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diff --git a/78688-h/78688-h.htm b/78688-h/78688-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..99b8095 --- /dev/null +++ b/78688-h/78688-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6675 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta name="format-detection" content="telephone=no,date=no,address=no,email=no,url=no"> + <title> + The Contrast, Vol. 1 | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +/* heading styles */ +h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +h1 { /* use for book title */ + margin: 1em 5% 1em; + font-size: 180%;} +h2 { /* use for chapter headings */ + margin:2em 5% 1em; + font-size: 150%;} +h3 { margin: 2em 5% 1em; + font-size: 120%;} +.h1head { + clear: both; + display: block; + text-indent: 0em; + text-align: center; + font-weight: bold; + page-break-before: avoid; + margin: 4em 5% 1em; + font-size: 180%; } + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; + margin-top: 4em;} + +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +/* paragraph styles */ +p { + margin-top: .5em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .5em; + line-height: 175%; + text-indent: 1em;} +.unindent {text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em;} +.nottall {line-height: 100%;} +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} +.p4 {margin-top: 4em;} +.center {text-align: center; text-indent: 0;} +.right {text-align: right;} +.r2 { margin-right: 2em; } +.ss {display: inline-block; text-align: right;} + +blockquote { + margin-top: 0; + margin-bottom: 0; + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +/* font styles */ +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} +.allsmcap {font-variant: small-caps; text-transform: lowercase;} +em {font-style: italic;} +.small {font-size: 90%;} +.muchsmaller {font-size: 75%;} +.ls {letter-spacing: .25em; + margin-right: -0.25em;} +strong {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Rules */ +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } + +/* page numbers */ +.pagenum { + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-style: normal; + font-weight: normal; + font-variant: normal; + text-indent: 0; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poetry-container {display: flex; justify-content: center;} +.poetry {text-align: left; margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; font-size: 90%;} +.poetry .stanza {margin: 1em auto;} +.poetry .verse {text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em;} +.author {text-align: right;} + +/* Poetry indents */ +.poetry .indent0 {text-indent: -3.0em;} +.poetry .indent0a {text-indent: -3.5em;} +.poetry .indent2 {text-indent: -2.0em;} +.poetry .indent6 {text-indent: 0.0em;} +.poetry .indent8 {text-indent: 1.0em;} +.poetry .indent10 {text-indent: 2.0em;} +.poetry .indent25 {text-indent: 14em;} /* title page */ +.poetry .indent26 {text-indent: 10.0em;} +.poetry .indent27 {text-indent: 10.5em;} +.poetry .indent29 {text-indent: 11.5em;} +.poetry .indent30 {text-indent: 12.0em;} +.poetry .indent31 {text-indent: 12.5em;} +.poetry .indent33 {text-indent: 13.5em;} +.poetry .indent36 {text-indent: 15.0em;} + +/* Transcriber's notes */ +.transnote {background-color: #E6E6FA; + color: black; + font-size:small; + padding:0.5em; + margin-bottom:5em; + font-family:sans-serif, serif; +} + +a { border:none; text-decoration:none; font-variant:normal; } +abbr { border:none; text-decoration:none; font-variant:normal; } + + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78688 ***</div> + + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1"></span></p> +<h1> +<span class="muchsmaller">THE</span><br> +<br> +<span class="ls">CONTRAST</span>, +</h1> + +<p class="p2 center x-ebookmaker-important"> +BY THE AUTHOR OF “MATILDA,” “YES AND NO,”<br> +&c. &c. +</p> + +<hr> +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indent0">Take but degree away—untune that string,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And hark! what discord follows.</div> + <div class="verse indent25"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> +</div> +<hr> + +<p class="p2 center small ls"> +IN THREE VOLUMES. +</p> + +<p class="p2 center"> +<abbr title="Volume One">VOL. I.</abbr> +</p> + +<p class="p2 center">LONDON:<br> +HENRY COLBURN AND RICHARD BENTLEY,<br> +<span class="small">NEW BURLINGTON STREET.<br> +1832.</span> +</p> +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><a id="Page_2"></a>CONTENTS</p> +<p class="unindent"> +<a href="#ADVERTISEMENT">ADVERTISEMENT.</a><br> +<a href="#THE_CONTRAST">THE CONTRAST.</a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER <abbr title="One">I.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER <abbr title="Two">II.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER <abbr title="Three">III.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER <abbr title="Four">IV.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER <abbr title="Five">V.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER <abbr title="Six">VI.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER <abbr title="Seven">VII.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER <abbr title="Eight">VIII.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER <abbr title="Nine">IX.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER <abbr title="Ten">X.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER <abbr title="Eleven">XI.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER <abbr title="Twelve">XII.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER <abbr title="Thirteen">XIII.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER <abbr title="Fourteen">XIV.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER <abbr title="Fifteen">XV.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER <abbr title="Sixteen">XVI.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER <abbr title="Seventeen">XVII.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER <abbr title="Eighteen">XVIII.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER <abbr title="Nineteen">XIX.</abbr></a><br> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER <abbr title="Twenty">XX.</abbr></a> +</p> +</div> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_3"></a></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="ADVERTISEMENT"> + ADVERTISEMENT. + </h2> +</div> + +<hr> + +<p>“<span class="smcap">What’s</span> in a name?” is a question to +which, perhaps, a bookseller would be apt to +reply—“More than meets the eye.” With some +suspicion of this kind, I have hesitated much +what Title to prefix to the following pages.</p> + +<p>I might, it is true, have been satisfied with +the safe expedient of any two or three mellifluous, +though unmeaning syllables, in the +shape of a proper name; but I was anxious, +if possible, rather to explain the character than +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4"></span>to record the family appellation of my hero—if +hero that person must be called whose failings +and whose errors occupy most of these +pages.</p> + +<p>If I had been writing in French, <span lang="fr">“L’Homme +Difficile”</span> would most nearly have defined the +character I meant to pourtray; but there is no +synonymous phrase in English. “The Fastidious +Man” did not quite please me. I am +myself fastidious as to the use of the term, +“the Man,” in a title explanatory of character. +“Fastidiousness” is not euphonious, still less +“Fastidiosity,” which Johnson passes current.</p> + +<p>Under these difficulties I have left my hero +to speak for himself, without introduction; and +taking what would, perhaps, at first have been +the more gallant course, I have attempted to +draw the attention of the reader to the diversity +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5"></span>of female character arising, in great part, from +difference of situation, under the form, and +with the title, of “The Contrast.”</p> + +<p>One word more, kind Reader, in the shape +of an humble petition for that general indulgence +which no one can feel more than myself +how much I require.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6"></a><a id="Page_7"></a></span></p> + <h2 class="h1head" id="THE_CONTRAST"> + THE CONTRAST. + </h2> +</div> +<hr> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="One">I.</abbr> + </h2> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Will Fortune never come with both hands full,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But write her fair words still in foulest letters?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">She either gives a stomach and no food</div> + <div class="verse indent0">(Such are the poor in health), or else a feast</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And takes away the stomach: such are the rich</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That have abundance and enjoy it not.</div> + <div class="verse indent30"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">——Your servant and your friend;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">One that attends your ladyship’s commands.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">She was not old, nor young, nor at the years</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which certain people call a certain age,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which yet the most uncertain age appears.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Byron.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> that iron age when Frenchmen marched +“en masse” from Madrid to Moscow; when +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8"></span>Continental travelling was effected by drawing +not <em>bills</em>, but <em>swords</em>; when <em>cannon</em>, not <em>credit</em>, +gave to strangers the comforts of home in +foreign lands, then were the locomotive propensities +of the peaceable portion of our countrymen +necessarily confined within the narrow +limits of our sea-girt island. Impatient at +being thus temporarily dammed up, the stream +of society annually flowed outwards from the +metropolis down to the extremest low-water +mark of the different bathing-places.</p> + +<p>It was during this period, that a large party +had assembled, at the conclusion of the London +season, at the hospitable mansion of Sir North +Saunders. Sir North’s father had been a great +contractor in those days when contracts were +worth something; and, having realized an immense +sum in the course of the American war, +he, in gratitude, christened his son and heir +after that minister, to whose persevering profusion +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9"></span>he owed all to which he would be heir. +When the almost unanimous voice of an indignant +nation had closed the disastrous struggle, +Sir Simon Saunders (as the contractor and first +baronet was called) was, after a time, completely +puzzled how to act.</p> + +<p>During the first rapid succession of short +and inconsistent administrations, he stuck by +the Treasury, with a tenacity as to place, and +versatility as to persons, worthy of that renowned +vicar, whose peculiar talents in that +line have become proverbial. Yet, as upon +the permanent ascendancy of the Pitt party of +that day, he found that retrenchment and reform +were the watch-words at head-quarters, +he, in disgust, threw up the whole concern, laid +out some of his previously-acquired spoil in the +purchase of Hornscliff Abbey, and retired to +that beautiful retreat, thinking that, at any +rate, a country gentleman contractor was not a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10"></span>greater contradiction in terms, than a patriot +minister.</p> + +<p>He was not, however, long condemned to +pretend to enjoy a state of existence so uncongenial +to all his tastes and habits; and his son +and heir, Sir North, not only succeeded in full +to all the acquirements of his father’s later +years, but also inherited, in all its original +freshness, that turn of mind which had in +youth raised Sir Simon from nobody.</p> + +<p>It was not therefore to be expected that he +would long bury himself in the solitudes of +Hornscliff Abbey, more especially as, coming of +age soon after the breaking out of the revolutionary +war, and having a great deal of parliamentary +interest, the same minister who +had disappointed the expectations of the father, +now acting upon a different system, granted +upon many occasions the utmost demands of +the son.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_11"></span></p> + +<p>From this time for nearly twenty years, Sir +North continued in heart and soul nothing +more nor less than a thorough-paced trading +politician; most anxious, nevertheless, to veil +that character under the reputation of a <i lang="fr">bon +vivant</i>, <i lang="fr">bel esprit</i>, and <i lang="fr">connoisseur</i>. To these +pretensions, since the last audit-day had given +him a glimpse of his beautiful property at +Hornscliff, he had added an eager desire to be +thought an enthusiast in the picturesque. He +had, in imitation of some of his acquaintance, a +service of china painted with views of the romantic +environs of his place: the beauties +which the plates and dishes thus displayed, +were, during the season, the constant theme of +his conversation, coupled with pressing invitations +to his various acquaintance, that as his +boasted property was upon the coast, they +would make Hornscliff Abbey their sojourning +place during the ensuing summer.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_12"></span></p> + +<p>This many of them seemed nothing loth to +do, particularly as they ascertained that the +other <i lang="fr">artiste</i>, whose labours, in their opinion, +no less profitably adorned the plates and dishes, +was to continue his successful attempts to eclipse +the performance of the painter.</p> + +<p>“What a beautiful place it must be!” said +Lady Madelina Manfred to her neighbour, +young Lord Castleton, as she pensively dropped +her beautiful eyes on her plate, and continued +in a sentimental tone, “I hope that you +are as passionately fond of the sea as I am. +How sublime its eternal sameness! How grand +its boundless limits! Oh, I could look on it for +ever!” she added, as she completely covered +the German ocean with half a spoonful of bread +sauce. “Shall we adjourn there at the end of +the season?” continued the lady, with a peculiar +emphasis on that comprehensive monosyllable +<em>we</em>.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_13"></span></p> + +<p>It was, indeed, to establish such an identity +of interest between her and young Lord Castleton, +as would give her a common property +in the use of the first person plural, that she +had been labouring all through the season. +Lady Madelina Manfred was born a fool, but +had through life cultivated that species of cunning +which fools so often display in the pursuit +of an object, if they have one. The object +which she had been—I will not say for how +many years, successfully pursuing, was admiration. +To be sure, nature had assisted her with +a pair of eyes which looked as if they could not +but mean something, and a voice, whose seductive +tones could give a charm even to folly. +Her husband was one of those good, easy men, +who seem as if only born to give their wives a +name, inasmuch as their own is never by any +chance heard after they have once accomplished +that purpose. Seasons had rolled on; and if +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14"></span>Lady Madelina Manfred’s eye had lost some +of its brilliancy, her complexion some of its +bloom, and her form some of its freshness, +there were still many who were wilfully blind +to such changes. As Lord Castleton will, in +the course of these pages, have much to say +for himself, it is unnecessary to say any more +for him at present, than that he was but just +nineteen; and whatever opinion might then be +entertained of the <i lang="fr">liaison</i> lately formed between +him and Lady Madelina, it was no scandal, +when gossips said that there <em>was a time</em> when +she had held him in her arms.