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diff --git a/77719-0.txt b/77719-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f1050c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/77719-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5166 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77719 *** + + + + + YES AND NO. + + VOL. I. + + + + + _Lately Published, by the same Author_, + + In 2 vols. small 8vo. price 14s. + + MATILDA:--A TALE OF THE DAY. + + THE FOURTH EDITION. + + “Blush I not? + Can you not read my fault writ in my cheek? + Is not my crime there?” + + + + + YES AND NO: + + A TALE OF THE DAY. + + BY THE AUTHOR OF “MATILDA.” + + + Che sì e no nel capo mi tenzona. + DANTE. + + At war ’twixt _will_ and _will not_. + SHAKSPEARE. + + IN TWO VOLUMES. + + VOL. I. + + LONDON: + HENRY COLBURN, NEW BURLINGTON STREET. + 1828. + + + + + LONDON: + IBOTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +There are two different charges to which the Author of a work like +the following may expect to be subject--either that he has copied too +closely from other fictions, or that he has sketched too pointedly from +individual nature. To one of these he may inadvertently have rendered +himself liable by seeing much of men; to the other, by reading little +of novels. + +To the accusation of plagiarism, if urged, the Author can only plead +the conscious innocence of any such intention: to the imputation of +personality, unless well supported, he would be unwilling to attempt a +serious answer; fearing that, in so doing, he might justly be charged +with “the puff indirect,” in supposing his characters so well drawn, as +to convey to any one the notion of individual identity. But for this, +however, he could most sincerely protest, that he is not aware of any +intentional resemblance in any one character or passage. + +It would be certainly flattering if the reader of a work like this +should leave it with a general impression, that similar persons in such +circumstances, either have, or would have acted in a similar manner; +but the Author is in this instance no more conscious that they have +done so already, than that they will do so hereafter; and has just as +much intention to be prophetic as to be personal. + +The writer of the following pages owns, with gratitude, that the +unexpected favour shown to his former little production, was the +parent of the present; but he is aware, at the same time, that this +is not a birth to boast of--that popularity is no inheritance; but, +on the contrary, as was once said by perhaps the only living writer +who never could have had occasion to apply it to himself: “The public +will expect the new work to be ten times better than its predecessor; +the author will expect that it should be ten times more popular; and +it is a hundred to ten that both are disappointed.” This is no doubt +generally true; and one may at least imitate, in the humility of one’s +anticipations, him who is, in every other respect, inimitable. + + + + +YES AND NO. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + ----From infancy + They have convers’d, and spent their hours together; + And though the one hath been an idle truant, + Omitting the sweet benefit of time; + ----Yet hath the other + Made use and fair advantage of his days. + His years are young, but his experience old; + His head unmellow’d, but his judgment ripe; + He is complete in feature and in mind, + With all good grace, to grace a gentleman. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +“And bring wax candles,” said the tallest and apparently the youngest +of the two travellers, who had just alighted from that almost obsolete +mode of conveyance, a hack post-chaise, at the door of a small but +celebrated country inn, on one of the great posting roads of England. + +There was nothing in the mode of this arrival which had called for +particular care of the new comers from any of the busy inmates of the +inn, nor had it therefore broken in upon their regular routine of +bustling inattention. + +One of the travellers had thrown himself upon a most uninviting sofa, +and if his present position could for a moment have been mistaken for +repose, it afforded the most conclusive evidence of the dislocating +discomforts of the hack chaise, after which it was considered a welcome +change. + +His companion, (the tall gentleman mentioned above,) continued pacing +the small apartment to stretch his legs, an unnecessary task, as, +compass-like, two strides measured its limits backwards and forwards. + +Upon the next appearance of a waiter, loaded with writing-boxes, +dressing-cases, &c., he repeated his former order in a more +authoritative tone--“Take away these,” (with a contemptuous +intonation,) “and bring wax candles.” This order evidently excited the +attention of the waiter towards him who gave it; the idea of a hack +post-chaise being generally connected in the mind of the knight of the +napkin with such gregarious animals as little boys going to school +with a single guinea for pocket-money, or briefless barristers going +the circuit without the remotest hope even of that single guinea. +Hastening to execute the first part of the command, the scrutiny which +he still continued of him from whom he received it, prevented that +perpendicular precision which could alone render the removal of the +culprit “mutton-fats” perfectly inoffensive. And “Boots,” laden with +portmanteaus and travelling-bags, meeting them on the threshold of the +door, the gentle zephyrs by which he was accompanied, caused their +sudden extinction, and carried back their odour as far as the upturned +nostrils of the gentleman on the sofa, who had hitherto taken no part +in the arrangement. + +“So like you, Germain!” he exclaimed, as he started up. + +“What’s like me,” replied the other, laughing, “an awkward waiter, or a +nasty smell?” + +“No--that restless vanity which gives you such an unhealthy craving for +the good word of all alike who cross your path, however unimportant +or worthless their opinion may be. You could not bear that even in an +inn, you should be confounded with the common herd, and were impatient +to buy distinction at the price of a pair of wax candles. This is what +is so like you--‘seeking the bubble reputation even in a _waiter’s_ +mouth.’” + +This tirade was borne by the other with an imperturbable placidity, +which habitual experience of the like must have joined with +constitutional good-humour to produce. + +“My dear Oakley,” he replied, “do for once drop the cynic this last +night; remember, though constant fellowship has given you the right to +say whatever you please to me, that our complete separation is about +to take away your power of doing so--and I would fain hope that some +little regret at what the future will deprive you of, might soften the +exercise of the privilege the past has given you.” + +He paused a moment; and Oakley, who really liked him better than any +one else in the world, seeming silenced by this appeal, and not showing +any inclination to resume his attack, Germain continued:-- + +“Besides, I really don’t see how the no very uncommon peculiarity of +preferring wax candles to tallow, should subject one to have one’s +whole character dissected.” + +“Germain,” resumed Oakley, quietly, but almost solemnly, “you have +alluded to our long fellowship through boyhood and youth: you are right +in having done so, for the kindly feelings which that has ripened, +will, I trust, long survive our present separation; when, had it been +the kindred ties of cousinship alone which coupled our names, the +black coat on the back of the one, for the death of the other, would +probably have first reminded the survivor that the deceased had ever +existed. For as different as our characters, are likely to be our +pursuits. Indeed, so strange to me seem all professions of regard, that +I may as well resume a tone of reproof, or you will already be unable +to recognise your old friend. But call it by what name you like, it +is sincere regard for you which induces me to tell you, once again, +Germain, that you have a most unhappy facility of character which will +lead you to spend your fortune in acquiring things you don’t want, +and waste your time in doing things you don’t like; and that, in over +anxiety for other people’s approbation, you will soon forfeit your own.” + +“However I may feel convinced I am in the right, I never could get +the better of the argument with you: perhaps that very quality which +you call facility, (meaning weakness,) and which I call candour, +predisposes me whilst I am listening to you, to acknowledge there is +some truth in what you are saying, and your firmness of character which +some might mistake for obstinacy, prevents your ever yielding a tittle. +But I will put it fairly to you, whether any one would have supposed +the sentiments you have just uttered, to be those of a young man of +one-and-twenty, and whether you think it was any advantage at that age +to have acquired the character you did last month at Paris, where, +as we were always seen together, they compared us to English summer +weather. I was the smiling sunshiny morning, and you were the cold +cloudy evening that followed.” + +“There,” interrupted Oakley, “that is what I complain of: it is never +your own opinion upon any subject. What people said at Paris you +repeat. But that can make no impression upon me, though it is all +in confirmation of my argument that it does but too much upon you.” +And as he said this, he began stirring the fire violently, perhaps +instinctively, at the mention of an English summer’s evening, for it +was the 10th of August, and the weather was truly national. + +“There,” said Germain, “as you have interrupted me, I must interrupt +you. Look! you have put out the fire with your violence; that is what +I complain that you do in society, which you enter, as stiff and as +cold as a poker, and attempt to carry all by storm. Now I should have +insinuated myself gently, and have soon been received with reviving +warmth, and partaken of its influence. Much as you know, you have yet +to learn the magic of manner.” + +“The gilding that makes falsehood and folly pass current,” muttered +Oakley, as the entrance of the landlady herself with the first dish +prevented further reply. This unusual condescension on the part of the +portly dame towards travellers in a chatter-box, (as a post-chaise is +denominated by its familiars,) was entirely produced by that order of +Germain’s which had originated the late discussion between himself +and his friend. They had at first been considered as common-place +guests, every-day sort of customers, but the wax candles threw a new +light upon their characters; and as soon as it was promulgated in +the bar that the gentlemen in “the _Sun_” had asked for wax lights, +then the possibility that they might be greater men than had been at +first supposed, seemed to break at once on the whole establishment. +The landlady, even at the sacrifice of her _papillottes_, prepared to +head the enlivening procession. The landlord looked out for one of the +illegitimate offspring, born of the clandestine connexion of sloe-juice +and raspberry vinegar, in hopes that claret would next be asked for, +and the waiter prepared to throw away a random shot or two of “my +Lord,” and “your Lordship,” which he thought could do no harm, whether +they hit the right mark or not. The visits of the landlord and landlady +were “few and far between,” and could not be felt as interruptions, but +the waiter seemed determined, if possible, to gratify his curiosity at +the expense of the patience of its objects. Nothing could get him out +of the room. + +In the mean time, our travellers found occupation enough before them +to prevent their unbroken silence from being irksome. But when in +despair at their taciturnity, the waiter at length took his leave, +Germain broke out. + +“It may be your taste to go through life as if every man’s hand was +against you, and yours equally against every man; but I don’t see how +it can ever be a reproach to any one to be able hereafter to say, ‘I +have bought golden opinions from all sorts of people.’” + +“What an accidentally apt quotation!” retorted Oakley. “You may well +say ‘golden’ opinions, for yours are bought, and that with gold. It is +such golden opinions that will continue to procure for you attachment +like that of Mademoiselle Zephyrine, friendship like that of Monsieur +Partout.” + +Towards the conclusion of Oakley’s last sentence, the waiter had +returned with a second instalment of mutton-chops, followed by an +assistant with the reserve of mashed potatoes. + +“Hush--hush!” interrupted Germain, who had particular reasons for not +wishing the point last mentioned to be argued in open court. + +The fact alluded to was this:--Every one knows that there is always +a “rage” at Paris, and this--be it hero or man-monkey--book or +bonnet--singer or monster--supersedes in its ephemeral existence every +other object of attraction. This rage of the moment when Germain first +went to Paris was Mademoiselle Zephyrine, _première danseuse_ at the +Grand Opéra. The list of her admirers comprised all, and every degree. +As was once said or sung by a witty friend of mine of a celebrated +English actress, + + “Her flowing curls entangled earls, + Her ancles county members.” + +It was absolutely necessary for every one who had any pretensions to +taste, to be to a certain point in love with her; but Germain, who +was always very susceptible, passed this certain point, and committed, +accordingly, manifold follies. + +At this time, however, a useful and ornamental acquaintance of his, +Monsieur Partout, came to his assistance. This convenient friend had +previously endeavoured to initiate him into the mysteries of the +_Salon_, at appreciating the charms of which he had found him rather +slow, and he now came to communicate the pleasing intelligence that +Zephyrine admired his “maintien” and “air noble,” that she had quite +a _sentiment_ for him, in short, that she preferred him decidedly to +all her other admirers. It never occurred to Germain that any part of +that decided preference could be at all attributed to the very handsome +settlement obscurely hinted at by Partout, and immediately executed by +him; till the illusion was dispersed by hearing, one fine morning, +that this _fidus Achates_, this faithful friend, had gone bodkin +between settlement and sentiment in a _chaise de poste_ on a provincial +professional trip to Bordeaux. His vanity had been deeply wounded by +the ridicule of the whole transaction--it had hastened his departure +from Paris, and any allusion to it was still disagreeable. + +Oakley and Germain had been (as indeed they have stated for themselves) +educated almost like brothers. They were both orphans, and related +on the female side, their mothers having been sisters. Germain had +inherited an ample, if not splendid, paternal property. Oakley had very +great expectations from a maternal uncle; his mother (who had made +an imprudent match) being the elder sister of the two. His present +destination was to answer the first summons of his uncle to visit him. +He and Germain had just returned from a continental tour, had dropped +carriages and couriers at Calais, and it being the dead time of year +in London, had passed through that smoky wilderness without stopping. +Germain had resisted Oakley’s request that he would accompany him to +their joint uncle, partly because the old gentleman, whom he had never +seen, had the reputation of being a gloomy recluse, and no one had a +more instinctive horror than Germain of putting himself in a situation +to be bored; and partly because he could not bear the appearance +of interfering with what had always been considered as Oakley’s +expectations in that quarter: and as the character of this unknown +uncle was notoriously capricious, there was no telling what fancies he +might take if his two nephews presented themselves together. + +Germain’s present intention therefore was to take the opportunity of +paying a visit to an old private tutor of his, Mr. Dormer, who lived at +a pretty pastoral parsonage, about fifty miles from the spot where he +and his friend were about to separate. + +It was with this person, and at this parsonage, that he had passed +almost the only period during his education, that he had been divided +from Oakley. For when they both left school, he not being considered +steady enough to be trusted at college so soon as his friend, had +therefore been sent to this intermediate purgatory, as at the time he +called it--yet afterwards, he found his time pass pleasantly enough +there; and whilst he gave to Oakley, as a reason for his visit, that +“it was a proper attention to the best old fellow in the world,” +there came into his calculations of the expediency of it, certain +recollections of one Fanny Dormer, whose unbounded admiration of him, +during his stay there, had been by no means unwelcome, and had called +for a return in kind from him. In short, when he went away, he had +felt as if actually in love--and though the time that had intervened, +and other impressions which had interposed, had occasionally caused +him a little to doubt, upon recollecting some of the boyish couplets +in which he used to celebrate her charms, whether there might not +be almost as much imagination in the facts, as poetry in the metre, +yet the thought of seeing her again caused a pleasing sensation as +he called to mind the cheerful eye, the fresh fair skin, and the +frequent display of the most brilliantly white teeth in the world, +which followed the ever-ready laugh at the worst of his jokes. And when +the friends separated for the night, though the ample justice done to +the late supper might have been supposed likely to make disagreeable +impressions survive upon a restless pillow, yet it was upon the fancied +form, not of Mademoiselle Zephyrine, but of Fanny Dormer, that his eyes +closed, as he slowly dropped asleep. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + ----There’s no art + To find the mind’s construction in the face: + He was a gentleman on whom I built + An absolute trust. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +The next morning, having despatched an early breakfast, our travellers +were becoming rather impatient at the slowness of the progress of +the preparations making for their separate departures, when these +preparations were suddenly interrupted by an arrival which at once +engrossed the attention of the whole establishment, and in a moment +collected from hole and corner every one, from the Landlady down to +Boots. + +It was a post-chaise and four which came clattering up to the door; and +the sudden jerk with which it stopped, and the loud cry of “first and +second turn out,” which followed, rousing its slumbering burden, caused +him to raise himself from his _Dormeuse_. Germain recognised the well +known Frederick Fitzalbert, whose acquaintance he had made last winter +at Paris. The recognition was speedy and mutual. + +“Ah! Germain, my dear fellow,” said Fitzalbert, rubbing his eyes and +giving a portentous yawn, “how goes it? What, you too, I suppose, have +been dreaming of to-morrow?” + +Germain, to whom to-morrow conveyed no distinct idea, and who had +been dreaming of nothing at all, (except, perhaps, a little of Fanny +Dormer,) was rather at a loss for a reply. But Fitzalbert soon +enlightened him by continuing-- + +“Latimer has lent me Peatburn Lodge, and I am to have his moors all to +myself--Where are you going to?” + +“Why, as I am but just returned from Paris, I have not been able to +make any arrangements, and therefore I have not----” stammered Germain, +struggling in vain against a sense of shame at not having any moors to +shoot upon; when five minutes before, he would as soon have repined at +not having the mines of Golconda. + +Fitzalbert was one of those whose good word was conceived at once to +confer fame in the world of fashion. He had taken a great fancy to +Germain at Paris, and in the course of their acquaintance had much +amused him with his ever-ready turn for quizzing, the recollection of +which talent, however Germain had enjoyed it when applied to others, +had left a feeling of fear lest it should be exercised against himself. +“I have not got any moors,” he therefore reluctantly acknowledged. + +“You had much better come with me then, my dear fellow,” said +Fitzalbert; “you shall have a separate beat and a separate bed, and for +the rest of the four-and-twenty hours I shall be delighted with your +company.” + +“I should like it very much,” said Germain, “but I have engaged +myself----” + +The Rev. Mr. Dormer and Rosedale Rectory were on the threshold of his +lips, but he checked himself; for though the mere fact of paying a +visit to an old parson might only be reckoned a twaddle, yet he could +not bear the idea of the cross-examination which might follow; and it +seemed little less than suicide, to run the chance of offering to his +satirical friend such a fund for ridicule as “pastoral parsonage,” +“private tutor,” “pretty daughter,” and “first love,” compared to which +fair game, the loan even of Lord Latimer’s moors, abundant as they +might prove, would afford but poor promise of sport. He therefore left +that sentence unfinished, and replied instead; “But I have neither gun +nor shooting dress with me.” + +“Oh! as for that,” said Fitzalbert, “I have four guns with me--a Joe, +a John, and two Eggs, from which I choose according as I feel in +the morning. You may always have any one of the other three; and as +to shooting costume, I believe I have got with me all the different +dresses of the last five years, most of which have never been worn.” + +It need hardly be added, that the end of all this was, that Germain +was persuaded to alter his destination, and to accompany Fitzalbert to +Peatburn Lodge. + +“Then, instead of sleeping over another stage,” said Fitzalbert, “I +will dress here, and be ready for you in a few minutes.--Here, Le +Clair, take out all this lumber, and make room for Mr. Germain,” +added he, opprobriously shovelling out new publications by the dozen, +which had hitherto slept quietly, side by side with him, and were now +discarded with leaves as yet uncut, and the stiffness of still unbroken +boards. + +“And what am I to do with all these?” asked Le Clair. + +“Leave them here, to be sure; let the chambermaids study sentiment from +the novels, and the post-boys learn geography from the travels--they +will have found their proper level at last. But,” added he to Germain, +“who is that with you?” + +“Oakley; you must remember him at Paris.” + +“What, still inseparable! Have you not got quit of him yet? Well, my +Frankenstein, I must rid you of _Le Monstre_, as we used to call him.” + +When Germain went to take leave of Oakley, and to announce to him that +he was going grouse-shooting with Fitzalbert--“Grouse-shooting?” asked +Oakley;--“well, remember that Fitzalbert is sometimes supposed a--a +pretty good long shot at a pigeon, that’s all.” + +Before Germain could reply, it was announced that Fitzalbert was ready, +and the cousins took a hasty leave of each other; for though there was +an end of their companionship, yet as they had purposed shortly to meet +in London, they did not consider this separation as final. + +Fitzalbert was one of the best specimens of that sect whose whole +soul is centered in self; for, after having well weighed and duly +considered the question in all its bearings, provided he was perfectly +convinced that no possible inconvenience could arise to himself, he +would rather do a good-natured thing than not. And he was even supposed +to have derived real satisfaction from the pleasure his doing so +gave to others. But most of his actions originated in more compound +calculations; for as his objects were never on a grand scale, his acute +and calculating character would enable him to foresee advantages to +himself from trifles, which a more enlarged mind or a more careless +disposition would alike have overlooked. Whether it was from the +successful exertion of these qualities, or from some other cause, he +was one of those phenomena which puzzle the world,--a man who, without +any visible means of subsistence, always continued in the enjoyment +of every luxury, whilst distress and ruin were constantly assailing +his more wealthy companions. He was constitutionally good-humoured, +and he had such a happy knack in conversation, that though he never +spared an absent friend, the attack seemed at once unintentional and +irresistible--he liked him even whilst he lashed. He could expose his +most secret follies with an air of regard, and if the object of the +general laugh he had just raised had entered the room at the moment, +every one would rather have expected him to join in the jest than +to resent it. All his qualities, as an agreeable member of society, +were crowned by an easy off-hand manner, which most people avowedly +(and probably all) really prefer to the Grandison, Gold-Stick sort of +address. + +There were many reasons which induced him to take up Germain: +first, his society was welcome, as that of a cheerful, agreeable, +good-humoured fellow, who, he observed with pleasure, had a great +respect for him. In the next place, Germain’s fortune, connexions, +and personal qualifications, were such as to entitle him to make a +great figure in the world when he should come out; and Fitzalbert +had experience enough of the world to know that there is an awkward +period, when a young man is not quite fledged, when a little attention +goes a great way, and is afterwards gratefully remembered. Then perhaps +(for it was by no means a trifle beneath his consideration,) he easily +perceived that Germain was not much of a sportsman; and as he was going +to shoot principally _for book_, and to boast of it afterwards, he had +no objection to a foil. + +Fitzalbert was in high spirits, and as well inclined to be amusing, as +Germain was to be amused. The journey was therefore agreeable to both +parties, though of the topics chosen by Fitzalbert, some might in less +skilful hands have been tiresome, and others offensive. + +He expatiated, in the first place, at very considerable length, upon +the peculiar merits of every thing about or belonging to himself,--his +carriage, his dogs, and his dress; from this, by an easy transition, +he became inquisitive about Germain’s private concerns, and those too +of a more important description, such as his fortune, his prospects, +future plans, &c. But the manner in which he handled these subjects +made even his egotism interesting, and gave an appearance of friendly +concern to his idle curiosity. These topics being at length exhausted, +it was natural that, as they approached Peatburn Lodge, Lord and Lady +Latimer should be brought upon the tapis. Of them Germain (who, it must +be recollected, was not fairly launched into the world) had only heard +just enough to make him wish to hear more. + +“I must take the very first opportunity to make you acquainted with the +Latimers,” said Fitzalbert. “Latimer,” continued he, “to ninety-nine +men in a hundred, would seem one of themselves--that is, he drives a +_cab_ down the same streets, and sits in the same club-window--but +he has, or rather had, qualities of a higher order. His talents are +rusted by indolence, and his principles warped by prejudice. It is +his misfortune to combine with a naturally generous disposition, an +irresistible inclination to be sharp and knowing, which he has acquired +in the world. He would lend a friend a thousand pounds, and _do_ him +out of ten of it. He would give all he has, and take all he can get--an +exchange by no means advantageous; and as he himself boasts of his +littlenesses, and no one is equally busy in telling of his liberality, +the balance in coin and character is against him; and all this for want +of some adequate employment for an active mind.” + +“And Lady Latimer?” interrupted Germain, to whom this portrait of her +lord did not appear particularly attractive. + +“Oh, I cannot attempt to describe her, either in person or character; +only by way of warning, don’t fall in love with her.” + +“Who was she?” asked Germain, adopting the regular routine of inquiry +upon such occasions. + +“A Sydenham--Lady Louisa Sydenham. She and Latimer came out the same +year, and were both very much admired. In short, they were the talk of +the hour. I believe it bored them always to hear their names coupled, +and so they married,--a very effectual expedient, for no one _now_ ever +mentions them together.” + +“Let me see,” said his companion, “Sydenham--then she was a daughter of +Lady Flamborough.” + +“Yes,” rejoined Fitzalbert, “her first and hitherto only successful +speculation. If any thing could have warned off Latimer, it would have +been the dread of Lady Flamborough’s manœuvring. As for Caroline and +Jane, I should be sorry to prophesy their fate, pretty girls as they +are. By the bye, suppose, after all, she was to catch you? You are +rather sentimental, I think, and I foresee she will certainly make a +dead set at it.” + +There was something in the tone in which this was said, too nearly +approaching to banter, to be perfectly pleasing to Germain. The idea, +too, of being “caught,” was in itself not flattering, and, after all, +made it more mortifying. He could not help looking a little disgusted, +which being perceived by Fitzalbert, who had no wish to produce any +such effect, he turned the conversation. + +“I dined, for my sins,” he resumed, “with Lady Flamborough yesterday, +just before I set out. It was her first culinary attempt since the +death of my Lord, and was undertaken in consequence of balls and +accidental rencontres being at an end, as a desperate attempt to bring +Sir Gregory Greenford to the point before they all separate for the +season. Quite a failure; I never shall forget her look of despair, when +the feelings of the managing mistress of the house struggled with those +of the manœuvring mother, when she perceived that the _petits pâtés_, +and the _pâtés mêlés_ had got next each other, and that Caroline and +the baronet had not.” + +All further discussion of the disasters of the last evening was +interrupted by the deepening shades of the present bringing them to +their destination. + +Peatburn Lodge was situated in a deep glen in the midst of extensive +moors. In front, a brook meandered through the meadow, which +interposed between a small neglected flower-garden, and the steep +banks of the heather-topped hills, the sides of which were scantily +clothed with a straggling fir plantation. There was no attempt at a +pleasure-ground, for the twenty yards of gravel road that led from the +gate of the garden, to the front door, had been carefully raked and +rolled for their arrival. The house was small, and though it had some +distinguishing marks of a gentleman’s residence, yet it seemed as if +it had been promoted from the ranks, and had at some time been a _bonâ +fide_ cottage. + +The whole scene was one, the impression of which must have depended +upon the state of the spirits when it was visited. But at present +the sun was setting brilliantly, and gave a gaiety to all around, as +stepping from their carriages, Germain and Fitzalbert strolled through +the long grass which divided the weed-grown plots of the flower-garden, +where various rare plants were growing wild, and left to themselves to +struggle with briars and brambles for their existence. + +“These were Lady Latimer’s handy work the year she was married,” said +Fitzalbert. “Latimer has not seen her since. You probably never heard +of an old savage who lives not far from here, Lord Rockington?” + +“Only my uncle,” said Germain. + +“True; so he is--but never mind, uncles I reckon fair game; but as I +was saying, Latimer had a law-suit with your uncle about boundaries, +and was cast wrongfully, as he says; and though this new limitation was +twenty miles off, he said he would as soon shoot fowls in a farm-yard, +as come here to be cramped and confined. They talk of the deadly feuds +of wild Indians, but for genuine unconquerable hatred, give me country +neighbours in this Christian country.” + +A plain but ample supper, provided by the gamekeeper’s wife, was here a +welcome interruption; and by the help of a most minute examination and +trial of all the four guns, they contrived to get through the rest of +the evening. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + ----Wilt thou hunt? + The hounds shall make the welkin answer them, + And fetch shrill echoes from the hollow earth. