoided as well +as he was able Clarence's insinuating approaches and address. To add +to his indisposition to increase his acquaintance with Linden, a +friend of his, a captain in the Guards, once asked him who that Mr. +Linden was? and, on his lordship's replying that he did not know, Mr. +Percy Bobus, the son of a wine-merchant, though the nephew of a duke, +rejoined, "Nobody does know." + +"Insolent intruder!" thought Lord Borodaile: "a man whom nobody knows +to make such advances to me!" + +A still greater cause of dislike to Clarence arose from jealousy. +Ever since the first night of his acquaintance with Lady Flora, Lord +Borodaile had paid her unceasing attention. In good earnest, he was +greatly struck by her beauty, and had for the last year meditated the +necessity of presenting the world with a Lady Borodaile. Now, though +his lordship did look upon himself in as favourable a light as a man +well can do, yet he could not but own that Clarence was very handsome, +had a devilish gentlemanlike air, talked with a better grace than the +generality of young men, and danced to perfection. "I detest that +fellow!" said Lord Borodaile, involuntarily and aloud, as these +unwilling truths forced themselves upon his mind. + +"Whom do you detest?" asked Mr. Percy Bobus, who was lying on the sofa +in Lord Borodaile's drawing-room, and admiring a pair of red-heeled +shoes which decorated his feet. + +"That puppy Linden!" said Lord Borodaile, adjusting his cravat. + +"He is a deuced puppy, certainly!" rejoined Mr. Percy Bobus, turning +round in order to contemplate more exactly the shape of his right +shoe. "I can't bear conceit, Borodaile." + +"Nor I: I abhor it; it is so d--d disgusting!" replied Lord Borodaile, +leaning his chin upon his two hands, and looking full into the glass. +"Do you use MacNeile's divine pomatum?" + +"No, it's too hard; I get mine from Paris: shall I send you some?" + +"Do," said Lord Borodaile. + +"Mr. Linden, my lord," said the servant, throwing open the door; and +Clarence entered. + +"I am very fortunate," said he, with that smile which so few ever +resisted, "to find you at home, Lord Borodaile; but as the day was wet, +I thought I should have some chance of that pleasure; I therefore +wrapped myself up in my roquelaure, and here I am." + +Now, nothing could be more diplomatic than the compliment of choosing +a wet day for a visit, and exposing one's self to "the pitiless +shower," for the greater probability of finding the person visited at +home. Not so thought Lord Borodaile; he drew himself up, bowed very +solemnly, and said, with cold gravity,-- + +"You are very obliging, Mr. Linden." + +Clarence coloured, and bit his lip as he seated himself. Mr. Percy +Bobus, with true insular breeding, took up the newspaper. + +"I think I saw you at Lady C.'s last night," said Clarence; "did you +stay there long?" + +"No, indeed," answered Borodaile; "I hate her parties." + +"One does meet such odd people there," observed Mr. Percy Bobus; +"creatures one never sees anywhere else:" + +"I hear," said Clarence, who never abused any one, even the givers of +stupid parties, if he could help it, and therefore thought it best to +change the conversation,--"I hear, Lord Borodaile, that some hunters +of yours are to be sold. I purpose being a bidder for Thunderbolt." + +"I have a horse to sell you, Mr. Linden," cried Mr. Percy Bobus, +springing from the sofa into civility; "a superb creature." + +"Thank you," said Clarence, laughing; "but I can only afford to buy +one, and I have taken a great fancy to Thunderbolt." + +Lord Borodaile, whose manners were very antiquated in their +affability, bowed. Mr. Bobus sank back into his sofa, and resumed the +paper. + +A pause ensued. Clarence was chilled in spite of himself. Lord +Borodaile played with a paper-cutter. + +"Have you been to Lady Westborough's lately?" said Clarence, breaking +silence. + +"I was there last night," replied Lord Borodaile. + +"Indeed!" cried Clarence. "I wonder I did not see you there, for I +dined with them." + +Lord Borodaile's hair curled of itself. "He dined there, and I only +asked in the evening!" thought he; but his sarcastic temper suggested +a very different reply. + +"Ah," said he, elevating his eyebrows, "Lady Westborough told me she +had had some people to dinner whom she had been obliged to ask. +Bobus, is that the 'Public Advertiser'? See whether that d--d fellow +Junius has been writing any more of his venomous letters." + +Clarence was not a man apt to take offence, but he felt his bile rise. +"It will not do to show it," thought he; so he made some further +remark in a jesting vein; and, after a very ill-sustained conversation +of some minutes longer, rose, apparently in the best humour possible, +and departed, with a solemn