</p> + +<p>To the attractions of the invitation to Hornscliff +Abbey, often urged by Sir North, and so +sweetly echoed by Lady Madelina, Lord Castleton +was not then in a frame of mind to be insensible, +particularly as, in addition to all other +reasons for accepting it, his guardians were +very anxious that he should <em>not</em>; and he therefore +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15"></span>longed to show he was his own master, by +putting himself completely at the disposal of +Sir North and Lady Madelina, who had both +the most deliberate designs, the one personal, +the other political, upon his future independence.</p> + +<p>To Hornscliff Abbey, therefore, he transported +himself, as soon as he found that the +waiters at the clubs monopolized the newspapers, +and sauntering hackney-coachmen elbowed +him as they lounged along the foot-pavement.</p> + +<p>Lord Castleton was not by nature at all +that sort of being which the acquired habits of +the last few months had made him appear, to +all who had never known him before. The +parting jolt of his carriage moving off the London +pavement, seemed to shake from his nature +much of that affectation with which the +season had encrusted it; and the first breath of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16"></span>pure country air, as he cleared the last Cockney +villa, seemed to revive in their springy freshness, +many of those early feelings and tastes, +which, however faded for a time, can at nineteen +hardly be irrecoverably seared and withered.</p> + +<p>As he approached his destination, his spirit +seemed to expand with the bolder features +of the mountain-scenery by which he found +himself surrounded. Though within the immediate +limits of Sir North’s domain, the +effect was almost ludicrous of the attempts +which had evidently been hastily and recently +made to cripple and confine the bold and gigantic +shapes which nature here displayed, in the +scanty and servile livery of a dress place. The +contrasts thus produced were quite comical. +Rugged rocks were encircled by invisible railings; +cast-iron bridges swung across the wildest +glens; Chinese pagodas rose out of mountain +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17"></span>heather; gilt wire aviaries were dotted about in +solitudes, where eagles might have stooped, or +black game brooded; and Thames wherries +were moored by silken cords along the banks +of the shallow, but rapid torrent, which rushed +over a rocky bed down to the sea.</p> + +<p>At the Abbey itself, these contradictions +were more various and more numerous, though +perhaps not more striking. It requires nothing +else but an unlimited command of money +to transport, in an incredibly short space of +time, all the contents of a London upholsterer’s +shop to the remotest and most uncivilized +corner of the kingdom; and due activity +had been shown in attending to Sir North’s +order, that Hornscliff Abbey should, without +delay, be furnished from cellar to attic. The +building itself, situated in one of those snugly-sheltered, +but romantic glens, where in former +times the monks had generally the good taste +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18"></span>to fix, remained one of the best preserved and +most perfect specimens of the abbey-gothic +style of architecture: it was not to be expected +that any furniture, thus hastily huddled together, +should be in perfect keeping with the +walls by which it was surrounded; less care +was therefore taken that one part should tally +with the rest, and articles of every description +were crammed into all the rooms, with the +same ill-assorted propinquity in which they +stood in the warehouses, whence they had +been removed wholesale.</p> + +<p>But neither French paper on cedar panels, +nor fragile wherries on mountain torrents, +seemed so much misplaced, as did some of the +company whom Sir North had collected to witness +his installation as a country gentleman. +Many men, whose utmost previous pedestrian +feat had been daily gliding from their offices +along the smooth flags of Parliament-street to +make a House, and ladies, who thought it an +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19"></span>exertion to step from their carriage across a +broad <i lang="fr">trottoir</i> on a morning visit, were now expected +to thread tangled brakes, and to climb +over rugged rocks, in search of the picturesque.</p> + +<p>Sir North was determined, however, to play +what is called the whole game; and the very +day after the arrival of Lord Castleton, had been +fixed on for a distant excursion, to a romantic +bay on the coast; the beauties of which had +been much vaunted by the Rev. Mr. Turner, the +picturesque-loving Rector of the adjoining parish; +who, upon these occasions, acted as guide, +and wasted a great deal of intelligence, taste, +and enthusiasm, upon parties generally both +indifferent and ignorant; and took a considerable +deal of useless trouble in endeavouring to +cultivate a mutual spirit of good-will between +the wild scenes he loved, and their present +super-refined visitors, by smoothing rugged inhospitalities +on one side, and endeavouring to +cultivate a feeling of admiration on the other.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_20"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Two">II.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">There is a cliff whose high and beetling head</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Looks fearfully in the confined deep:</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Bring me to it.</div> + <div class="verse indent31"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div><div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">They were trained together in their childhood,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And there rooted between them such an</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Affection as cannot choose but branch now.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lord Castleton</span>, in accordance with the +claim which we have seen Lady Madelina had +established to a common property with him in +the use of the monosyllable “we,” had passed +the evening in hanging over the sofa, on which +she gracefully reclined, apart from the rest of +the world, within the recess of a roseate-draperied +tent, into which a ci-devant oriel window +had been converted.</p> + +<p>On the next eventful morning the ladies +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21"></span>were to perform the first part of the expedition +in open carriages, the gentlemen on horseback; +when the road no longer admitted of such civilized +modes of conveyance, the ladies were to +be transferred to donkeys, and the men to try +their pedestrian powers. Lord Castleton had +escorted Lady Madelina to her carriage, and +had started, with one hand on the barouche +door, and the other promoting, through the +medium of his horse’s mouth, that sort of curveting +canter which made conversation during +progress easy; but before they were even out +of sight of the abbey his attention was diverted +by the oft-repeated cry, just behind him, +in his host’s voice, of “Soho! soho! quiet +there!” and looking back he caught occasional +glimpses even of the highest <i lang="fr">guérite</i> of Hornscliff, +in short of the whole of poor Sir North’s +<em>country seat</em>, between his <em>equestrian seat</em> and +his saddle. The fact was that Sir North’s +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_22"></span>stable, like his house, had been furnished +wholesale and indiscriminately; but as a <em>sofa</em> +is easier to sit than a horse, and as Sir North’s +figure and habits were much more adapted to +the one than the other, the want of proper +selection was here infinitely more inconvenient. +Lord Castleton, seeing the imminent danger in +which his host was, could do no other than +offer to change with him. This proposal Sir +North received without the slightest scruple, +which, considering that at the time he thought +he was consigning his young friend to the +merciless power of the most terrific animal in +creation, was a conduct which nothing but an +extreme case of self-preservation could justify. +Though his new rider did not find much difficulty +in managing the unruly beast, yet as +Lady Madelina’s nerves no longer allowed +Lord Castleton to ride by the side of the carriage, +he was left, up to the time of quitting +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23"></span>these vehicles, more unoccupied than he otherwise +would have been, to admire the increasing +beauty of the surrounding scenery.</p> + +<p>A train of thoughts long neglected, and a +tone of feeling of late untouched, seemed to +revive within him, under the impression of +outward objects, to which his eye had been +now for some time a stranger. The meditations +into which he was thus insensibly led +were only occasionally interrupted by the bungling +explanations attempted by Sir North of +the different objects they passed, as he mistook +in attempting to re-state the information he had +received from the Rev. Mr. Turner. These +explanatory observations of Sir North became +more frequent, as his equanimity was +by degrees revived by the confidence he felt, +after the change of steeds, in his restored +safety: as he himself technically expressed it, +“His seat was now as secure as Old Sarum.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_24"></span></p> + +<p>“Pray observe,” said Sir North, “the secluded +situation of these Druidical remains, +which have withstood the changes of centuries, +there to your right.”</p> + +<p>“The Druidical remains I showed you,” +said Mr. Turner in an under-tone, and as much +in Sir North’s ear as the height of the little +white pony he was riding would enable him to +reach, “are half a mile farther to the left.”</p> + +<p>“Pardon me, my good Sir,” said Sir North, +“what is that which I see to the right?”</p> + +<p>“The remains of a windmill, pulled down by +order of the magistrates, for its neighbourhood +to the high road,” replied the reverend Cicerone.</p> + +<p>This little mistake of Sir North’s rather +checked the torrent of his information, till, +after passing a beautiful variety of highland +and lowland, in crossing a succession of ridges, +they at length arrived at the entrance of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25"></span>rocky glen, through which they were to wind +their way down to the sea. Here they were +obliged to leave carriages and horses, as there +was no longer any better road than the timber-track +by which the produce of Sir North’s +woods was annually taken to be shipped.</p> + +<p>Lord Castleton, still in close attendance on +Lady Madelina, after smoothing many little +difficulties, and soothing many affected alarms +in settling her upon her donkey, prepared to +lead the animal down the path, into the wild +and romantic scene whose bold features at +every step became more striking.</p> + +<p>He looked up on one side at the fantastic +forms of the venerable trunks whose roots had +for centuries been entwined in the rocky crags +from which they grew, but whose wide-spreading +branches then luxuriated in the green +vigour of a summer foliage; and he looked +down on the other at the clear unruffled surface +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26"></span>of the brook, which ran murmuring below +them. He scented the freshness of the hitherto +untrodden fern, as his feet passed over it, and +he then cast his eyes upon the fascinating but +<i lang="fr">fané</i> beauty by his side, and felt that there +was something uncongenial in visiting such a +scene under the protection of such a guardian +genius, one certainly better adapted to the artificial +state in which he had been lately living +than to the freshness and nature of the present. +Her personal charms, too, no longer in their +first bloom, suited better the softened light of +the shaded boudoir than the searching glance +of the evening sun, to which they were now +exposed, as upon approaching the sea the wood +no longer afforded the same shelter from its +rays, and against the effect of which the utmost +skill in the management of the pink parasol +could not always guard its mistress, thwarted +as her efforts were by the constant windings of +the steep path by which they descended, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27"></span>the rough motions of the humble donkey on +which she was mounted; and even those graceful +limbs, whose slightest movement had had its +charm when stretched with studied ease upon +the luxurious sofa, were now necessarily cramped +into angles on an awkward side-saddle.</p> + +<p>All these circumstances, though not embodied +in the shape of distinct doses towards +effecting Lord Castleton’s cure, had not been +without their effect upon him. They had both +been for some time silent, when, just before the +last angle in the glen was to open to them that +sea-view which was the object of their expedition, +Lord Castleton stopping to re-arrange +some part of Lady Madelina’s dress, which the +uneasy motion of the donkey had discomposed, +his ear caught for the first time the soothing +sound of the measured breaking of the waters +in their regular rise and fall against a sloping +shore.</p> + +<p>The very idea of eternal sameness with which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28"></span>this sound never fails to impress a romantic +fancy when unexpectedly heard, has in itself a +tendency to recall the different circumstances, +to revive the faded feelings, and to connect the +distant spots in which its unvaried monotony +has met the ear.</p> + +<p>It may already have been seen that Lord +Castleton was by nature sufficiently romantic, +and therefore he was immediately involved in +a labyrinth of thick-coming recollections, which +completely took off his attention from the occupation +which would lately not have been without +its interest, when all his pleasing reveries +were dispelled by that voice, whose tones he +so much admired, jarring upon his ear in <i lang="fr">malapropos</i> +inquiry. “So, after all, Lady Waitfort +could not get asked to Lady Delacour’s +ball?”</p> + +<p>The disgust that he felt at this ill-timed turn +to his thoughts, he was not obliged to express; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29"></span>for just then they came within sight of the +beautiful Bay to which they had been destined, +and even Lady Madelina could not help exclaiming, +“What a sweet spot!”</p> + +<p>Now a sweet spot was not exactly the most +appropriate expression for admiration of such +a scene; but Lord Castleton was too grateful +to her at the time for showing any feeling on +the subject, to object to the aptness of the +terms in which she vented it.</p> + +<p>The “sweet spot” was a deeply indented +bay, surrounded with perpendicular cliffs of a +great height, which towards the two extremities +of the inlet, cut the water in the shape of boldly +jutting crags. In the centre they were intersected +by the deep glen through which the +party had descended; at the bottom of which +the mountain-stream found its way to the sea; +and even down to the beach, the sides of this +glen were covered with fine trees and thriving +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_30"></span>shrubs; a rare circumstance in our northern +latitudes.