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +“What sort of a morning?” said Fitzalbert to Le Clair, as he entered +his room at six, the prescribed hour. + +“Fine, only rather thick--a sort of fog,” was the reply. + +“Ay--only heat, it will be a broiling day; so, call Mr. Germain +immediately.” + +“Now for it,” said Fitzalbert, rising from the breakfast-table, and +walking towards the window; “why it can’t mean to rain!” he added, in a +tone of mingled astonishment and reproach. + +But _it_ certainly did mean to rain; and any suspense on the subject +that it might have maintained was thrown aside, now that it had them +perfectly equipped, completely breakfasted, and utterly resourceless at +this early hour. + +Nor was this the worst; rain alone, if light, might be braved, if +heavy, could not last; but it had now acquired a most formidable +auxiliary. “The sort of fog,” from which Fitzalbert’s sanguine +expectations had anticipated heat, had already, when they came to the +window, enveloped the heather-topped hill opposite. Slowly descending, +it wound about the straggling fir plantation; still thickening as it +advanced, it gave a gigantic appearance to the cattle browsing on the +lower pastures, as for a while they were still indistinctly seen--then +Lady Latimer’s neglected exotics looked more than ever unhappy under +its influence; at last, even these were completely obscured, and not +an object could be distinguished beyond the fresh marks left by their +own recent arrival on the otherwise unbroken surface of the gravel +road. Each wheel track was soon a running stream, and every hoof-mark +contained water enough to reflect the pattering rain. + +Fitzalbert had watched the progress of the storm with a whistle, which +Germain was too observant to mistake for indifference, and though he +did not care so much for the disappointment himself, yet as he could +suggest no adequate topic of consolation, he prudently said nothing. + +“Pleasant!” was all that Fitzalbert at length exclaimed, but no word, +or words, could have conveyed so much as the look which he alternately +cast at an old-fashioned clock which had yet to strike seven, and at +the dilapidations of the breakfast-table, which shewed that even that +resource was numbered with the things that were past. + +The horror of this situation was increased by learning, from the most +weather-wise of the local authorities, that this was what was called +in that part of the country a Sea-fret; and that its usual duration +was three days. Lord Latimer’s limits were even more circumscribed by +the German Ocean on one side, than they were by Lord Rockington on +the other; and his marine majesty sometimes proved, as on the present +occasion, the most encroaching and intrusive neighbour of the two. It +is no drawback upon Fitzalbert’s general estimation of his friend, +that as he looked round at the bookshelves, he regretted at the +moment that he had exchanged for him those discarded tomes of which he +had spoken so slightingly--and he would gladly have wished him away, +to have had the dullest of the productions of the day, the weakest +literary bantling that ever dragged out a few weeks’ existence, “dieted +on praises, sauced with lies.” The few apartments were soon ransacked +for resources, but without success. In Lady Latimer’s they found a +piano-forte, some netting-needles, and a paint-box,--all equally +satisfactory! Some neatly bound volumes were seized with avidity, +but, alas! they turned out to contain only manuscript music, and +water-coloured drawings. In the course of their search, they stumbled +into the old gamekeeper’s own room; here they did find one book between +them--it was about half “The Whole Duty of Man,” with the first and +last leaves torn out, probably for wadding. + +“By the bye,” exclaimed Fitzalbert, his noble countenance lighting up, +evidently with a bright thought, “I wonder whether they have any cards +in the house; let’s send for old Coverdale, and ask.” + +Old Coverdale had been game-keeper in Lord Latimer’s father’s time, but +as the present Lord had always brought all his shooting establishment +from Latimer, he had (though somewhat superannuated) continued him +for his negative qualities; for though he could no longer shoot much +himself, he would not let any one else shoot at all. Fitzalbert too, +having sent his own man with his dogs, was independent of the veteran’s +somewhat rheumatic assistance. + +“Are there any cards in the house?” asked Fitzalbert, as old Coverdale +hobbled in. + +“Na’, there not loik,” growled out the old man, who had grown a little +Methodistical in his solitude, and had therefore a horror of such +abominations. + +“But could not you get us a pack?” + +“Why, any thing in loife for you, gentlemen; but the gamest shop to +find them is Jemmy Macpherson, at Boggleby-Moorside: that’s a matter of +sax miles, and Smoiler’ll be matched to get there to-day, for he an so +canny on his legs as might be, and the road’s a webit stony; a power +of steep bank-sides--and Jemmy, I doubt, will na ha’ gitten his winter +stock of any thing till the first October carrier--neither cards, nor +yet flannel,” added he, casting a rueful look _at_ the window, not out +of it, for that was no longer possible; and thinking, no doubt, that +going for one in such weather would render the other necessary. + +This last statement, which showed that Jemmy Macpherson was more +famous for the variety of his goods, than for the extent of his stock, +prevented their proposing to send any other messenger. + +“May be you may foind some’at to whoile away the toime in yon +cupboard,” said he, opening a closet-door which they had not yet +perceived. + +“Soho!” exclaimed Fitzalbert, as he prepared to drag out from under +a load of lumber a backgammon-board. “Well! we shall at least have a +little chicken-hazard.” + +A backgammon-board it certainly was: that it only contained a skeleton +regiment of men, signified not for their present purpose. Dice they +luckily found, but no box. + +“This will be the very thing,” said Fitzalbert, taking one of a row of +old Sèvre’s coffee-cups, which Mrs. Coverdale had arranged on the shelf +above; and with this ingenious substitute they set to work, and played +for some hours. + +“Seven’s the main!” was alternately shouted, with varying fortunes, and +increasing stakes, till at the end of the time, Germain rose a winner +of four hundred pounds. + +“Pigeon-shooting,” thought he, “I wish Oakley was here;” and from this +moment he had caught the infectious love of play. + +Fitzalbert did not in any way show the slightest annoyance at the +result. To be sure, towards the end of the time, he broke six of the +coffee-cups, but that was very probably an accidental contingency. He +seemed in much higher spirits than he had been, and the next morning +was rewarded by the weather completely relenting, in spite of the +saying. He never shot better in his life, brought home forty-five +brace, and was not a little gratified at Germain only having attained a +tithe of his performances. + +On the next day, the weather, though not decidedly bad, was rather +wild and windy. He proposed an adjournment to a neighbouring +watering-place; for he probably preferred to any chance of obscuring +his former brilliant achievements, the being able to say, that _in +spite_ of the weather, which drove him away, _the one_ day he was out, +he had killed forty-five brace. Germain, who had not been made more +fond of shooting by finding his performances so considerably inferior +to those of his friend, readily consented. + +Soon after their arrival they sought the beach, which was the public +promenade, and as usual, covered with those shoals of the productive +classes from the inland counties, who annually become amphibious in +the autumn, and instead of being pinioned between the counter and +the wall, sport themselves between high and low water-mark--naked or +clothed--tumbling out of bathing-machines, or donkey-carts--according +to the time of tide. + +Fitzalbert, part of whose system it was to affect even more than he +felt of contempt for all that was not useless, as well as ornamental, +exclaimed-- + +“A nation of shopkeepers, indeed! but heaven forefend that either cloth +or cotton goods should be denied their periodical plunge into the sea; +for I swear one can smell the smoke of steam-engines as they pass. +Hands off, and a broad walk, is all I bargain for.” + +As he said this, Germain felt himself lightly touched on the shoulder, +and a woman’s voice cried out, laughingly, “Ah! we’ve caught you at +last, Mr. Germain.” + +Turning suddenly round, he could not be mistaken in recognising +the form of Fanny Dormer. True, it was not exactly what he had +recollected--the bright red and white was there, but it seemed as +if the former colour had made undue inroads upon the territory of +the latter. The well-rounded form of the growing girl had, perhaps, +somewhat exceeded its former promise in the full-blown woman before +him. The brilliancy of the teeth remained unimpaired; but _surely_ +their ample display had not been always owing to the size of the mouth. + +These reflections passed rapidly through Germain’s mind, and had +probably their effect upon his countenance, though not perceived by +Fanny, as she gaily continued-- + +“Here’s my father--his lumbago, which caused our coming here, would +have prevented his catching you----” + +“So I despatched my Hebe after you,” interrupted a respectable looking +middle-aged man, with an intelligent countenance, and a still fresh, +florid face, though his nose might be accused of engrossing more +than its share of the ruby, the origin of which usurpation might be +convivial, but if constitutional, would excite alarm for the future, +as to the somewhat unsettled hues of Fanny’s complexion. + +“How could you play the truant with your old tutor?” continued he; +“when we got your letter, we delayed our departure from home, and +Fanny had prepared your favourite whipped syllabub for you, for she +never forgets any thing,” added the fond father, reciprocating an +affectionate glance with his dutiful daughter. “And as you also were +coming here, it would have been so handy, for you might have come +bodkin with us in the chaise; you have done so before now--do you +remember Plateford races?” + +“And Wrangleby Sessions Ball?” said Fanny, her bright eyes beaming with +undisguised pleasure at the recollection. + +“She never forgets any thing, indeed,” thought Germain, with the +reviving consciousness of having made rather a fool of himself upon +that occasion with the rustic beauty. + +“We thought it so kind of you,” rejoined the father, “to recollect your +old friends immediately upon your return to England; and when we talked +you over upon the receipt of your letter, Fanny said that she was +afraid you would find us rather dull after all the fine people you had +been living with. Why so, said I, we have not changed, and his anxiety +to see us shows that he is not.” + +Germain was somewhat touched at the good man’s simplicity, and not a +little ashamed of being ashamed at the meeting; so he replied, almost +earnestly--“But I hope you got my second letter, saying how very sorry +I was that it was utterly impossible for me to fulfil my intention of +visiting you.” + +But though his better feelings dictated this excuse, he could not help +being annoyed at Fitzalbert’s presence. The imperturbable patience with +which this gentleman stood all the while, convinced him that he was +imbibing food for future ridicule; and he feared, not without reason, +that he should come in for his full share. He could not deny that +Fanny’s appearance afforded not a little food for the gratification of +that taste. + +“She ought to have known,” thought he, “that so small a bonnet must +make her face look ten times larger--and why that bright-green cloth +pelisse, which looks as if it had formed part of the lining of a pew in +her father’s church?” + +In the pauses of the conversation, he had suspiciously watched the +movement of his friend’s eyes; he observed them fixed on the ground +near Miss Dormer’s feet. Even in the height of his infatuation, he had +occasionally had his misgivings that Fanny Dormer had not a pretty +foot; since then, his mind had been particularly enlightened on the +subject by his trip to Paris, as well as his taste formed during some +of his connexions in that capital, to which allusion has been made, as +to the best artificial modes of setting off that very attractive part +of the person. Great was his horror therefore at seeing the exposure of +yawning leather boots, on which Fitzalbert’s eyes were rivetted: and +taking a hasty leave of father and daughter, with a promise to call on +them, he hurried away. + +“Where, in the name of wonder, did you pick up those treats?” asked +Fitzalbert. + +“Mr. Dormer was the private tutor to whom I was condemned on leaving +school,” answered Germain. + +“And you consoled yourself with studying Ovid’s Art of Love,” said +Fitzalbert, with a suppressed sneer. + +This was the only comment he made at the time, and it was not till long +afterwards that Germain discovered that no part of the foregoing scene +had lost in his hands by repetition. Little was he aware that it was +his own over-evident morbid sensibility to ridicule which gave the zest +to the exposure, and that a more manly indifference would have disarmed +even Fitzalbert. + +It would be difficult perhaps to define exactly the qualifications +which insure at once, without dispute and as a matter of course, a +fixed position in what is called the first society. Birth alone will +not do it. Wealth not only will not succeed alone, but is not always an +indispensable requisite. Neither personal appearance nor talents will +be separately sufficient; yet a fair allowance of the two combined, +and a slight infusion of one or both of the other two ingredients, +will go far towards establishing a claim to its fellowship. But from +whatever source the consciousness of this fixed position in society +is derived, it exempts a person from nothing more decidedly, than +from that which by some is ignorantly supposed its characteristic--a +propensity to cutting a casual acquaintance, on account of his personal +appearance, a weakness which arises from a false alarm that the +ridicule which attaches to a quiz is catching. Such a person, secure +of his own situation,--well-dressed himself, as a matter of course, +not of care,--would never imagine that there could be contagion in the +cut of a coat or the make of a gown, and therefore would, even in the +most public place, without a moment’s uneasiness, interchange common +civilities with the veriest quiz that ever adorned a print-shop. But as +passports are most examined in frontier towns, it is in the outskirts +of fashion that those who there occupy uncertain settlements are most +particular about external badges, and can see exclusive merit in their +own costume, or mortal offence in that of another. It is those who +dwell on what may be called the debateable land of society, who are in +most constant dread of inroads from without. It is here that slights +are incessantly fancied from above, and intrusion perpetually feared +from below. + +But independent of the situation of society, there is an age at which +fear of ridicule is epidemic. The awkward state, for instance, of +having ceased to be a boy, without being universally acknowledged to be +a man. From this state Germain was just emerging. This, of course, gave +additional terrors to the idea of being quizzed about a private tutor, +and may account for a little of the otherwise indefensible sense of +shame he felt at the meeting with his former friends. + +For there was much to esteem in the character of both father and +daughter. Mr. Dormer was an exemplary parish priest, and a kind +neighbour to the poor; and if (as he never read but one side of any +political subject, and never heard either discussed) his prejudices +had somewhat strengthened in thirty years’ utter seclusion, they +were at least sincere, and had never served as a stepping-stone to +preferment. If he seriously believed that it was the intention of half +the government, and one branch of the legislature, to establish the +Pope at Lambeth, it was an opinion which he shared with many who had +more opportunities of knowing better. Whenever the weekly county paper +promulgated the news of some fresh attack upon the church, he insisted +upon drowning the design in a third bottle of port, and supporting the +Protestant constitution whilst destroying his own. Yet the head-ache +that followed never was known to interfere with the timely composition +of the Sunday’s sermon. + +Fanny Dormer had not escaped the defects almost inseparable from +a masculine education. Not only she was learned, and was not +accomplished, but in her slightest movement, almost in her every word, +it was evident that woman’s care had been wanting. In the innocence +of her heart, she said all that her high spirits dictated; and in the +vigour of her fine active person, she took every kind of manly exercise +that youth and health prompted. The little defects in her appearance +have been noted by Germain; but if it must be owned that she could not +make a decent gown for herself, she made plenty of flannel-petticoats +for the poor--and, whatever fault might be found with the cut of her +outward garment, it still covered one of the kindest hearts that ever +breathed. + +From this character of Mr. and Miss Dormer, it may be expected that as +Germain had now seen more of the world, he might find the one less a +model for imitation--and the other, less an object of attraction than +he had done; but that he should expect to derive less instruction from +the society of the father, or pleasure in the company of the daughter, +was no excuse for his conduct at the meeting; and though his facility +of character, and anxiety to appear well in the world, may have done +much in making him dread the ridicule of Fitzalbert, yet his youth is +the best plea in his palliation. At thirty, his conduct would have been +inexcusable; for, as in the West Indies, the constant dread of the +yellow fever is considered a strong symptom that it is lurking in the +constitution, so an incessant fear of being thought vulgar, is a sure +sign of innate and inherent vulgarity. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + This from a dying man receive as certain: + When you are liberal of your loves and counsels + Be sure you be not loose; for those you make friends + And give your hearts to, when they once perceive + The least rub in your fortunes, fall away + Like water from ye, never found again + But where they mean to sink ye. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +Oakley was left preparing to obey the summons of his uncle, Lord +Rockington, to pay him a first visit. It has been stated that he had +been educated with the idea of great expectations from this quarter, +but these were still uncertain, as Lord Rockington was only his +uncle on the mother’s side, and though he had no nearer relation, +the property was entirely in his own power. His character, too, was +remarkable for singularity, and his intentions had never been formally +announced. + +The manner in which Oakley’s attendance had now for the first time been +required, was in itself strange: he had received a letter at Paris +desiring him immediately to proceed to London, where he would hear +further. Upon his arrival there, he found another letter, desiring +him to present himself at Rockington Castle by four o’clock in the +afternoon of a certain day, and on no account to fail in observing the +time prescribed. It was to fulfil this injunction that Oakley was now +about to pursue his journey. + +Lord Rockington’s was a name that had once made considerable noise in +the political world. His military achievements had in youth, for a +time, even entitled his head to swing on signs at ale-house doors. +But his glories had been suddenly overcast--he had had his reverses, +which had caused a reaction of public opinion. Impeachment had been +threatened, but not persevered in. His name, however, was scratched +out of the Red Book, and his head painted over on the sign-posts. +Disgrace had driven him to seek his present retirement, and his former +reputation, as well as his more recent infamy, were speedily alike +forgotten in the quick succession which followed of greater events, +and perhaps greater men. Few ever inquired whether he was physically, +as well as politically dead. All know how soon the attention of the +world is turned, even from characters yet undeveloped, and events yet +unravelled; and here was a man whom the public voice had alternately +praised and vituperated, each in its highest degree. What more could be +made of him? Indeed, for many years, Lord Rockington’s name was never +mentioned, even in those circles where it had once been “familiar in +their mouths as household words,” save when now and then it was brought +on the _tapis_ incidentally at Lord Latimer’s, as that of a crabbed old +curmudgeon who spoilt sport on the 12th of August. + +When Oakley arrived at the last stage on the main road, from whence +he was to turn off to his uncle’s, great indeed was the wonderment +expressed at his ordering horses for Rockington Castle; it could not +have caused more confusion in the whole stable-establishment, if he had +desired to be driven to the North Pole. + +“Why, is not this Lord Rockington’s post town?” inquired Oakley of the +landlord. + +“Yes, Sir, but it’s a matter of twenty miles off,” answered mine host, +“and as to letters, why for years that I have been post-master, there +has never come a single one for him, nor have I so much as seen the +like of his frank.” + +After extracting from the tap-room a drunken ostler, who was reported +once to have driven Lord Rockington’s leaders when a lad, and appealing +in vain to his recollections on the subject of the road then, and +receiving only the uniform answer--“Na, he never gi’ed I a drop of owt +when I’s gitten them,” the stable conclave at length decided, that +after Bill had turned out of the main road, down Ruggedrut-lane, he +must inquire the way. + +Accordingly, after Bill had at length succeeded in convincing his +puzzled posters that they were not going their regular stage to ----, +and had made the turning down Ruggedrut-lane, constant inquiry was +necessary, but not always easy, as after quitting the attractive +neighbourhood of the great road, population became thinner, and +straggling houses were seen but at considerable intervals. Sometimes +their questions were only answered by a stupid stare--at others, by +“Rockington Castle! Na, you munna gang there;” but whenever they +succeeded in obtaining a direct answer, the road evidently the most +overgrown, and apparently the least frequented, was the one pointed out +to them. + +Profiting by this hint, when, from no symptoms remaining of +neighbouring habitation further verbal inquiries became impossible, +Oakley adopted the plan of always taking the turning over which he saw +written, “No road this way; trespassers will be punished;” construing, +under the peculiar circumstances of the case, this regular warning as a +direction-post to Rockington Castle, and the threat which followed into +an invitation to choose that path. + +As he advanced, it was impossible that Oakley should not be struck +with astonishment at the extraordinary appearance of the whole face +of the country: that which had once been a well-cultivated estate was +now one vast wilderness. The hedges were unclipped; the more vigorous +plants, of which they were composed, had shot up into wild over-growth, +and now remained dotted about in irregular clumps, appearing like a +dwarfish forest wood. The ground, which had once been tilled to yield +its varied and successive produce, now offered, over all its wide +extent of surface, only the rank growth of uncropped herbage; and now +and then among the trees were seen at intervals the broken remnants of +apparently ruined buildings. + +As Oakley’s progress brought him under one of those, he was at a loss +to account for the present state of the dilapidated dwelling, which +seemed neither decayed by the mouldering hand of time, nor crushed by +the sudden wrath of the elements, nor yet stripped by the spoliation of +human hands. It had been rendered utterly uninhabitable; the covering +of the roof was scattered around; and beams and rafters, torn from +their resting-place, were confusedly leaning against the bared walls. + +But in the lower rooms, the yet unbroken state of the casements showed +that no wanton mischief had been allowed to intrude upon its deserted +state since the hour of its demolition; and that this had not been +recent, appeared from the size of two goodly trees, the unchecked +growth of which obscured the whole front, and sent their topmost shoots +over the broken roof, but when saplings, had, it seemed, lent their +supple twigs to form an arbour over the heads of those who had last +reposed, where were still left the rotten remains of a worm-eaten +bench. + +Oakley afterwards learnt, that upon Lord Rockington’s first seclusion, +the whole of his estate had been laid waste for the purpose merely of +stopping to its utmost limits his wanderings, without the chance of +his being offended with the sight of a fellow-creature. Extravagant as +this may seem, yet solitude was his mania; and though he paid fifteen +thousand a-year for it, yet, what is not paid by many to secure the +constant presence of the “human face divine?” and none ever sought +society with half the eagerness that he shunned it. The preposterous +extent too of this sacrifice to a ruling passion, was somewhat +diminished by his deriving thirty thousand a-year from other estates +which he never visited. + +But though all this may account for the act on the mere ground +of self-indulgence, yet must deep disappointment, and consequent +misanthropy, have conspired to harden the heart that could without +a pang have given the order, and unmoved have beheld its execution; +for it was just one of those primitive, secluded spots, where, in +proportion as the social sympathies are undeveloped, attachment to the +soil is strongest; and the ejectment which left untenanted that one +deserted arbour which Oakley had passed, destroyed more endearing ties +and more cherished associations, than would have been disturbed by a +whole century of improvements in a crowded metropolis. + +Now however, that time had hallowed the work, the effect it had +produced was wild and picturesque. The outline of the country was +bold and abruptly broken: it had always been one of those rugged +regions over which man seems to hold his control but by a feeble +tenure; and, in this instance, the moment of his abdication had been +quickly followed by the disappearance of any traces of his authority, +and Nature, in her wildest garb, had as speedily resumed undivided +dominion. Even quickset hedges, those badges of man’s superintending +presence, had thrown off the rectangular livery of art; and, scattered +about in irregular and tangled brakes, beneath the wide-spreading arms +of loftier trees, added to the wildness of the scene. + +All this harmonized peculiarly with Oakley’s existing feelings, and +prepared his mind for the events which were to follow. After driving +through many miles of this depopulated desert, he arrived at the gate +of Rockington Castle. No softening symptoms of return to civilization +had marked his approach: it rose upon the sight like a mighty vessel +out of the bosom of the troubled waters, and stood in the midst of the +wide waste in solitary grandeur, the only work of man for miles around. + +Rockington Castle was an edifice which really deserved its cognomen +of Castle, not assumed merely on the strength of latticed windows +or a flag-staff, but deriving its title from a period prior to the +Conquest, crowned as it then was with the identical turrets which still +overhung its eastern summit, and bearing about in different parts the +distinguishing marks of each succeeding century except the present; +for it had fortunately escaped the mongrel patch-work of modern +improvements. With the present day, it seemed to hold no connexion. The +shades of mailed knights and warriors of the olden time might have been +expected to hover about so congenial a spot, but that it should contain +a living modern master, seemed almost incredible. + +Oakley’s postilion was obliged by main strength to force back the great +gate upon its rusty hinges, and he found himself in the grass-grown +court-yard at the moment that a deep-toned bell, the first symptom of +inhabitancy, struck the appointed hour for his arrival. + +“My lord has just been asking for you,” said a veteran attendant who +met him at the door; “it is well you had not arrived too late--he is +sadly changed within these two days.” With this, he ushered him through +a suite of dilapidated rooms. + +Oakley (to whom the idea of immediate danger had never suggested +itself, from the methodical manner in which his presence had been +desired) was not a little shocked at this declaration. The aged +attendant left him alone for a minute in a sort of picture-gallery, +whilst he proceeded to announce his arrival. + +There would have been much for a genealogist, and somewhat for a +connoisseur to study in the gallery, which seemed devoted alone to +commemorate the martial representatives of the family. There were seen +warriors of every age, from the first rudiments of the art of painting, +when coats of mail were sketched with a pencil as hard and as stiff +as the substance it depicted. After them appeared a valuable specimen +or two of the matchless time of Vandyke; then came a profusion of the +flowing periwigs and shining breast-plates of the vain and frivolous +age which followed, and which owes its immortality to the colouring of +Lely and of Kneller. + +One alone was to be seen of a more recent date, which rivetted the +attention of Oakley: it was a full-length portrait of his uncle on +horseback--he was represented in the prime of manhood, at the moment +of victory. As a work of art it had few recommendations, but as a +portrait it was perfect; for it conveyed the expression so often +experienced, without knowing the person pourtrayed, of an indisputable +likeness. It was an admirable head, surviving even the almost +overpowering profusion of daubed canvas with which it was surrounded. +True, the horse was wooden, and the landscape woolly. The retiring +foe was rather shadowy, and the smoke somewhat substantial, but the +countenance atoned for all defects: it was the living man himself, and +every muscle told a tale of triumphant pride, and gratified love of +glory; and as this must all have been drawn from life at a subsequent +period, it was evident that the character of the man had been one in +which the habitual indulgence of these feelings had long outlived the +moment of their excitement. + +Oakley was still gazing intently upon this all but speaking portrait, +with a feeling that it was impossible not to acknowledge the +superiority that it seemed to claim, and to partake of the enthusiasm +that it exhibited, when he was summoned into the presence of the +original. The sudden shock of the contrast was appalling. He might +have even been prepared to see a person from age and disease wasted in +frame, and worn in feature, but not to behold a countenance which had +long lost every trace of the action--of that mind which had given life +to the picture--nor to find that a piece of colored canvas could appear +animated by that commanding soul, which no longer inspired the living +form where it still lingered. + +Lord Rockington had been remarkable for the height of his person, and +the stateliness of his deportment; and his emaciated figure now seemed +to recover a momentary elasticity, as he half attempted to rise to +receive his nephew. A stranger-smile for an instant hovered about his +lips--how unlike the conscious curl of proud superiority which marked +the mouth of the portrait! A confused and unsettled stare had succeeded +to the piercing glance of the fiery eye which had fixed Oakley in that +picture, with which he could not help comparing the unhappy object +before him. + +Lord Rockington addressed his nephew courteously. “Punctuality, I see, +has become a practice as well as precept in the world. It is twenty +years since I last made an appointment, and I had my own reasons for +wishing this not to be broken.” + +He paused from the exhaustion which followed this first effort, and +which seemed so excessive as to confirm the prediction with which he +resumed. + +“Mr. Oakley, you have faithfully obeyed the summons of a dying man.” + +Oakley expressed, in reply, an earnest hope that in this he might be +deceived. + +“Words, worthless words,” interrupted Lord Rockington, evidently +irritated. “After so long a holiday, must my insulted ear again echo +back empty professions before its failing sense is for ever delivered +from the sickening sounds of human hypocrisy and falsehood. I am a +stranger to you, odious by name, loathsome in person; I have given you +no cause to hope my life. You are my heir. Have I given you none to +wish my death?” + +Oakley would have endeavoured to soothe him, and to check these wayward +ebullitions of a distempered mind; but Lord Rockington, assuming more +composure, motioned him to silence. + +“I have much to tell and little time to tell it in. You doubt my +accuracy in predicting the impending dissolution of this care-worn +frame. Dispute with the pedant as to his knowledge of that author +whom he has spent a life in expounding. Teach the carrier’s drudge his +daily course; but doubt me not in that which has long been my only +study. For twenty long years life has been a burden; I have sighed +to yield, yet still have been doomed to bear it. To foresee some end +to this lingering torment has been my only care. Many a time have I +mocked myself with false hopes, and the first welcome symptoms of +disease have yielded to an unfortunately strong constitution. At last +I am rewarded; I have watched from their first doubtful appearance +the certain seeds of decay. I have studied all that science has ever +recorded, or experience taught of its symptoms, its gradual progress, +and final consummation. And this is the day, almost the hour, I have +fondly anticipated.” + +Another protracted pause, from increasing weakness, succeeded, +uninterrupted by Oakley, whose attention was absorbed by the singular +declaration he had just heard. The stillness of this mutual silence was +broken by the successive tones of various time-pieces which Oakley for +the first time observed were placed in different parts of the house. It +would have puzzled him to account for the presence of these generally +unheeded warnings of the monotony of the life they witnessed, but that +from what he had just been told, it seemed to be Lord Rockington’s +occupation, to mark with studied accuracy the creeping pace of time, +that he might foretell with certainty when its finger pointed to his +own last hours. Roused, by these much-noted sounds, to a consciousness +that time was not to be lost, Lord Rockington resumed. + +“It was not merely to exhibit myself a common-place memento of +mortality that I summoned you here. I will you heir to my feelings, +as I have done to my fortunes; I would bequeath you, not merely that +wealth with which I have been wretched, but that experience with which +you may be happy. I would have you despise the world as I do now, not +yield its easy victim as I once did. I would leave as the best legacy +this world can contain, the consciousness that flattery is but the +cloak of envy--confidence but a premium for treachery--that riches are +but the means of purchasing disappointment--and that fame is the mark +set up by fools to be the sport of knaves.” + +There was enough of constitutional distrust in the nature of Oakley, +as has been already stated, to make him a deeply-interested, almost an +assenting auditor of the misanthropic dogmas of his dying uncle. + +“I would for this,” continued Lord Rockington, “dedicate my last +moments to recording the events and actions which marked the first +part of a long life and the reflections which have accumulated from +them in the latter portion of it; but all this must I crowd into a +score of sentences, and half as many minutes. My task is harder too, +because from long disuse words now refuse to follow at the beck of +thought. I had always enjoyed the substantial favours of fortune: for +a time I had strutted in the tinsel trappings of fame. I had fought +for my country, and conquered. I was the people’s idol; courted, +caressed, and rewarded--it was the heaven of an hour. At this time a +distant and disturbed colony required control; I was selected, from the +difficulty of the task, and at once incurred the greatest curse that +can befall the native of a free state--responsibility for the exercise +of arbitrary powers. I know not now whether my acts were right or +wrong: success did not sanction them. One reverse succeeded another, +exaggerated accounts of which were sent to England. Distance magnified +my delinquencies, and delayed my defence. + +“The reaction of public opinion was overwhelming: I became the object +of universal odium. The most subservient of my creatures, who had +participated in my every action, sought to save themselves at my +expense; and when I thought I had been confiding in faithful followers, +I found I had been harbouring pseudo-patriot spies. I was openly +accused of cruelty, indirectly taunted with cowardice; and even the +most improbable suspicion of peculation was widely circulated and +readily believed. I hastened to England to clear my character--every +ear was shut against my discredited defence, every door was closed +against my disgraced person. + +“I sought the minister whose verbally expressed intentions I had +fulfilled, but as my powers had been discretionary, I had no written +instructions to plead. I was freezingly received. He remembered +nothing of the past, and for the future referred me to the issue of +a threatened motion in parliament. On that anxiously-expected night, +skulking in an obscure corner, I saw my accuser arrive. I had last +beheld him presiding at a public-dinner given in honour of my victory. +He was quickly surrounded by troops of eager friends giving assurances +of success, which his confident look confirmed. He was loudly called +on by name to commence, when amidst much confusion, the minister +interposed, and stated that he had something to communicate which might +render further proceedings unnecessary. Breathless attention succeeded. +He then announced that it had pleased his Majesty to dismiss Lord +Rockington from all his situations and appointments. + +“The inhuman yell of delight, which under the technical appellation of +universal cheering, burst from all sides at this declaration, fell +upon my ear like the cry of blood-hounds fastening upon their victim. +Instinctively I sought to escape the sound by flight, and yet it seemed +to linger in the distance. ’Twas the last greeting of my fellow-men. +Twenty years have since elapsed--I hear them still!” + +Lord Rockington became violently agitated, as if to exclude these +imaginary sounds; he raised to his ears his withered hands--his wild +and haggard eyes seemed for a moment to start beneath their pressure, +then became fixed--the universal shudder with which he had concluded +the sentence was succeeded by strong convulsions, and he remained for +some time senseless. + +Oakley summoned the ancient attendant whom he had before seen, and who +was the only one allowed to approach his master, and demanded whether +medical aid could not be procured; but the old man shook his head, and +said he dared not so offend his dying Lord. + +After a time, Lord Rockington seemed by a strong effort to recover +his speech; he raised himself upright, then bending towards Oakley, +collected his remaining strength, and thus addressed him-- + +“Let those, who would scoff at the steadiness of my misanthropy, +triumph in the idea that once again before I die I have sought the +relief of kindred feelings, that in my last moments I have secured the +congenial presence of one whose sincerity even I cannot doubt--Yes, +I have found one who shall rejoice in my release, as I do myself. My +expectant heir shall as eagerly count my ebbing pulse. His ready hand +shall in sympathising pleasure return the convulsive grasp of death.” + +These were the last words Lord Rockington spoke. He had seized +Oakley’s hand as he uttered them. He then sunk senseless on the sofa, +and in a few hours this strange being was no more. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + Heavens, have I said, the bounty of this lord! + How many prodigal bits have slaves, and peasants, + This night englutted! Who is not Timon’s? + What heart, head, sword, force, means, but is Lord Timon’s? + Great Timon, noble, worthy, royal Timon! + Ah! when the means are gone that buy this praise, + The breath is gone, whereof this praise is made: + Feast-won, fast-lost; one cloud of winter showers, + These flies are couch’d. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +Eventful indeed had these few last hours been to Oakley. They had +brought with them, crowded within their narrow limits, (and utterly +unforeseen, up to the moment of their arrival,) changes which would +have sufficed to fill up a long life of anticipation. The emotions +which they had excited in his mind had been as varied as the alteration +they had produced in his situation was complete. + +He had that morning, for the first time in his life, beheld one who was +then his nearest surviving relative. He had, though hitherto a perfect +stranger, been admitted at once to his confidence. That confidence +was as yet incomplete--when interrupted as abruptly as it had been +commenced by final separation. But this strange benefactor had left +him a solid memento of their transient connexion, a splendid fortune, +which at once secured him the command of the attention and attractions +of the world, coupled with the warning legacy which bade him repel its +advances, and resist its allurements. + +To the substantial advantages arising from his change in situation +he was likely to be by no means insensible, but this arose rather +from a disagreeable recollection of the slights to which a dependent +state had subjected his impatient spirit, than to any expectation of +particular pleasure to be derived from future enjoyments. The parting +advice with which the dying bequest had been accompanied, was on many +accounts calculated to make the greatest impression on Oakley. That it +was disinterested could not be denied, from the situation of him who +gave it. That it was dictated by a sincere regard for him to whom it +was addressed, had at the same time been testified by solid proofs. +The natural bent of Oakley’s character gave additional weight to these +considerations. Neither his virtues nor talents were of that order +which makes a man partial to society, because society is partial to +him. A natural instability of temperament predisposed him to take +offence, whilst a want of animal spirits prevented his shining in +the ready “give and take” of every-day intercourse. The unpleasant +impressions which these deficiencies implanted in a proud and reserved +nature, had left a distaste for the world which had already prepared +the way for that distrust which was inculcated in the last admonition +of his dying uncle. + +The aged attendant who had performed the last offices to his departed +lord had left the room, and Oakley had remained, he knew not how long, +absorbed in the reflections, which all that he had heard and seen was +calculated to excite, even in the most thoughtless, but which had taken +deep root in a mind to which gloomy impressions were so congenial. +The sight of death itself is for the time saddening, even to the most +mercurial spirit; but it was not that alone which infected Oakley. +It was not the actual presence of the breathless body before him, so +much as the chilling contagion of the withered mind he had so lately +communed with, which still oppressed him. Most men, if thus suddenly +endowed with a princely fortune, whilst possessing youth and health to +enjoy it purchased at no sacrifice of kindly feelings, would have felt +even the decent solemnity of the passing moment somewhat chequered +with the coming gleams of the brightening future. + +But this was not the impression made on Oakley. He even envied the +lifeless form before him its release from the contests of the world, +and almost repined at being left as his deputy in a situation where he +must undergo the daily drudgery of resisting imposition, and detecting +falsehood. + +“Must I then,” thought he, “commence this painful pilgrimage to which +youth and health threaten a long perspective, and can I do so without +dislike and dread, seeing as I have seen, that by twenty long years +of ceaseless struggle and hopeless suffering, that proud spirit, the +transient gleam of whose former fire lives in the canvas I this morning +beheld, has been reduced to a fit tenant for the care-worn carcase +from which it has but now obtained its release?” + +Surfeited at length with the morbid indulgence of these feelings, +Oakley sought a temporary relief in change of scene, and rose to leave +the chamber of death, to which the shades of night had now imparted +a congenial obscurity. The next room--the picture-gallery mentioned +above--was only lighted by a single small candlestick, left as it +were carelessly on a table at the upper end, immediately under the +portrait of Lord Rockington, and to which alone of all the inmates +of the gallery it bent its feeble light. The surrounding gloom gave +additional effect to that which alone was visible, and the countenance +of which Oakley had only previously remarked the habitually imperious +expression, seemed now to his heated imagination to indicate some +special command to himself, and following the direction of the +out-stretched arm which pointed at vacancy, he fancied he beheld a door +open at the further extremity of the gallery. + +He could not be mistaken. He saw the figure of the aged attendant, +who advanced with a cautious but a heavy tread, bearing in both +hands a weight under which he seemed ready to sink. As he approached +the candle, Oakley raised it over his head, to convince himself he +was not deceived, upon which the old man dropped his load, and fled +precipitately. + +Oakley stopped one instant to examine what appeared to be a strong box, +probably containing valuables, and then followed the fugitive. But +his ignorance of the intricate turnings of the passages favoured the +flight of the other, and after pursuing him in vain for some time, his +attention was attracted by a noise which sounded like the animating +applause of a theatre, and a moment afterwards many voices joined in +the jocund chorus of “Life’s a Bumper.” + +“Wretches,” thought Oakley, “well may your insulted master have been +impatient to quit a world of which he saw around him such samples. That +the very hands which had but just been permitted to close his eyes, +should within that hour turn to plunder--and that those menials who had +been gorged with his bounty, should profane his last moments with their +orgies!” + +Hurrying back towards his uncle’s chamber, he paused on the +threshold, as if unwilling to suffer the offensive sounds of mirth to +penetrate within--though the loudest uproar could no longer disturb +its unconscious inmate; but nothing now met his ear, save the more +congenial murmur of the evening breeze. Thus re-assured, he entered +boldly, and felt refreshed by the calm and solemn sympathy of the +still summer’s evening. + +In all the feelings which had been excited by the events he had +latterly witnessed, he had been actuated entirely by impulse: he +adopted as indisputable all the facts stated by Lord Rockington, +without considering how much might be grounded on prejudice, and +coloured by disappointment. In the disgusting scenes which he had +afterwards witnessed, he would not have admitted it as possible that +the character and conduct of the master might a little palliate the +brutality of the servants. + +By this predetermined canonization of Lord Rockington as a martyr, his +own mortified vanity felt consoled. It has been said that he was from +natural temperament peculiarly prone to suspicion, and susceptible to +slight--and if in the unmerited fall of one formerly so celebrated as +Lord Rockington, he had a proof of the caprice and falsehood of the +world, it at once confirmed him in what he was disposed to think of +others, and consoled him for what they might think of him. + +“It will now,” thought he, “be mine to avoid, and theirs to court--yes, +I shall now have it in my power to repay envy with scorn!” + +The next morning brought Oakley’s own servant, who had been sent to +follow him, and Oakley lost no time in giving a summary dismissal to +all the establishment of the late lord, of whose untimely and offensive +mirth he had been an unintentional witness. He also despatched a +messenger to ----, to summon Lord Rockington’s man of business, who in +due time arrived, in the person of Mr. Macdeed, the principal solicitor +of the county town. + +This worthy gentleman, as he jolted along in the identical chaise +which had brought Oakley, consoled himself with the anticipation of an +accession of business arising from the change of clients consequent +upon the late demise, for Lord Rockington had not been habitually +litigious, though much of Mr. Macdeed’s celebrity had been owing to his +conduct of the famous cause of “Rockington _versus_ Latimer,” by which +he had secured to the plaintiff the accession of a property which could +never pay him twelve-pence, only at the expense of about as much as +would have paid twelve months salary to the twelve judges. + +So striking a proof of how well he understood his business, had at once +obtained him professional pre-eminence in the county. The consciousness +of this sort of decided superiority in a particular line, makes some +men solemn and pompous, but Mr. Macdeed it had only made facetious and +familiar, by far the most objectionable effect of the two, to a man in +Oakley’s present frame of mind. + +In spite, however, of the forbidding frowns of his auditor, Mr. Macdeed +wasted upon him much stiff parchment-like sort of pleasantry, the rough +draft of which had previously met with the approbation of the most +fastidious tea-tables at the county town aforesaid. He was particularly +lively upon the subject of the singularities of his late client. This +was an impertinence which, least of all, Oakley could bear. He had +risen that morning with an inviolable respect for the memory of his +benefactor, and a fixed determination to follow his example in hating +all whom he had left behind him in the world. It was no great trial +of the consistency of his general hatred of mankind, that the only +object which crossed his path, should be an obnoxious attorney; but the +dislike which was as yet concentrated in him, might soon have spread +over no small circle of acquaintance. Abruptly interrupting him, he +commanded him to proceed at once to business, and that, too, in a tone +sensibly wounding Mr. Macdeed’s self-importance, which was not the less +thin-skinned because dressed in smiles. + +The will was found in that identical box which Oakley had accidentally +rescued from the hand of Lord Rockington’s old servant, who was a +subscribing witness, and who had therefore seen it deposited there--and +the glimpse he then caught of the other valuables in it, (many thousand +pounds worth of jewels,) had probably excited his cupidity. + +The disposition of the property was concise and characteristic. There +were no legacies; and every thing, without reserve, was left to Oakley. +This being ascertained, Mr. Macdeed was summarily dismissed with a want +of courtesy which aggravated the offence already given, and of which +Oakley afterwards felt the effects. + +In the arrangements Oakley made for the funeral, he thought he best +consulted the feelings of the deceased by limiting the display of +fictitious and assumed grief to those only whose aid was absolutely +necessary to remove the body to its last place of rest; forbidding the +presence of any one in the character of mourner but himself. In the +meantime, having written to Germain alone, to announce the death of +their uncle, and the change in his circumstances, he occupied himself +with solitary rambles in the picturesque wilds around the castle, +mistaking, however, the source of the pleasure he derived from this, +and attributing to satisfaction at the absence of all traces of man’s +corroding presence, the sensations which arose merely from a strong +susceptibility to the beauties of nature. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + ----At first + I stuck my choice upon her, ere my heart + Durst make too bold a herald of my tongue: + Where the impression of mine eye enfixing, + Contempt his scornful perspective did lend me, + Which warp’d the line of every other favour; + Scorn’d a fair colour, or express’d it stol’n; + Extended or contracted all proportions + To a most hideous object. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +Germain and Fitzalbert remained some time at ----, not knowing exactly +where to transport themselves. Most of the friends of the latter, of +whose hospitality he meant to avail himself during the dead months, had +not yet established themselves in their country quarters. + +Fitzalbert now passed all his mornings in bed, having a happy facility +of sleeping in the absence of every other amusement, and this he +enjoyed in spite of the situation of his bed, which was so near the +window that he could, from his pillow, command the whole range of +bathing-machines, and might, if he pleased, trace the entrance of the +well-flounced petticoat at one door, and the exit of the somewhat +tighter fitting bathing-dress at the other. + +Germain, who was habitually an early riser, determined to avail himself +of this independence of the companionship of his friend, to ease his +conscience of the promised visit to the Dormers. + +Of all the minor social sins, none entails so acute a sense of shame as +a past and repented-of flirtation--and it was with very uncomfortable +feelings of guilty embarrassment, that Germain approached the lodging +of his former mistress, to whom he had once paid attentions so +assiduous. Not but that he must be acquitted of any legal offence: +he never had involved himself in any engagement, or even committed +himself by a declaration--he had never indeed been guilty of any thing +more definite and positive than exchanging awkward and sheepish looks +across the pew, when her father published the Sunday’s banns. However, +the apothecary’s wife had long settled that the parson’s pupil and +his daughter would make a sweet pair, and were likely to have a fine +family; and the attorney’s lady hinted that Mr. Dormer knew where good +settlements were to be had. + +There were many local associations about the place, where they had +formerly met, which had conspired to excite Germain’s tender feelings. +The parsonage itself was pretty and pastoral--with the early morning +his eye would wander from his book to follow the form of Fanny, +watering the rose-beds under his window; and after the studies of the +day, they used to drink tea together in a woodbine arbour. Add to all +this, that he was but eighteen; and if there ever was a youth of that +age who could resist the perpetual propinquity of a liquid blue eye, +and a fair fresh skin, he is a monster whom the whole sex will have +given up in despair before he is five-and-twenty. + +But three years had since elapsed, and in the meantime Germain’s mind +had been as much enlarged as Fanny Dormer’s person. The place of +meeting, too, instead of reviving the charm of consistent propriety, +was incongruous and inconvenient; and whilst waiting in the narrow +passage of the paper-built lodging-house, it was in vain that he +endeavoured to fortify himself with souvenirs of beds of roses and +woodbine bowers, against the overpowering smell of fried sole which +arose from the intrusive kitchen below. The small side parlour into +which he was shown, and into which were crowded Mr. Dormer, Fanny, +and her multitudinous occupations, presented the appearance of +confusion without comfort. Mr. Dormer was stuck in an easy chair in one +corner--his attention agreeably divided between his lumbago and the +county paper. + +There was nothing extraordinary in Fanny’s reception of her visitor; +but as Germain’s eye fell upon the out-stretched hand which accompanied +the greeting, he remarked that her fingers (unlike Aurora’s) were +tipped with ink--no very singular consequence of writing most of the +morning, but one that would never have been remarked by a lover. + +“I hope I don’t interrupt you,” said Germain. + +“Always a welcome interruption,” replied Mr. Dormer; “but you would be +puzzled to time your visit so as to find Fanny idle.” + +And, indeed, that indefatigable young lady, besides the usual +allowance of scribbling, which had produced the disfiguring effects +upon her fingers noted above, had been employed in sorting Scotch +pebbles and sand-stones, spreading dried sea-weed, and was now engaged +in preparing sundry articles for a Ladies’ Repository--an ingenious +establishment, for which many ladies waste more money in purchasing +materials, than industrious work-women would charge for the finished +articles, in order to have the pleasure of seeing charity distributed, +and the needy relieved, not in proportion as food is wanted, but as +fire-screens are fancied. To this Fanny was a zealous but a thrifty +contributor, and she was now occupied in rounding emery strawberries, +the foliage of which was to be formed of scraps of her light green +cloth pelisse. + +Germain commenced the conversation by attempting some awkward +compliments upon her notable pursuits, but as he felt himself in a +false position, he was relieved by Mr. Dormer’s addressing him. + +“Upon my word, Mr. Germain, you do no credit to your keep since you +left us--you have not fared so well in those meagre countries where you +have been, as you used to do, upon my fattened cuyleys and seven years +old moor-mutton, and some of Fanny’s firmity for supper.” + +The fact was, that the mode of life Germain had been lately leading at +Paris, was not near so much calculated for the promotion of “too solid +flesh,” as the vegetating state of existence at Rosedale Rectory, where +even sentiment was rather soporific. + +“I suppose,” continued Mr. Dormer, “that they half starved you in those +Catholic countries with their fast days.” + +But Germain protesting that he never had suffered any positive +privation, Mr. Dormer, by a natural transition from body to soul, +turned to the other subject, almost as constantly in his mind; and +after folding in an important manner the newspaper he held in his hand, +he began. + +“Pray, Mr. Germain, might I ask whether in those popish parts you have +lately visited, you were ever unfortunate enough to be present at any +of those sacrifices to superstition--those auto-da-fès--those burnings +of heretics?” + +“No, indeed,” replied Germain, rather surprised: “nor was I aware that +any events of the kind had taken place within the memory of man. This +is the first I ever heard of it.” + +“I am sorry, my young friend,” rejoined Mr. Dormer, with an air of +reproach, “to find that you have made so little use of your time--that +you have not been a more observant traveller.” + +Then again unfolding the county paper, he read aloud, with earnest +emphasis, the words in italics. + +“_Characteristics of Catholicism--Burning of a Jew._ It is, we are +proud to say, not a little owing to _our_ unceasing efforts in the +_good Protestant cause_, that these burning piles are seen only as +a warning beacon from afar--that the flames are not now kindled in +Smithfield, or the crackling faggots heard in the market-place beneath +our own office-window. For if such is the treatment of the papists +towards an unoffending _Israelite_, what might we expect, if they had +the power, towards the objects of their unceasing detestation--the +_loyal Protestants_ of these most _religious realms_? Yet there are +amongst us those infatuated enough to wish to open wide our doors to +them. What doors? and to whom?--why the very doors of those two houses +of parliament which, never let it be forgotten, they conspired to blow +to atoms with their hellish popish plot.” + +Germain, perceiving that his worthy friend was not in a state of mind +for serious argument, simply asked: “Do you think, sir, the Catholics +would be so much more likely to blow up the parliament, if they had +seats in it themselves?” + +“God forbid we should ever try!” ejaculated the Rev. Mr. Dormer; +in which short question and answer is contained the epitome of the +arguments on either side, which are sometimes diluted into many +successive nights’ debate on this somewhat threadbare subject. + +“But come, Mr. Germain,” said Mr. Dormer, after a pause, “music +has charms, and Fanny shall delight you with ‘Home, sweet Home.’” +Accordingly Fanny posted herself obediently at a jingling upright +piano-forte, and began. + +It is a penalty upon the popularity of a piece of music in England, +that in six months every hand-organist grinds it, and every ostler +whistles it; and the attraction which in this instance it originally +owed to one person alone, is perpetually weakened by its being screamed +or slurred over by every young lady who has a single note in her voice, +and most of those who have none. + +“It is not so much,” said Mr. Dormer, “Fanny’s musical talent, as that +she sings it with so much depth of true domestic feeling.” + +Germain bowed an extorted assent to the paternal puff, and repeated +mechanically, “So much depth of true domestic feeling.” + +The extremes of art and nature sometimes touch each other, and even +Lady Flamborough, with all her manœuvring, could not have attempted +a more home thrust, as a maternal manager, than Mr. Dormer, in the +simplicity of his heart, gave utterance to, in this mere ebullition +of natural affection. But Germain was at present proof against the +remaining charms of Fanny Dormer--he felt triply armed against a +relapse by the consciousness of a vast foot, thick waist, and inky +fingers; and not a little ashamed of his former weakness, he brought +his visit to an abrupt conclusion. + +Upon Germain’s return to his lodgings, he found Oakley’s letter, +announcing the death of their uncle; but as this letter had followed +him from place to place, resting by the way at sundry country +post-offices, it did not forestall the regular notice of the event in +the London papers. + +Germain was not a little surprised at Oakley’s dwelling much more, in +the first part of his letter, upon the loss he had sustained in the +death of a relation he had never known, than upon the acquisition of a +fortune which he had always expected. From this turning to the concerns +of his friend, Oakley continued-- + +“I can assure you, my dear Germain, that neither this important change +in my own fortune, nor the agitation of the unexpected event which +caused it, has prevented me from reflecting much and seriously on your +future prospects, such as I think I am able to foresee them, from the +insight that long intimacy has given me into your disposition, and +however unwelcome to you it may be, I cannot but repeat, that the +unhappy facility of your temper which renders it an impossibility to +you to say, ‘No,’ will open your purse to every sharper, and surrender +your heart to the first flirt you meet. This last is a danger, however, +against which it is quite out of my province to guard you; but as +to the first, though I cannot prevent it, I may postpone its evil +consequences to you; and as you are always in want of money, and I have +now more than I shall ever know what to do with, I have desired my +banker, without limitation, to answer your drafts.” + +“Generous fellow! his conclusion is admirable, though his reasoning is +somewhat defective,” thought Germain, calling to mind, with consolatory +consciousness, what had passed since they parted, and that he had +escaped being either Fitzalbert’s dupe, or Fanny Dormer’s victim. + +He found Fitzalbert still _en robe de chambre_, at the breakfast-table, +over muffins and shrimps. + +“Nothing in the newspaper,” said he; “I have just finished it. Let +me see; ‘Marriages.--Mr. John Smith to Miss Jane Brown, both of +this town.’--Important. ‘Birth.--At Little Warren, the lady of the +Rev. Peter Parsley was brought to bed of twins, being her nineteenth +and twentieth.’--More inconvenient to the Rev. Peter Parsley than +interesting to us. But, what is this?--‘Died, on Thursday last, at +Rockington Castle, George James, Lord Viscount Rockington;--by his +lordship’s demise, the ancient title becomes extinct, but all his ample +fortunes descend to his nephew, Ernest Oakley, Esq.’ Did you know this, +Germain?” + +“I have just heard from Oakley, announcing the event.” + +“Oakley! well, I wish it had been you.--I hope, however, he will make a +proper use of it. By the bye, Béchamel is now out of place: he should +write about him; he is quite a _cordon bleu_ for the first course; and +though he knows nothing about _pâtisserie_, of course Oakley will have +a confectioner.” + +“All in good time,” said Germain; “he writes me word that he is about +to leave Rockington Castle for his other place, Goldsborough Park, +where he is wanted on business, by the late Lord Rockington’s agent for +that property. I think I shall go over and see him there.” + +“I can drop you then, at the park-gate; for I have received a very +pressing summons from Lady Boreton, to join the party she has just +collected. You must meet me again at the Boretons: you are included in +the invitation, all in due form: ‘Know your family well’--‘old friend +of your mother’s;’--and so forth.” + +Germain, to whom a long _tête-à-tête_ with Oakley in his present +temper, had few attractions, and who was also anxious as soon as +possible to establish himself in the world, caught readily at this +proposal of Fitzalbert’s. + +“Will there,” said he, “be a large party at the Boretons?” + +“Of that you may always feel yourself pretty sure; a little mixed, +sometimes; but I own that is no great objection to me--my taste is +become so depraved that I rather relish a tiger. From long usage, the +regular routine of the exclusives appears to me, ‘weary, flat,’ et +cetera. More than I envy Oakley the fulness of his purse, do I envy you +the freshness of your feelings. For after all, of what use are riches +but as the capital with which to purchase pleasure--the real free trade +which is all over at five-and-twenty? Then are our ports honestly open +for the reception of every agreeable sensation from without, but after +that we are subject to all the drawbacks of our artificial situation, +and fastidiousness is the protecting duty with which we starve our +senses.” + +Germain, who had never heard Fitzalbert utter a serious sentence +before, was rather puzzled to know whether he was quizzing or not. To +avoid the awkwardness of mistaking his vein, he asked him: “Of what +species are the tigers we are to meet at Lady Boreton’s--physical or +intellectual--bucks or bores?” + +“Principally the latter, for her ladyship is rather blue, and has +generally some hangers-on who dabble in literature, or skim the surface +of science. But don’t be alarmed--you will also meet Lady Latimer and +her two unmarried sisters--and these among them secure the attendance +of all the best men, whether marrying or otherwise, who can get +themselves invited. What would I give that Lady Latimer should be as +new to me as she is to you! Gladly would I suffer, as you will, from +the first fear of her frowns, to be rewarded with a faint hope of her +smiles--but, alas! we have long settled for life into easy intimacy and +friendly indifference. I am on this, as on every thing else--perfectly +_blasé_. Why is that phrase as exclusively French as the feeling is +English? It is long since any thing to my taste has seemed _fresh_, +except, indeed, these shrimps,” added he, changing his tone suddenly, +and adding another to the hecatomb of shells which crowded his +plate; after which he rose from the breakfast-table, and they made +arrangements for their departure on the morrow for Boreton Park, where +Germain was to join Fitzalbert, after having spent a night by the way +with his friend Oakley. + +Lest the reader, however, should have as great a dread as Germain +himself of a _tête-à-tête_ with Oakley in his present gloomy temper, +we will not intrude beyond the park-gate where Fitzalbert deposited +his fellow-traveller with, “By the bye, Germain, you may as well see +if you can do any thing with Oakley about an exchange of that property +which joins Latimer Moors--you may remember I showed it to you at a +distance, from the top of that hill when I brought down both those two +old birds you had just missed.” + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + The catastrophe is a nuptial. On whose side? + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +“Who do you think is coming here to-day?” said Lady Flamborough to her +two daughters, as she retired with them to her dressing-room, the party +dispersing after breakfast at Boreton Park. + +The young ladies were well aware, from long experience of their +mother’s manner, that this could only apply to an unmarried, and yet a +marrying man, and Lady Caroline therefore promptly replied-- + +“I suppose, mamma, you mean Mr. Germain--Mr. Fitzalbert told me you +expected him.” + +“Yes, my dear; I remember him a very pretty little boy when I last saw +him with his mother, soon after Mr. Germain’s death. It was a shocking +thing, to be sure, to be left an orphan so young; but the long minority +must have much improved his property, and there is nothing so desirable +in a young man as ready money for an outfit.” + +“But, mamma,” said Lady Jane, “Major Sumner told me that he knew for +certain that Mr. Germain had spent all his ready money.” + +“I don’t know,” replied Lady Flamborough rather sharply, “what right +Major Sumner has to tell you any thing; but I must tell you, the +encouragement you give to such a man must be very disadvantageous to +you.” + +“Really, mamma, I am not aware of ever having given Major Sumner any +reason to suppose that I encouraged his attentions. Our neighbourhood +at dinner here is purely accidental. You might as well attack Caroline +for sitting next Mr. Fitzalbert.” + +“That is quite a different case,” said Lady Flamborough. “Mr. +Fitzalbert is a privileged person, for he is known never to speak to a +girl, unless a dowager is the only alternative. But no young lady ought +ever to talk twice to a man who seems to take pleasure in her society, +unless she knows him to be eligible. And as for Major Sumner, he has +the most sighing swain-like manner I ever beheld. He asks you to drink +a glass of wine as if he were uttering a sentiment, and hands you to +dinner as if he were leading you to the altar.” + +“Well, mamma,” answered Lady Jane, “you have often complained of my +inattention in not following your advice, but you will not have to +reproach me with disobedience, if you never enjoin any thing more +difficult than the avoiding Major Sumner; for, to tell you the truth, +he bores me uncommonly.” + +“To be sure he does. I was certain you had too much good taste to like +him: but that wouldn’t stop that old gossip Lady Diana Griffin’s pen. +She was allowed to walk out alone to dinner yesterday, which of course +called her attention to who sat next whom; and whilst she reposed +in solitary state, with the vacant places for the absent Banquos +left on each side of her, I observed her eyes fixed across the table +upon the long chin of Major Sumner, which was much oftener protruded +perpendicularly over your plate than his own; and this morning, as +I went to breakfast, I saw six letters in her formidably legible +hand-writing waiting for stray franks.” + +“But I think I can defy even her ingenuity to extract an incident out +of our dull dinner.” + +“Perhaps so; but I cannot too often recommend caution to you both as to +encouraging disadvantageous