intention never again to enter the house. +Thence he went to Lady Westborough's. + +The marchioness was in her boudoir: Clarence was as usual admitted; +for Lady Westborough loved amusement above all things in the world, +and Clarence had the art of affording it better than any young man of +her acquaintance. On entering, he saw Lady Flora hastily retreating +through an opposite door. She turned her face towards him for one +moment: that moment was sufficient to freeze his blood: the large +tears were rolling down her cheeks, which were as white as death, and +the expression of those features, usually so laughing and joyous, was +that of utter and ineffable despair. + +Lady Westborough was as lively, as bland, and as agreeable as ever: +but Clarence thought he detected something restrained and embarrassed +lurking beneath all the graces of her exterior manner; and the single +glance he had caught of the pale and altered face of Lady Flora was +not calculated to reassure his mind or animate his spirits. His visit +was short; when he left the room, he lingered for a few moments in the +ante-chamber in the hope of again seeing Lady Flora. While thus +loitering, his ear caught the sound of Lady Westborough's voice: "When +Mr. Linden calls again, you have my orders never to admit him into +this room; he will be shown into the drawing-room." + +With a hasty step and a burning cheek Clarence quitted the house, and +hurried, first to his solitary apartments, and thence, impatient of +loneliness, to the peaceful retreat of his benefactor. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI. + + A maiden's thoughts do check my trembling hand.--DRAYTON. + +There is something very delightful in turning from the unquietness and +agitation, the fever, the ambition, the harsh and worldly realities of +man's character to the gentle and deep recesses of woman's more secret +heart. Within her musings is a realm of haunted and fairy thought, to +which the things of this turbid and troubled life have no entrance. +What to her are the changes of state, the rivalries and contentions +which form the staple of our existence? For her there is an intense +and fond philosophy, before whose eye substances flit and fade like +shadows, and shadows grow glowingly into truth. Her soul's creations +are not as the moving and mortal images seen in the common day: they +are things, like spirits steeped in the dim moonlight, heard when all +else are still, and busy when earth's labourers are at rest! They are + + "Such stuff + As dreams are made of, and their little life + Is rounded by a sleep." + +Hers is the real and uncentred poetry of being, which pervades and +surrounds her as with an air, which peoples her visions and animates +her love, which shrinks from earth into itself, and finds marvel and +meditation in all that it beholds within, and which spreads even over +the heaven in whose faith she so ardently believes the mystery and the +tenderness of romance. + + +LETTER I. + +FROM LADY FLORA ARDENNE TO MISS ELEANOR TREVANION. + +You say that I have not written to you so punctually of late as I used +to do before I came to London, and you impute my negligence to the +gayeties and pleasures by which I am surrounded. Eh bien! my dear +Eleanor, could you have thought of a better excuse for me? You know +how fond we--ay, dearest, you as well as I--used to be of dancing, and +how earnestly we were wont to anticipate those children's balls at my +uncle's, which were the only ones we were ever permitted to attend. I +found a stick the other day, on which I had cut seven notches, +significant of seven days more to the next ball; we reckoned time by +balls then, and danced chronologically. Well, my dear Eleanor, here I +am now, brought out, tolerably well-behaved, only not dignified +enough, according to Mamma,--as fond of laughing, talking, and dancing +as ever; and yet, do you know, a ball, though still very delightful, +is far from being the most important event in creation; its +anticipation does not keep me awake of a night: and what is more to +the purpose, its recollection does not make me lock up my writing- +desk, burn my portefeuille, and forget you, all of which you seem to +imagine it has been able to effect. + +No, dearest Eleanor, you are mistaken; for, were she twice as giddy +and ten times as volatile as she is, your own Flora could never, never +forget you, nor the happy hours we have spent together, nor the pretty +goldfinches we had in common, nor the little Scotch duets we used to +sing together, nor our longings to change them into Italian, nor our +disappointment when we did so, nor our laughter at Signor Shrikalini, +nor our tears when poor darling Bijou died. And do you remember, +dearest, the charming green lawn where we used to