</p> + +<p>There was in the solitude of the scene itself, +and the grandeur of the outlines by which it +was enclosed, that which seemed to mark it as a +spot where, in one of her angry moods, Nature +might choose to threaten some of those more +awful and sublime appearances which she sometimes +assumes; but at present, the gaiety of +the season, the mildness of the air, the splendour +of the setting-sun, and the calmness of the +sea, the sameness of whose measured splash +against the shore was not broken by the slightest +swell from without, produced no more than +<a id="chg1"></a>a pleasing sensation of repose. There was no +human habitation visible from the sea-shore; +but on one of the banks which formed the sides +of the glen, about half way from the summit to +the shore, just on the single spot where the +slope was more gradual, some smoke was seen +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31"></span>curling from behind a grove of dwarf oaks; +and still higher, taking advantage of a southern +exposure, there appeared a garden, which ran +upwards, till the cliff again becoming too perpendicular, +it only communicated with the top +by means of some steps cut in the rock, evidently +with great attention to safety and even +convenience. Judging by the little that could +be seen of the environs of this dwelling, it +might either be the residence of some retired +mariner, who chose to pass his latter days upon +an acquired competence, still within sight, +though safe from the attacks of that element +which had been the scene of his earlier adventures; +or it might, on the other hand, be <a id="chg2"></a>the +dwelling of some opulent farmer, who had +sought the shelter of this southern slope, from +that exposure to which the upper land must +there be subject.</p> + +<p>At first, the party imagined that they were +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_32"></span>the only living creatures that at present tenanted +the semicircular shores of the bay; but +upon passing the angle of a rock which projected +almost to the water’s edge, Lord Castleton +and Lady Madelina discovered two youthful +figures leaning against the gunwale of a solitary +fishing-boat, which was moored close up +to the cliff. The eldest of these two seemed a +stout, healthy-looking lad of about sixteen, +with a well-made figure and rather a handsome +head, though, for the age which his general +appearance indicated, his person was strong set +and square, and his countenance marked and +decided. His dress evidently bespoke a nautical +calling, though it was of that indefinite description +which might belong to any rank in +the service of the sea; his dark-blue jacket +and trowsers were, however, quite new, and +apparently put on with some attention to effect; +in his right hand he held by the middle a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33"></span>fresh-cut oaken staff, of that description which, +among the lower orders, generally indicates an +impending pedestrian journey, and which seemed +equally well calculated to lend its assistance +to the legs in their regular labours, and upon +any extraordinary occasion, to give additional +powers to the hand that held it. The top of +this staff he leaned against his mouth, his eyes +were intently fixed on the regular rise and fall +of the waters before him, whilst the fingers of +his left hand, which hung by his side, nervously +grasped something, of which, as they +half closed upon it, only the end of a blue ribbon +appeared. By his side stood one of those +figures, which occasionally and unexpectedly +cross our path, to put us again in good humour +with human nature, and prevent our +being entirely disgusted with the endless varieties +of ugliness of which the mortal machine +is capable, by showing, on the other hand, the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34"></span>perfection of which the same conformation is +sometimes susceptible in every rank and all +situations. Here, a form, which among the +nobly-born would have been said to bear the +stamp of high birth—which, in the land of +ancient tradition and sculptured authority, +would have been said to show the signs of +pure classical extraction, was found lowly born +in an obscure corner of a rugged clime. Even +the delicacy, which gave an unlooked-for charm +to the appearance of one in that situation, was +enhanced by her extreme youth. She was two +years younger than her companion; and, though +tall of her age, slight, and still childish in her +form: the natural cheerfulness of her innocent +countenance was then clouded by some present +sorrow, which added to the interest she was calculated +to inspire. Her right arm leaned lightly +on the shoulders of her companion, and her +eye, in which a tear still trembled, was fixed +upon the hand which held the ribbon.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_35"></span></p> + +<p>“What a perfect study for Gainsborough!” +said Lord Castleton, as he and Lady Madelina +stopped to gaze on the youthful couple, of +whom, the angle of the rock had given them, +unobserved, so near a view.</p> + +<p>“Gainsborough!” said Lady Madelina, “I +thought he made people with waspish waists +and powdered hair; I am sure I never saw +such a figure as he has made of Aunt Theodosia, +in the picture-gallery at Lumberhead-hall.”</p> + +<p>“Alas, poor Gainsborough! the native offspring +of his tasteful imagination are no more +like my aunt Theodosia, than that beautiful +girl is like——.” He did not finish the +sentence, but the look he gave might have said +more than was either civil or welcome, had not +the horizontal sun at that moment fortunately +caused the interposition of the pink parasol.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_36"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Three">III.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">One of those forms which flit by us when we</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are young, and fix our eyes on every face;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And oh the loveliness at times we see</div> + <div class="verse indent0">In momentary gliding!</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Byron.</span></div> + <div class="verse indent0">—— My love to Hermia</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Melted as doth the snow; seems to me now</div> + <div class="verse indent0">As the remembrance of an idle gaud</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which in my childhood I did dote upon.</div> + <div class="verse indent29"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>“<span class="smcap">I think</span> this would be a good place to +pick a bit,” gasped Sir North, as he came up +with Castleton and Lady Madelina, puffing in +such a manner, as showed that his fat sides +felt the difference between the smooth flags of +Downing Street and the shingles of the sea +beach. “I advise no one,” he added, turning +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_37"></span>to the rest of the party, “to spare the cold +meat, for we have not the least chance of being +back for dinner. I told you last night, Lady +Madelina, if we did not breakfast before twelve, +we could not do it; and Mr. Turner says, +that the lane where the carriages are to meet +us, at the top of the cliff, is fourteen miles from +home. “Here, my lad,” said he, to the seafaring +youth, “run and call those servants with +the baskets, and your sister can get us some +water from the brook.”</p> + +<p>“She is not my sister,” said the lad, without +stirring a step.</p> + +<p>“Not his sister!” exclaimed Lady Madelina; +“then upon my word, my pretty girl, you +begin in time; and, I declare, we interrupted a +flirtation.”</p> + +<p>“But I am his cousin,” eagerly added the +girl, as if instinctively claiming the relationship, +as a justification of what she could not +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38"></span>have known. For flirtation, that sickly creation +of crowded idleness, was equally unknown +in name and in nature, on the silent and solitary +shores of Morden Bay.</p> + +<p>The rest of the party having now come up, +the servants also arrived with the provisions, +though the lad had disregarded Sir North’s +authoritative address to him to summon them. +The guests, hardly casting a glance around, +certainly not wasting an inquiry about the +beautiful scene, where they found themselves, +proceeded at once to what appeared the real object +of the expedition—the cold collation which +they had brought so many miles to eat in a +peculiarly uncomfortable manner. They might, +perhaps, in the intervals of this important +occupation, have vented a few common-place +expressions of admiration; but, unfortunately +for Mr. Turner’s feelings, who endeavoured +several times to lead the conversation that way, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39"></span>they had met the post on the road, and as the +newspapers of that day contained the account +of the long-expected demise of one of the +oldest supporters of the party to which they +belonged, they found ample food for conversation, +not in lamenting his loss, but in +discussing the various pretensions of the probable +claimants for his Government, his Garter, +his Regiment, and his Sinecure. At length, +after this had continued sometime, a “rising +young man,” on the ministerial side of the +house, who had many years to look forward, +before he could hope to put in a claim for +any thing of the sort they were discussing, +took advantage of a pause to make an abrupt +turn in the conversation, by saying, “Capital +shooting, I should think, in the covers up that +glen, Sir North?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, Sir,” interposed the lad, who had +been still leaning against the boat behind the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40"></span>party, and until now, a silent spectator of their +proceedings; “the surest place in all the +country side, to find the first woodcock, and +so uncle says, before my time.”</p> + +<p>“What do you know about woodcocks, my +young friend?” said Sir North: “do you know, +I am afraid that you and your uncle are little +better than poachers?”</p> + +<p>“Uncle rents the Bankside farm, as did his +father afore him; and when our south intack is +in stubble, when I am staying with uncle, we +go out coursing sometimes, and of a fine afternoon, +he takes his gun with him up the glen, +to look for birds.”</p> + +<p>“Very wrong, very wrong, all this,” said Sir +North. “Who is your landlord?”</p> + +<p>“I never seen him, but the Baronet Saunders, +Esquire, I think they call him.”</p> + +<p>“Ay, ay, I was afraid so,” said Sir North. +“This comes of neglecting to give these poor +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41"></span>creatures the blessing of a country gentleman’s +residence on his estate—totally disorganizes +society,—turns the farmers into poachers; this +must not be so in future: no my friends, I must +do my duty in the country as well as in town. +So, my lad, you say, you never saw your uncle’s +landlord, Sir North Saunders?”</p> + +<p>“No; but once I saw lawyer Drainem, +when he came to collect half-year’s rent, and I +suppose that be much the same thing.”</p> + +<p>“Well, now you may tell your uncle that +you have seen me, Sir North Saunders; and +tell him, that I mean to give my tenants the +benefit of my presence, to arrange all this upon +the proper footing.”</p> + +<p>“And you, my pretty girl,” said Lord +Castleton, approaching the object which, during +this conversation, had been engrossing +most of his attention, “do you accompany +your cousin on his sporting excursions?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_42"></span></p> + +<p>“No, Sir,” said she. “I have seen much +less of George since he has taken to coursing, +and now we are going to lose him entirely.”</p> + +<p>“How so?”</p> + +<p>“To-morrow he leaves us to serve his time +in the seafaring line, with another uncle, who +is captain and part owner of a vessel in the +transport service.”</p> + +<p>“And you are afraid that he will forget +Morden Bay, and his favourite cousin, and +would therefore like to follow him?”</p> + +<p>“If he forgets me, I should not so forget +myself as to recollect him,” said the little girl +with a dignity which, from one of her age and +station, surprised Lord Castleton. She then +continued, in a more childish tone: “Nor would +I leave my only home, my flowers, my daisies, +my daily occupations, and my shells, for to +follow any one friend.”</p> + +<p>“Then I am sure, if I were your friend +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43"></span>George, I would not leave Morden Bay and +the pretty prize which for him it contains, for +all the rest of the world.”</p> + +<p>The language of flattery fell for the first +time on the unpractised ear to which it was +addressed; for it never had been cousin +George’s way to say soft things. She knew +not what the words meant, or indeed that they +meant any thing; but there is an instinct in +every female breast, which returns a responsive +echo to tones, such as those in which this +otherwise common-place expression was uttered. +One moment she cast her eyes upwards +on the face of him who unexpectedly addressed +her thus, then as suddenly withdrawing +them, and striving to hide the first conscious +blush that had ever tinged her pure and innocent +countenance, she drew upwards the +summer-bonnet, which had slung across her +shoulders, and pointing to the path by which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_44"></span>most of the party had already begun to ascend, +she motioned Lord Castleton to follow.</p> + +<p>As they ascended the cliff, he made common-place +inquiries as to what her family consisted +of, and learned that she was the only +child of a father, whom she named in a tone of +true affection, and a mother, whom she mentioned +respectfully, but apparently with some +degree of restraint; beyond them her <em>kin</em> +(and as she would have said her <em>ken</em>,) was confined +to her aunt, a single woman, who lived +in a lone house round the next point, and +of whom she spoke warmly, and “Cousin +George,” of whom her present questioner did +not ask much, and she answered less.</p> + +<p>Whilst he still kept multiplying unnecessary +inquiries, and giving by his manner to the +most trifling an air of interest, he purposely +lingered by the way, till his fair guide at +length suggested that they should either mend +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45"></span>their pace, or lessen their distance, by taking +a short but steep cut, which in a direct line +joined the regular path again, after that, by an +easy rise, had traversed two long sides of an +acute angle; “for,” said she, “if we do not +mind, Sir, the rest of your party will have +passed our gate before we reach it; and though +mother is not much given to seeing company, I +am sure she would not like those ladies to go +by her door, without biding a bit to rest; and +that poor lady looks as if she needed it, and +the lusty gentleman isn’t fit to help one so +weak as her,” pointing to Lady Madelina, who +had been obliged to accept Sir North as Lord +Castleton’s substitute, in ascending the cliff,—an +affair for which he was peculiarly disqualified, +the action of his <em>lungs</em> being so much +greater than that of his <em>limbs</em>. He had stopped +at the corner, really to recover breath, +but under pretence of venting his admiration +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46"></span>of the prospect, of which he was gasping forth +an encomium, in most wheezy interjections. +Lady Madelina’s eye, whilst affecting to follow +the different directions in which his cane was +pointed, had dropped upon the figure of Lord +Castleton ascending from below, and she was +puzzling how to get up an attitude of interesting +languor, whilst leaning on Sir North, who +was unfortunately some inches shorter than +herself, and of a figure which did not lend +itself readily to group into the line of grace.</p> + +<p>“She seems dreadfully tired, that poor lady,” +continued Lucy, (such had Lord C. found his +companion’s name to be,) “and no wonder she +should be; ’tis well enough for a young girl +like me to run up and down ten times a +day, but ’tis rather a <a id="chg5"></a>fashious step this, +and I’ve known mother be almost as bad as +she is.”