danglers in a country-house. It is twice +as dangerous as a London season. There, some kind friend is sure to +bring one the first unpleasant remark hot from the club-window where +it was cooked, and one can take measures accordingly; but here, a +report is shuttlecocked backwards and forwards for six months before +one hears it, gaining fresh strength every time it passes through the +post-office, till at last a young lady is set down as behaving very +ill to some beggar who has been accidentally thrown in her way. It is +rather a dangerous experiment to get yourself talked about for the man +you really mean to marry. It is purely mischievous to be buzzed about +with an exceptionable. If it was for no other reason, that every +recorded flirtation, however transient, is, unjustly or not, reckoned +as a year added to a young lady’s age.” + +“I dare say you are quite right, mamma,” said Lady Caroline, who +feeling that the lecture was now no longer confined to her sister, +thought it as well to come to her assistance, and at the same time, +confine the conversation to the specific charge; “but, with regard to +Major Sumner’s attention to Jane, you must recollect, that as soon as +ever Miss Luton began to play her eternal concerto, that identical +long chin, which you accuse of having hung perpendicularly over Jane’s +plate, was nailed to the sounding board; and there the Major sat in +fixed admiration, through all its endless rondos.” + +“Ay,” answered Lady Flamborough, “that is a great mistake of poor Mrs. +Luton’s; she is one of the old school. That indiscriminating desire to +display a daughter’s talents, is justly out of date. Young ladies have +not fascination at their fingers’ ends, as mothers and music-masters +have long conspired to persuade the world. Besides, men, with all their +boasted superiority, are such vain weak creatures, that they are always +easier caught by admiration paid than demanded. You will be able to +find out what Mr. Germain’s tastes and pursuits are, and then it will +be time enough to display yours, if you find that they don’t clash.” + +“But why, mamma, should you settle it at once, as a matter of course, +that there should be such reciprocal attraction between Mr. Germain and +me?” asked Lady Jane; “I never saw him, and he probably never heard of +me.” + +“That’s the very reason,” answered Lady Flamborough, “that I expect +something to come of your present meeting. You will be for some time +boxed up here together. He has never been out in London; and, without +making you vain, there is not much here to distract his attention. If +this general election takes place, we shall probably see his friend +Mr. Oakley here, as his interest is the same as that of the Boretons. +He, from what I’ve heard, is more difficult to manage, but very +good-looking, and enormously rich. He would just suit Caroline: and his +property joins Lord Latimer’s--it would be the very thing for Louisa.” + +“I doubt, mamma, whether Louisa would think it the very thing for her, +that her next neighbour, a gay young man, should settle at once into a +humdrum Benedict, and a brother-in-law into the bargain.” + +“That puts me in mind,” returned Lady Flamborough, “to tell you how +much shocked I was the other day, to hear you, in a mixed society, +allude to Louisa’s flirtations; for though she only exacts so much +individual attention as is necessary to make up the sum of general +admiration, which, as a reigning beauty, is undoubtedly her due, yet it +is a subject upon which any young lady, and more particularly a sister, +had better affect utter unconsciousness. At the same time, if Mr. +Germain admires you, Jane, as I expect he will, make it obvious before +Louisa comes, for she certainly sometimes does seem to take a pleasure +in making a snatch at loosely hung chains.” + +A summons to luncheon here interrupted the maternal lecture. + +“What do you mean to do afterwards?” asked Lady Flamborough. + +“Caroline is going to ride,” answered Lady Jane; “and I mean to walk +with Miss Luton through the park, as far as the north lodge.” + +“The north lodge,” said Lady Flamborough, “just so; the road from +Goldsborough Park comes through the north lodge; and you never look +so well as when walking,” added she, casting first an approving glance +at the fine form of her daughter, and then rather an anxious one at +her pale cheek, on which the healthy hue of exercise would, no doubt, +effect improvement. + +But this morning, the roses on Lady Jane’s cheek were doomed to bloom +unseen, for Germain intentionally protracted his arrival till dusk, +thinking the dressing-hour the most convenient opportunity for dropping +into the middle of a large party of people, among whom he knew hardly a +creature. + +His youth and inexperience will sufficiently account for his +feeling a little shy before he was duly amalgamated; for the most +self-possessed can hardly help experiencing an uncomfortable sensation +of insufficiency, when endeavouring in vain to catch, as it is bandied +before him, the tone of a society to which he alone is strange. + +As Germain stood for a moment with the handle of the drawing-room door +in his hand, before he could decide upon opening it, that act was +involuntarily accelerated, by hearing voices descending the stairs +behind him, and he found himself in a blaze of light; and, among a +confused mass of heads, distinguished his friend Fitzalbert, who, +advancing to meet him, presented him in due form to his hostess, Lady +Boreton. Her ladyship overloaded her new acquaintance with civilities; +she was excessively voluble, and it was difficult to remember much +of her communications: which arose more from the redundancy than the +paucity of matter they contained. + +She introduced Germain in succession to each of her other guests, who +happened to pass near them, following up each presentation with a +little “aside,” meant to put her new visitor _au fait_ of the various +characters and pursuits of the motley assemblage. But either her +definitions were not distinct enough, or his faculties were too much +embarrassed to enable him to retain their separate identity; and +when Lady Boreton was summoned away to some new object of attention, +Germain retained only a confused consciousness, that there were among +the unknown faces, that surrounded him, captains that had been to the +North Pole; chemists, who could extract ice from caloric; transatlantic +travellers, and sedentary bookworms; some authors, who owned to +anonymous publications they had never written; and others, who were +suspected of those they denied; besides the usual quantum of young +ladies and gentlemen, who rested their claims to distinction upon the +traditionary deeds of their great-grandfathers. + +One little man, in particular, whom he could not make out at all, +attracted Germain’s attention; he fidgetted about Lady Boreton whilst +she was talking to him, but she, instead of introducing and defining +him like the rest, only told him to ring the bell. When Germain was +left to himself, and therefore could attend to what was going on around +him, he saw this little man attempt in vain to insinuate himself into +two or three of the little groupes that were dotted about the room, and +uniformly repulsed in the same way as he had been by Lady Boreton. At +last he came up to Germain himself, who was standing alone, and asked +him if he had ever been in that part of the country before. Germain, +with true English reserve, felt half offended at what he thought an +impertinence in a person to whom he had not been introduced, and was +inclined to answer him shortly, when Fitzalbert coming up, shivering, +and saying rather sharply, “those doors haven’t an idea of shutting,” +the little man flew to shut them, and Germain was on the point of +asking his friend whether he was the culprit architect, when the +mystery was explained by Lady Boreton crying out, in the highest key +of her voice:--“Sir John, dinner is ready;” and then the little man, +having just shut one door, was seen sneaking out of the other with the +lady of the highest rank upon his arm. + +Germain afterwards found that poor Sir John was considered a nonentity +alike by those who stood behind the chairs, and those who sat around +his table. Lady Boreton’s masculine mind comprehended equally political +principles and domestic details, whilst Sir John’s department was +confined to signing deeds and helping soup. + +Germain having drawn back to allow those who assumed either precedence +on their own parts, or partiality on that of the ladies, to pass two +and two before him, followed among the mass of men who brought up +the rear, and would probably have been condemned to sit between two +strangers, had not Fitzalbert made him a sign to take a vacant place on +the other side of the lady whom he had escorted. + +In availing himself of this hint, Germain had only time to cast a +transient glance at a finely-shaped profile, and a prettily turned +figure, when Fitzalbert interrupted his survey by saying, “Lady Jane, +you must allow me to make you acquainted with my friend, Mr. Germain.” + +A slight acknowledgment was all that immediately followed this +fortuitous introduction, but it lighted up for a moment Lady +Flamborough’s watchful countenance, even though she was herself +suffering under a severe dose of one of the most unrelenting bores that +ever infested society. + +“It is always as well here to know who one’s next neighbour is,” +continued Fitzalbert; “for this is not one of those snug parties where +one can do or say what one pleases without observation.” + +“How do you mean?” asked Germain. + +“Why, Lady Boreton encourages these literary poachers on the manors, or +rather _manners_ of high life; she gives a sort of right of free chase +to all cockney sportsmen to wing one’s follies in a double-barrelled +duodecimo, or hunt one’s eccentricities through a hot-pressed octavo. +Not that they are, generally speaking, very formidable shots--they +often bring down a different bird from the one they aimed at, and +sometimes shut their eyes and blaze away at the whole covey; which +last is, after all, the best way. Their coming here to pick out +individuals is needless trouble. Do you know the modern recipe for a +finished picture of fashionable life? Let a gentleman_ly_ man, with a +gentleman_ly_ style, take of foolscap paper a few quires; stuff them +well with high-sounding titles--dukes and duchesses, lords and ladies, +_ad libitum_. Then open the Peerage at random, pick a supposititious +author out of one page of it, and fix the imaginary characters upon +some of the rest; mix it all up with quantum suff. of puff, and the +book is in a second edition before ninety-nine readers out of a hundred +have found out the one is as little likely to have written, as the +others to have done what is attributed to them.” + +“How then can Lady Boreton’s assistance be of any consequence in a +pursuit which seems as free as air?” asked Germain. + +“Oh! here at least they have an opportunity of observing the cut of +one’s coat, and the colour of one’s hair. For instance: that young +gentleman opposite is a self-constituted definer of fashion, in which +character he has not only already recorded that a fork, not a knife, +should be the active agent in carrying food to the mouth, but has made +some more original discoveries, such as, that young ladies should be +dieted on the wings of boiled chickens, and fine gentlemen should quaff +nought but hock and soda-water; that roast beef is a vulgar horror, and +beer an abomination. I will secure his rejection of me upon his next +conscription of the fashionable world.--Some small beer, pray,” added +Fitzalbert, turning round to the servant, and speaking in a peculiarly +decided tone of voice. “So sensitive a soul must be much shocked at +much he hears and sees amongst great people ‘_en domestique_,’ as he +calls it; by which, don’t imagine he means ‘High Life below Stairs.’ I +hope, however, Lady Jane, that before he next hints a sketch of your +sister, Lady Latimer, he will have learnt that she has not red hair, +and does not habitually exclaim, ‘Good gracious!’” + +Fitzalbert was in high spirits; and whilst he thus went rattling on, +necessarily engrossed so much of the attention of both Germain and +Lady Jane, that the neighbourhood of the two latter did not seem +likely to have the beneficial consequences at first anticipated by +Lady Flamborough; but the desired impression was nevertheless caught, +whether naturally from accidental affinity, or afterwards inoculated +during a long conversation with Lady Flamborough herself, certain +it is, that when Germain lighted his flat candlestick for bed, the +predominant feeling in his mind was, that Lady Jane Sydenham was a +remarkably nice girl. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + I shall forget to have thee still stand here, + Remembering how I love thy company. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +The next morning’s post brought a few lines from Lady Latimer to Lady +Boreton, announcing her intended arrival to dinner that day. The +intercourse between the two families had always been scrupulously +maintained by the regular alternation of prescribed visits; and the +acceptance of the expected invitation always was received on both sides +with great appearance of satisfaction. Not that much pleasure was +ever anticipated by either; but any falling off in their reciprocal +cordiality would at once have threatened to disturb the political peace +of the county, which was only maintained by a compromise between these +two great rival interests. + +At the present moment, there were appearances which threatened that +this truce would not be of much longer duration; and, following the +example of more dignified diplomatists, they redoubled the outward +demonstrations of mutual good understanding, as their fears increased +that future hostilities would be inevitable. These fears were, in +this instance, more sincere than is often the case with some of their +national prototypes, which arose probably from this difference in their +situation, that if they fought, it must be with their own money, not +the people’s; they would have to distribute, not to levy; the gain +might be public, but the cost would certainly be private. + +However, at the next general election a successor would have to be +selected for Mr. Medium, who had announced his intention of then +retiring, after having been for thirty years received as an oracle by +both parties, principally from his own indecision of character. He +had not unfrequently carried the House with him from the mere charm +of inconsistency, and been listened to as an orator from a reputation +for sincerity, which seemed chiefly founded upon an earnest manner and +indifferent English. Such as he was, though he had been a convenient +stop-gap, his general leaning to Tory principles had satisfied Lord +Latimer, who was not an eager politician, and his occasional effective +opposition to ministers had almost consoled Lady Boreton, who was a +red-hot liberal. + +Those most cogent reasons for keeping the peace, whether of countries +or counties--the want of men and money, were both here in full force. +Lord Latimer had no younger brother to put forward to quicken his +political feelings with the incitement of family distinction, and Lady +Boreton could never attempt to produce Sir John on the hustings. On +both sides too their finances left no available surplus after current +expenses. Lady Boreton’s anxiety to save the county from the disgrace +of being represented by two such Tories, had induced her to turn her +attention towards Oakley, whose political feelings were supposed to +be liberal, and who, from his recently-acquired great possessions, +seemed to be the fittest person to put forward. She was very anxious to +get him to her house, that she might have an opportunity of sounding +him upon the subject, and she the more rejoiced at the super-civility +which had induced her to invite Lady Flamborough and her daughters +to meet Lady Latimer, as she had some vague hope that the natural +attraction between a great party on the one side, and handsome girls on +the other, might be ripened into a state of things, which might prevent +so lukewarm a politician as Lord Latimer from taking an active part +against Oakley. + +“You are not yet acquainted with Lady Latimer,” said Lady Boreton to +Germain, as her eye once more glanced over the few careless traces of +that lady’s pen, which wandered, surrounded by roses and cupids, over +the shining surface of her smooth and scented note-paper. + +“No, I never had the pleasure of seeing her,” replied Germain, “and +shall be most happy in this opportunity of meeting one, of whom all who +know her speak in raptures.” + +“Oh, certainly,” said Lady Boreton, “a most delightful person; a +little, perhaps--” added she, lowering her voice, “a little perhaps +spoilt by the world. You have seen Lady Flamborough--well, you may +imagine the sort of education that she would give her daughters. +Lady Latimer, with all her acknowledged attractions, is singularly +superficial, and wants mind, poor thing; and what, my dear Mr. Germain, +is social intercourse without mind?--Would you believe it, when I asked +her to attend Professor ----’s lectures with me, she said, she was much +obliged to me, but she slept very well without them; and when I wished +to introduce to her a friend of mine, who had just written a beautiful +book, she said--not unless she could shut him up when she liked. Depend +upon it, you will find Lady Latimer wants mind. Mr. Alley, I believe +the laboratory is ready.” + +With this Lady Boreton, left Germain, who had not been so fascinated +with what he had seen of her, as not to receive with some reservation +of his own opinion, the disparaging account she had given of Lady +Latimer. + +Strolling into the library in search of a book, he met Lady +Flamborough, who had been, she said, to choose some drawings for the +girls to copy for her. + +“You don’t know Louisa--Lady Latimer, I mean--do you, Mr. Germain?” +said she. + +Germain again replying in the negative, and again repeating his +desire to be able to answer in the affirmative, she continued, whilst +she slowly turned over the contents of the portfolio she had been +seeking:--“Oh, of course you may imagine, Mr. Germain, how gratifying +to a mother’s feelings must be the universal admiration she engrosses, +and indeed even I must be allowed to add it is her due. She is reckoned +very like Jane; to be sure Madame Maradin says, Jane has much the +finest figure, but then, Louisa is not so very young as her sister +is. I should say too, that Jane has the most countenance, but then, +perhaps, I am not quite a fair judge--I may speak, you know, from a +mother’s knowledge of their character, but in my opinion, Jane’s face +shows the most sensibility of expression. If any thing, perhaps, Louisa +rather wants countenance. Here it is--Guercino’s Sybil. Good morning, +Mr. Germain.” + +The weather continuing threatening after luncheon, the gentlemen +guests of Boreton Park, limited their afternoon’s exercise to a +critical stroll through that part of the place which was near the +house. One friend of Sir John’s found out, that unless his hot-houses, +which had just been finished at an enormous expense, were built upon +quite a different principle, they would never be fit to ripen even a +crab-apple; one that his thriving and extensive plantations ought +all to be cut down, or the place would be too damp for any thing but +frogs; another, that the house must be pulled down, and rebuilt in the +snug bottom by the trout-stream; one discovered that his new stables +were not large enough for dog-kennels; another, that if he had the +misfortune to possess such a set of rips as tenanted them, he would +turn them all loose rather than that they should cost him another feed +of corn; and, as the mizzling rain drove them home, all agreed, whilst +they were ascending the broad and easy steps under the shelter of the +splendid portico, which marked the centre of the extended façade, that +they would not live in such a dirty, damp, dreary hole, if any body +would give it to them. + +As two long dusky hours yet remained before dinner, and they had +already settled the local demerits of every thing by which they were +surrounded, it was but natural that they should next occupy themselves +with the personal qualifications of those who were about to be added +to their number; and as Germain wandered about the different corners +of the spacious hall in which they were assembled, various were the +little disparaging comments upon both Lord and Lady Latimer which he +heard; and though there were none of them of any great importance, yet +the avidity with which they were retailed, seemed to him at variance +with that deference which he had always heard was paid to them by +the society collectively in which they moved; for he did not as yet +know enough of the world to be aware that though from any fashionable +pre-eminence which made a person conspicuous, it naturally followed +that he or she should be often talked of, yet praise by no means +followed as a necessary consequence. + +On one side, he heard that Latimer was an excellent fellow, but he +certainly had done some very odd things--it was a pity! one knew for +certain that Lady Latimer rouged; another was quite sure that her +foot was not so small as the far-famed one of a celebrated actress. +A little further on he found Major Sumner sentimentalizing upon “the +unfeeling manner in which she had behaved to his poor friend Colonel +Woodbine, who though a most gallant officer, as brave as a lion in the +field, was of an unfortunately susceptible nature, and after flirting +desperately with him at Brighton, she cruelly cut him when next they +met. Poor Woodbine!” added the major, “if it had not been to get over +the impression her conduct made upon him, I don’t think that he would +ever have gone upon the expedition which proved fatal to him.” + +“Where did he go to?” asked Germain; “the tropic or the polar regions?” + +“No,” said Major Sumner, “he went duck-shooting in the fens, and got +his feet wet. Well, depend upon it, Lady Latimer has no heart.” + +Except Germain, almost every body seemed to have some anecdote of Lord +or Lady Latimer to contribute, derived from their personal knowledge +of them. There were only two other persons in the room, who, it was +evident, were not acquainted with either of them; one was a literary +protégé of Lady Boreton’s, who had lately written a novel in which a +character of Lady Latimer had been insinuated, and the other was a +friend of his, a periodical critic, who had persuaded the world of the +striking resemblance the character bore to the original. + +Any further comments were interrupted by the entrance of lights, which +produced a challenge from Fitzalbert to Germain to the billiard-table, +that stood in the centre of the spacious hall. Germain did not hesitate +on accepting the proposal, though his attention was still much +occupied with all he had lately heard, and his curiosity much excited +to find out how far his own impressions would confirm it. “Wants +mind--countenance--and heart,” thought he, whilst apparently engrossed +in choosing his cue. + +Germain played well at billiards; Fitzalbert perhaps rather better; +but this point had not been decided even as far as the first game, and +there was still uncertainty enough about the event, to give interest to +the various little bets that had been accumulating as they proceeded, +when the grinding of carriage-wheels through the gravel announced an +arrival, and the expected guests were ushered in due form through the +front door. Germain involuntarily paused, even in the act of taking aim +at a dead hazard, in spite of sundry requisitions from those around him +to “go on, go on; I’ve backed you to do this.” + +Of all the sights and wonders of the world, there is hardly any which +one cannot so completely anticipate in idea, by the exertion of a +very ordinary share of imagination, as almost to incur disappointment +upon actual inspection. To this general rule there is one brilliant +exception. A perfectly beautiful woman when first seen, is sure to +present some charm which far exceeds any pre-conceived expectation. +Such was the impression made upon Germain when raising his head from +the billiard-table he first beheld Lady Latimer. She entered, followed +by Lord Latimer, and leading on the other side a third and unexpected +visitor, whose embarrassment she seemed to be endeavouring to lessen. +So thoroughly was this third person protected against the damps of an +autumnal evening, that it was impossible for the most critical eye +to decide more, than that the little she showed of her face seemed +pleasing, and the still less that was seen of her figure appeared +young. + +As Lady Boreton advanced from an opposite door to meet her guests, Lady +Latimer introduced this unexpected addition as “her particular friend, +Miss Mordaunt, rather out of health--wrote on purpose to ask to be +allowed to bring her, and quite forgot to mention it in that stupid +hurried note.” + +Lady Latimer evidently thought that she had said more than enough +on the subject, and turning aside to address some one else, lost +Lady Boreton’s embarrassed and therefore embarrassing reply, which +was in words that “she was always too happy to see any friend of +hers,” but which in tone rather implied that her house was more than +full. It seemed, indeed, to be so felt by the young lady herself, +and proportionably to increase that shyness which had been at first +evident, so as to prevent her debarrassing herself of the various +wraps which completely concealed her from general observation. + +“Oh! on no account let me interrupt so interesting a game,” said +Lady Latimer, finding that such a proposal had been made by Germain, +and objected to by some of the others. “I mean, with Lady Boreton’s +permission, to stay and warm my fingers at this fire for more than +sufficient time for you to decide it.” + +So commanded, Germain resumed his cue, and as he sometimes played with +great execution, made a brilliant stroke. “I’ll bet any one five to +four on the stick,” said Sir Gregory Greenford, who had arrived that +morning. + +“I’ll take it five-and-twenty to twenty,” said Lord Latimer, in the +mildest tone, and with the most careless manner, his quick eye having +observed that Germain played by no means a safe game. Accordingly, his +next stroke was a failure. Fitzalbert made much of a see-saw losing +hazard at the middle pocket. When that was worn out, and whilst +Germain in his turn was taking a deliberate aim, he heard Lady Latimer +inquiring who he was. He involuntarily raised his eye from the table +and met hers-- + +“Who says she wants countenance?” thought he; and with that thought he +played--missed his adversary’s ball--holed his own--lost the game--Lady +Latimer retired to dress--and Lord Latimer pocketed Sir Gregory +Greenford’s poney. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + I will instruct my sorrows to be proud, + For grief is proud, and makes his owner stout. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +“And what has become of Mr. Oakley since his late acquisition?” was +one of the first questions Lady Latimer asked of Germain. Perhaps the +reader may share her ladyship’s curiosity upon that subject, and may +wish for more detailed information than Germain had then an opportunity +of giving in reply. + +It was impossible for any two places to be more different in every +respect than those to which Oakley had succeeded by the same +event--Rockington Castle and Goldsborough Park; the first of which +had been subject to all the caprices arising from the actual presence +of its late strange proprietor; the other had enjoyed the benefit +of the delegated authority of a more rational agent. If the farms +upon the Goldsborough estate, when accidentally vacant, were always +in the greatest request amongst agriculturists; if the relations +between landlord and tenant were here so well understood as for the +two parties to be convinced that their interests were concurrent, not +conflicting--this was entirely owing to the excellent management of +Mr. Gardner, who conducted affairs in Lord Rockington’s name quite +differently from the way in which he would have conducted them himself, +and therefore as beneficially as possible. He was indeed one of the +best specimens of a practical agriculturist; a perfect knowledge of +his subject being joined with an anxious desire to do the best for his +employer, an endeavour that was more likely to be successful, as he +was free from the blind ignorance and self-interest combined which are +apt to defeat their own object. The park was perfectly well kept up, +as were the rest of the grounds, gardens, &c.; and the house, though a +small one, had always been used by Mr. Gardner as his own residence, +was in perfect repair, and fit for immediate habitation. + +There was something in all this, which Oakley could not understand; +for, as he approached the place, leaning back in his post-chaise, and +brooding over past events and future prospects, the one thing that +he had settled in his mind as quite beyond dispute, was, that the +uncontrolled agent of such a property as Goldsborough must be a rogue. +He had contrived several cunning devices, by which he would detect +him if he was a clever rogue, and had rather enjoyed the idea of the +summary expulsion he would inflict if he should be a palpable scoundrel. + +But, in spite of all this prepossession, there was a frankness in +Mr. Gardner’s first _abord_ which puzzled him, till he succeeded in +persuading himself that it must arise from the consummate assurance +of long-undetected villainy. Having accepted Mr. Gardner’s offer of +using his servants, &c. till the arrival of his own establishment, +it was still with jaundiced eyes that Oakley witnessed the little +comforts of this contented man’s adopted home, all of which he looked +upon as so many fraudulent appropriations out of what ought to have +been his inheritance. Even Mrs. Gardner’s self-satisfied allusion to +her scientific care of the garden, he perverted into a bare-faced +acknowledgment that she had made the most of it. In riding the +boundaries with Mr. Gardner, the friendly greeting which that gentleman +received from every one they met, arising from a long experience of +kind and neighbourly offices at his hands, Oakley attributed to the +intimacy arising from the common partnership in his spoils. + +“That piece of rising ground, with that oak grove upon it facing your +house, is freehold property, Mr. Oakley,” said Mr. Gardner; “it would +be a very desirable acquisition to you, and is at present upon sale.” + +“Not mine? to be sure it ought to be. To whom does it belong?” inquired +Oakley. + +“The proprietor is an acquaintance of mine; indeed, a sort of connexion +of Mrs. Gardner’s.” + +“Hum!” said Oakley, who was now convinced he saw through it all. + +“The ground is, fairly speaking, worth some more years’ purchase to you +than to any one else.” + +“Hum!” repeated Oakley. + +“Perhaps, as it is shortly to be put up to auction, and the affair +therefore presses, you would authorize me to offer, which I could +easily do, something more than what, at a fair valuation, it might be +worth to an indifferent person.” + +“Not the fraction of a farthing, Mr. Gardner,” answered Oakley. + +Mr. Gardner, though rather surprised, thought he had done his duty, +and dropped the subject, which was never resumed between them. How far +Oakley’s suspicious nature was here an advantage to him, will hereafter +be seen. + +It was in such a state of mind, pampered too with fond indulgence, +whilst chewing the cud of such congenial food as twenty years unaudited +accounts afford, that Germain found his friend, when Fitzalbert, on his +way to Boreton Hall, dropped him at the park-gate. It was no wonder +then, that Germain did not prolong his visit beyond the one night he +had originally intended, but hastened to rejoin more lively society; +and Oakley remained some time longer undisturbed in trying to detect +fresh grounds for suspicion. + +There were some circumstances, connected with one of the annual items +contained in Mr. Gardner’s accounts, which might have been supposed +to require explanation even by a more candid or careless auditor +than Oakley. This was a yearly sum of 500_l._ mentioned as paid over +by order of Lord Rockington to a banker at a neighbouring country +town. Now it so happened that this banker was also a connexion of +Mrs. Gardner’s, which was found out by Oakley from his bearing the +same name with the gentleman who owned the freehold. Mr. Gardner, +however, protested utter ignorance of the purpose to which the +money was applied, the banker never having communicated with him +on the subject. But, on the other hand, he could produce no other +authority for the annual payment, than that he had been desired by his +predecessor to continue what he represented himself as having been +ordered by Lord Rockington to do. He had once endeavoured to obtain +from Lord Rockington more precise instructions on this, as well as +other subjects, but the only reply he received consisted of these +words:--“Communicate with me only in figures--not letters.” “As to this +payment, it will now be my duty,” said Mr. Gardner, “to obtain for you +all the information in my power--to-morrow I should have had to make a +quarterly remittance of it. I will at the same time make the necessary +inquiries.” + +“Stop it, and say nothing. If this leads to explanation, ’tis well; if +not, I shall know what to infer.” + +This happened a few days previous to Germain’s visit. A few days more +had passed after it: nothing had been heard with regard to the stopped +annuity, and Oakley was beginning to feast upon the certainty that he +had detected Mr. Gardner in bare-faced appropriation, when a packet, in +a woman’s hand, was forwarded to him from Messrs. Maxwell’s office, and +it was with no small surprise that he read as follows:-- + + “It is only from an anxious desire to ensure a patient perusal of + what I have to communicate, and from no vain hope of avoiding the + bitter humiliation which this act must entail upon the writer, that + I have many times thrown down my pen dissatisfied with any attempt + even at opening the subject. Utterly unknown as I am to you, I feel + that you may be as little disposed to believe, as I am to mention + as a boast, that if the utter destitution of _myself_ alone was + effected by the stoppage of the annuity you have withdrawn, I should + a thousand times have preferred a silent acquiescence to saying what + I have to say. But it is one of the difficulties of the appeal I have + to make to you, that founded as it must be, upon the disclosure of + disgraceful facts, I have no right to blend them with the assumption + of credit for those better feelings, which under other circumstances, + I trust you would not be disposed to refuse. + + “The person