play together, and +plan tricks for your governess? She was very, very cross, though, I +think, we were a little to blame too. However, I was much the worst! +And pray, Eleanor, don't you remember how we used to like being called +pretty, and told of the conquests we should make? Do you like all +that now? For my part, I am tired of it, at least from the generality +of one's flatterers. + +Ah! Eleanor, or "heigho!" as the young ladies in novels write, do you +remember how jealous I was of you at ----, and how spiteful I was, and +how you were an angel, and bore with me, and kissed me, and told me +that--that I had nothing to fear? Well, Clar--I mean Mr. Linden, is +now in town and so popular, and so admired! I wish we were at ---- +again, for there we saw him every day, and now we don't meet more than +three times a week; and though I like hearing him praised above all +things, yet I feel very uncomfortable when that praise comes from +very, very pretty women. I wish we were at ---- again! Mamma, who is +looking more beautiful than ever, is, very kind! she says nothing to +be sure, but she must see how--that is to say--she must know that-- +that I--I mean that Clarence is very attentive to me, and that I blush +and look exceedingly silly whenever he is; and therefore I suppose +that whenever Clarence thinks fit to ask me, I shall not be under the +necessity of getting up at six o'clock, and travelling to Gretna +Green, through that odious North Road, up the Highgate Hill, and over +Finchley Common. + +"But when will he ask you?" My dearest Eleanor, that is more than I +can say. To tell you the truth, there is something about Linden which +I cannot thoroughly understand. They say he is nephew and heir to the +Mr. Talbot whom you may have heard Papa talk of; but if so, why the +hints, the insinuations, of not being what he seems, which Clarence +perpetually throws out, and which only excite my interest without +gratifying my curiosity? 'It is not,' he has said, more than once, +'as an obscure adventurer that I will claim your love;' and if I +venture, which is very seldom (for I am a little afraid of him), to +question his meaning, he either sinks into utter silence, for which, +if I had loved according to book, and not so naturally, I should be +very angry with him, or twists his words into another signification, +such as that he would not claim me till he had become something higher +and nobler than he is now. Alas, my dear Eleanor, it takes a long +time to make an ambassador out of an attache. + +See now if you reproached me justly with scanty correspondences. If I +write a line more, I must begin a new sheet, and that will be beyond +the power of a frank,--a thing which would, I know, break the heart of +your dear, good, generous, but a little too prudent aunt, and +irrevocably ruin me in her esteem. So God bless you, dearest Eleanor, +and believe me most affectionately yours, FLORA ARDENNE. + +LETTER II. + +FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. + +Pray, dearest Eleanor, does that good aunt of yours--now don't frown, +I am not going to speak disrespectfully of her--ever take a liking to +young gentlemen whom you detest, and insist upon the fallacy of your +opinion and the unerring rectitude of hers? If so, you can pity and +comprehend my grief. Mamma has formed quite an attachment to a very +disagreeable person! He is Lord Borodaile, the eldest, and I believe, +the only son of Lord Ulswater. Perhaps you may have met him abroad, +for he has been a great traveller: his family is among the most +ancient in England, and his father's estate covers half a county. All +this Mamma tells me, with the most earnest air in the world, whenever +I declaim upon his impertinence or disagreeability (is there such a +word? there ought to be). "Well," said I to-day, "what's that to me?" +"It may be a great deal to you," replied Mamma, significantly, and the +blood rushed from my face to my heart. She could not, Eleanor, she +could not mean, after all her kindness to Clarence, and in spite of +all her penetration into my heart,--oh, no, no,--she could not. How +terribly suspicious this love makes one! + +But if I disliked Lord Borodaile at first, I have hated him of late; +for, somehow or other, he is always in the way. If I see Clarence +hastening through the crowd to ask me to dance, at that very instant +up steps Lord Borodaile with his cold, changeless face, and his +haughty old-fashioned bow, and his abominable dark complexion; and +Mamma smiles; and he hopes he finds me disengaged; and I am hurried +off; and poor Clarence looks so disappointed and so wretched! You +have no idea how ill-tempered this makes me. I could not help asking +Lord Borodaile yesterday if he was never going abroad again, and the +hateful