</p> + +<p>This casual comparison to her mother did +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47"></span>not give to Lord Castleton’s imagination a +turn calculated to assist Lady Madelina’s attempts +to excite his admiration at her present +would-be interesting exhaustion; and seeing +that two more angles of the path would again +bring him where the irksome duties of a “patito” +would be exacted from him, he was disposed +to remonstrate against his companion’s +anxiety to hurry upwards and do the honours +of her humble roof, when a loud voice exclaimed—</p> + +<p>“Sir North!—Castleton! Where are you? +make haste, pray; only think, it wants but fifty +minutes to the half-hour bell.”</p> + +<p>This admonition came from a celebrated +“diner-out,” who, except once when he had +passed a September on the “pavé” in London, +never remembered the day when his dinner +had been in such danger.</p> + +<p>“And are you really going so soon?” said +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48"></span>Lucy to Lord Castleton, observing that the +above warning had accelerated the motion of +every one of the various groups on the sides +of the cliff, and even induced Sir North to +give something like one effective tug to the +arm of Lady Madelina.</p> + +<p>“You see it does not depend upon me,” +said Lord Castleton, “I am under orders, but +shall certainly linger till the last.”</p> + +<p>“I should like much to know why you came +at all,” said Lucy, with an archness which +surprised her hearer. “I thought it had been +to see the Bubbling Well, or the Black Glen, +or the Dead-man’s Crag; but merely to walk +down that burn side, to climb up this cliff, +and bring all that fine food, when there was +not even a table to eat it off! ’Tis seldom we +have seen a stranger here, but when some came +once before, they were two gentlemen painters.”</p> + +<p>“Yes, yes, artists, I suppose,” said Lord +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_49"></span>Castleton; “and they were the only strangers +you have ever seen before?”</p> + +<p>“Yes; but they stayed some days, and lodged +at father’s; and when they went away, they +left him in return the likeness of the bay, not +as it is now, but all in a storm, done all over +on a bit of the finest mahogany wood, and it’s +now at aunt Alice’s, for mother said she did +not like such vanities, much more to have, +summer and winter, to look on the sea in that +dreadful state; ’twas bad enough when it really +came so.”</p> + +<p>“Why any of us came, I can hardly tell, +my pretty little friend; but for myself, though +I have not seen the Bubbling Well, or the +Black Glen, the walk up this cliff has been so +pleasant, that I should be glad to come again.”</p> + +<p>“But you have been a long time about it,” +said Lucy: “I wish you could see cousin +George, how he climbs the side of yonder crag +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50"></span>above our heads! when I call him, he is at +the top before you can count fifty; I don’t +think, for all you like the cliff so much, you +could do that, Sir.”</p> + +<p>There was something in this invidious comparison +which did not please Lord Castleton, +though he ought to have been no more hurt at +the imputation of inferiority in such an accomplishment, +than if he had found six months +afterwards, that he could not reef a main-topsail +as well as cousin George. He replied, however, +“I believe I ought to try that now, to +have any chance of rejoining my party; but +before I go, though I have not stayed long +enough to paint a picture like your last visitors, +may this,” said he, unslinging a small French +watch, which hung by a light gold chain round +his neck, “may this serve to remind you of +these fleeting moments, and may it record for +you many hours, as happy as the few last +minutes it has marked for me.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_51"></span></p> + +<p>“I am sure aunt Alice would say I ought +not to take this,” said Lucy, hesitatingly; “yet, +perhaps, if you would not object, cousin George +will want a watch now he is going to leave us, +and it had better serve to remind him of me, +than me of you; for I am afraid it is not like +I should see a gentleman like you again, Sir.”</p> + +<p>“To you I give it,” said Lord Castleton, +“’tis for you to dispose of it as pleases you,” +and throwing it round her neck, he rushed up +the cliff, with an activity, which she could not +have denied would have done credit to cousin +George himself. Near the top he met that +individual descending from escorting the rest +of the party; a mutual “good evening!” varied +only by “Sir!” on one side, and “my lad!” on +the other, and not in a very cordial tone on +either, was all that passed between them.</p> + +<p>Lord Castleton found his horse left in the +care of a groom at the top of the cliff, with a +request that he would follow the rest of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52"></span>party as soon as possible, their return having +been much hurried by the imminent danger to +which they foresaw the various <i lang="fr">entrées</i> would +be exposed by their flagrant unpunctuality, for +they were still fourteen hilly miles from Hornscliff +Abbey. Lord Castleton, in his present +frame of mind, was not very anxious to rejoin +the party, and therefore, regulating his pace +so as just to keep them in sight at the opposite +side of the various alternate ridges and dales +they had to pass, resigned himself to his reflections, +which it would be puzzling to present to +the reader, in that connected form which they +never assumed. They began with a sigh to +the charms of unsophisticated nature, which +nature immediately assumed the form, and +recalled the smile of Lucy Darnell. He then +dwelt on the rare union of beauty and of innocence, +which brought up for a moment an unpleasant +recollection of how he first saw her, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53"></span>sitting on the boat with cousin George; this +he hastened to obliterate by imagining past +habits of childish familiarity, and then by fancying +cousin George tossing about for years to +come in his transport-ship.</p> + +<p>He then thought of the soothing sensation +of repose which he had embodied from the +beautiful scenery of Morden Bay, and he invested +the residence of farmer Darnell with the +character of the last chosen retreat of peaceful +content in this troubled world.</p> + +<p>From that, as he caught a glimpse on the +summit of the opposite hill of Lady Madelina’s +Sol-pleurants, fluttering in the evening breeze, +he recurred to his late ‘liaison’ with her; and +his memory immediately collected with astonishing +fidelity, every incident which had happened +in its progress, which, at the time, rather +<i lang="fr">degouté’d</i> him, but which he had, till then, +almost forgotten. As he urged on his horse +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54"></span>to join some of the party, who he saw had perceived +him, and were waiting in consequence, +he concluded with the determination, that the +first spare day he would again ride over alone +to Morden Bay. But “a spare day” is not so +easily found in the midst of such a party, by +one whose actions none imagined to be at his +own disposal, and who, as the passive half of +Lady Madelina’s constantly repeated <em>we</em>, was +supposed, of course, included in every arrangement +she suggested.</p> + +<p>A country house is the most unfavourable +opportunity for attempting to break chains +which habit has riveted. The party consequently +broke up, new prospects opened upon +Lord Castleton, and new pursuits were undertaken, +without his having a second opportunity +of visiting Morden Bay.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_55"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Four">IV.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">——Are not these woods</div> + <div class="verse indent0">More free from peril than the envious court?</div> + <div class="verse indent27"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div><div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">At one kind word their arms extending</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To clasp the neck of him who blest</div> + <div class="verse indent0">His child, caressing and carest.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Byron.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> the romantic charm with which the fancy +of the enthusiastic, though casual admirer of +Morden Bay, had invested all it contained, he +had considered the retired residence of the +Darnell family as the chosen abode of content. +He judged hastily; and yet he might have +inquired farther, and reasoned more deeply +without being undeceived. His opinion was +founded on the tranquil beauty of the scene; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56"></span>and here he ran into the common error of +attributing the same effect from surrounding +objects on those to “the manner born,” as had +just been awakened in himself, by recent comparison +and contrast. It operated as a tonic +on his feelings, just then palled with dissipation. +’Twas “medicine to a mind diseased;” +but only daily food to those who +had never known any other: innocent and +salubrious no doubt, but producing no excitement, +and having no other effect on the +moral system than regularly excluding many +temptations to vice. He would have thought, +however, his hypothesis farther confirmed, if +he had learned that those who dwelt there were +in most comfortable worldly circumstances, +removed alike from the fears of want and the +desire of ostentation; that they had not even +a neighbour to envy; that, human cares and +ailings excepted, they were healthy alike in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57"></span>mind and body. And yet was it not the +abode of content.</p> + +<p>That it was not so, arose entirely from one +circumstance, which would have been supposed +incapable of having so much effect upon the +happiness of those around, by persons unaccustomed +to observe by what trivial causes the +peace of families is sometimes disturbed. +Mrs. Darnell was a most worthy woman, +correct in all her intentions, exemplary in the +discharge of all her duties, from the religious +down to the domestic; but she was a person of +an unfortunately minute mind, with a sort of +clock-work regularity of sensations: with her, +each duty, of every degree, was, in its allotted +succession, of equal importance; and, undisturbed +by any deviation into feeling, she not +only observed them herself, but, like the dial, +pointed them out to all about her. Any omission +of the due decorum of any rule, she treasured +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_58"></span>up, not till it had been obliterated by +subsequent punctuality, but till it was succeeded +by some fresh deficiency; by which +means she contrived that she should never be +without a grievance: not that she was ever in +consequence loud or angry; this she would +have thought wrong; but she put on a most +provoking appearance of patient endurance, +which was exactly the sort of look her husband +could least bear, and which inducing, in consequence, +occasional violent ebullitions on his +part, gave her the reputation amongst those +who knew little of both, of suffering meekly +under his violence, whilst the many more frequent +occasions in which he had yielded at +length, for the sake of repurchasing a smiling +face at his domestic hearth, were unnoticed, +because unknown.</p> + +<p>Dick Darnell, as he was familiarly called by +those who had known him in his younger days, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59"></span>though now turned forty, had in character +much of the simplicity of a child, with warm +affections, a cheerful temper, and a disposition +all whose natural bias was good, though never +much disciplined in the school of self-denial. +It was lucky, perhaps, that he was born in a +situation where temptations did not too much +abound; for there were moments in which he +was supposed not to have been particularly successful +in resisting those that had occasionally +crossed his path. Now that he was no longer +very young, his appearance would be best +described by the epithet hearty. His person +had been handsome, and if its bulk had now +increased beyond the proper proportion, it had +rather become portly than unwieldy; and the +good-humoured and cheerful expression of his +laughing eye, seemed to inspire sympathy at +first sight.</p> + +<p>He had become acquainted with his present +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60"></span>wife at the county town, during assize +time. She was the daughter of a respectable +tradesman, who was known as one of that +peculiarly strict class, who put forth exclusive +pretensions to monopolise righteousness; +she had therefore received a very serious +and unexceptionable education. Richard Darnell +had done his best for many years to try to +love her, and would at that very hour have +been very much surprised if anybody had told +him that he had not succeeded, for he always +assured his acquaintance at the market-town, +to which he went once a week, “that for sixteen +years he had been married to his <em>Missus</em>, +and he never had had so much as one occasion +to find fault with her.” He dropped at these +times all mention of those many occasions on +which she had found fault with him, which +had led to those altercations mentioned above. +But there were few of his friends who had not +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_61"></span>remarked, that of late years he never found the +weather so bad as it used to be when it frequently +prevented his coming at all to market; +but that, on the contrary, he often found the +distance in returning so much longer than +formerly, that when dark and wet, he could +not possibly reach home over night, but stayed +till the next morning. His daughter he loved +better than all the rest of the world put together; +and when he returned from these excursions, +and had not seen her for four-and-twenty +hours, he would like to sit in the chimney-corner, +with her slight form resting on +his capacious knee, and picking out those of +his adventures by the way best suited to meet +her ear, would chat on for ever and ever, and +ask no other reply than to see the expression of +his own laughing eye reflected in the softened +likeness of his daughter’s delicate features.</p> + +<p>But these were, in Mrs. Darnell’s idea, moments +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62"></span>of time most completely wasted, and she +would generally interrupt them by demanding,—“why +Richard would not stir himself, and +look after his men, whom he had left a whole +day without a master’s eye,” and by informing +Lucy, she thought “her hands might be more +profitably employed at her needle, than in +hanging idly about her father’s neck.”</p> + +<p>Next to hanging about her father’s neck, +her mother thought that the most useless way +in which Lucy’s hands were sometimes employed, +was holding a book. That is, to do +her justice, she drew the distinction between the +use of a book as an amusement, or as a duty; +as the latter she not only very properly enjoined +the lecture of the Psalms and Lessons +of the day, but enforced it so regularly, that +one of Lucy’s delinquencies, to which most +frequent plaintive allusion was made, was, that +<em>once</em> she had inadvertently read the Evening +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63"></span>Lesson in the morning, a fault which it was +impossible to undo, but by doubling it, and +reading the Morning in the Evening. All +reading beyond this, whether history or fiction, +she treated alike as vanity.</p> + +<p>The duty of letters she did not consider as +that of a standing army to be sent abroad on +the sea of knowledge, to extend the empire of +the mind; but merely as a sort of local militia, +to be called out at stated times on this one +home service.