who is attempting to muster courage sufficient to + send you this paper, though the daughter of a general officer in + the British army, is not a native of these islands, but of a very + different climate, and educated in a very different society from that + to which her father’s rank might have entitled her, had he remained + at home. It was in one of our distant colonies that I was born, and + it was as the idol of its small circle, that I was brought up. I + need no further disclaim any vestiges of vanity as to the personal + admiration I then excited, than by owning, that it is now twenty + years since I first began to overrate their value. I owe no gratitude + to that which was the cause, first of my union with a man older than + my father, one of the principal government officers of the colony, + and afterwards of all my subsequent errors and disgrace. + + “But, though with a feeling far removed from pride, I must, (to + enable you at all to comprehend what I have to say,) acknowledge + that for many giddy years I reigned in undisputed possession of + the admiration of all the small society in which I moved. Lord + Rockington’s appointment as governor, which followed some political + movements which had passed utterly unheeded by me, was an event + which seemed likely completely to change the state of society in the + settlement. His arrival had been preceded by that of many officers + and their wives and daughters, belonging to the enlarged staff which + his appointment entailed. + + “Amongst these ladies, to my surprise, I found, not only pretensions + of declared rivalship, but an air of decided superiority, founded + upon their arrival from Europe. You have never seen, you cannot + imagine, the rancorous jealousies to which an insulated settlement is + subject. There are many virtues honourable to human nature, which + are peculiarly found in such a state of society; but it is also + impossible to conceive by what trifles the worst passions are there + excited. + + “The new state of things produced by these recent additions to the + society, had almost frenzied my frivolous mind, when the arrival of + Lord Rockington himself again completely revolutionized every thing. + It pleased him from the first, to single me out as the undisputed + leader of the courtly circle by which he was surrounded. What he then + was, and how far the undisguised homage of such a man was calculated + to fascinate a foolish weak woman, who had never before even seen + any one of his distinguished rank and reputation, I will not pretend + to plead; there are, if fame be not more than usually false, in more + exalted circles, living witnesses of his seductive arts. But, shame + upon me! the mere recalling of events so long past, seems to have + conjured up with it all those bad feelings I had hoped were for ever + eradicated. + + “Let me escape any further detail of, or comment upon this part + of my subject. I had no excuse; I could not call it love--all + the evil passions of my nature, for a while united in their + victory over better feelings and principles. The intoxication was + short-lived: my husband, who had been absent in a distant part of + the colony, abruptly returned. His suspicions were excited, and + eagerly confirmed by those whose envy had been kindled by my guilty + elevation. My innocent child, my only comfort, was born but to be + denounced and disclaimed by its legal parent. My disgrace, of course, + immediately followed, and was but the forerunner of the ruin of that + distinguished individual, who had rather dazzled my imagination, and + triumphed over my passions, than won my heart. My husband was one + of the principal instigators of his threatened impeachment: in the + excited state of our disorganised society, there were plenty found to + back his accusations; whether they were well-founded or not, is out + of my power to decide; it is sufficient to remember, that they were + successful; and it is but justice to him to say, that even whilst + writhing under that degradation, which his proud spirit must have + rendered insupportable, the arrangements of that allowance which you + have stopped, was the last act which showed sympathy with his kind. + + “Now, Mr. Oakley, if in what I have related you have seen any + symptom of a weak desire to extenuate my guilt, or to work upon + your feelings, by finding out subtle excuses for my conduct--then + heed not the earnest appeal I am about to make, not for myself, + but for one whom I should not, even after another twenty years of + bitter repentance, be worthy to describe as she deserves,--the best, + kindest, and most affectionate of daughters. But if you can enter + into the bitter feelings of humiliation, with which I have avowed + myself to an utter stranger such as I was, then perhaps you will + credit the assurance, that the fatal errors of my own early life + have not been without their due impression, and that the harrowing + recollections derived from them have been but another incitement, to + instil better principles into the willing mind of her, who has the + misfortune to owe her being to me. + + “What the circumstances of her birth were, I am sure you will think + I have not done wrong in concealing from my innocent girl. To assume + a fictitious name, was a necessary consequence of that concealment. + That thus unexplained, she has borne with the utmost cheerfulness, + and without ever repining, that life of solitude, to which I have + always adhered, is one of the least of her virtues. Accident made her + acquainted with a lady, whose friendship her merits obtained her. + That at that lady’s request I have allowed her, under her protection, + to leave me for a while to mix in that society she is so calculated + to adorn, I now feel to have been my greatest error in regard to her; + for Helen would never submit to move in the world as a dependent + beggar. My only excuse is, that at the time I so permitted her, from + the mystery with which your uncle’s affairs have long been conducted, + I was ignorant that the provision he had made for his child was not + legally settled. + + “I have finished my irksome task. I have confined myself, as much as + the agitation of my feelings would allow, to a statement of facts. + I make no request; but hope that at least you will understand the + motive of this intrusion by her, who has long been known only as + + “EMILY MORDAUNT.” + +This appeal was, on many accounts, peculiarly calculated to excite +Oakley’s sympathy. Candour was a quality, the existence of which he +was often inclined to dispute, but that once acknowledged, no one was +more ready to do justice to its value. The utter absence of any attempt +at self-justification on the part of Mrs. Mordaunt, which in her case +arose spontaneously from the habitual discipline of a contrite spirit, +would, even if only artfully assumed, have been the best method to win +his favourable attention. + +The idea too, of scrupulously attending to the wishes of his late +uncle, would at the present moment, independent of any other +consideration, have been one of the most powerful incentives to +action. He wished in person to have explained, and apologised to +Mrs. Mordaunt for the temporary stoppage of the annuity, but on +communicating through Messrs. Maxwell his desire to do so, he found +that it was an effort she wished to be spared. + +He lost no time however, in directing that the settlement should be +made legally binding on himself, and grumbled not a little at the +delay in the execution of his orders, caused by the crampt movements +of his lawyer’s fingers, in whose hands the most volatile quill ever +plucked from the feathered tribe, would have lost all its former winged +properties. Certain it is, that his better feelings had been roused by +the appeal that had been made to them. He recurred with satisfaction +to the part it had enabled him to act; and whilst he remained in his +present solitude, even in the midst of a doubtful “dot and carry one” +in a disputed account, an indistinct vision would sometimes cross +him of a figure, in whose features the fine outlines of his uncle’s +portrait were softened into feminine loveliness, and whose gentle eyes +beamed with gratitude to her benefactor. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + ----A wife whose words all ears took captive, + Whose dear perfections hearts that scorn’d to serve, + Humbly called Mistress. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +Lady Latimer and her protégée were left retiring to dress, and +according to generally-established precedent, a full and detailed +account ought to be given of the successful result of their labours. +But will my fair readers pardon a poor author who owns that it is the +dread of their disgust which makes him shun an attempt by which some +ignorantly suppose that their favour is easiest won? For though he +hopes that, utterly unskilled as he is in these mysteries, he still +might manage to avoid such glaring mistakes as those made by some +self-constituted authorities on these subjects, who have scandalized +the taste of the sex, and volunteered a display of their own ignorance +by a description of their heroine either by daylight in the dog-days +in a superb dress of rich black velvet, or shining amid December snows +in flowing drapery of the finest white muslin; yet even avoiding this +Scylla and Charybdis, the writer of these pages is aware he is on +dangerous ground. Though he might escape any such flagrant error at the +present moment, many months may yet intervene before this meets the +public eye; and as he has, like other such ephemeral creatures, his own +little unacknowledged hopes of a sort of indefinite immortality, he +cannot bear the idea that if he should now so commit himself, when the +next return of spring shall enable the universally admitted arbitress +of taste to hold her annual court at Longchamp, even on that very day +every pretty pair of Parisian eyes would be averted in contempt from +this antiquated and old-fashioned page, and as a necessary consequence, +as fast as the post could convey the Journal des Modes, that contempt +would become universal, not falling alone, as it ought, on his devoted +head, but what is of infinitely more consequence, being unjustly shared +by the ladies whom he would have thus arbitrarily condemned still to +wear the fashions of the bygone year. + +He hopes therefore that no more will be expected of him than vaguely +to assure his readers that when Lady Latimer had exchanged her +travelling-dress, the success of her toilet was justly the admiration +of the brilliant circle she found re-assembled to meet her; and that +as she was far above any low idea of rivalry, much more than the care +which she had bestowed upon her own appearance, had been lavished upon +that of the pretty interesting girl who accompanied her, and upon whom +she had forced many of her own newest and most becoming ornaments. + +Fitzalbert loudly protested that it quite refreshed him to see for the +first time any thing so singularly attractive as Miss Mordaunt; but +Germain had eyes for no one but Lady Latimer; he had predetermined +that she would be the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Nature +certainly had been a party to this predetermination, and the charm of +those perfections which she had borne from her birth was enhanced by +that allurement of manner which cannot be described. Combined with the +most perfect propriety of deportment, there was, when she pleased, a +softened expression in her bright eye, a subdued tone in her musical +voice, which, unmarked by all else, conveyed to him whom she addressed, +an irresistible impression of interest. + +The effect of this was not lost upon Germain, to whose evident +admiration she was by no means insensible. He was good-looking, +agreeable, and well-informed, and his newness in the ways of the world +was rather an additional merit, when freed from the first incrustation +of _mauvaise honte_, which her easy, gentle manners soon contrived to +remove. + +He was a welcome neighbour to her at dinner, for from the first she had +looked forward to her visit to the Boretons as an unpleasant duty, and +the set she had found assembled had, with few exceptions, confirmed +that expectation. Fitzalbert to be sure was one of her intimates, but +then it was the intimacy of indifference. He too seemed for the present +very sufficiently occupied in attempting to overcome the diffidence of +her young friend, Miss Mordaunt. + +Meantime Lady Latimer’s rapidly-ripening acquaintance with Germain +suffered no check from her other neighbour, Sir John, who, after he +had asked her whether she drank wine or liked a screen, offered no +further interruption. Where all this while was the anxious eye of Lady +Flamborough, whose worst fears seemed confirmed as to the engrossing +nature of her daughter Louisa’s love of admiration? It reposed with +some sort of consolation upon the juxtaposition of Lady Caroline and +Sir Gregory Greenford, whose unexpected arrival that day had already, +as has been noted above, cost him a _poney_, and now seemed to have +exposed him to a renewal of these manœuvres on Lady Flamborough’s part, +which the abrupt termination of the London season had inopportunely +interrupted. + +At the opposite end of the table Lord Latimer and Lady Boreton were +mutually engaged with equal art in avoiding to say what they really +thought upon a very interesting subject, which had been indiscreetly +brought upon the tapis by the literary gentleman from London, unluckily +ignorant as he was of county politics. This was no less an event +than the long-expected advertisement from Mr. Medium, announcing his +intention, on account of increasing infirmities, of taking the earliest +opportunity of retiring from the representation of the county. + +“So,” said the Londoner, “I see that you are likely to have a vacancy +for the county--Who is expected to succeed Mr. Medium?” + +This was a most important question, upon which both Lord Latimer and +Lady Boreton had settled in their own minds to meditate much, consult +cautiously, decide deliberately, and after all this to communicate +formally to each other their separate determinations: instead of +which they were summarily required in each other’s presence to +give an off-hand answer. It was impossible to affect deafness, for +though a moment before the clatter and chatter of knives, forks, and +tongues, had seemed eternal, just then there had occurred one of those +unaccountable pauses which sometimes cause a sudden calm, so that much +more gentle tones than those of the pragmatical gentleman who had made +the inquiry would have been very sufficiently audible. + +Lord Latimer had just drank a glass of wine with Lady Boreton, so that +even this ready resource to turn the conversation was no longer open. +Luckily, he who had caused the dilemma came to their relief, for not +receiving a ready answer to his question, he proceeded with the subject +for the sake of introducing which he had propounded it, a critical +analysis of poor Mr. Medium’s advertisement; where, to be sure, for so +constitutional a statesman, some sentences were cruelly burdened with a +“dead weight” of adverbs and adjectives: and pronouns were arbitrarily +entrusted with authority over considerable portions of the address, +which are usually supposed in such a case to be themselves governed by +a verb. + +“It is,” continued the critic, “a sufficient proof of the inaccuracies +tolerated in our legislative assemblies, that a gentleman who had +passed his whole life there, should at this time, being resigning, not +have learnt to write better.” + +Lord Latimer could not help remarking, in an under tone to Lady +Boreton, that a person _being_ criticizing might have learnt to avoid +the worst innovation in the style of modern times. He then continued +aloud for fear the critical gentleman should again become curious: +“Poor Medium, he certainly never was much of a purist.” + +“And yet I doubt,” rejoined Lady Boreton, “whether he ever read any +book more at a sitting, than others do of a dictionary.” + +“Or even of a newspaper,” added Lord Latimer, “than just to see whether +the stupid editor had made any mistake in the name of the cover where +his hounds were advertised to meet.” + +“Well, and what can be more provoking than such a mistake?” said Sir +Gregory. Lord Latimer, and Lady Boreton, both felt satisfied that they +had succeeded in turning the subject--half the party were soon in full +cry with Mr. Medium’s hounds, and engaged in the more interesting +enquiry, who was to succeed to them, as chronic gout, and rheumatism, +were likely to incapacitate the sufferer from his duties as much in +the field as in the House. + +But though for the present, the necessity of explanation had been +avoided, it did not the less impress both parties with the conviction +that something ought soon to be settled on the subject. To induce +Oakley to come forward, was, as has been stated before, Lady Boreton’s +best hope, Sir John’s insignificance or nonentity being by none more +feelingly acknowledged than her ladyship. She had already had the +proposal hinted to Oakley, in a manner that she thought the most likely +to be attended with success. + +Of all the various propositions that can be made to a young man in his +situation, there is none as to the motives of which he is so likely +to be deceived, or to overrate the advantages of an offer of support, +should he be induced to come forward as a popular candidate at a +contested election. All Oakley’s defects too, whether of temper or +disposition, which made him feel uncomfortable in many of the relations +of private life, were so many additional incentives to seek distinction +in public, and to make politics his resource. In principle he was a +decided advocate for universal liberty, tempered only so far as common +sense told him restraint was necessary; but as he was prepared to carry +with him, in whatever character he appeared, the same uncompromising +contempt for the opinions of any individuals who differed with him, +he was more likely to acquire the somewhat sterile fame of a most +unbending patriot, than to be a useful partner in promoting any +practical benefit to his country. + +However, his exalted station in the county, unblemished character, and +commanding talents, made it obvious that a more eligible candidate +could not be put forward by any party. The zeal and sincerity of his +attachment to the popular side marked him as worthy the choice of the +people, if his reserve, hauteur, and coldness, in the intercourse of +private life, could be so far subdued as to induce him to take the +necessary steps towards obtaining their suffrages. Such as he was, +however, Lady Boreton was determined to do her best to bring him in; +and he had so far acceded to the arrangement, as to consent to join the +present mixed party at Boreton Hall, whose places, as they gradually +dropped off, were to be filled by more decided county partizans; and +the probable success of the attempt, should he come forward, was then +to be discussed amongst them. + +As to Lord Latimer, his plans were by no means so far matured as Lady +Boreton’s. Politics were with him by no means so first-rate a pursuit. +He had succeeded to a situation in the world which necessarily entailed +a considerable degree of political influence; this he certainly thought +it his duty not to abandon, but besides that, the overweening indolence +which has been mentioned as obscuring his talents, made him dislike +trouble of any kind: but he was, when he could persuade himself to +think at all on the subject, by no means an illiberal Tory. + +When the question was publicly put as to who was to succeed Mr. Medium, +he would have disliked hearing uncontradicted any radical nomination of +Lady Boreton’s, lest he should be supposed tacitly to concur in it; yet +there were many reasons likely to prevent his taking an active part in +thwarting her arrangements. + +“Our new neighbour, Mr. Oakley, has promised us the pleasure of his +company to-morrow,” said Lady Boreton, carelessly, to Lord Latimer, +having first carefully so separated this remark from the previous +conversation as to prevent his suspecting that the visit was connected +with the object of that inquiry. But she need not have feared any such +inference on Lord Latimer’s part, for the mention of Mr. Oakley in the +character of their new neighbour gave quite a different turn to his +thoughts, and first brought to his recollection the disputed moors +above Peatburn Lodge, which had lately been out of his mind, partly +from his not having himself been out on the 12th of August, and partly +from his thoughts having till lately been much engrossed by important +annual business at Doncaster races. It now, however, occurred to him, +that in consequence of the transfer of the Rockington property to new +hands, a favourable opportunity was likely to arise of effecting an +exchange which would remove the offensive intrusion of another man’s +ground into one of his best beats. + +It so happened, therefore, that though dinner had not promised +much pleasure to any of the party, almost all arose from the table +with agreeable impressions uppermost in their minds. Lady Boreton +anticipated in Oakley an uncompromising patriot; Lord Latimer an +accommodating sportsman; Lady Flamborough’s satisfaction was divided +between the actual presence of Sir Gregory Greenford and the expected +arrival of Oakley, who might, she now thought, do still better for Jane +than Germain. The literary lion had had an opportunity of haranguing, +and Sir John had not been expected to talk, a state of things that was +mutually satisfactory. + +Lady Latimer and Germain had been reciprocally pleasing and pleased; +and as for Fitzalbert and Miss Mordaunt, it would be difficult to say +which had most puzzled and perplexed the other. That a young person +like Helen Mordaunt, to whom society was perfectly strange, should be +dazzled and bewildered by Fitzalbert’s flow of conversation, was not +to be wondered at; but on his part he found it difficult to determine +what could be her undeniable attraction. “Is it,” thought he, “merely +because she is a remarkably pretty girl, with a very distinguished +air?” That it partly arose from her being so perfectly natural, never +occurred to him as an additional solution of the difficulty. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + Then she plots, then she ruminates, then she devises; and what they + think in their hearts they may effect, they will break their hearts + but they will effect. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +The intercourse of society is maintained by a sort of tacit compact +between the few who are determined to have their own way, and the +many who consent to allow it them. If it were not thus, there would +be numberless contests about things very little worth the trouble of +contention. Of course, in these two classes there are various degrees, +and he who leads in one society will follow in another. But I am +alluding only to that temper of mind which disposes a man, when among +his equals, to drive or be driven; as one of these relative positions +sounds much pleasanter than the other, one would imagine that it would +be desired by every one who could attain it. + +This, however, is far from being the case. Nor is the right to have +one’s own way, and the power of making others acknowledge it, founded +on any well-grounded claim. It is generally a matter of unaccountable +assumption on the one part, and concurrent concession on the other. + +To be such a privileged person seems to depend merely upon a man’s +own taste and temper; and to the success of the attempt it is only +necessary that some sort of passport should be possessed which secures +admission into society, and prevents another’s power of “cutting dead,” +an alternative that would, if possible, be gladly adopted by all; but +this danger avoided, the enjoyments of sheer selfishness seem manifold. +Wherever such a person goes, the ninety and nine easily satisfied +guests are neglected, to study the price of him who is hard to please; +he may indulge uncontradicted in infinite paradox, any thing being +considered preferable to endless dispute. If after a course of such +studied indulgence, he should condescend to be agreeable, every one is +at once in ecstacies of gratitude, exclaiming, “How very delightful Mr. +So-and-so, can be!” whereas, if a systematically good-natured man is +ever provoked, by an unlucky concurrence of circumstances, to commit +himself by losing his temper, he is sure never to hear the last of it. + +But the privileged person is not without some little drawbacks upon the +advantages of his situation, sitting as he does like an incubus upon +the spirits of society: he finds himself artfully omitted from any very +pleasant party; and if chance should ever cause him to linger near an +open door, or any such social trap for sincerity, he is not unlikely +to hear himself talked of without that restraint which the love of a +quiet life, and the dislike of a needless quarrel, felt by all prudent +people, may have caused in his presence. + +Oakley was as yet by no means sufficiently known to have established +himself irrevocably in either of these classes, but the character which +he had acquired at college, and rather confirmed by the report of the +few persons whom he did not succeed in avoiding at Paris, was that of +“a stiff sort of fellow, whom it was very difficult to make out; clever +enough, certainly, but with nothing off-hand about him.” + +This opinion, which had originally been thus elegantly expressed by +some jolly companions, for whom he had not attempted to conceal his +contempt, had been substantially repeated with some variation in the +terms, whenever his name was subsequently mentioned; and it was on this +that the general expectation in the minds of the party at Boreton Hall, +who were awaiting his arrival, was founded. The importance attached to +his adventitious acquisitions prevented his being allowed to drop in as +an indifferent item in the party; it became necessary either to reckon +upon him as a valuable addition, or to dread him as a bugbear, and the +latter alternative was generally adopted. + +It was in consequence of this, and the disposition it produced, rather +to avoid his neighbourhood, that accident placed him, on the first day +of his arrival, by the side of Miss Mordaunt. He had not heard her +name, and the resemblance to his uncle, which had he done so could not +have failed to strike him, was not strong enough at once to explain +itself to him as the cause of the interest he felt in addressing her. +The young lady, though as usual, much engrossed by her other neighbour +Fitzalbert, whose ever-ready rattle still amused her, would not agree +with him afterwards, that Oakley had by any means, a forbidding +countenance, or that his smile at all partook of the nature of a sneer; +perhaps this difference of opinion may have arisen from that which +passed by the common name of smile, not having been a precisely similar +movement of the lips towards these two different persons. + +Oakley hastened to inquire of Germain, the name of the young lady who +had been sitting next him. + +“Oh,” said Germain, “it’s Miss--, Lady Latimer always calls her Helen; +Miss----let me see--one never remembers a name when one is asked. +Don’t you think Lady Latimer a most beautiful woman?” + +“Very handsome, certainly; but for my part, I admire much more the lady +she is talking to; there is a great likeness between them, the one +without any thing in her hair.” + +“That’s her sister, Lady Jane; a very pretty, and a very delightful +person, but not to be compared to Lady Latimer. There is no accounting +for tastes. There’s Fitzalbert, who sometimes takes strange fancies +into his head, says, that he doesn’t think either of them as pretty as +that Miss Mordaunt.” + +“Miss Mordaunt?” eagerly inquired Oakley. + +“That’s the young lady you were inquiring about--Miss Mordaunt; she +came here with Lady Latimer, who----” + +“One word, Mr. Oakley,” said Lady Boreton, coming up between the two +friends, and interrupting the opportunity they would otherwise have +had, the one of talking about Lady Latimer, the other of thinking +about Helen Mordaunt. If Oakley had been better acquainted with Lady +Boreton, he would have had a more adequate horror of the interminable +nature of her “one word,” but as it was, he quietly submitted to follow +her to a sofa in a remote corner of the gallery, and to confine, as +far as possible, his attention to her ladyship’s somewhat digressive +confidences on the subject of county politics. + +At length, her “one word” having proceeded at the rate of half a word +an hour, he was released for the evening; and then, when he retired +to his own apartment, the impressions made by the really important +communications on the subject of the coming election, which he had +been able to extract from Lady Boreton’s somewhat chaffy reasoning, +occasionally gave place to the pleasure he felt at thus unexpectedly +meeting one with whom circumstances had already somewhat mysteriously +connected him, and whose appearance seemed so well calculated to +confirm the predetermined favourable bent of his imagination. + +The next morning, after breakfast, Lady Flamborough, having first +contrived some occupation for her two unmarried daughters, which should +prevent their being in the way, led Lady Latimer to her boudoir, being +anxious to have a private interview with her, which she meant should +partake of the mixed character of asking advice and giving a lecture. +For since Louisa’s marriage, and the consequent abrogation of maternal +authority on the part of Lady Flamborough, the usual relations between +mother and daughter had become a little confused, and the mother was +certainly the most to blame for any failure of that filial respect +which might have been hers, had she not herself shown that she +considered her own claims on that score as inferior to the deference +due to Lady Latimer’s artificial position in the world. + +She had also lost much of her influence over her daughter, from the +latter having afterwards discovered some of the little manœuvres by +which her mother had attempted to promote her union with Lord Latimer, +and as, whatever her other faults might be, she was herself sincere and +single-hearted even to an extreme, she could not but feel dislike at +the means her mother had employed, even before she became sensible that +the end thus attained had far from contributed to her own happiness. +Not that one can therefore defend the playful malice with which she +sometimes endeavoured to defeat her mother’s management for her +sisters, for if her opinion of the mischievous effect it was likely to +produce, would not justify her in being the person thus to interfere, +it must also be confessed, that her own eager love of admiration was +sometimes not without its share in inducing her to make the attempt. + +In spite, however, of the little annoyances of this description which +she sometimes gave her mother, Lady Flamborough was well aware, that +the brilliant éclat of her eldest daughter cast a reflected lustre +upon her sisters, and that if she could persuade her, which she had +often in vain attempted, to assist her in procuring for them suitable +establishments, she would be a most valuable auxiliary in any such +scheme. + +It was to make one more effort of this kind, as well as to hint, if +possible, that she ought not herself to take possession of Germain, +that she had summoned her to her boudoir. + +“I wished to consult you, my dear,” she began; “but, first let me look +at that beautiful cap--Herbault’s I perceive. I am not sure, that I +quite like the colour of those ribbons.” + +“It’s quite new, however, and aptly entitled, _feu d’enfer_,” said Lady +Latimer. + +“Well, you are certainly looking remarkably well, quite a different +thing since I saw you in London;” kissing a cheek, the brilliancy of +whose hue, even the trying neighbourhood of _feu d’enfer_ could not +injure. “But,” added she, “I wished to consult you about Sir Gregory +Greenford’s attentions to Caroline; his following her here certainly +must mean something.” + +“Do you think so? He is generally most inexplicably void of meaning. +But, how do you know he followed her?” + +“Oh, who can doubt it? He must have known that Lady Boreton would never +have asked him on any other account: he is not at all in her line. +But what I wished to say is this--that as Sir Gregory is soon going to +Newmarket with Lord Latimer, I thought a word, a hint from him on the +subject, might do great good.” + +“My dear mamma, depend upon it, if Latimer takes that opportunity of +trying upon Sir Gregory his talents at match-making, it won’t be in +the _matrimonial_ line; and as I don’t perceive the advantages of any +description that I am to gain from having such a fraternal fool for the +rest of my life, you must excuse my interfering in the business.” + +“Surely you cannot be indifferent to the prospect of such an +advantageous establishment for Caroline; for you must recollect, +that she is only two years younger than you; and years count quite +differently in a girl,” added she, observing from a glance Lady Latimer +cast at the glass, she did not think her mother’s mode of reckoning +judicious. “Besides, she is not near so generally admired as Jane, who +grows more like you every-day. As to her, though you do not approve of +Sir Gregory Greenford for Caroline, I think you will not have the same +objection to Mr. Germain for Jane.” + +“Mr. Germain for Jane!” repeated Lady Latimer, in a tone in which was +meant to be expressed that this surpassed even the usual latitude of +improbability taken by her mother in these speculations. + +“Yes, before you came every one remarked the evident attention he paid +her; and when I asked him last night if he did not see the strong +resemblance between you two, you can’t think how confused he was, +as he replied that Oakley had just observed it to him. Now, though +most worldly mothers would think differently, I would rather see Jane +married to Mr. Germain than Mr. Oakley, with all his wealth. There is +something singularly disagreeable to me in that young man. I merely +told him, that I had heard so much of the splendour of the late Lord +Rockington’s jewels, that I should be delighted to see them. ‘When they +are for sale or rather barter, you shall have the earliest notice,’ was +his answer. Now, it was not so much what he said, for I don’t exactly +know what he meant, but there was something in the tone of his voice +that was offensive. Your new protégée, Miss Mordaunt, however, did not +seem to think so. You know, I never can find fault with any conduct of +yours, or else I might say, that it was not very kind to your sisters +to bring that girl to a party of this kind as a rival to them. And +Fitzalbert, who is certainly losing his good taste, crying her up so +ridiculously, is sure to have its effect with all those young men who +allow him the trouble of thinking for them.” + +“Helen wants no such panegyrist,” said Lady Latimer warmly; “but +make yourself easy, mamma, it shall be my task to take care she does +not engross Germain; and as for Mr. Oakley, she is a great deal too +good for him. I quite agree with you, that he is one of those whose +concurrence is even more grating than some people’s contradiction. +Latimer wished me to be civil to him, on account of some estate which +he wants him to exchange about Peatburn Lodge. Dear pretty Peatburn, +shall I ever see you again?” added she, with something approaching to a +sigh, “and my poor neglected rosebuds too! Alas! they contained not the +only hopes which then blossomed but to fade;” and she paused a moment, +as if cherishing the recollection of the sole semblance of domestic +happiness she had ever enjoyed. + +They had retired there for the shooting season soon after the +expiration of their honeymoon; and though Lord Latimer was out upon +the moors all the morning, he always appeared to return with as much +eagerness as he went out; and if she might then have expected more, she +certainly had since experienced less. The unsophisticated sameness of +the simple recreations with which she had then contrived to while away +his absence, had in her remembrance acquired a charm from all that had +since intervened. + +“How happily could I pass all the rest of my life in that secluded +dell, only that----” she paused, but she might have added, “only that +one half of it is predestined to social dissipation in London, the +other to dissipated society in the country.” If, however, a year should +ever be made with thirteen months, she thought she would pass the +thirteenth at Peatburn Lodge. + +“And now, mamma, as you have no more daughters to marry, you must let +me leave you, for Helen will be lost in this strange house, and be +wondering what has become of me.” + +But Helen was not one who ever found any difficulty in occupying +herself, and she had been employing the morning very much to her +satisfaction in writing to her mother an account of all that had +happened since her arrival. And as she never had any concealment from +her, she meant to be perfectly explicit in the detail of all her own +impressions and feelings, as well as the manners and appearance of +others. + +In furtherance of this intention, she had certainly recorded many +more of Fitzalbert’s bad jokes than with a little more knowledge of +the world she would have thought worth communicating; nor was it her +fault if she was not quite so candid in all she thought of Oakley: for +how could she put upon paper that she fancied, in addressing her, his +smile was softer and kinder than that he bestowed upon the rest of the +world?