creature played with his cravat, and answered "Never!" I was +in hopes that my sullenness would drive his lordship away: tout au +contraire; "Nothing," said he to me the other day, when he was in full +pout, "nothing is so plebeian as good-humour!" + +I wish, then, Eleanor, that he could see your governess: she must be +majesty itself in his eyes! + +Ah, dearest, how we belie ourselves! At this moment, when you might +think, from the idle, rattling, silly flow of my letter, that my heart +was as light and free as it was when we used to play on the green +lawn, and under the sunny trees, in the merry days of our childhood, +the tears are running down my cheeks; see where they have fallen on +the page, and my head throbs as if my thoughts were too full and heavy +for it to contain. It is past one! I am alone, and in my own room. +Mamma is gone to a rout at H---- House, but I knew I should not meet +Clarence there, and so said I was ill, and remained at home. I have +done so often of late, whenever I have learned from him that he was +not going to the same place as Mamma. Indeed, I love much better to +sit alone and think over his words and looks; and I have drawn, after +repeated attempts, a profile likeness of him; and oh, Eleanor, I +cannot tell you how dear it is to me; and yet there is not a line, not +a look of his countenance which I have not learned by heart, without +such useless aids to my memory. But I am ashamed of telling you all +this, and my eyes ache so, that I can write no more. + +Ever, as ever, dearest Eleanor, your affectionate friend. F. A. + +LETTER III. + +FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. + +Eleanor, I am undone! My mother--my mother has been so cruel; but she +cannot, she cannot intend it, or she knows very little of my heart. +With some ties may be as easily broken as formed; with others they are +twined around life itself. + +Clarence dined with us yesterday, and was unusually animated and +agreeable. He was engaged on business with Lord Aspeden afterwards, +and left us early. We had a few people in the evening, Lord Borodaile +among the rest; and my mother spoke of Clarence, and his relationship +to and expectations from Mr. Talbot. Lord Borodaile sneered; "You are +mistaken," said he, sarcastically; "Mr. Linden may feel it convenient +to give out that he is related to so old a family as the Talbots; and +since Heaven only knows who or what he is, he may as well claim +alliance with one person as another; but he is certainly not the +nephew of Mr. Talbot of Scarsdale Park, for that gentleman had no +sisters and but one brother, who left an only daughter; that daughter +had also but one child, certainly no relation to Mr. Linden. I can +vouch for the truth of this statement; for the Talbots are related to, +or at least nearly connected with, myself; and I thank Heaven that I +have a pedigree, even in its collateral branches, worth learning by +heart." And then Lord Borodaile--I little thought, when I railed +against him, what serious cause I should have to hate him--turned to +me and harassed me with his tedious attentions the whole of the +evening. + +This morning Mamma sent for me into her boudoir. "I have observed," +said she, with the greatest indifference, "that Mr. Linden has, of +late, been much too particular in his manner towards you: your foolish +and undue familiarity with every one has perhaps given him +encouragement. After the gross imposition which Lord Borodaile +exposed to us last night, I cannot but consider the young man as a +mere adventurer, and must not only insist on your putting a total +termination to civilities which we must henceforth consider +presumption, but I myself shall consider it incumbent upon me greatly +to limit the advances he has thought proper to make towards my +acquaintance." + +You may guess how thunderstruck I was by this speech. I could not +answer; my tongue literally clove to my mouth, and I was only relieved +by a sudden and violent burst of tears. Mamma looked exceedingly +displeased, and was just going to speak, when the servant threw open +the door and announced Mr. Linden. I rose hastily, and had only just +time to escape, as he entered; but when I heard that dear, dear voice, +I could not resist turning for one moment. He saw me; and was struck +mute, for the agony of my soul was stamped visibly on my countenance. +That moment was over: with a violent effort I tore myself away. + +Eleanor, I can now write no more. God bless you! and me too; for I am +very, very unhappy. F. A. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DISOWNED, LYTTON, V3 *** + +****** This file should be named 7633.txt or 7633.zip ******* + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. 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