</p> + +<p>Such limitations as in this respect she put +upon herself, she would have exacted from +Lucy, had not the latter been taught differently +in the course of the frequent visits she made to +the aunt, mentioned above. This aunt was an +unmarried sister of Dick Darnell’s: some years +his junior, she had come to establish herself, +within the memory of Lucy, at a small but +neat cottage round the next point, which had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64"></span>originally been built as a house of occasional +call in bad weather, by a gentleman who had +been sailing about in a yacht on that coast.</p> + +<p>She was a lone woman, who had evidently +had her sorrows, not yet forgotten by herself, +though never obtruding their chilling contagion +on the spirits of her young visitors, who +always found her anxious to participate in +their cheerfulness, though even at their +thoughtless years they sometimes noticed the +effort that it required to enable her to assume +an appearance contradicted by the care-worn +character of her beauty, which, striking as +that beauty still was, did not give the idea of +a person so much younger than her brother +as she really was.</p> + +<p>It was curious to trace what is called a +family likeness in two persons so totally unlike. +Her form was altogether of another mould, +and different habits had given the deportment +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65"></span>of a different rank in life. If the resemblance +could be traced to any definite feature, it +lurked in the benevolent smile of the mouth, +of which her’s was the miniature copy of his, +though that which gave to his its joyous character, +the sparkle of his laughing eye, if it +ever had existed in her’s, was now prematurely +obscured. She lived entirely alone, with the attendance +only of one maid servant, and dependant +for society, (if she could be called dependant +on that which she did not seem to require) upon +the frequent visits of her niece, the occasional +calls of her brother, or his nephew George, and +those, luckily, more rare occasions on which +Mrs. Darnell found her way as far as her +cottage, mildly to murmur over her grievances. +Though always cheerfully receiving these separate +visitors, the same disposition which, +when she first came into the neighbourhood, +made her decline her brother Richard’s hospitable +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66"></span>offer, to lodge her under his roof, +seemed still to induce her to avoid the full +family reunion at their own house; and the +only place where she met them altogether, (and +this she rarely missed,) was weekly in their +common pew, at the Parish Church, three +miles off. It is impossible to conceive two +persons more different in the detail of their +dispositions, than Mrs. Darnell and this sister-in-law. +The one with every thing to make a +home happy and comfortable, yet (one could +almost as little tell how, as why,) contriving to +turn every thing into a grievance: the other, +to whom the world seemed to have done its +worst, to have separated as an isolated being +from its interests, yet the chosen confidant +even of the changeful fancies of children, and +occasionally sought as the depositary of the +complaints of her whom she so little resembled.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_67"></span></p> + +<p>The fact was, that Alice Darnell had unconsciously +assumed over her sister-in-law that influence +which a strong mind can hardly fail of +exerting over a weak one. This prevented her +mother from objecting, as she otherwise might +have done, to the loss of time occasioned by the +frequent visits of Lucy to her aunt. There +might, perhaps, be another reason for this. +Alice Darnell, though still young, was in a +precarious state of health, which had indeed +been given by Richard as the reason for his +sister’s wishing to retire there; and, as curiosity +was not one of the flaws of his wife’s +character, she had always believed this to be +the only cause of that measure; but Miss +Darnell’s fortune, for her rank in life, seemed +considerable, and whom was she to leave it +to? This was a consideration which often crossed +Mrs. Darnell’s mind, as she had been educated +in a school in which, in the midst of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68"></span>pious contempt for the vanities of this world, a +beneficial distinction was always taken between +its empty pleasures and its solid advantages.</p> + +<p>Alice Darnell had not what, in the enlarged +sense, would have been called a library, but +she had some shelves well-stored with the +common editions of the English classics. Lucy +generally found her aunt occupied among +these, but one thick octavo, she remarked, was +a constant favourite. It was a compendious +volume, for it contained all Shakspeare. In +answer to her niece’s question, “Why she read +it so often?” she said, “This is the world in +which alone I wish to live. As long as this +little book is left me, I am less alone, more in +the midst of human nature, than in the most +crowded city.”</p> + +<p>For once she spoke more according to her +own feelings than to the capacity of her she was +addressing: she perceived her mistake. The +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69"></span>little girl could not understand her, but her +curiosity was roused; she anxiously listened +to her aunt, who commenced reading to her +selected passages, in a manner which added all +the charm of voice and delivery to what was +in itself so well calculated to interest; and +from that time forward one of the most eagerly +anticipated pleasures of her visits to her aunt +was to cry with “Constance,” or to tremble at +“Lady Macbeth;” she never saw a storm without +thinking of poor “King Lear;” cultivated +her <em>red roses</em>, out of sympathy for the “House +of Lancaster,” and neglected the <em>white ones</em>, +out of mere spite to “Richard III.”</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_70"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Five">V.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Adieu! I have too grieved a heart</div> + <div class="verse indent0">To take a tedious leave.</div> + <div class="verse indent26"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div><div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">What other can she seek to see</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Than thee, companion of her bosom,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">The partner of her infancy?</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Byron.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lucy Darnell</span> was found by her cousin +George, when he returned from escorting the +strangers to the top of the cliff, still leaning +over the little gate which led through the +garden to the house, and still curiously examining +what she thought the extraordinarily +small watch the gentleman had given her: as +soon as she perceived him she cried out, +“What do you think, cousin George?”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_71"></span></p> + +<p>“What do I think?” said he a little out +of humour, he hardly knew why; “what do I +think? why, that you made that gentleman +loiter so in coming up the cliff that he has +missed his party.”</p> + +<p>“Why, I did not make him loiter; he +would not walk any faster; he did not seem +used to it, though I told him how quick you +could climb to the top.”</p> + +<p>“I am sure he was going fast enough when +I met him,” said George doggedly.</p> + +<p>“Well, it is very odd; to be sure he did +jump along limber enough as soon as he left +me, but I could not make him try before. But +what do you think I have got for you?” added +she, showing the watch.</p> + +<p>“And how did you come by that thing?” +demanded George.</p> + +<p>“That gentleman gave it me; but I only +took it for you, George,” observing that he +looked displeased.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_72"></span></p> + +<p>“Thank you all the same, Lucy, but let it +bide where it was meant it should. He would +never have given it to the like of me; there +was over many reasons why he might have +done so to you.”</p> + +<p>“I thought,” said Lucy, “it would serve +to remember you of me whenever you looked +at it.”</p> + +<p>“But I had rather not remember you and +him both together, as that thing would always +be making me do.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t know what’s come over you, +George,” said Lucy puzzled, “but it’s hard, +when I hoped but to please you, you should +speak so cross, and this your last night too.”</p> + +<p>“I did not mean to be cross,” answered +George in an altered tone; “but I can’t take +that watch for another reason, for see, I’ve +already got one just like it,” fumbling in his fob, +and tugging out with some difficulty, at the end +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73"></span>of a long stout steel chain, which appeared as +if it might have served for fetters, an immense +pinchbeck turnip-like time-piece, the recent gift +of his uncle. As this capacious and ponderous +concern was displayed by the side of the diminutive +<i lang="fr">Brequet</i>, Lucy, though unaware of the +relative value of their different dimensions, +could not help smiling at the comparison, +and, with restored cheerfulness, said, “Just +like it, George! yes, just as like it as you +are to the stranger gentleman.”</p> + +<p>They were here interrupted by her mother’s +voice calling Lucy from the house.</p> + +<p>The various additional avocations which the +approaching departure of her nephew, in Mrs. +Darnell’s opinion, entailed on her daughter +during this evening, prevented the cousins +again speaking together that night. But Lucy +was aware that her cousin would before breakfast +in the morning go over to take leave of his +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74"></span>aunt; she had therefore risen earlier than +usual, and carefully executed, as she thought, +all the morning duties which maternal authority +could exact before any one was stirring, +when George, having just come down as she +was preparing to cross the flower-garden with +him, her mother’s window opened, and in a +precise tone, which indicated a succession of +questions, she asked,—</p> + +<p>“Lucy, my dear, have you skimmed the +milk?”</p> + +<p>“Yes.”</p> + +<p>“Have you looked to the bread?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, mother.”</p> + +<p>“Have you fed the poultry?”</p> + +<p>“Yes, mother.”</p> + +<p>“That’s right; then you’ll have time to hem +your father’s new shirts before breakfast, so +I’ll bring them down.”</p> + +<p>This was known by both who heard it, however +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_75"></span>mildly expressed, to be a command from +which there was no appeal; so George only +said, “Before I come back, Lucy, they’ll all +be down at breakfast, so I only wanted to +say that last night you called me cross, and +as I lay awake in bed afterwards, I thought +of many more times I had been so, though +you had not told me so; and what I wished +to say is this: you know I’ve been to sea once +before now, though only to try it, but enough +to know it’s another sort of thing to think over +the like of these in one’s warm bed here, when +one has only but to come and say, Lucy, I ask +your pardon, and see your sweet smile in return, +than to have it come across one’s mind +when one’s far away, walking the deck on a +dark night, thinking of one’s distant home, +that lies just in the wind’s eye, and a hurricane +blowing one the Lord knows where another +way, perhaps never to return. Nay, I did not +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76"></span>mean to distress you, Lucy; only just say that +if I’ve ever been kind to you you’ll think only +of that, and not of t’other sort of conduct, +whilst I am gone and away—”</p> + +<p>“I never do—never can—never will, think +of you but as my kind good cousin George,” +hastily answered Lucy, hearing her mother’s +measured tread descending the stairs, shirts in +hand.</p> + +<p>After George’s return, and the somewhat +silent breakfast had been nearly despatched, +Mrs. Darnell started up from the top of the +table where she had been sitting, and enquired +“And what will Jackie Pattison be doing +there? sure, if he isn’t driving up the old mare +and the pony from the low pasture.”</p> + +<p>“And where’s Jackie Pattison? I don’t see +him,” said the farmer, anxious to get a little +time to prepare his defence for the attack which +he foresaw.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_77"></span></p> + +<p>“And will it be your bidding then, Richard, +that he is doing?” who now guessed it all.</p> + +<p>“I told him my mare and the pony would +both be wanted; so if they were in the low pasture, +it’s like he’s been to fetch them,” answered +Richard, with a determination for once to +face it boldly out; “I mean to see the lad +as far as Mayton, where he takes coach; +it would have been over far for him to have +walked, and the pony will follow me back again +like a dog.”</p> + +<p>“But he meant to walk. He said so when I +told him not to cut yon stick out of the oak-copse; +and you to go away, Richard, and leave +me lonely, to fret at George’s going, and to +spend your silver idly by the way; and then +to take away the mare that’s wanted in the +draught, now we’re so throng in the hay-time; +it’s just of a piece with a’ the rest.</p> + +<p>“It’s just of a piece with a’ the rest,” +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_78"></span>was, as her husband had learned to his cost, a +comprehensive allusion to all her former grievances, +some of which were to be ready to reinforce +the present attack, provided it was not in +itself effective; but in this instance he knew +that all these names were rather put forward as +heads of chapters for future complaints on his +return, than expected to prevent his departure. +He therefore thought it would be useless to +subject himself to have them twice repeated by +answering them now; so drawing his wife aside, +he suggested, “that he only went in order to +keep the lad out of harm’s way at Mayton, +till he saw him into the coach which was to +take him to the port where his other uncle’s +ship lay.”</p> + +<p>“Well, if you must go, mind you do that,” +said Mrs. Darnell, “and do for once speak +serious to the lad, and counsel him how he falls +into evil courses.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_79"></span></p> + +<p>The parting between George and Lucy, +though public, was affectionate, as indeed their +near relationship in itself authorised.</p> + +<p>Farmer Darnell, hardly believing as yet, +that he could have got off so easily, started at +first at the steady pounding jog-trot of his cart-mare; +a pace which required unequal alternations +of shambling, walk, and canter, on the +part of George’s pony, to keep up with. At +length the uncle thinking it was time to attempt +to execute his wife’s injunctions of a +lecture to his nephew, pulled his mare up to +the pace she was used to go in draught, and +began—</p> + +<p>“It’s a bad world this you’re going into, +George.”</p> + +<p>“Is it indeed, uncle?” quaintly inquired +George.</p> + +<p>This abrupt questioning of what, without +feeling its truth himself, he had always considered +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80"></span>an incontrovertible position, rather disturbed +the course of the uncle’s intended lecture, +as he replied, “Why, to be sure, it +must be. Doesn’t the parson tell us so every +seventh day; and doesn’t my Missus, who is +as good every bit as he is, and therefore +ought to ken as well, repeat it to us all +the other six? For my part, to be sure, I +can’t say I find much fault with it. ’Tisn’t +all made up of Sundays—that’s certain—but +that one couldn’t expect; and if there +were but <em>two</em> market-days in a week, I’d +be content with one Sunday in each.”</p> + +<p>“And yet aunt says if you went to +market once a fortnight only, ’twould be +better.”