--And this was all she had to tell. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + _Warwick._ I love no colours; and without all colour + Of base insinuating flattery, + I pluck this white rose, with Plantagenet. + + _Suffolk._ I pluck this red rose, with young Somerset, + And say withal, I think he had the right. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +It was a few days after the foregoing interview between Lady Latimer +and her mother, that Lord Latimer, beckoning Fitzalbert aside after +breakfast, communicated to him the unsuccessful result of the request +he had made to Oakley to open a negociation on the subject of the +exchange of the moors about Peatburn Lodge. + +“I never in my life,” said his lordship, “saw such a cross-grained +curmudgeon; his only answer was, that he felt it his duty to preserve +his uncle’s property such as he had left it to him.”--“But, my dear +fellow,” said I, “this is quite unconnected with all the rest of your +property--a useless waste without a house on it. I shall be always most +happy to receive you at Peatburn Lodge whenever you like to pay me a +visit; but as to shooting on that ground from your own house, you can +no more do it from thence than could your honoured uncle himself from +wherever he now is. I own I was wrong to say that, Fitz, but I could +not help it, though I felt it at the time. Well, the look it produced +from him was one of which I have not seen the like since I got out of +the lower school at Eton; and saying that the reasons of my request +were so trivial, that he would not willingly be compelled to take any +thing seriously in the treatment of such a subject, therefore he would +only reply that I had his answer----he left the room.” + +“A most statesman-like full stop, indeed,” said Fitzalbert. “He fancies +he has already got into the House; or perhaps this was only his +conciliating manner of asking for your vote and interest.” + +“How do you mean?” inquired Lord Latimer; “has he any intention of +coming forward in the place of Mr. Medium?” + +“I have no doubt on the subject,” replied Fitzalbert. “You know, being +no politician myself, I sometimes am, unheeded, allowed to overhear +half-expressed confidences on the subject; such as the necessity +yesterday enforced by Lady Boreton, of his sitting next the squinting +red-haired Miss Martin, (the only daughter of Martin and Co.’s +manufactory,) whom they had brought back with them, after driving +over in the morning to see his new steam-mill--rather a suspicious +expedition itself--which will end in something more than smoke, depend +upon it.” + +“But I will never give my support to such an unlicked cub--let him mark +down all the votes he’ll get from me among the barren bogs he is so +anxious to keep. A red-hot radical too, I’m told!” + +“Yes, and a moderate man like you will find his opinions equally +well represented by such a factious firebrand as Oakley, and such a +furious bigot as Mr. Stedman, the old member. Well, as I said, I am no +politician, but I can’t help thinking it but befits a gentleman to move +methodically forward with the main body of the age in its regular march +of mind, neither seeking foolish forlorn-hopes in advance like Oakley, +nor lagging disgracefully in the rear like old Stedman and those who +think with him. I care for none of them. To me the _sans culottes_ +of the jacobin, and the orthodox _leathers_ of the old school, are +alike unseemly. You, who are stuck up as a pillar of the state, ought +to think more seriously of these things than I, who am but a bit of +useless cornice overhanging the surface of society.” + +“Begging your pardon, Fitz, I think the most valuable privilege of +‘a well-deserving pillar’ of the ‘order’ to which I belong, is that +which exempts me from thinking any more than if I were stone indeed. +The drudges of the lower house are obliged, if not to hear before they +decide, at least to wake before they can vote. Many a time has ‘my +voice potential, double as the duke’s,’ carried a question, not after a +debate in Parliament, but after a rubber at Newmarket.” + +“But I don’t want you to take any further trouble than just to enter +your proxy in the other House too. ’Tis a luxury that belongs to your +rank and fortune, as much as a second carriage.” + +“Well,” answered Latimer, “I should have no objection to that, only a +county member is an article of rather expensive manufacture; and that +unlucky filly having won the St. Leger makes it a little inconvenient.” + +“To be sure it’s no business of mine,” said Fitzalbert, “but I’ll tell +you a plan that has occurred to me, which you may think on at your +leisure. What do you say to Germain? he has a very good, though not +a first-rate property in the county, and plenty of ready money from +his long minority; brought forward on your interest he might succeed +without costing you any thing. I don’t know much of his political +opinions, but I should think they were malleable enough to satisfy you.” + +This proposal had many recommendations to Lord Latimer; he was in a +state of mind very much to enjoy any thing that had a tendency to +thwart Oakley; but like most gentlemen who love their ease, he had a +great horror of being brought into constant collision with disagreeable +people; and it was only the having to do with a person so much to +his mind as Germain, that could reconcile him to embarking in such +an undertaking. But when he sounded Germain on the subject, under a +strict injunction of secrecy, the latter rejected it at once, with more +decision than he had previously shown on any occasion; saying that he +was himself utterly unfit for it, and that if it was to oppose Oakley, +of whose intention of coming forward he had however not been informed, +that would be an additional objection. + +And thus matters rested for some time. Lord Latimer was satisfied with +himself at having made an effort to overcome his usual inaction in +such matters, and went to Newmarket, leaving Lady Latimer to be taken +up on his return homewards. This was not an arrangement Lady Boreton +had anticipated, though she had herself originated the proposal; +in fact, it rather embarrassed her political schemes by keeping up +the mixed character of the party; but, on the other hand, it had +its advantages; it prevented any suspicion of the existence of an +electioneering cabal, and whilst Lady Latimer and Germain were allowed +to enjoy each other’s society, they were not very likely to interfere +with any of the Simpkinses or Jenkinses, who, in the character either +of busy agents or officious partisans, were constantly coming to +consult Lady Boreton and Oakley. + +But the best kept secret will sometimes, as it were, escape under +ground, and ooze out at a distance; and that which had remained a +mystery carefully concealed from Lord Latimer whilst under Lady +Boreton’s roof, he found perfectly well known at Newmarket, where +Jack Stedman, a relation of the old member, and one of the staunch +squirearchy who were determined to defend his seat, took hold of Lord +Latimer’s button at the moment he was most impatient to hedge some +indifferent bets, and let him into the determination of his party in +the county, by no means to acquiesce in the nomination of Oakley. +Rather than allow him to come in without a contest, they intended to +start another of their own friends, to split votes with Mr. Stedman; +but as they were not anxious to make the attempt to monopolize the +two seats, they were ready to give their second votes to any one who +might come forward on Lord Latimer’s interest; for though they did not +acknowledge him as quite true blue, there was no comparison between the +incipient symptoms of scepticism with which he was afflicted, and the +inveterate heresy of such a man as Oakley. + +Lord Latimer having paid dearly for these arguments of Jack Stedman, +as they prevented his seizing the opportunity to get out of an awkward +betting scrape, he thought it as well to make the most of them, and +therefore brought them back with him to Boreton Hall, and made use of +them in persuading Germain to revise his determination not to come +forward himself for the county, telling him that as far as he might +have any scruples in opposing Oakley, the present state of affairs +ought to remove those, for that it was now obvious that he would not +come in without opposition, and if two of the Stedman party united, +the run would of course be entirely against him; whereas he, Lord +Latimer, had refused to make any stipulation of mutual support with +either party, and provided his own friend succeeded, it was a matter of +indifference to him which of the other two came in. + +Germain had been from the first rather more positive in declining the +proposal, than decided in his dislike to it; and even had this feeling +been originally stronger, it was not in his nature to resist repeated +solicitation, particularly when many of the collateral circumstances, +which would necessarily arise from his acquiescence, were every way so +agreeable to him; amongst these, not the least of the advantages which +he anticipated, was the confirmed intimacy it must produce with the +Latimers. + +When, therefore, Lady Latimer’s persuasive tones were joined with those +of her lord’s, in attempting to convince him, he found it impossible +any longer to resist; not that her arguments were very elaborate on +the subject, but she not only chose the colours for him, but wore them +herself that evening; and her bright eyes shone brighter, and her dark +hair looked darker from the bows of the _feu d’enfer_ ribbons, which +she had chosen as becoming to herself, and wore as complimentary to him. + +The compunction which Germain might otherwise have experienced +at finding himself almost committed in opposition to Oakley, was +not a little relieved by the suggestion which he derived from +Fitzalbert--whom he consulted on the subject--that if there was any +breach of friendship between them, the blame must rest with Oakley +himself; the reserve and closeness of whose disposition had prevented +his ever communicating his long-formed intentions to his friend and +relation, who was living under the same roof with him, and whose +property was so situated that his support, if asked, might be of the +greatest service to him. “Under these circumstances,” added Fitzalbert, +“I think you perfectly at liberty either to affect ignorance of his +project or not, as may best suit your purpose.” + +But that was not at all Oakley’s view of the proceeding, when it +accidentally came to his knowledge. He had long necessarily delayed a +public declaration of his own intention, principally from a dislike to +entering upon the duties of canvassing, which he felt must necessarily +follow, and which he looked forward to as the most irksome part of the +whole business. Perhaps, too, he had more reasons than he owned to +himself for preferring, at present, a protracted stay with the society +at Boreton Hall, to riding about, making the agreeable to all the +disagreeable people in the county. + +The morning after Germain had yielded to the desire of his friends, +that he should start as a candidate for the county, Oakley had retired +to the writing corner of the library; he had at last made up his mind +to put forth his public advertisement; somehow or other he had not +made any very rapid progress in this production; what the peculiar +nature might be of those reveries which had so long kept his pen +stationary, need no further be defined, than by owning that the sudden +appearance of Helen Mordaunt produced an abrupt transition in his turn +of thought. + +“I beg your pardon, Mr. Oakley,” said she, stopping suddenly, “but I +thought it had been Lord Latimer, and I came to ask him to frank this +letter to my mother.” + +“Your mother! you write frequently to her,” enquired Oakley, forgetting +that Helen was ignorant of that communication between himself and Mrs. +Mordaunt, which could alone explain so strange a question from him. + +“Every day since I have been separated from her,” replied Miss +Mordaunt. “When we are together we are all the world to each other; +therefore it would be hard now not to enliven her solitude with a +little of my social superfluity, even at the risk of tiring her with my +voluminous gossip.” + +“Valuable, indeed, must be the power to preserve a record of the first +impressions made by all she sees upon such a mind as Miss Mordaunt’s,” +said Oakley; “the interest of the source from which your communications +are derived, must soften the painful feelings which must otherwise be +excited in your mother’s mind, to find the world still what she left +it--with a ready hand for the buoyant, a heavy heel for the fallen. +But,” added he, recovering himself as he became aware that he was +hinting his knowledge of Mrs. Mordaunt’s actual situation, “I am sorry +that I cannot assist you with a frank.” + +“Perhaps before long you may. I don’t know whether I should say I hope +so--you know I cannot be against Lady Latimer, and Mr. Germain himself +is so good-humoured, that it is impossible not to wish him success in +any thing he attempts.” + +“Mr. Germain!” said Oakley, starting up. “Can it be possible that he is +to be my opponent?” + +“Perhaps I have said what I ought not,” interrupted Miss Mordaunt, +alarmed at his vehemence. “I heard it mentioned without any injunction +of secrecy, yet I dare say I have done wrong to repeat it. My own utter +ignorance of all such subjects must be my excuse. I can now understand +the horror my mother has always expressed at the very name of politics, +since an allusion to them from one so innocent of offence as I am, can +be capable of producing such an effect.” + +“Oh, Miss Mordaunt, you are yet so young in years, younger still in +the knowledge of the world! your gentle nature could not suspect that +baseness of which you have unwittingly communicated the most convincing +proof. There was but one person I believed incapable of such duplicity, +and him I find conspiring to blast the just expectations of his friend.” + +“Nay, now, Mr. Oakley, surely this is not fair; ignorant as I am of the +subject, I can at least distinguish that what you are contending for is +no man’s right, but a free object of ambition, open to any one; and I +am sure you will recall your imputation of unfairness, when you reflect +that what you did not think fit to communicate to Mr. Germain, he could +not be obliged to communicate to you.” + +“And is it possible Miss Mordaunt should be the apologist of such +conduct? I had a right to keep my counsel. I could not guess at an +intention which he had not then formed; but he having wormed out my +secret, has been working in the dark to counteract my plans.” + +How far Helen Mordaunt’s strong sense of justice would have overcome +her dislike to an argument, and have enabled her gentle nature to +contend against Oakley’s unmeasured vehemence of accusation, whether +she would have succeeded in convincing him, for the first time in his +life, that he was in the wrong, it is impossible to say, for their +interview abruptly terminated by Lady Flamborough’s entrance. + +“Oh, I beg pardon,” said she, “if I interrupt any body. Only to put +back this portfolio--very prettily copied, is it not, Mr. Oakley? Miss +Mordaunt, my dear, Lady Latimer has been enquiring for you, and she +will not guess where to find you, for my girls never come into the +library in a morning. You will learn all that in time. And just tell +White to send me down my parasol, and take this other portfolio up to +my Caroline, that’s a good child.” + +The disgust with which Oakley listened to this attempt, as he thought +it, to treat Miss Mordaunt as a menial dependent, and to employ her as +a matter of course in convenient offices, had at once the effect of +removing any little feeling of exasperation which his irritable nature +might otherwise have preserved after their recent dispute. He advanced +hastily towards the door, and opening it just in time for the well +laden messenger, the smile with which he greeted her in passing was +assurance enough that he retained no unkind recollection of what had +occurred between them. + +Lady Flamborough, it has been remarked, was not very fond of Oakley; +she was also not a little afraid of him, but as she passed him at +the door she could not avoid saying: “The ladies will expect your +services after luncheon, Mr. Oakley; they are now but badly off for +any gentleman to ride with them; Mr. Germain’s sudden departure this +morning has left you undisputed master of the field.” + +“It is neither my wish, nor my ambition, to imitate Mr. Germain, or to +interfere with him in any respect,” replied Oakley; and that in a tone +which made Lady Flamborough repeat to herself, as she shut the door, +“Certainly, the most disagreeable young man I ever knew: and yet, that +he should have forty thousand a-year, and Mr. Germain at most only +eight--what a pity!” + +“Left the house already,” thought Oakley; “can it be possible that +he has actually declared himself?” The doubt which this reflection +implied was soon removed by a servant putting into his hand a letter +from Germain, which ought to have been given sooner, as it was left by +him when he quitted the house at six o’clock that morning. It was as +follows:-- + + DEAR OAKLEY, + + I write this in haste to communicate to you my intention of + immediately offering myself as a candidate for the county, at the + vacancy which will occur at the approaching general election. I + should have preferred announcing it to you in person, but as it was + only finally decided last night, and you had disappeared before + supper, and Lord Latimer’s friends were unanimous in thinking it of + the utmost importance, that I should not lose the opportunity of + showing myself this morning, being market-day at ----, I could only + leave you these few lines. One of the reasons why I should have been + glad to explain myself more fully with you first, was, that it has + been rumoured you had some intention of standing yourself; but as + this has been some time said, and you have never mentioned it to + me, I conclude that the report is unfounded. At any rate, should + I be unhappily opposing myself to you, I have the consolation of + knowing that you would otherwise have found a more ‘stony-hearted + adversary;’ and I trust I need not assure you, that, consistent with + the principles of the party upon whose interest I come forward, you + may always depend upon any assistance from + + Your faithful friend, + + CHARLES GERMAIN. + +“Faithful friend indeed! a puppet in the hands of any who please to +play upon him,” said Oakley. + +He read the letter over again, and it enraged him the more; and that +not a little, perhaps, from his being unable exactly to find out what +just cause of complaint it opened to him. When our intentions have +never been expressed, any interference with them, however injurious, +is hardly offensive, and therefore can scarcely be considered criminal +by any code of friendship. And though he could not help entertaining +a vague suspicion that Germain was really perfectly well aware of his +project, as was indeed the case, yet not only had he no proof of this, +but even if he had, as he never, by communicating it himself, had +established a trust, there was no breach of confidence. + +He now bitterly repented that he had not taken Lady Boreton’s advice, +upon no account to delay declaring himself beyond this identical +market-day. He had originally declined doing so from two causes, +neither of which he liked to acknowledge: one was, his unwillingness +to separate himself from all whom he had met at Boreton Hall; the +other, a jealous dislike whilst he remained there, to be paraded in +public, as “Lady Boreton’s new man.” He was very ready to avail himself +of that lady’s invaluable exertions in his behalf, but he was very +anxious that the distinction should be well understood, that she was +engaged in his service, not he in hers. + +But whatever relative weight these two reasons might have had in +producing this unfortunate delay on his part, they could neither now +conceal from him the immense advantage that the start would be to +Germain, not only with the freeholders, but with that large portion +of the world who would judge between them without knowing much of the +merits of the case, and with that larger portion still, who without +judging at all, personally preferred Germain to him. It gave him the +appearance of being the aggressor, and of coming in at the eleventh +hour, to crush his former friend with the weight of his purse,----“and +will not even Helen Mordaunt think so too?” was one of his bitterest +reflections. + +But if it had been an effort to Helen Mordaunt to attempt to prove him +in the wrong to his face, she was sure to think him in the right when +left to herself. She then found out ample excuses for his vehemence in +the indignation excited in a noble mind by the very idea of duplicity, +and all that she could not quite justify in his deportment, was effaced +by the recollection of the sweetness of the smile with which he had +parted from her. Her natural readiness to oblige, had prevented her +from being offended at Lady Flamborough’s air of protection, in sending +her as an errand-girl all over the house; and as Lady Latimer’s manner +to her was always the perfection of considerate kindness, she had never +been made aware of her dependent situation in society. + +Admiring Oakley as a sort of superior being, she could not but be +gratified at the daily consciousness that his manner to her was +different from that he maintained with the rest of the world. She +had not yet asked herself the cause of this welcome distinction. +Sometimes his indistinct allusions and abrupt questions about her +mother bewildered her; for that there could be no personal acquaintance +between them, she felt assured from her having herself, till within the +last few weeks, remained entirely with her. Could she attribute all +that she did not understand in his conduct to the interest with which +she had herself inspired him? + +She opened her letter to her mother, determined to add--she knew not +what. Facts she had none to communicate; and of fancies, what would one +sheet contain? So she closed it again, sealed, and sent it. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + And you, that love the Commons, follow me! + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +The long-expected dissolution of Parliament at length took place. The +day of reckoning at length arrived; and M. P.s of every degree were +called to render up an account of their conduct, trembling, lest utter +extinction should alone suffice to expiate their various offences of +every contradictory kind. + +One has assisted to perpetuate unrepealed millions, upon an overtaxed +constituency; another, neglected to procure an exciseman’s place +for Mr. Jones’s wife’s second cousin. The name of one is not found +in the last list of minorities; the name of the other was not left +with Mr. Mayor last time he was in town. One was squeamish enough +to stay away on the night of his patron’s pet job; another has been +suspected of joint-stockery. In short, offences of every sort occur +to the recollection of those who still hope for a resurrection in the +new Parliament; whilst the desperate shades of departed legislators, +for whom there is no hope to rise again, crowd in shoals across (not +Charon’s ferry, but) the Dover Channel--a destination arising from no +longer having the power to put off bills for “six months,” whether +public or private. + +And now that legislation is again out of lease, new bidders start +up on every side; here you may see candidates, like children at +puss-in-the-corner, running about in search of a seat; there, a +borough, acting on the principles of free trade, awaiting the offer +of a third man. Great is the flight of wise men of the East over the +western road, hastening to take their periodical dip in the Cornish +mines, whence they may rise re-lackered as legislators; a process for +which that district is peculiarly celebrated. Here you may see an +embryo member, who is obliged to spout by the hour, drink by the dozen, +kiss by the hundred, squander by the thousand; whilst his next-door +neighbour quietly sends for his friend from London, walks with him +to his own summer-house as a town-hall, where they are proposed by +his gardener, seconded by his game-keeper, returned by his butler; +who having, as returning-officer, returned his master to the House, +returns himself to the sideboard, and the two new members drink their +own healths _tête-à-tête_, over a bottle of claret. And yet, though +these two modes of proceeding are somewhat different, the production +is the same; and they equally mould members of Parliament, who equally +become representatives of the people of England. The choice of a whole +city, paved with heads and lined with faces, count but the same as +the delegate from four dead walls of an old ruin; nay, like Aladdin’s +lamp, it is often the old and shabby, dirty and despised, that possess +this hidden virtue, which would in vain be sought in new, bright, +prosperous-looking possessions of the same kind. A village cobbler in +one place, may make members according to his own fancy; he and all +about him, even to the very _last_: whilst in another, the employer of +hundreds of hands, and the proprietor of a square mile of warehouse, +is told, that his interests are very safe in the hands of Squire +Somebody, the county member, who thinks commerce unconstitutional, and +votes against any change in the Corn Laws. + +But, although at the dissection of a dead Parliament, one detects +all the rotten parts in the composition of its frame, yet, without +disputing that it might be better, it is wonderful how well the +machine works when put together; particularly when one considers, that +patriotism is no more the unmixed motive of coming there, than that +popular election is the means by which it is effected. Mr. Scraggs +comes in, because Mrs. Scraggs was afraid that Mrs. Swails should take +precedence of her as an M. P.’s lady. One fool wants to frank; another +only wishes to go _free_ himself. But, perhaps, the reader may think +that this analysis may as well be spared of that which is collectively +the greatest aggregate of talent, and the nicest criterion of taste, +which the age can produce. + +Therefore, to return to one of our heroes--(for though the freeholders +of the county will be called on to decide between them, I will not +acknowledge a preference for either)--it was at the identical inn +where they separated before, that Oakley found himself alone, after a +hard day’s canvassing. He had begun the day with a brilliant speech +at a public meeting, held at one of the principal market-towns in +the county. The well-merited applause which his sentiments had there +elicited from an admiring audience, had produced a sensation of +exultation, which had gradually subsided under the wearisome duties of +the subsequent canvas, during the last two hours of which, his even +more than ordinary taciturnity had by degrees worn out the attendant +friends and agents who had accompanied him; and they had severally +dropped off, with assurances of being punctual at the place of +rendezvous on the morrow. His groom too, he had despatched with an +important note to an agent. When therefore, from his horse casting +a shoe, he found it would be difficult to reach home that night, he +determined to take up his quarters at this inn, which was a sort of +neutral ground, for being only a single house in one corner of the +county, it had not been taken by any of the parties. + +Here, it happened, he was not known personally, and it never was +suspected that the name which filled every corner of the county paper, +could belong to the jaded-looking traveller, who arrived alone, leading +a lame horse; and no longer having Germain to claim attention for him, +he seemed likely to receive even less of it than formerly from the much +more occupied inmates of the inn. + +The sight of the room in which he had passed the last evening of +fellowship with the companion of his youth, excited under present +circumstances an unpleasant train of thought. He was about to enter +with him into an eager, if not angry contest; and though this species +of public competition is far from necessarily leading to permanent +estrangement in private, yet he was too justly distrustful of his own +temper and disposition, not to be well aware that his was a soil in +which the kindly feelings of our nature are of slow growth, requiring +careful culture, and therefore to fear that such matter of exasperation +would inevitably arise as must prevent Germain and himself from ever +again meeting on those terms on which they had formerly lived. And how +was such a friend to be replaced by one of such an unsocial turn as +himself? + +It has been often truly said, that uniformity of character is by no +means necessary or desirable in permanent companionship. Germain’s +mind was fully capable of doing justice to that of his friend, whilst +the playful fancy in which his ideas were decked, served to enliven +the somewhat sombre colouring which tinged the thoughts of the other; +and the kindly over-flowings of his nature washed away the asperities +of Oakley’s disposition. And now that these ties were severed, what +had he as an equivalent? Those with whom he at present associated were +persons with whom nothing but a community of interest during a moment +of political excitement might temporarily connect him. He had that +morning, in the course of his public speech, revelled in those abstract +theories of philanthropy and patriotism upon which liberal ideas in +politics are founded--but what availed these general doctrines, when he +sought in vain for an individual link of sympathy which might connect +him with his kind? + +True, there was one gentle nature with whom he would gladly have +established a claim to sympathy, which if acknowledged, would amply +compensate to him for the indifference of the rest of the world; but +here again his evil star seemed to persecute him. He had parted from +her in doubt and in darkness, and his present residence not only +separated her from him, but placed her in a situation of natural +hostility to his wishes. + +All this, and much more from which he had in vain endeavoured to +extract comfort, had passed through his mind before the waiter +interrupted his reverie by bringing supper. “Beg pardon, Sir,” he said; +“but we’re mortal throng at present with this here election.” + +That propriety of deportment which is the peculiar characteristic of +the present age, has very much narrowed the field which was open to +former writers, of detailing familiar communications between different +ranks. A dramatist of the present day, for instance, is completely +debarred from indulging in that alternation of confidence and caning +with servants which formed so much of the dialogue and action of the +old plays. If a gentleman now-a-days ever does unbend, it is as likely +as not with a waiter at an inn, when, for want of other company, +he lets himself out for the night for a few shillings’ worth of +familiarity. + +Oakley, generally speaking, was very little likely to give into even +this temporary condescension; but, besides that his own thoughts had +not been, as we have seen, very pleasant company, he felt the general, +though dangerous desire to which all are subject, to avail himself of +an opportunity to hear himself talked over by a person to whom he was +unknown. + +He therefore detained the waiter, and gave him an opening to continue +the conversation by saying: “I should have thought that here you were +quite out of the way of the election, and knew or cared nothing about +any of the candidates.” + +His present attendant was not slow to avail himself of the privilege of +talking, though not in the flippant frothy style of a southern knight +of the napkin, but with the true deliberate drawl of the north country. + +“Lord, sur, there’s not a man, woman, or choild in all the country +round, but has made a bit of a favourite of one of them; and as for +our house, we’re no two of a moind here. There’s Betty Chambermaid all +for Germain, because his colours are prattyest for to look on. Cook’s +all for ould Squire Stedman, because he’s most against the Pope’s +roasting-alive consarn. As for me, from what I sees in the papers of +Squire Oakley’s talk, I conceits him the most, only I doubt its all +gammon he says.” + +“Why so?” enquired Oakley. + +“Why, you see, he talks a deal about liberty and natural rights, and +that all property is only in trust for the public;--well, he’s gotten +a mortal foine place, and park, and gardens, such as thare’s not the +loike in the county, and he wont let a living soul get a soight of it, +though master might have five pair of horses out a-day, I dare say, +of boithing company from ---- going cross country to see it. And much +harm that would do. Then, as to economy which he preaches, I doubt he +practises that better: it’s nothing to me that for certain, for the +more as don’t dine with him the more may come here. But I am tould that +neither man, woman, nor choild, have ever had their trotters under his +mahogany.” + +“Get me some more mutton-chops,” said Oakley, whose pleasure in the +conversation had quite ceased. The waiter obediently retired, but to +return no more, as the arrival of a carriage-and-four more worthily +occupied his attention; and the fresh mutton-chops were carelessly +consigned to Betty Chambermaid, who, flaunting in a cap covered with +Germain’s ribbons, tossed them upon the table. + +Wearied and dissatisfied, Oakley retired early to bed to prepare for +the fatigues of the next day; but upon coming down in the morning to +the sitting-room, where he had been the night before, he found it +occupied. Breakfast was already laid, and a lady was standing at the +window with her back towards him. He was hastily retiring, when, upon +her turning round, to his surprise he beheld Helen Mordaunt. + +“Miss Mordaunt! and alone! Can it be possible?” + +“Only alone,” said she, “from too implicit a faith in Lord and Lady +Latimer’s intention of early rising. I arrived here late last night +with them; we had been detained on the road for hours, and therefore +could not reach----, where we are going, in order to be more in the way +of hearing the news of----of----” + +“Of the election,” added Oakley, observing that she hesitated to +mention the subject--“to be ready to triumph in my final defeat, after +seeing me die by inches,”--he continued in a tone that was meant, +though not very successfully, for careless banter. + +“Nay, you cannot wish me seriously to defend myself from such an +imputation,” she replied, detecting through his assumed pleasantry a +little soreness about it. “Or why should that be the feeling of any of +our party? You forget that only one need fail, and I am sure I hope +that you will come in with Mr. Germain.” + +“Then, provided he is safe, I may flatter myself that my chance is a +matter of indifference to Miss Mordaunt?” + +“You are determined, I see, to misconstrue all I say upon the subject; +and as that ignorance I have always professed about it makes it the +easier for you to do so, I will say nothing more--but let me take +this opportunity of conveying to you my mother’s thanks for all your +kindness to me when we met at Boreton. In a letter I lately received +from her, she says: ‘Pray tell Mr. Oakley how much his kindness to my +child doubles the obligations I already owe him.’ You know her then, +Mr. Oakley, and have perhaps endeavoured to cheer her occasional +melancholy, and wondered with me, why she is not as happy as she +deserves to be?” + +“And what did Mrs. Mordaunt mean by my particular kindness to you?” +inquired Oakley, and for a moment an unworthy suspicion of the +mother’s manœuvring for her daughter came across him; but he quickly +banished it, as altogether misplaced, and continued: “If it was +attempting to monopolize the only society in which I found pleasure, +that ought rather to be punished as selfishness, than rewarded with +thanks.” + +In most mouths this would have been a mere common-place compliment; but +Oakley could not have said it if he had not thought it; and therefore +the whole tone of its delivery was different, coming from him, and its +effect might have been proportionate, but that at this moment Lady +Latimer opened the door, and beheld, not a little bewildered at seeing +that which of all things that had “a local habitation and a name” she +least expected--the full-length figure of Ernest Oakley. + +“I beg your pardon,” said he, rather confusedly; “it was quite an +unintentional intrusion on my part. I was shown into the room last +night, and returned to it as a matter of course this morning.” + +“Pray let us profit by the mistake,” graciously replied Lady Latimer, +“by your staying to breakfast with us. We will not poison you. +Breakfast is a notoriously innocent meal; a dinner is more dangerous, +and bears the stamp of party. A cabinet-dinner governs our own +country; a public-dinner saves foreign patriots abroad; but breakfast +is entirely without meaning, and compromises no man’s political +principles. So pray sit down.” + +Oakley, excusing himself on the score of hurry, retreated towards the +door, and was met on the threshold by Lord Latimer, ushered in by the +waiter, who, turning towards him, informed him that his hat was in the +traveller’s room. Lord Latimer bowed civilly, looking at first rather +puzzled, and afterwards not a little amused at the waiter’s cool +treatment of a man of Oakley’s character and importance. + +When the mistake was explained to him--“A good omen!” said Lord +Latimer; “we shall be the means of turning him out of another public +house too,” and after that thought no more about it. + +Not so Helen--and yet why should each succeeding interview with Oakley +have left a stronger impression upon her? All that he had ever said +would hardly amount to an avowal of common-place interest, and yet +she felt assured that common-place was not the characteristic of his +conduct towards her. Hers was no singular case. If nothing has been +here recorded to justify that conviction on her part, it is because it +is impossible to try by the test of words that which purposely avoids +the responsibility of speech, those thousand little nameless attentions +which too often by implying attachment create it in return; whilst, +shunning verbal explanation, they evade every thing of the compromising +nature of an engagement. + +Oakley’s conduct, such as it was, had such an effect; though I am far +from asserting that it originated in such an intention. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + Cry the man mercy; love him, take his offer. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +Germain in the mean time proceeded prosperously with his canvass; to +go through all the various duties of this busy time was to him much +less of an effort than to Oakley. Some amused him, others gratified +his vanity, and as they all were the source of active occupation and +excitement, he never felt happier than whilst engaged in them, which +feeling enabled him to perform them not only more easily, but more +effectually than if he had considered them as a drudgery. + +He evidently rather liked riding about with a concourse of followers, +and being a great man wherever he went; and even the cry of “Germain +for ever!” with which little blackguard boys strained their tiny +throats as he rode through the village, was not altogether an +unpleasant sound to him. He was moreover an excellent listener, a +first-rate qualification in a candidate; and during the allotted period +of each visit, he could sit with a face of intense interest whilst +the topics that had been got up for his reception were regularly gone +through. It was the same to him whether the subject matter was foreign +or domestic--there he sat in silent acquiescence. + +He had moreover a ready eye for any thing purposely put up to be +admired, whether of furniture or family; and no one had ever the +mortification of reflecting after he went away, that any thing done to +attract his attention had failed in its object. + +He was an amazing favourite with all the young ladies--they hardly knew +why. Mr. Oakley was at least as handsome, but it was Mr. Germain who +looked as if he thought them handsome. + +One of his most active coadjutors in the business of canvassing, +was Mr. Macdeed, the celebrated solicitor of ----, who it will be +recollected was excessively offended with the reception Oakley +gave him after Lord Rockington’s death. His zeal therefore had the +double incitement of dislike to the rival candidate, and desire to +establish himself in the good graces of Lord Latimer, by whom he had +been recently employed, in consequence of the talent he had formerly +displayed on the other side, in the famous cause of Rockington _v._ +Latimer. + +The course of their circuit had brought Germain and Mr. Macdeed to a +part of the county which the former full well remembered, when Mr. +Macdeed addressed him thus: “I suppose we may as well just call there, +though I am afraid it will be to very little purpose; I have him down +in my list--‘Rev. Mr. Dormer, supposed plumper for Stedman.’” + +“I have no doubt you are wrong there,” said Germain; “Mr. Dormer is an +old and very particular friend of mine.” + +“Well, we’ll try,” replied the other, “but I know he has a most +particular horror of ‘the damnable doctrine.’ It is a pity, Mr. +Germain, that you and Lord Latimer could not have made up your mind +to some sort of vague ‘no popery phrases’ in your address; you would +have been quite safe then, and I would have undertaken to have so +worded it that it need not hereafter have been inconvenient under other +circumstances.” + +“It is just as well as it is,” was all that Germain replied, his +prudence inducing him to repress the indignation he really felt at the +proposal. As they approached Rosedale Rectory, though its general +view from a distance was still the same, the details disappointed him. +Could that be the stile looking into the lane over which he used to +lean with Fanny, and that the green path which led to it, all ending +in a muddy puddle? The rector’s plantation too was much thinner, and +more transparent--why, he was sure one never used to see the pig-stye +through it. As they rode up to the door, they passed his study-window +and the little garden beneath where he used to see Fanny day after day +watering the roses--they had been succeeded by cabbages. This rather +touched him--perhaps she had never sought the spot since his departure. + +“Poor Fanny!” thought he, “how glad she will be to see me again!” + +They were ushered in. Mr. Dormer had walked out into the village, +yet Fanny was not alone. They found with her, in what was commonly +called the parlour, a short thick-set man, about forty, with rather a +bilious tinge, and a bald head and immense whiskers; it would have been +impossible to guess at his profession from his dress, for while a new +bright-green single-breasted jacket with brass buttons looked rural, a +stiff black stock seemed military, while sundry spots of ink upon pale +shrunk nankeen trowsers indicated connexion with the counter. + +Fanny’s cheeks once more rivalled in brilliancy those less congenial +spots which in colour had lately eclipsed them, as she advanced to meet +Germain, and introduced him to Captain Wilcox, saying at the same time +that her father would soon return. + +“Won’t you please to be seated? Pray take a chair, gentlemen,” said the +captain. + +Germain bowed assent, saying to himself, “And who, I wonder, are you? +I should think I might make myself at home here without asking your +leave.” + +He recalled the whole line of cousins he had ever heard either Mr. or +Miss Dormer lay claim to, and though it had been a topic of rather +frequent recurrence, he could not recollect the name of Wilcox amongst +the number. + +“Seasonable weather,” said Fanny to Mr. Macdeed, on one side of the +table. + +“Unseasonable weather,” said Captain Wilcox to Mr. Germain on the +other; and they had only both just assented to these contradictory +propositions, when Mr. Dormer himself returned, and after shaking hands +cordially with Germain, thus addressed Mr. Macdeed: “Mr. Macdeed, I +presume; busy time, Mr. Macdeed.” + +A whisper then passed between him and Fanny, accompanied by the +consignment of a key, which led to an immediate jingling of glasses in +a corner cupboard in the next room, and to more ostensible effects in +a later period of the visit. + +Mr. Dormer then drew his chair towards Germain’s, and after hemming to +clear his voice began: “Mr. Germain, as you are a candidate on your +canvass, perhaps it is not too much to presume that it is the object of +your visit to request my vote?” + +Germain having assented in a few words about the gratifying support +of an old friend, and Mr. Macdeed having contrived to edge in “the +important point in their favour that it would be,” Mr. Dormer resumed:-- + +“It is my maxim--I may be wrong--that a conscientious man should always +act according to his conscience.” + +After allowing a pause for contradiction he continued:-- + +“A public trust can hardly be said to mean private advantage.” + +Another pause, producing acquiescence. + +“Those who are most attached to our invaluable constitution, would not +wish to destroy it.” + +“Certainly,” said Germain. + +“Undoubtedly,” added Mr. Macdeed. + +“Of all our establishments those which partake of a holy character, +ought to be the most sacred.” + +Still there seemed to Germain to be no room for dispute, though he +remembered enough of the illogical nature of his good friend’s mind, to +know that he disdained the regular steps of reasoning, and that after +piling up these disjointed scraps of truism till he had sufficiently +exalted himself, he would jump at once to his conclusion, however far +he might appear from it. And so it turned out; for after stringing +together a few more such sentences--without allowing Germain the +opportunity he wished for, of protesting that he yielded to no man +in attachment to the Church of England, and that he thought he best +supported its interests, and maintained its integrity, by removing from +it the stigma of intolerance--he announced his intended support of +Stedman as the Protestant champion. + +“But,” added he, “I should only half discharge my duty if I did not +recollect that I have another vote.” + +“To be sure you would,” said Germain. + +“That’s the point at issue, my good friend,” said Mr. Macdeed. + +“And I am happy to say, Mr. Germain, that my public duties, and my +personal feelings here coincide in inducing me to give the preference +to you over your competitor.” + +Germain expressed himself properly on the subject, but somehow he did +not feel as grateful as he ought. It was not only that he would have +preferred Oakley to Stedman, and therefore was not quite satisfied, but +somehow he had calculated upon being the first object with Mr. Dormer. +He could not help thinking, that his old friend used not to be quite so +great a twaddler. + +“Mr. Dormer has spoken my sentiments too, to a T,” said Captain Wilcox. + +“And what right,” thought Germain, “can you have to any sentiments on +the subject?” + +“You are put up, I believe, by Lord Latimer, sir,” continued the +captain; “I should be very happy to oblige his lordship, he spoke so +handsomely of our Indian army, in seconding the address in the House of +Lords a few years ago. I remember the circumstance, because a friend of +mine, at the mess, objected to an expression of his lordship’s, that +that army _ran_ second to none on the field of glory. ‘Ran,’ said my +friend, ‘is an odd compliment,’ but I explained that it was a metaphor +borrowed from his lordship’s sporting pursuits, and accompanied by many +other favourable expressions.” + +Though the offensive and unconstitutional phrase, “put up by Lord +Latimer,” was somewhat explained by the long residence in India +afterwards admitted, which might account for ignorance on such a +subject, yet Germain felt inclined to be angry at his talking at all +about it, when Mr. Macdeed skilfully whispered to him: “Just bought a +property in the county, (I remember now,) commanding twenty votes.” + +Germain immediately replied, that he should be happy to take an +opportunity of introducing him personally to Lord Latimer, to whose +merits he did no more than justice. + +Still he felt puzzled to account for the relation in which he stood to +Mr. Dormer. For upon the entry of a tray, with wine and cakes, he it +was who undertook to do the honours of Mr. Dormer’s old port, to which +Mr. Macdeed seemed inclined to do even more justice than canvassing +civility required; Mr. Dormer, helping himself to a glass, said: +“Church and King, Mr. Macdeed; I am sure you would not wish to separate +them.” + +“Only inasmuch as I should prefer two glasses of your port to one,” +replied Mr. Macdeed, chuckling at his own smartness. + +In the meantime Fanny, addressing Germain, said: “Perhaps, Mr. Germain, +you think that we know nothing here of your electioneering bustle, but +a friend of mine sent me one of the hand-bills about you all yesterday, +in which I hope that the omen of your success may be more true than the +idea of your character is just.” + +It was as pointless, and at the same time, as personal as political +squibs upon such occasions usually are. It was called, “Effervescent +Draught for the County.” Oakley was described as the acid, Stedman as +the alkali, and Germain the froth which the collision of the other two +would make to float at the top. + +But if it had been a much more poignant production, the contents of +that paper would have then had no effect upon Germain, for the envelope +that had just been given to him by Fanny was directed to “Mrs. Captain +Wilcox!” + +Mrs. Captain Wilcox! was it possible that Fanny Dormer, whose taste +had once been so refined, whose young heart had once shown a proper +sensibility to his merits, should ever have consented to become Mrs. +Captain Wilcox? It was not for himself he cared. It was evident last +time they met, that he had completely outgrown any remains of his +former weakness, but he could not bear that one who had once shown +a discriminating preference for better things, should have been so +perverted. + +But Germain was wrong. Captain Wilcox was essentially a vulgar man; +but that which offended Germain at the first glance, appeared to Mr. +Dormer and his daughter, the manner of a man who had lived in the +world, and his vulgarity once overlooked, he had many redeeming points; +he was indeed, as Mr. Dormer always confided to every body soon after +introducing him, “a most worthy man, the captain.” He had realized a +fair fortune by his prudence in the East, without suffering either in +liver or character, and was now prepared to spend his money comfortably +in his own county. + +As a useful assistant in such a scheme, he had made up to Fanny Dormer, +whom he met among the sea-bathers at ----, soon after Germain had left +that watering-place. The courtship was concise but effectual. They +had been married soon after their return to Rosedale, an event that +had escaped Germain’s notice during his agreeable sojourn at Boreton +Hall. They were likely, till the captain’s new house was built, to +continue their residence at the rectory; and the afternoon flow of +the rector’s old port was not a little helped by his own somewhat +soporific anecdotes of the trout-fishing in his own stream, being now +interspersed with the captain’s tales of tiger-hunting on the banks of +the Ganges. + +Mr. Dormer accompanying Germain to the outer door, took that +opportunity of saying: “You have not yet congratulated me upon your old +friend Fanny’s happiness--a most worthy man, the captain.” + +“So he seems,” said Germain, without exactly reflecting how a man seems +“most worthy” in a short morning visit. Any other equally sincere +expressions on the subject, were prevented by Fanny herself following +them to the door; and there she stood on the same threshold where, in +former times, she had bounded forward to meet his return, while springy +seventeen gave elasticity to her already well-rounded form, and the +coming breeze which played among her careless locks disclosed the whole +contour of her fine open countenance, and the glad smile of welcome +just parted her ruby lips enough to show the dazzling whiteness of her +teeth. Now, as Germain took a parting glance in riding from the door, +he only thought “What a figure she will have by the time she is the +mother of half-a-dozen little Wilcoxes!” + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + There shall be no money; all shall eat and drink on my score; and + I will apparel them all in one livery, that they may agree like + brothers, and worship me their lord. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +The day of election at length arrived, and all the parties attended at +the appointed place, each confidently anticipating a successful result. +Of Oakley and Germain the reader already knows rather more than most +electors do of their candidates; but Mr. Stedman requires some further +notice, and as he was not a man ever to say much for himself, something +must be said for him. + +He was, perhaps, the most inveterately silent man that ever was sent +to assist in a deliberative assembly; true, as the county member, he +was called upon between four and five o’clock to take a great deal of +walking exercise, in conveying petitions and bills from one part of the +House to another, but the moment public business commenced, he became +as stationary as the pillars against which he leaned, and thus he sat +in sleepy silence, scorning to speak, equally disdaining to listen. +So determined an enemy was he to the principles of free trade, that +having brought a certain stock of homemade ideas with him into the +House, he bonded them up, equally prohibiting his tongue to circulate +those, or his ears to import others. Every progressive improvement he +viewed separately, as if arising abruptly out of a state of things +that existed forty years ago, and therefore, no doubt, considering +it as an uncalled for innovation, met it with a decided, though +not expressive negative. He had a sovereign contempt for his late +colleague, Mr. Medium, who, without attending much more acutely to the +march of events, wished to be thought to have his own ideas about it, +and therefore was constantly and unaccountably trimming backwards and +forwards. + +Mr. Stedman was of course supported by all that numerous class, who, +content with the security of their own selfish comforts, avoid even +thinking of the grievances of others, lest an attempt to relieve them +(for any thing they know to the contrary) might diminish the value of +the peculiar advantages they now enjoy. Oakley, on the other hand, +was supported by all those with whom innovation and improvement are +synonymous. Germain was upheld by many mixed motives, though none +perhaps actuating such large bodies as the other two. + +And now from every side were crowding into the county town immense +bodies of those to whom was committed the exercise of an Englishman’s +proudest boast--the elective franchise. Most of them had, according to +immemorial custom, been clearing their intellects for a free choice by +unlimited potations at the cost of one or other of the candidates. + +Here on one side, as far as the eye could reach, stretched a long +line of the “true blues,” bearing brilliant banners, on which were +inscribed, “Stedman and the Constitution!” “Protestant Cause!” “No +Popery!” “Church and State!” and many other such “wise saws,” which, +with other equally valuable appropriations, the high Tories have for +some time arrogated to themselves as their property. + +On another side were seen equally dense masses, decorated with green +ribbons, bearing on their ensigns, “Oakley and Liberty!” “Oakley and +Reform!” and sundry other more enigmatical watch-words, such as “Magna +Charta!” “Bill of Rights!” which, as they are brought out well-dusted, +and displayed in times either of stagnation or scarcity, are supposed +by many who bear them, to mean either “high wages,” or “cheap bread.” + +Germain’s partizans shone in the brilliancy of their symbolical +colouring, but they were terribly in want of an appropriate watch-word, +the politics of the party not possessing sufficient force to distil +themselves into ardent axioms; “Germain and Independence!” was +therefore singularly enough chosen as the most apposite motto. + +There was an interval of a few minutes after the parties had met, +before they appeared upon the hustings. Germain took advantage of this +opportunity, to advance towards Oakley. “Though I never received any +answer, Oakley,” said he, “to those few lines which I wrote to you, +explanatory of my intention of appearing here to-day, yet I can easily +attribute any such omission to the sufficiently-engrossing occupation +in which we have both since been engaged; and therefore hope that our +competition is entirely political, not personal.” + +“How far it may be at all political, I am at a loss to tell,” answered +Oakley; “since I can hardly ever remember to have heard you express any +political opinions. What personal inducements you may have had I as +little know as care.” + +It was actually very true, as Oakley said, that Germain had never +appeared to take any deep interest in politics; nor is this strange, in +a young man just of age, to whom no career in that line was yet open, +and to whom every other enjoyment of society was still fresh. + +“Perhaps you wish,” said Germain, good-humouredly, “that I had taken +some other opportunity to make up lost time as a politician; but at any +rate, when you talk of personal inducement, I hope you acquit me of +having wantonly interposed to thwart you?” + +“In a case entirely between ourselves, if I do not choose to accuse, I +can hardly be required to acquit. But see, the sheriff expects us.” + +“Well, you shall not quarrel with me, Oakley, if I can help it, however +much you seem to wish it.” + +“I have not the slightest _wish_ on the subject,” replied Oakley +coldly; and here the conversation ended. + +The business of the day was regularly opened. Mr. Stedman was proposed +and seconded in a few words by two gentlemen who seemed, like their +principal, to apply their horror of any thing new even to their +speeches, and therefore only repeated the same sentences, which at the +last dissolution had been found to produce the desired effect. + +Then, amidst much uproar, Squire Stedman presented himself. He had +not, as may be imagined, much to say, and therefore it was perhaps an +exercise of political candour on the part of his opponents, to take +good care so to interrupt him as to keep him standing, hat in hand, the +usual length of a speech. For no one could deny that he looked “the +Agricultural Interest” to perfection. As a representative of the soil, +he carried an acre or two of it upon his boots and leather breeches; a +flock of sheep would hardly have sufficed for the ample folds of his +cumbrous coat, and the few straggling hairs which the wind shook out of +the mass of powder and pomatum with which his head was amply manured, +showed the care and cost at which poor soils should be cultivated. + +During the period he thought it necessary to remain standing, whenever +a comparative calm occurred, he had recourse to one of the watch-words +from his own banners, to appear as if he had been speaking all the +while--“Support our invaluable constitution”--loud applause--louder +yells--“As in duty bound the Protestant Church”--increased tumult. +“Wisdom of our ancestors.”--“Go to them and be d----d,” cried one +voice.--“Ax them about spinning-jennies,” cried another.--“They’ve less +land on their hands than you have on yours, Squire,” said a third; and +amidst enthusiastic applause from his own party, Mr. Stedman retired. + +Germain, as the one who had first offered himself upon the present +vacancy, was next proposed and seconded by two gentlemen-like young +men who possessed good property in the county, appeared in new French +gloves, with which they stroked down their well-brushed hats whilst +they made two very neat speeches, of which not one syllable could be +heard, but which were, strange to say, very accurately reported in the +next county paper. + +Germain spoke sensibly, and was heard favourably, but not received +enthusiastically; for moderation in language, though very distinct +in character from mediocrity in intellect, is not unlike it in its +deadening effects upon the spirits of a crowd; and he who has one man’s +head in his face, and two men’s elbows in his sides, had rather have +his prejudices flattered, and his passions excited, than his reason +convinced. + +Sir John Boreton had at last, after much doubt and deliberation, been +entrusted with the task of proposing Oakley. Lady Boreton had carefully +written out for him on the back of a card the heads of what he was to +say, and he had rehearsed it to her surprisingly well, considering all +things; but upon the hustings an unexpected dilemma occurred. Sir John +could not read without spectacles, and in the confusion and anxiety of +the moment, after fumbling unsuccessfully in every pocket, (no very +oratorical action,) he could not find them; he muttered a few words, +ending in “Ernest Oakley, esquire,” and cast an imploring look at Lady +Boreton, who was posted at a window on the opposite side of the court. + +Her ladyship came to his relief, by waving a small green silk flag, +a signal which was answered by the cheers of the populace, and the +seconder luckily took the opportunity of stepping in before Sir John +and taking his place. He was much habituated to this sort of thing, +being a master-manufacturer, who dealt in pins and politics, and +talking was part of his trade. He dwelt much upon the merits of his +“honourable friend, Mr. Oakley.” + +Now, though Oakley was prepared politically to stretch a fraternal hand +of fellowship cordially to all his constituents, enough has been seen +of him for it to be supposed that there was something grating to his +not over-easy nature in the idea of the individual familiarity of Mr. +Sims, and though, as the occasion required, he smothered this feeling +as far as he could, yet it rather interfered with the freedom with +which he commenced his address. + +But Oakley was gifted with great natural eloquence: that vehemence of +manner, too, which in private often hazarded offence, in public carried +conviction of his earnest sincerity, and the modulated intonations +of his fine voice alone, seemed to challenge concurrence in his +opinions. A fine burst of natural eloquence, from its mere sound, +ensures spontaneous admiration, like the rush of a mountain-torrent, +independent either of the course it takes, or of the depth it covers. +Many parts of his speech were certainly peculiarly indiscreet in the +situation in which he at present stood, as tending personally to +exasperate against him, the supporters of each of the other candidates, +and therefore being likely to lead to a union which would be very +injurious to his interests. + +He was particularly severe upon the vehement conduct of some of the +clerical partizans of one of the rival candidates, who, he said, “with +Christian charity as their motto, and political power as their pursuit, +came there to persecute him for refusing to persecute those whose mere +doctrinal differences of religion they made the ground of perpetual +exclusion here, which he dared them in the boldest flight of arrogated +infallibility to assume, would be the ground of any eternal distinction +hereafter.” + +But as this work is not meant either as a copy or continuation of +harangues at public meetings, and as the speeches of the other +candidates have not been detailed, neither shall this part of Oakley’s, +nor the concluding portion, in which he expressed unmingled contempt +for the sort of middle line adopted by one of his competitors, who, +with neither the curse of ignorance or intemperance, and with sense +enough to perceive the right line, had not virtue enough to follow it. + +This was certainly not conciliatory. But at the time its effect was +rather imposing; it looked like strength, and a superior disregard of +adventitious assistance. Upon the show of hands, the decided majorities +were for Oakley and Stedman. A poll was demanded for Germain, and at +its close on the first day, the numbers were declared as follow:-- + + OAKLEY 634 + STEDMAN 586 + GERMAIN 401 + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + _1st Officer._ How many stand for consulships? + + _2nd Officer._ Three, they say; but ’tis thought of every one + Coriolanus will carry it. There have been many great men that have + flattered the people, who ne’er loved them; and there be many that + they have loved they know not wherefore; so that, if they love + they know not why, they hate upon no better ground: therefore, for + Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him, manifests + the true knowledge he has in their disposition; and out of his noble + carelessness, plainly lets them see’t. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +“I hope you saw our friend Lady Boreton,” said Fitzalbert, who had come +in on horseback from Latimer to see the fun; “there she was, fixed to +the spot, but waving about like Daphne upon the turn, green even to +the tips of her fingers. Well, she is a most formidable antagonist; +for if she has not a vote, at least she has a voice. That savage, +Oakley--I think he showed very little regard for his former friend in +the language he used; and that too after you had been unnecessarily +civil to him in your speech. It would serve him quite right, Germain, +and be your best chance of success, if you were to join at once with +that Knight of the Plough and Pigtail, Stedman.” + +“To that I have a great objection,” answered Germain; “I know Oakley +well enough to have a due regard for his intrinsic qualities, and +however rough his manner or rugged his temper, I am sure at bottom he +has a good heart.” + +“I never knew a disagreeable man who had not, or was not said to have. +I should not call a man well-dressed because he had an embroidered +birth-day suit locked up in his wardrobe--your good heart is not +every-day wear; it may not come into use above once or twice in a +man’s life.” + +“Well, I know you were never fond of Oakley; but as to coalescing +with Stedman, though I think Oakley’s dislike of contradiction and +confidence in his own judgment make him a little wild in some of his +political opinions, yet I am much nearer agreeing with him than with +Stedman.” + +“Oh! this is a part of the subject upon which you must excuse me; +I look upon the whole affair as little better than a sort of seven +years’ suicide; but if you choose to buy that most expensive luxury, +the privilege of losing your hunting in the winter and your dinners in +the spring, and the pleasure of hearing men speak by the hour whose +talk you would not endure by the minute--why I was only endeavouring +to gratify your taste, such as it is. So adieu! Any message to Lady +Latimer?” + +Germain returned to his committee-room, certainly not gratified at +the events of the morning, but by no means so much dispirited as might +have been expected; he had at all times a happy knack of seeing every +thing in the most favourable point of view, and at any rate he found a +sufficiency of occupation for the moment in listening to the various +counsels which alternately preponderated in the little conclave, every +one in turn seeming to think that they rendered him the most effectual +assistance by differing diametrically from the advice of the last +speaker. + +His party, it must have been observed, was throughout rather of a mixed +character. He had the strenuous support of some of the great families +of the county; and as far as personal influence extended, he had made +the best possible use of the short period he had been before the public +eye, to conciliate and attach people to himself individually, but his +best chance of success was to depend upon his being considered as the +“least evil of the two” by one or other of his competitors. + +“This will never do,” said Mr. Macdeed, shaking his head despondingly; +“we can’t afford to go on feeding the poll with plumpers. It is very +well for that purse-proud Oakley, with high-sounding principles for +those who are not to be bought, and plenty of money for those who are; +it is very well for him to stand aloof, but we have neither funds nor +faction enough to prosper alone; and as it is plain we shall never +get any assistance from the green party, the alternative seems to me +obvious.” + +Germain’s answer to this was interrupted by the entrance of a figure +with blue and red ribbons mixed, who thrust a brown sunburnt hand into +his, with “How d’ye do to-day, sir?” Germain immediately recognised +Captain Wilcox, and the captain continued: “Is your friend Lord Latimer +here, sir?” + +“Not exactly,” replied Germain, rather amused at this eastern idea of +freedom of election. + +“Oh!” said the captain, “I thought he might have been here, backing +you up; you see I’ve got on the livery too--blue and red mixed--united +service colours, as I call them. I hope they’ll be seen in common +to-morrow, and that you’ll contrive between you to keep out that +long-winded chap.” + +“Won’t you take a chair, Captain Wilcox?” said Mr. Macdeed, who was +delighted at the prospect of such a reinforcement to his view of the +subject; but Germain was for the present resolute in postponing any +consideration of a coalition till after the close of the next day’s +poll. + +The next day’s poll closed, and left Oakley still at the head, and +Germain rather lower in proportion than he had been. There is no +species of success for the moment so intoxicating as the temporary +elevation of a popular candidate at a contested election. It was +under the excitement of this influence that Oakley spoke on the second +day, and to this is to be attributed much of the intemperance and +indiscretion, which gave the more offence from assuming the character +of contempt for both of his competitors. He who would have scorned to +yield his judgment to the arguments of any man, allowed his conduct to +be influenced by the unmeaning outcries of the senseless rabble that +surrounded the hustings. + +Not that those vociferous excitements were either so loud or so general +as they had been the day before; to explain which it is necessary to +own that one of Mr. Macdeed’s accusations, that of buying suffrages, +was quite unfounded as far as regarded Oakley. He was not a man who +ever professed a principle which he did not mean to practise. He did +not therefore conceive purity of election to mean the purchase of +huzzas from thirsty throats in exchange for hogsheads of ale. His +disbursements were confined to what are called strictly legal expenses. +The discovery of this fact had its effect upon the degree of enthusiasm +with which he was received on the second day. Yet still he was at the +head of the poll, and spoke in the full confidence of continuing there +till a final happy result of the contest. + +In the meantime Fitzalbert had returned, and told Lord Latimer of the +difficulty there seemed in so completely detaching Oakley from Germain, +as to induce him to throw him overboard and unite with the other; +which, as Fitzalbert said, would insure their success. + +Lord Latimer was now so regularly worked up by the excitement of the +contest, as to think success an affair of the first moment; he had also +originally engaged in the affair principally from a dislike of Oakley; +he could not bear, therefore, the prospect of defeat from such a cause +as consideration for the person, whose mortification would be rather +an additional enjoyment to him: not that he was really an ill-natured +person, or that his feelings one way or other would have been very +durable, but at the moment he certainly would have thought Oakley’s +defeat improved the joke. He therefore wrote to Germain earnestly, +though good-humouredly, urging him not to throw away the chances in +what he justly considered their joint concern. + +After this letter was dispatched, and till the event was known, +the conversation at Latimer of course rarely diverged from the +all-engrossing topic of the election. And as, during the delusion of +such a period, there is hardly an imaginable vice of which people will +not accuse a rival candidate, it was not to be expected that Oakley +would be spoken of in very favourable terms. + +There was one there, however, who heard all the disparaging mention +of him in silent dissent. With too much gentleness to dispute, and +yet too much character to believe all she heard, the only impression +it made upon her mind was, that Lord Latimer, with all his general +facility of temper, was prejudiced when thwarted; that Fitzalbert, with +all his pleasantry, would say any thing for the sake of a joke; and +that even Lady Latimer, in whom it pained her to find any fault, was +rather more eager about the event of the election than became one of +her sex, unconnected as she was with any of the candidates. + +“Can it be,” thought Helen, “when I hear Mr. Oakley denounced as +having adopted levelling opinions, unbefitting his rank in life, +from a constitutional impatience of contradiction, a discontented +intolerance of an equal, and a purse-proud desire to be the head of his +company--can this be the person whose delight it seemed to be to listen +with so much interest to the crude, half-formed impressions of an +untutored girl, and to explain (oh, how persuasively!) the errors into +which utter ignorance of the world might lead me? I can never believe +that selfishness is the actuating ingredient in such a character.” + +Helen had certainly some pretty distinct recollections of ebullitions +of impatience even to her upon the subject of the election; but the +blame of them she was not willing to attribute exclusively to him, and +the only light in which she now recollected them was, as proving the +excessive eagerness with which he sought a distinction for which she +was sure his talents peculiarly fitted him; and the only regret they +now enhanced was, that the attainment of that object, so much desired, +seemed by no means certain. + +Had Helen even been aware of the concurrence of circumstances which +first attracted Oakley’s attention towards her, she would not readily +have admitted what might have occurred to those who took a more +unfavourable view of his character, that it was perhaps her very +dependence upon him, which the selfish abstraction of his nature +considered as an additional charm; but, on the contrary, she would +gladly have been convinced of what had indeed latterly been the case, +that his conduct towards her had been caused by the working of a +passion which has immemorially been allowed to soften rugged natures, +and to occasion striking incongruities in a man’s general character, +and his peculiar deportment when under its influence. + +When Germain received Lord Latimer’s letter, he had just returned +from the hustings after the second day’s poll, feeling as much +exasperated as it was in his nature to feel at the wanton, unprovoked +tone of offence which Oakley had again assumed; yet he had been even +more disgusted with a few further specimens of combined ignorance +and intolerance from some of the Stedmanites, and in spite of the +little personal soreness of the moment, he never could stop to form +any comparison between the pleasure he should feel at commencing his +public career hand in hand with the friend of his youth, or going into +parliament with such a live log tied to him for a colleague as Squire +Stedman. + +This was not however exactly the alternative he had to decide upon. +Lord Latimer’s letter put it to him again in a stronger light, that the +most probable contingency was that he should himself lose his election. +Guy Faux himself, of gunpowder memory, is not more completely a puppet +in the hands of the November urchins who set him up, than a candidate +at a contested election often is in those of the party which upholds +him. This Germain found in the eagerness with which he was now urged to +accede to the proposed coalition. There were not precedents wanting for +it, even among those most differing from Mr. Stedman in principles. +In contests like the present, individual security, not political +consistency, is made the first object. Mr. Macdeed, who had been very +active all the morning in attempting to arrange this junction, found +Mr. Stedman’s party even more anxious for it, for they had at length +discovered that that fine old scarlet bugbear, the Pope, had been +rather worn out in the course of the last seven years, and as they had +nothing to replace him, they were desirous to take any measures to +patch up their threadbare pretensions. The event may be anticipated--an +exchange of second votes, as far as they had it in their power to +arrange it, was determined upon, and the effect was soon apparent. + +For though it gave Oakley an additional opening for some fine bursts +of indignant declamation, yet at the same time it so far increased the +irritability of his temper, as to make him unintentionally offend some +of his most zealous partizans. + +Combined too with the limitations which upon principle he had put to +the expenses, it caused a visible diminution in his relative strength. +After, therefore, an animated but fruitless contest, in which it +would be difficult to say whether he had most succeeded in extorting +admiration, or provoking hostility, the numbers were declared at the +final close of the poll, + + GERMAIN 2301 + STEDMAN 2254 + OAKLEY 1906 + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + ----The fearful time + Cuts off the ceremonious vows of love, + And ample interchange of sweet discourse, + Which so long sunder’d friends should dwell upon. + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +Whilst the contest still continued, Oakley had not felt any despondency +at his daily diminishing hopes of success. The reputation of a martyr +was one peculiarly suited to his character. It was almost the only +distinction which, whilst it elevated him in his own opinion, at +the same time fed that distrust of others in which it pleased him +to indulge. Whilst he persuaded himself, in attempting to persuade +others, that he was the victim of an unprincipled conspiracy, it is to +be doubted whether at the moment he would have exchanged the liberty +of expressing his opinion of his opponents in unmeasured terms, for +that situation on the poll which would have burdened his tongue with a +weight of gratitude, and deprived him of the pleasure of considering +himself as a virtuous victim to the ignorance and corruption of the age. + +But, as the excitement subsided, other feelings blended themselves +with the retrospect. He left the town in Lady Boreton’s carriage: her +ladyship had been active in her assistance to the very last, and would +now, if she had received any encouragement, have been equally ready +with her consolations, but Oakley’s taciturnity seemed invincible; +therefore Lady Boreton, whose busy mind was never unoccupied, entered +at once into eager conversation with her literary hanger-on, who sat +opposite, and was soon as far off as the gardens of the Hesperides, +discussing their recently-discovered locality. Sir John, who was +opposite Oakley, lest he should be expected to say any thing, kept +his eyes as intently fixed upon the passing hedges, as if he had been +counting the blackberries on them. + +Oakley therefore was allowed, undisturbed, the indulgence of his +reflections at much greater length than they need be recorded. It is +sufficient to say, that every ground of consolation gradually faded +away upon further examination. He now felt disposed to doubt the +justice, or even the excellence of some of those philippics of which he +had not been a little proud, when they found a ready approval in the +acclamations of his party. Their effect however still remained to be +felt; they had alienated the only person whose friendship he had ever +valued, and separated him farther from her who had awakened in his +heart an interest, strong in proportion to the newness of the feeling +to him. + +He was roused by hearing Lady Boreton say, after a check to their +progress, caused by meeting another carriage at a turnpike, “There +is Lady Latimer, of course all smiles; and can that possibly be Miss +Mordaunt moping in the corner? How that girl is altered since she first +came to my house! I can’t think what has come over her; I never saw any +thing so melancholy as she looked last time she came into town with +Lady Latimer.” + +The carriages crossed; no one replied to Lady Boreton’s remark; she +therefore returned to her golden-fruited gardens, Sir John to his +blackberry-bushes, and Oakley resumed his reverie, which was now +somewhat less political than it had originally been. They thus arrived +at the first stage where they were to separate; Sir John and Lady +Boreton continuing their route homewards, and Oakley mounting his +horse and crossing to Goldsborough. The groom who had come to meet him +with the horse, brought with him from thence a packet which otherwise +affected his destination. + +It was with some surprise that he read a letter from Mrs. Mordaunt +to him, in which she stated that she was already under such heavy +obligations to him, that she had the less hesitation in applying to him +now to extricate her from difficulties of a delicate and distressing +nature. Her health had latterly, she said, been breaking rapidly; she +had been anxious not to alarm Helen on the subject unnecessarily, till +warned by her physician that she had no time to lose. As her daughter’s +intimacy with Lady Latimer had originated in an accidental occurrence, +with which she had herself no concern, she was unwilling now to open a +communication with that lady, which might lead to inquiries, that, for +many reasons, she would rather avoid; and yet she could not bear that +her daughter should return to her unprepared to find her much changed +since last they parted. She therefore knew not to whom to confide the +task of imparting to Helen the painful necessity for her return, unless +it was to him from whom she had had no secret, and to whom she owed the +double debt of having, by his liberality, given comfort to her latter +days, and by his kindness, smoothed her daughter’s first entrance into +the world. + +Oakley’s faculties had been so bewildered and exhausted by the +excitement under which he had been lately labouring, that he read this +letter over several times before he could form any consistent plan +for complying with the request it contained. It appeared as if Mrs. +Mordaunt had been ignorant of many late circumstances, which made +him a peculiarly inconvenient medium for communicating any thing +to Helen whilst under Lord Latimer’s roof. And such indeed was the +case. Helen could have related nothing to her mother on the subject +of the election, except those prejudiced versions of the contest +which were perpetually repeated in her hearing at Latimer, and which +she was extremely unwilling to believe; she had therefore adopted +the alternative of utter silence on that subject, and so completely +secluded was Mrs. Mordaunt’s mode of life, that she was very unlikely +to know any thing about it from any other source. + +She therefore had written in the full confidence that Mr. Oakley’s +intercourse with her daughter was still upon the same easy footing that +it had formerly been. Her own early experience of the workings of the +heart, and the deductions which, in the calm of her latter days, she +had drawn from that experience, leading her to believe that Helen’s +comparative omission of Oakley’s name in her most recent letters, arose +from other causes than either separation or indifference. Not that it +ought, therefore, to be supposed that Mrs. Mordaunt had formed any +interested scheme for her daughter’s advantageous settlement in life, +by a union with Oakley, but occasionally, in her solitude, indistinct +hopes of that nature would come across her. She had so studied Helen’s +character, she had so sifted its freedom from the seeds of those errors +which had been her own ruin, that when year after year she found it +only more “lovely in blossom, rich in fruit,” she justly considered +that one so perfect as a daughter, would be invaluable as a wife. + +True, with bitter humiliation she felt that her own character might be +a bar to any connexion of that kind; and to think of her, separated and +estranged, was more than she could bear: but it had long been in her +daughter and for her daughter alone she had lived, and for her sake she +hoped soon to die. + +It was in the prospects which the visit to Lady Latimer seemed to have +opened to Helen, that Mrs. Mordaunt found her consolation for the +present separation. Lady Latimer had first met Miss Mordaunt at the +house of an old governess of hers, who had retired to the same secluded +neighbourhood as her mother. She was a very respectable elderly +gentlewoman, with whom Lady Latimer kept up an occasional intercourse, +in gratitude for some early moral instruction which Lady Flamborough +had, as in duty bound, in the first instance, hired her to implant, and +afterwards had herself been at some pains to eradicate. This good old +lady had taken a great fancy to Miss Mordaunt, and had introduced her +to the notice of Lady Latimer, as the orphan-child of an officer in +the army, whose widow lived in that neighbourhood. + +But to return to Oakley and the letter. It is to be feared that one +of the first reflections that it raised in his mind was, that the +death of a person in Mrs. Mordaunt’s unfortunate situation would be no +disadvantage to Helen; but he checked the idea, when he recollected the +shock her affectionate nature would sustain in the final separation +from a mother, from whom she had received nothing but kindness, and of +whom she knew nothing but good. Again he cursed this unlucky election, +which had laid an embargo upon personal communication at present. +How could he, especially after the language he had used about Lord +Latimer and his friends, attempt to cross his threshold uninvited and +unexpected? + +He sat down determined to write the painful intelligence he had to +convey to Miss Mordaunt. But he could not satisfy himself with either +the style or substance of what he had committed to paper. Besides, what +right had he to address Miss Mordaunt at all? Many things, which an +additional word or look might explain or soften, at the moment looked +abrupt when staring nakedly and unalterably upon paper. + +At one time he thought of returning home to Goldsborough and committing +to some delegated person the task that had been assigned to himself. +But who should be that person? became the next question. Mr. Gardner +from his character, would have been peculiarly fitted to undertake it, +but he could not think of asking such a favour of him, after parting +from him in a temper of suspicion, which did not render it easy to make +the next meeting one of unrestrained confidence. + +He read the letter again, and it appeared that something must be +decided on speedily. Whilst he was still deliberating, the shades of +night thickened around him, and after having made a last ineffectual +attempt to finish what he had written by the uncertain fire-light in +the little room to which he had retired, he took the sudden resolution +of returning himself alone, and under cover of the darkness, (he +trusted unobserved,) to the county town where Helen had accompanied +Lady Latimer. + +“There at least,” thought he, “whilst they are occupied with their +petty triumph, I can have an opportunity of a few minutes’ private +conversation with Miss Mordaunt without trespassing upon Lord Latimer’s +hospitality.” + +This resolution was no sooner taken than executed, and he was without +further delay on horseback, and again, but more rapidly gliding past +those hedges of which Sir John had some hours before so accurately +examined the details, but which now appeared, by the uncertain +twilight of an autumnal evening, to stalk by in gloomy, gigantic +masses, as he galloped between them. He heeded not their threatening +shadows, nor the more substantial discomforts of the coming storm, +entirely occupied with arranging, as far as the confusion of his ideas +would admit, the manner in which he might best break the unwelcome +tidings with which he was charged, to one whom he was most unwilling to +pain. + +The first thing that at all dissipated the deep abstraction in which +these thoughts involved him, was soon after entering the town, a sudden +and violent start of his horse at a blazing pile which flared across +the streets. This appeared to rise out of a cask, which the drunken +assemblage who surrounded it, having previously emptied, had now filled +with combustibles, and on the top of it was exposed a stuffed figure, +which, from its black wig and oratorical attitude, was evidently meant +for Oakley himself. + +Enraged at the sight, he spurred his horse furiously through the mob, +who fled on all sides, scared at the sight, as the lurid glare fell +for a moment upon the haggard apparition of him whose image they had +just been reviling, but whose actual presence they had seen removed +from the town some hours before. In another second he was lost in the +thick cloud of smoke which rolled onward the way he went, and it ever +after remained an unexplained mystery, what it was the boys saw that +night near Tom Smith’s rag-yard. Even the old gossip (who, as the first +authority in ghost-stories was consulted on the subject) only shook his +head, and said, “It was na a canny task to burn a sinfu’ cratur afore +his day--there was na tilling wha might com in sim shape or other to +thankee for saving of his fuel.” + +Meantime Oakley rode on, not much improved in temper by the late +incident, and having put up his horse, sought out Lady Latimer’s +lodging. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true? + + SHAKSPEARE. + + +“And you never were at a ball before, my dear Helen?” said Lady +Latimer, as they drove into town that day. “How you will enjoy it, and +what a sensation you will create! Why, it will make that old, rural, +dirty Mr. Stedman, dance like Pan himself to have you for a partner.” + +“I hope you won’t be angry at what I am going to say. But I wish you +would excuse my going to this ball to-night. I am delighted to come +here, or go any where that procures me the pleasure of being with +you, but I can be no resource to you in a ball-room; and though your +kindness endeavours to make me forget my own insignificance, yet at a +meeting of this sort, utterly unknown as I am, I cannot help thinking I +must be _de trop_--at festivities too, to which I cannot be considered +a party.” + +“If a party, not a very friendly one, I am afraid,” said Lady Latimer, +smiling. “Have a care, or I will tell Germain that I fear we have a +traitor in the camp, whose wishes were with the fallen. Nay, now you +belie my words, for your cheeks are of Germain’s colour, sure enough. +But no more excuses for to-night at least; I will fulfil Macbeth’s +threat, and make ‘the green one red.’” + +“Nay, you wrong me if you think I can do otherwise than rejoice in +your success; and I hope that you won’t attribute my conduct to any +such ingratitude, when I own that so thoroughly was I convinced that I +should be in your way to-night, that I have brought no ball-dress with +me.” + +“Nor have I,” said Lady Latimer, “so you will be as well off as +I am--but wait a little,” added she, observing that Helen looked +surprised at this declaration. + +“Any cases come for me from London?” asked Lady Latimer, upon alighting +at her lodging. + +“Yes, two, my lady,” readily replied the soubrette. + +“Now for them, then. There, my dear Helen, did you ever see any thing +so beautiful? the colour quite appropriate, all trimmed with the +_véritable feu d’enfer_; not those awkward imitations of which one has +been ashamed during the election--both precisely alike you see--this +was my little surprise for you; you had no suspicion when I observed +how well my dresses fitted you, that I meant to send for this as a +little cadeau for you, that we might both appear exactly the same +to-night.” + +There was so much genuine good-nature mixed up with the frivolous +importance which Lady Latimer attached to this little affair, that +Helen could not bear to disappoint her by refusing to use, on this +appropriate occasion, the beautiful dress which she had taken such +pains to procure for her. + +Lady Latimer having quite made up her mind that there was but one +person who could dress both their heads in a manner at all worthy of +the occasion, Miss Mordaunt had retired first, and had returned to the +drawing-room, her toilette finished, the beautiful dress even exceeding +Lady Latimer’s expectations, and her fine hair interspersed with +corresponding bows of _feu d’enfer_. She was expecting to have long to +await alone the result of her friend’s somewhat _soigné_ labour, when a +bustle was heard in the passage below. + +Lady Latimer’s servants never did more than was absolutely necessary at +home, and upon an occasion like the present, they would have thought it +quite out of character to be in the way; therefore it was the soubrette +of the house who announced that “a gemman wished to speak to Miss;” and +without waiting a reply, ushered Oakley into the room. + +It would be hardly possible to imagine a more attractive object than +Helen Mordaunt then appeared--a form and features in which were happily +blended the brilliant with the delicate; a countenance marked at once +with strength of mind and innocence of heart; and all those innate +charms enhanced by the efforts of art, which in this instance had +luckily united the correct in fashion with the becoming in taste. + +But if, instead, a loathsome and disgusting object had unexpectedly +crossed his path, Oakley’s countenance, upon beholding it, could not +have undergone a more sudden change in expression than when he found +her, whom he had come to console and support under affliction, more +radiant than ever, decked out, as he thought, insultingly, in his +rival’s colours. Helen’s surprise at first keeping her silent, he began +with suppressed emotion: “The person I see, is so unlike the Miss +Mordaunt I expected to find, that I know not how I can sufficiently +apologize for my intrusion.” + +“I will not deny that I am indeed much astonished to see you here, and +thus--” said she, looking at his splashed and disordered appearance; +“but from all I have known of Mr. Oakley, I have no doubt that he has +some good reason to give for what indeed----” + +“All you have known of Mr. Oakley--perhaps you know as little in truth +of what Mr. Oakley really is, as he now finds to his cost he knew of +Miss Mordaunt. We may have been equally deceived.” + +“This is very strange,” said Helen, alarmed. “I entreat you to +recollect yourself, Mr. Oakley. Lady Latimer will be down presently, +and if you have any thing to say, I beg it may be in her presence.” + +“Yes, Lady Latimer--she it is that has wrought this change in you--a +cold, unfeeling coquette, who, simply to gratify her vanity would +compromise her own character. Why should she respect that of her +friend?--she it is that, at a time when you ought to be far otherwise +attired, has for her own purposes decked you out in these trappings of +her fickle admirer, the frivolous Germain.” + +“Whatever Mr. Germain’s character may be, it is not for me to defend +it; but I must say, that I feel confident his conduct would never have +been such as in the last few minutes I have blushed to witness. Oh, for +shame, Mr. Oakley!” added she, gathering courage as she proceeded, “if +no generous regard for my unprotected situation prevents your forcing +upon my unwilling ear erroneous constructions upon my conduct, why +should you imagine that I can hear without resentment an unprovoked +libel upon the character of my best friend and benefactress, and +that too from one who has no claim upon me beyond that of a common +acquaintance, and whom gratitude to my protectress, will be sufficient +to make me henceforth treat as a stranger.” + +Helen’s feelings had been thoroughly roused by an overpowering sense of +injustice; and whilst her eye flashed indignantly upon Oakley with an +expression so different from its habitual mildness, the recollection +of his uncle’s portrait came involuntarily across him. He felt for a +moment subdued by the tone she took; but there was much of what she +said peculiarly galling to his impetuous disposition in its present +fevered state. The unfavourable comparison drawn between himself and +Germain, excited a feeling, which combined with the previous ranklings +of envy, the additional pang of jealousy. The rejection of him as a +stranger, with which she concluded, conspired to overthrow the little +command he still had upon himself, and he replied:-- + +“What other claims upon your favour I may have foolishly imagined I +had established, it is useless now to inquire, but you may live to +feel that the gratitude you profess towards Lady Latimer is as nothing +compared to that which you ought to have acknowledged towards me.” + +“Gratitude to you!--for what? Can you possibly mean to allude to +attentions, which it would be as unworthy in you to urge, as degrading +to me to admit, as establishing such a claim?--Gratitude to you! I owe +you none.” + +“What!” said Oakley wildly, “--none that I readily cancelled my uncle’s +tacit rejection of his child--none that I gave to the offspring of +shame an honourable position in the world by continuing to your +surviving parent the pension of her guilt?” + +“Good God, he’s mad!” exclaimed Helen, a sudden conviction of that +appalling nature coming upon her, from the vehemence of his manner, and +the apparent incoherence of what he uttered. She darted by him to the +door, and succeeded in making her escape up stairs. Her first idea +was to seek protection in Lady Latimer’s apartment, but she hesitated +even at the door, from an unwillingness herself to explain and detail, +particularly at the present moment, all that had just passed; she +therefore retired to her own room, where she remained some minutes in a +deplorable state of agitation. She then heard Oakley, who had made no +attempt to follow her, rapidly descending the stairs, and immediately +after, the housemaid brought her a letter in her mother’s hand directed +to Oakley, enclosed in an envelope, in which was scrawled in pencil +these few lines:-- + + “I can in no way make reparation for what I have done, nor expect you + to forgive me, when I can never forgive myself. The enclosed will + explain that I came with other intentions than wantonly to insult + you, though it will not, and cannot, excuse the brutal perversion of + my errand. May heaven support you under those afflictions, which it + is my curse to have aggravated!” + + E. O. + +The comparative sanity of this note, and the tone of obligation with +which she found her mother addressing him, were far from consolatory +to Helen; for they opened to her the dreadful suspicion that there was +some foundation for the mysterious connexion with Oakley at which he +had hinted. This harrowing thought did not however at the moment take +much hold upon her mind, as every other idea was superseded for the +time by the present calamity which her mother’s letter imparted, that +she was ill, very ill, and desired her immediate return. + +It was with the determination just formed, that her departure should +not be delayed another moment, that she was found by Lady Latimer, +whose toilet was at length finished, and who entered her room engrossed +with the expectation of that admiration she knew she so well deserved. +Helen immediately communicated to her the intelligence she had received +of her mother’s illness, though she did not add the means by which she +had learnt it. + +Lady Latimer was much disappointed, and at first attempted to remove +the impression of its serious nature, by saying-- + +“Oh! I dare say it is of no consequence; your fears have exaggerated +things; to-morrow we shall be returning, and then, certainly, if you +like, you can go home.” + +But upon raising her candle to Helen’s face, the desolating effects of +agitation she there observed, which had been in no small degree caused +by the scene she had undergone, but which Lady Latimer attributed +entirely to the news she had received, showed that she was not to be +trifled with. She therefore at once offered one of her own carriages +and servants to be immediately ordered to convey Miss Mordaunt upon +her way homewards, if she wished to set off without delay. This having +been thankfully accepted, Lady Latimer left the room, saying that she +would herself stay at home till every thing was ready, in order that +she might see that all possible expedition was used. + +Helen immediately commenced, with no small degree of impatience, +throwing off the unlucky ball-dress, which had certainly excited any +thing but admiration in the only person by whom it had been seen; and +soon were scattered neglectfully about the room, flowers, ribbons, +and similar paraphernalia, which would have made the fortune of any +milliner, and the happiness of any young lady in the county. Under +Lady Latimer’s own immediate direction, the preparations for the +journey were completed in an incredibly short time, and after a most +affectionate farewell, the two friends separated, Helen to commence +her sad and solitary return homewards, Lady Latimer to gladden the +expectant eyes of the brilliant ball-room. + + +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. + + + LONDON: + IBOTSON AND PALMER, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. + + + + +Transcriber note + + + Spelling and punctuation errors have been corrected. + + Italics have been enclosed by underscores. + + Small caps have been capitalised. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77719 *** |