</p> + +<p>“Your aunt is——the best woman in the +world,” continued the uncle after a dubious +pause; “how she’ll stay at home herself to +save me money! But between ourselves,” added +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_81"></span>he, lowering his tone, and approaching his +mare to the pony, “she’s a little apt to take +it out in fashing one. As you’re going to +leave us, I may say to you, but mind you +don’t repeat it, that when she does get hold +of a bone of contention, she’ll never leave +hold no more than my bull-bitch Bess would. +She certainly is,” he added, casting a look +instinctively behind him, though two ridges +had interposed between his dwelling and the +part of the road where they then were,—“she +certainly is enough sometimes to worry one +out of soul and body, and there’s truths out. +But what I wanted to tell you, George, is,—have +a care of the women; if they been’t +over good, they’re over bad, and they’re a +main deal of dead weight for a man to carry +either way.”</p> + +<p>“I don’t think cousin Lucy would ever be a +dead weight to any one,” said George.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_82"></span></p> + +<p>“She! bless her lightsome heart! no!” +cried her father in a burst of parental affection; +“she’d be but a feather weight in the longest +course, and yet as good as gold too. But I +didn’t think of her, and was talking of you, +and the nonsense of sweethearting a lad like +you might fall into when you may be ganging +with some painted Jesabels, who would pick +your pocket first, and box your ears afterwards: +have nothing to say to the likes of +them, George; show ’em your stern at once; +no one is safe from their arts: remember King +Solomon,—not that I mean that all women +are alike, or that a man shouldn’t say thank +you, because she’s a woman, to a buxom kind-hearted +person, like our landlady, Widow +Westbury, when she tries to make him welcome +all in a friendly way.”</p> + +<p>As George had never before accompanied +his uncle to Mayton, and had always come +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83"></span>the other road himself, he had never heard +of the Widow Westbury, and was puzzled +to connect his uncle’s two cases of the hostess +and Solomon. But the honest farmer +continued what he thought his useful instructions.</p> + +<p>“Another thing,—beware of drink, boy; it’s +a filthy trick, and the drunkard, after all, +has but a sad time of it, for the reproaches +of wine, on the morrow, are worse than—than—my +wife’s: not but that it’s a hard +thing to help taking another glass or two +sometimes, when one meets an old friend, +and one feels to like him better and better +every sup, and each draught makes one’s stories +tell the merrier, and one’s laugh come the +heartier.”</p> + +<p>In this alternation of strict advice to be +correct in conduct, and over-ready excuses +for being otherwise, in which, unintentionally, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_84"></span>the honest farmer followed the example of +many <i lang="fr">soi-disant</i> moral works, wherein a good +word is given to virtue, whilst sympathy is +excited for error, they arrived at Mayton. +It was a neat little country-town; its broad, +open, well-paved market-place, with ancient +cross in the middle, was surrounded by many +tidy-looking dwellings of various dimensions, +beyond which the town extended in the shape of +streets, but a little way down the different roads +which here united. From the circumstance +of the market-place being evidently the centre +of attraction, it appeared that Mayton derived +its principal consequence from being +the mart of the surrounding country; which +might also be inferred from the number of +second-rate houses of public entertainment +with which it abounded. Passing by one of +these, which boasted on its board the exclusive +dignity of “neat post-chaises,” Farmer Darnell +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85"></span>made straight up to the smartest of the +others, before whose door swung the head of +a most formidable-looking female, with a little +crown stuck on the top of her head, and +underneath was written, in gold letters, “Ann +Westbury;” an apparent appropriation of +the portrait by the hostess, which gave her the +name of “Queen Anne” among many of her +customers; a dignity with which, coupled +with the resemblance implied, she was by no +means flattered.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_86"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Six">VI.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">I’ll ne’er be drunk again but in honest and godly company,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">for this trick.</div> + <div class="verse indent36"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> was not the usual market-day bustle +outside the Queen’s Head, and Farmer Darnell +dismounting, followed his old mare, who well +knew her way to her usual stable in the backyard +through the passage, which was so narrow +as to limit its accommodation to equestrians.</p> + +<p>“Call the hostler, lad,” said the farmer from +the stable to George, who had followed him +into the yard; an injunction which George +vociferously complied with, thinking that now +the sooner he and his pony were separated the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87"></span>better for the indulgence of their mutual +appetites.</p> + +<p>“Eh, Sally, and who will that be calling +about him?—run and see,” said a voice from the +back of one of the outhouses, at the window +of which the person who had thus spoken immediately +appeared, and seeing George, continued, +“And is it only you, my lad, making +all that clatter? who taught you to call about +you like a lord? They say patience saves +many a pennyworth of lungs—what may you +want, pray?”</p> + +<p>“Uncle and I want our horses fed.”</p> + +<p>“And who is your uncle?” inquired the +landlady.</p> + +<p>When, Richard Darnell presenting himself +at the door of the stable, his appearance answered +the question.</p> + +<p>“And is it indeed you, Mr. Darnell—and this +not market-day?—and of all days in the week +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88"></span>that you should just look in upon me at washing-up, +and I a shame to be seen,” she added, +half raising her soap-suddy hands to pull her +cap over her <i lang="fr">papillotes</i>, till recollecting that +such a contact would not be advantageous.</p> + +<p>However, no one of her time of life could +better bear to be seen at disadvantage than +the Widow Westbury, for upon the whole surface +of the fair fresh skin which the <i lang="fr">papillotes</i> +left unshaded, forty winters had failed to leave +a furrow, and during as many summers her +indoor avocations had saved her even from a +freckle; whilst an active disposition had prevented +her full form swelling into corpulency. +On this occasion, the sleeves tucked-up almost +to her shoulders, displayed a well-rounded arm, +and tidy habits had prevented the rest of her +dress from being discomposed, or even her +apron splashed. “And if that idle fellow Joe +Hostler won’t be gone to the ’leatherplating +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89"></span>sporting on the Wold! but you know where +the corn is kept, Richard, and here is the key +of the bin,” (throwing it to him,) “and I’ll go +and see after your dinner and the lad’s.”</p> + +<p>Now, though this was a part of the establishment +upon which she much prided herself, +yet, upon this occasion, with a special injunction +to be careful, she consigned it exclusively +to Sally, preferring to spend the next few minutes +herself rather before the looking-glass +than the kitchen-fire; and when George, having +fed his pony, was seeking his room up-stairs, +he found her coming out of hers, with the cap +changed, and the <i lang="fr">papillotes</i> removed. By the +excessive care she immediately took of all his +comforts, she soon removed the unfavourable +impression at first made on his mind by the +rebuke he had received from her for his stentorian +bellowing after the hostler.</p> + +<p>During the savoury and substantial meal, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90"></span>George could not help remarking, how all his +uncle’s tastes were consulted, with a delicate +attention, which combined the zealous activity +of the hostess with the acquired tact of companionship; +and as he observed the exhilarating +effect it had upon his spirits, and as he contrasted +it with the state of subjection he suffered +under at home, he no longer wondered at +the fervent wish he had expressed, “that there +were two market-days in every week.”</p> + +<p>Soon after dinner, which their long ride had +made rather late, the snug trio was swelled by +the dropping in of two of the natives of Mayton, +upon whose hands, in consequence of +their fellow townsmen being more <em>healthy</em> than +<em>wealthy</em>, time occasionally hung a little heavy. +These were an extra apothecary, and a supernumerary +attorney, articles in which the market +of Mayton had been overstocked.</p> + +<p>They were both of them jovial companions +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_91"></span>over a bottle; an accomplishment which they +had the more opportunities of cultivating, as, +before their arrival, the supply of both physic +and parchment had in Mayton been fully +equal to the demand; and whilst there was +another doctor or druggist in the neighbourhood, +everybody was convinced that the apothecary +had neither skill enough to write prescriptions, +nor shop enough to make them up; +and unless there should be some <em>third</em> party to +lawsuit beside plaintiff and defendant, no one +would leave either of the two established practitioners +for the new attorney.</p> + +<p>The consequence of all this was, that they had +frequently met Farmer Darnell at the Widow +Westbury’s; one of which occasions had produced +almost the only case in which either had +been employed; having, as they walked home +together late at night, literally <em>thrown</em> into +their hands a common joint job, in the shape of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_92"></span>a sleepy “outsider,” who, swinging round the +corner on the top of the very night-coach by +which George was going, was chucked off at +the moment they were passing by. The doctor +bled the passenger, and the lawyer bled the +coachmaster, in the shape of an action for damages, +and the jury being more inflammable +than the patient, they both succeeded beyond +what their professional merits fairly earned. +Having soon heard, (as what is not soon heard +in a country town?) that Farmer Darnell was +stopping at the Queen’s Head with his nephew, +who was to go that night by the one o’clock +coach, they stepped in to learn the why, and +the where; and upon hearing that he was +about to commence his career afloat, insisted +upon drinking his future success in life in +a bottle of port, or a bowl of punch. This, +at first, the farmer declined, probably from +not liking to exceed before his nephew, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93"></span>mistrusting himself enough to know that the +first was the most favourable moment for +resistance, and that abstinence was easier than +temperance. The hostess, though professionally +interested in the affirmative of the proposal, +seemed to regret, that by the interruption +of her chat with her friendly guest, and her +own necessary withdrawal from the drinking +bout, she should pay in person what she received +in purse.</p> + +<p>The question, when a decided negative was +no longer possible, having been put to Dick +Darnell, in the amended form, “whether it +should be <em>port</em> or <em>punch</em>?” with the zeal of a +convert he voted for <em>both</em>.</p> + +<p>George Darnell, in whose exclusive honour +they were undertaken, seemed not to participate +in the pleasure the others took in these +mingled potations. In fact, there were many +things he regretted in the home he was leaving +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94"></span>behind him, and it did not please him that the +image of “cousin Lucy,” on which his fancy +liked to dwell, should be whisked away in the +rotatory evolutions of the apothecary’s red +nose, and the attorney’s bushy brow, which +both seemed soon to dance round him, as the +mixture of <em>old wine</em> and <em>new rum</em> took a speedy +effect upon his unseasoned head. The last +thing he recollected distinctly was his kind +hostess smoothing his pillow, and assuring him +that he should not be too late for the coach.</p> + +<p>When he awoke from his heavy slumber, it +might have been <em>five hours</em>, or only <em>five minutes</em> +afterwards, all was perfectly stilled around, +and instead of his uncle’s mellow voice singing +a hunting song, and his two companions +croaking in untuneful chorus, nothing met his +ear but the loud ticking of the kitchen clock.</p> + +<p>He had an indistinct recollection of old Sally +having been sent on some such celestial embassy +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95"></span>as “up to the Angel to let him know +when the Star stopped.” He still dreaded +being too late, and the ship sailing without +him, when he found that, in spite of the wine, +he had, as is often the case, waked instinctively +just at the proper time, for the piercing notes +of the guard’s horn were first heard in the +distance, and then, as it reached the pavement, +the rattling clatter of the coach echoing through +the empty streets.</p> + +<p>George hurried on his clothes, thinking, as +he was left undisturbed to do so, it was lucky +that he did not trust to his hostess’s promise +to call him. He hastily huddled on his things, +and making his way down-stairs, by the first +glimmer of dawn he perceived that the door of +the hostess’s room, through which he had seen +her come the day before, was open; he concluded +that she had just then stepped into his +uncle’s to call him in time to take leave of him; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96"></span>as was probably the case, for they very soon +descended together, the hostess ostensibly to let +them out, and Darnell to escort his nephew to +the coach. George took a short farewell of the +kind hostess, who, being only hastily half dressed, +ensconced herself behind the door she held +open.</p> + +<p>The uncle’s faculties seemed still a little +offuscated with the effects of the last night’s +debauch, as, after walking most of the way to +the Angel in silence, he said, “You’ll not +forget, George, to tell your aunt all the good +advice I gave you yesterday.”</p> + +<p>“You forget, Sir, that I am not going home, +and that it will be long before I see my aunt +or any of you again.”</p> + +<p>“True, true; and perhaps, when you do, it +may be as well to have clean forgotten all about +this last night. Good bye, George; afore you +see your old uncle Richard again, you will +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97"></span>have seen many more men who preach better +than they practise.”</p> + +<p>Helping George up with one arm, and +shaking his hand heartily with the other, he +did not relinquish his friendly gripe till the +horses began tugging hardly more powerfully +the other. George soon lost sight of his uncle’s +portly figure in the indistinctness of the misty +dawn, and it was long before he again caught +a glimpse of any of the previously familiar +forms of his early youth.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_98"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Seven">VII.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The villain! I believe a man to cozen somebody.</div> + <div class="verse indent29"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent10">——Give me any clothes;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">I will some other be—some Florentine,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Some Neapolitan, or some mean man of Pisa.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> was a little more than four years after +the events of the last chapter, that one evening +the apothecary, mentioned above, was sauntering +listlessly along the smooth flags of the +market-place at Mayton. He had been lately +more than ever puzzled how to pass his time, +for he had lost his former boon companion, +the attorney. The fact was, that, in one of +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_99"></span>their jovial bouts, in despair at the world’s +continued blindness to their respective merits, +they had, in an affectionate fit of inebriety, +mutually sworn professionally to employ each +other. This was a bargain, of which the advantage +was clearly on the side of the doctor. +He was not a rich man, and therefore was +no food for the lawyer, who, after he had +drawn his will, and had recorded in the most +technical manner his medical friend’s bequest +of a few empty phials to himself, had done +his worst. But the attorney was not a healthy +man, and, therefore, he afforded at least practice +for his friend. At last the lawyer took +to his bed, where his physical Pylades still +followed him: and, whether in consequence +of the effects of the many draughts of which +they had previously partaken together, or of +the last which the doctor only prescribed,—the +attorney died, and his medical friend +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_100"></span>was left alone to wander up and down the +streets of Mayton, and watch the regular arrival +and departure of the public conveyances, +in the vain hope of some such other lucky +accident as once happened in the lifetime of +his companion.</p> + +<p>On this evening, as he strolled by the +“Queen’s Head,” he was surprised to see a +hack chaise, without horses, drawn up before +the door. Now, as it has been stated above, +that the “Queen’s Head” was not an inn of +rank enough to reciprocate such modes of +conveyance, it was an unusual act of condescension +for a vehicle of that kind to be upon +visiting terms with it.</p> + +<p>This was, therefore, quite event enough to +make the apothecary inquisitive, and, as he strutted +back again by the windows of the little +ground-floor parlour, where it was recorded in +the last chapter he had met Farmer Darnell, he +peeped through an hiatus in the blind, which +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101"></span>he well knew of, and saw a young man sitting +by himself at the table, writing, with his back +rather turned towards him.</p> + +<p>“That’s the person it brought, and it’s +not a wedding after all,” thought he, obliged +to give up the idea of the merry-making which +his first speculations had included. He, however, +strolled into the kitchen to inquire, and +there finding the hostess said,</p> + +<p>“So you’ve got some post-chaise company +to-day, Mrs. Westbury: I thought at first it +had been a wedding? Perhaps it’s a husband +for yourself at last, widow. I often wonder +whom you’ve been waiting so long for.”</p> + +<p>“For your first patient, doctor; only then +I’m afraid you’d soon make me a widow +again.”</p> + +<p>“Quite the contrary, perhaps, widow. I +might promote population, ‘<i lang="la">in utrumque paratus</i>.’”</p> + +<p>The pedantic conclusion of this rejoinder on +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102"></span>the part of the doctor, who had been originally +a man of grammar-school education, prevented +its being understood, or in consequence resented +by the widow.</p> + +<p>“And the person who came in the chaise +is—?”</p> + +<p>“A very civil-spoken sort of a decent young +man,” interrupted the widow. “I should at +first almost have taken him for a great gentleman, +by the whiteness of his hands and the +fineness of his linen, for all his clothes were not +over new or smart, and I might have bustled +about and made a to-do for him; but he told +me at once, without making believe to be what +he was not, to take care of a large book tied +round with strings, full of drawings and paintings, +for that he lived by the sale of them, and +he wanted to take some more likenesses of the +coast not far off from here.”</p> + +<p>“And Jack brought him from the Cock at +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103"></span>Moreby?—How d’ye do, Jack?” turning to a +post-boy whom Sally had just been supplying +with a beefsteak and a mug of ale. “What, +I suppose with little blood chesnut mare and +bay gelding, I saw at the Angel, when you and +Joe Simmons brought Sir North in an hour +and a quarter from Moreby. But how come you +at this house; the widow’s beefsteaks good, eh?”</p> + +<p>“Why he said himsen, that he wouldn’t +gang tift first inn, and when he’d be gettin +here he’d dun wi’ posting; and so I told un, if +he’d loike to bide a bit, the widow would keep +in well, thof she couldn’t forward un.”</p> + +<p>“And he came in the same way to your +house in which he left it?”</p> + +<p>“He come’d in’t same way, but soa did +another wid un, a much smarter nor he, and +yet the tother put all this’uns things in’t chaise +for him, and stood at door looking after him, +till I driv off.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104"></span></p> + +<p>“He’s been asking me about Morden Bay,” +interrupted the widow, “and I’m sure I didn’t +know much about it myself; but I told him +to-morrow was market-day, and Richard Darnell +would be sure to be here, and he’d hear all +about it from him; and he said that would just +do, and he would wait till then.”</p> + +<p>“Let me go and talk to him,” said the Doctor, +“I dare say I shall do just as well as the +farmer; and have a bottle of your oldest port +ready, in case I ask for it. You’re out of +lemons, I’m afraid?”</p> + +<p>The Doctor went, but returned sooner than +he expected, evidently disappointed, though at +first he said nothing, but walked about, took +up the anticipated bottle of port, which had +already at his desire mounted thus far from the +cellar, and was waiting at this half-way-house, +with the decanter by its side, in which it was +to pursue its journey to the parlour. He +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_105"></span>brushed off the sawdust, held it wistfully to +the light, and then told the landlady she might +carry it back again; but, “One word first, +widow,” said the Doctor: “You know I’ve a +regard for you; look to your spoons, that’s +all. A very suspicious-looking person, believe +me. When a man shuns good company, it’s a +very bad sign. I introduced myself in the +civilest way, saying that I understood he +wanted to dispose of some drawings, and that +I might have an opportunity of recommending +them in the course of my professional practice. +And when I was undoing the strings to look at +them, he took them from me, and said that +they were already disposed of. I then talked +of Morden Bay, and began describing it at +random, like any other bay; and then he interrupted +me by asking if I had ever been +there; and when I said, not that I could remember, +he said he thought as much; and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106"></span>just as I was chatting on about something else, +he told me that he was writing, and that if I +considered that a public room, he would ask +for a private one. Depend upon it, when a +chap of that kind comes Captain Grand over +one, and wants to be as dull as a lord, he has +some reason for it. It’s a very suspicious +story altogether. Who was that swell confidant +Jack says he left at Moreby? Who +knows? they may be French spies, taking a +survey of the coast, and the portfolio he was +so afraid I should see, may be chuck full of +treason.”</p> + +<p>“But you forget, Doctor, we are at peace +now, and have been for some time; and I +don’t know, whether he be French or English, +that there is any harm in his painting a +few trees, whether they grow near the sea +or not.”</p> + +<p>“I have it,” said the Doctor, but apparently +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107"></span>the last suspicion was too weighty to +drop lightly, and, buttoning up his coat, he +only added, “A few days will show whether +I am right,” muttering to himself as he went +out, “General Ludd, General Ludd, General +Ludd!”</p> + +<p>But few years have passed since the Doctor +pronounced that then awful name, and many +of my readers have never heard of “General +Ludd,” at that time the dreaded object of +the ephemeral fears of every loyal Englishman. +His fame, too recent for the stores of +history, too obsolete for the currency of conversation, +is now less alive than that of many +a brother general, who swells the half-pay +list under the grateful denomination of “dead +weight.”</p> + +<p>Whatever suspicions the Doctor had at +that moment instilled into the mind of the +Widow Westbury, they appeared to have been +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108"></span>obliterated, in a long conversation which she +had the next morning with the stranger; for +when her friend the Farmer arrived, she told +him there was a <em>nice</em> young man, who was +very anxious to board at his house for a few +weeks, whilst he sketched the surrounding +scenery. She told the Farmer he must not be +hard upon him for terms, for that he said +he was as poor as need be, though just able +to earn a decent subsistence by the labours +of his pencil.</p> + +<p>The Farmer, who had no objection to the +daily presence of a stranger, who he hoped +would rather restrain his family discomforts, +did not anticipate much objection on the part +of his wife, who, as she had every year become +more fond of money, and liked the +coin itself, rather than the comfort it could +purchase, would welcome the pittance of the +stranger, however small; determined, at the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_109"></span>same time, not to augment, in any respect, +the expenses on his account. One difficulty +only occurred to the Farmer: what in days +of yore had been called the “spare room,” +was now tenanted by the hams hung up to +dry. But there was George’s room vacant, +which had been empty ever since he left it; +he therefore made acquaintance with the +stranger, and the bargain was concluded between +them with the facility which might be +expected from two easy people, mutually eager +to be accommodating. One thing only kept +alive a sort of suspense in the hostess’s mind +against the stranger; whilst talking with her, +he had folded up and directed the letter he +had been so long writing, and which she observed +to be a bulky packet. She had offered +to put it in the post for him herself, and, +approaching it for that purpose with rather +a curious feminine eye, he had hastily turned +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110"></span>the direction downwards, and declined her +services, saying, that he would put it in himself, +which, accordingly, he had stopped to +do, whilst riding out of the town with Farmer +Darnell.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_111"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Eight">VIII.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Ay, mine own fortune is my misery.</div> + <div class="verse indent29"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Go thither, and with unattainted eye</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Compare her face with some that I shall show.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">His letters bear his mind.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">’Tis hatched and shall be so.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> letter, which had been thus carefully +forwarded by the stranger, had by no means a +treasonable exterior; it was directed to “The +Right Honourable ——, &c. &c. &c. &c., +one of H. M. Principal Secretaries of State,” +and contained an inner envelope to “Wm. +St. Clair, Esq.” It began as follows:—</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_112"></span></p> + +<p> + <span style="margin-left: 2.5em;">“<span class="smcap">My Dear St. Clair</span>:</span> +</p> + +<p>“When I consider the official atmosphere in +which this will be opened, and that it is to be +read by a person now filling a situation with +such a dry unromantic name as <i lang="fr">précis</i> writer, I +can hardly hope for that sympathy in some of +the feelings it wall describe, which, even in +earlier days, your more worldly mind was +sometimes inclined either to withhold, or to mix +up with a little unwelcome ‘persiflage.’ You +have often told me, that with every kind disposition +to pity the peculiar hardships of high +rank, and the severe burthen of a large fortune, +still I was the friend whose misfortunes you +would the most readily share. But the very +circumstance of your quizzing me a little on +this head, by showing me that you cannot flatter, +makes me believe that you may feel for me, +when I complain of those irksome advantages +of wealth and situation which have prevented +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113"></span>my being ever convinced that any one really +cared for me for myself alone. With men, I +do not so much mind that: the sterling ore +of friendship is too weighty for the exchange of +every-day intercourse, and the paper-currency +of popularity passes just as well. But with +women, from my earliest acquaintance with +them, I have always been haunted with the consciousness +that true love is not to be bought, and +by the constant idea that I could not be loved +for myself; a distrustful suspicion that, I grieve +to say, experience has hitherto only tended to +confirm. In every situation, wherever I have +been known, I have always had the same fear, +but too often the same conviction of its justice. +I have fancied I could trace the same expression +in every female face, from the hacknied +smiles of venal beauty, in whose profusion one +could plainly read ‘he pays well,’ up to the +would-be attractive simper of the shy debutante, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114"></span>which had been already tutored to follow the +maternal whisper. I have tried in foreign +countries to escape the unfortunate fame of my +wealth and liberality, but in vain: many half-formed +illusions of the ‘grand passion’ have +been dispelled by the exclamation, ‘<i lang="fr">Milor qui +est si riche</i>.’</p> + +<p>“The first severe lesson of this kind I received, +you will have heard in the world told in +different ways. During my minority, I was +induced to raise money to pay the debts of +Lady Madelina Manfred,—I don’t like trusting +the post with names, but about her there can +be no scandal. The demand staggered me. I +believe I was half cured before; however, I +paid the money, and dropped the connexion. +She affected indignation at my fickleness and +desertion, which at her time of life was rather +a blow, but secured at the same time the whole +sum, (ten thousand pounds, I think it was,) +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_115"></span>and then eloped to spend it with a Captain +O’Connor, in Connaught, and poor Manfred is +still in the rules for her debts.</p> + +<p>“I did not think so much of this at the time; +I was then very young, and attributed it to my +own folly in having allowed myself to be inveigled +by a woman old enough to be my +mother, all whose better feelings had been +hardened by an habitual disregard of her marriage +vow.</p> + +<p>“The next year I was very much in love with——you +may, perhaps, have heard the story in +the scandal of the world, but I will not here +publish the name, because still unchanged, for +she is yet unmarried.</p> + +<p>“My guardians asserted, which was the only +reason why I doubted it, that I was then +much too young to marry. But I was at that +time sick of intrigue; I thought it would +be a glorious thing to monopolize for ever +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116"></span>the first affections of one then so universally +admired.</p> + +<p>“Her mother, Lady ——, was always talking +to me of her daughter’s youth and innocence, +to which I attributed the reserve with which +my attentions had been at first received, pleased +as I was to find it gradually lessening during +their continuance.</p> + +<p>“The newspapers had already hinted, in unmistakable +initials, at a marriage in high life; I +had as yet said nothing, but was determined, +as I knew the paragraph must have been seen, +to observe first what effect that had produced. +The paragraph went the round of the papers +uncontradicted: perhaps I ought to have contradicted +it; but as I observed no diminution +of cordiality in consequence, I believe I should +instead have declared myself, but that just +at this time a military cousin of mine returned +with despatches from the Peninsula. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117"></span>He was a <em>very, very younger</em> brother, that is, +one of a very large family, with very little +fortune to divide. I had not seen much of +him lately, but as we had been together as +children, and I was one of his nearest collateral +relations, he came to consult me on an engagement +which he said he had formed previous to +his joining the army in Spain, and upon the +possibility of procuring the consent of the +family of the young lady, at whose house it +appears he had visited from country quarters.</p> + +<p>“He owned that he had nothing but his profession, +in which, however, his hope of promotion +was now great. But the young lady +had herself some money, and to prove that her +affections were sufficiently engaged to justify +him in venturing, he showed me some letters +he had received, full of assurances and unutterable +attachment from the nameless beauty, +who had since been receiving my addresses! +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118"></span>The letters, it is true, were not of a very recent +date, but this the time occupied in his voyage +homewards had prevented his remembering.</p> + +<p>“Here, then, was a more complete explanation +of the coldness with which I had been at first +received, than the mother’s palliations of youth +and innocence, and an utter extinction of my +own dream of monopolizing the first affections +of a virgin heart. I would willingly have persuaded +myself that it was sensibility to my own +superior merits which had sufficed to obscure +a former transient impression; but when I +looked at my cousin’s handsome, sunburnt features, +and thought of his honourable distinctions +obtained in the field-of-battle, and compared +it with my own useless, lounging life, +I could not deny that the real nature of the +change must have been the worldly advantages +of one “<i lang="fr">parti</i>,” as compared with the +imprudence of the other connexion; for in no +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119"></span>personal attractions could I flatter myself that +I surpassed my cousin.</p> + +<p>“This conviction operated as a summary cure +of my passion, and left in its stead mingled +feelings of disgust, at the deceit which had +been practised on myself, and pity for my +cousin.</p> + +<p>“Poor fellow! when I saw how deeply his +happiness was involved, I could not bear to +take on myself the task of destroying his hopes; +I therefore, without explaining my motives to +him, hastened that departure for the Continent, +which my guardians had long been anxious I +should not delay, and left him master of the +field to try his chance. I heard afterwards, +that his suit was rejected by her friends, with +an abruptness, probably increased by his being +supposed to have prevented my proposals. I +have reason to believe also, that he was more +regretted by the girl herself than would +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120"></span>have been expected from one whose actions +were so much those of an automaton; but +however that may be, the first rejection was +final, for the next year my poor cousin was +killed at Waterloo, where he was supposed unnecessarily +to have sought danger, not unwilling +to close an irksome existence with a glorious +death.</p> + +<p>“The whole of these events made a deep impression +on me; and, confirming preconceived +opinions, gave me a decided distaste for a +London-bred wife, and extended my distrust +of the disinterestedness of the affections of +women in the world in general; which last +feeling you have occasionally remarked upon +at some of the many places abroad, when in +the course of your professional attaché-ship, +during the last few years, we have so often met. +You will say, perhaps, that it arose from a determination +to judge motives with a jaundiced +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121"></span>eye; but I am every day more convinced, that +worldliness is at the bottom of every woman’s +heart whom I have known, of every country, +and in all states, whether maid, wife, or widow—ay! +widow worse than any. Since your return +home, I have met on the Continent one of +that class, perhaps at first one of the most +fascinating creatures in the world. I think it +very probable you may have met her. Young +Lady Gayland, married at seventeen to an +old man, a friend of her father’s; a widow at +nineteen; and now, at one-and-twenty, her own +mistress, with the vivacity of a child, and the +wit of a woman of the world.</p> + +<p>“I did hope that her’s was a situation where +the affections might have fair play. Neither +perverted by vicious habits, like Lady Madelina—for +Lady Gayland made an excellent wife +to old Sir Joseph; nor warped by maternal +manœuvring—for she had no one to please but +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122"></span>herself, and was left with a large fortune, +which put her above prudential considerations,—I +was in hopes that she might at once merit +and appreciate that admiration which her +beauty excited; but I was deceived again. I +will not enter into particulars, as I have, I +trust, completely escaped from her fascinations; +though even at this distance I think too often +of her to feel quite confident on that head. If +you had seen the sudden jerk with which I +dashed away my pen, which had been the instrument +of conveying to you in the last sentence +that profession of indifference, you might +have been sceptical as to its sincerity; but a +few paces up and down the smallest of country-inn +parlours have brought me to my senses. +It is sufficient to say she deceived me. I was +fool enough to think that I had inspired her +with a feeling pure and fervent as my own, +when, in the midst of this vain dream, I was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123"></span>suddenly awakened. Within a week after the +arrival of that confident coxcomb, Frank +Melmoth, who only courted her for her fortune, +the melodious tones of her musical laugh +chiming in with all his flippant nonsense, rang +on my ears as the knell of all my hopes. Perhaps, +after all, I was too hasty; she might not +really care for him; but I had every reason +at the time to think so, and now it is all +over. It is sufficient to say, that she is spoilt by +the world, and can have no real feeling, for she +is disposed to laugh at every thing, and to receive +even sentiment with a smile. Upon one +occasion—but I said I would not particularize, +nor will I, because among other reasons, at this +distance of time, I do not feel quite sure but +that you might smile likewise. Suffice it to +say, I am at length convinced, that in our rank +in life, the feelings are too early perverted by +the world, to hold out to a person, who thinks +like me, any real prospect of happiness.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_124"></span></p> + +<p>“No; I will seek something as different as +possible from all that I have hitherto described. +No bad second-rate copy of Lady Gayland +could I tolerate; and if I am to be sustained in +my fixed resolution of forgetting her, it must +be by seeking contrast, and not imitation, that +I must hope to succeed.</p> + +<p>“What my present plan exactly is, I will +not say; but once in my earlier days a vision +crossed my path, of a simple child of nature, +fresh and beauteous as the morn. Think of +the delight of first winning her pure affections, +as one not elevated above her own rank in life, +(the case is certainly not without precedent,) +and then the pleasure of declaring myself afterwards, +and the consciousness thus derived, that +whatever additional gratification may arise +from the advantages of rank and fortune, they +could not be the cause of the connexion, +but from their subsequent disclosure were +matter of surprise, not speculation. Now, will +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_125"></span>you be anxious to find out the scene of this +plot; but even if you get hold of the cover +directed to your ‘chef,’ you will be only misled +by the postmark, as that is intended purposely +to deceive.</p> + +<p>“But be satisfied with a degree of confidence, +such as it is—quite unusual in these close and +uncommunicative days—and pardon the length +to which it is fine-spun; for bulky as the packet +is, the privilege of your place will prevent +your paying for it, and the duties of your office +will, I am sure, leave you complete leisure to +read it.</p> + +<p class="center"> +“Your’s, +</p> + +<p class="right r2"> + “<span class="smcap">Castleton</span>.” +</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_126"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Nine">IX.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">——You are welcome, Sir;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But not so well apparelled as I could</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Wish you were.</div> + <div class="verse indent29"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Go to my chamber; put on clothes of mine.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All impediments in fancy’s course</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Are motions of more fancy.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Lord Castleton</span>, or rather Mr. Churchill, +as we must in future call the “<i lang="fr">soi-disant</i>” itinerant +limner, felt a little awkwardness at the +publicity of his first appearance in his assumed +character, as he rode out of Mayton by the +side of Farmer Darnell,—a mode of transferring +himself to his new residence which he had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127"></span>preferred to the alternative of being consigned +to one of the farmer’s return teams, which had +that morning brought there, as he assured his +new acquaintance, “the finest load of upland +meadow hay which had come to market that +season.” Mr. Churchill had therefore hired +for the purpose, at the Queen’s Head, the +hostler’s own pony, which besides the advantage +of his paces, a low straight shoulder, and +somewhat of a string-halt, had a mouth with +about as much feeling as a well-worn pulley, +through which a smooth snaffle ran without the +least effect: added to these qualifications, being +of a domestic turn, he had an invincible +dislike to wander far from home, which he did +not show by violent resistance, but by the +patient endurance with which he reluctantly +yielded, step by step, to the incessant hints of +Churchill’s unarmed heel.</p> + +<p>As Richard Darnell was in consequence +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_128"></span>obliged frequently to pull up for him, during +the first mile or two, it could not be concealed, +that the painter did not look very comfortable, +or much at his ease, and Darnell addressed him +with:</p> + +<p>“More used to handle the brush than the +whip, I take it, Master Painter. Pretty nearly +the first time you were a horseback, maybe? +Lord, man, I hope that a’n’t the way you would +paint St. George, as I suppose you have done +afore now; the dragon wouldn’t have much ado +to pull you off.”</p> + +<p>And the farmer chuckled good-humouredly +at what he conceived a harmless joke upon a +subject on which he could not imagine that his +companion could have any vanity.</p> + +<p>But it may be recollected that Lord Castleton +had very early been rather proud of any +opportunity for the display of his horsemanship; +he had indeed for two seasons been a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129"></span>crack-rider in Leicestershire; but for all that +it is very true, that no tailor could have looked +more out of his element on Joe Hostler’s rough +ill-broken pony.</p> + +<p>During the greater part of their way the +dialogue was confined to the qualities of different +soils, the prices of different years, the +proper succession of crops, and the measures +of various markets;—if, indeed, that could +be called a dialogue, which consisted in a +profusion of unasked information on the one +side, and exclamations of mechanical assent +on the other.</p> + +<p>As they approached the coast, the afternoon, +which had hitherto been fine, became gradually +overcast; a creeping mist, by degrees, enveloped +the surrounding country, and, thickening +as it advanced, was accompanied by a +mizzling rain. Lord Castleton, completely +wet to the skin, arrived at the top of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130"></span>cliff, which they were to descend to Farmer +Darnell’s dwelling, without being able to distinguish +a feature of the scene which had so +enchanted him the last time he had seen it. +Churchill was received at the door of the +house, not by her he longed to see, but by +her mother. Mrs. Darnell greeted him courteously, +for now that he was again separated +from the pony there was something in his air +and appearance which, until his story contradicted +it, rather betrayed his real rank in +life. Supposing him to be a gentleman, to +whom her husband had offered shelter, the +hostess expressed great solicitude about his +catching cold, and begged him to put on some +of her Richard’s clothes whilst his own were +drying.</p> + +<p>To this, as his own things were not yet come +over from Mayton by the waggon, he at once +consented, and was escorted to what was to be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131"></span>his, and which had been, George’s room, to effect +the change. He was aware that it had not yet +been explained to Mrs. Darnell who he was, and +his intended temporary residence in her household; +and, as he could overhear, without distinguishing +the words, the alternate tones of a gruff +and a sharp voice in the room beneath, he concluded +the explanation was then going on, and, +by the increasing preponderance of the “Alto” +over the “Basso” notes of the duet, he was +afraid it was not taking a favourable turn.</p> + +<p>His toilet was the sooner concluded, as the +difficulty consisted, in his case, not so much +in getting into Farmer Darnell’s clothes, +as in keeping them on afterwards. He +could not help thinking that his appearance +must be rather ludicrous, though there was +no looking-glass in the room by which to ascertain +the fact. He had, previously to adopting +his assumed character, cut short his own +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132"></span>lighter hair, and superinduced a black wig as a +sort of disguise; but, as personal disfigurement +was no part of his plan, the wig was not of +that homely make which would suit the cut +of the borrowed garments he now had on.</p> + +<p>As he entered the room down-stairs he heard +the female voice end the argument with, “It’s +just of a piece with a’ the rest;” and then, +turning to him, she said, “So, young man, I +hear Richard has been settling with you to +stay and board with us a bit: there’s not another +man in the country, but him, would bring +a stranger at once into a decent family; no +offence to you, who, I dare say, are a quiet +well-behaved body, that won’t give us any +fash; but it was so like Richard, that’s all. +However, I have no doubt you wouldn’t have +come if you hadn’t the money to pay for your +board, for, after all, ’tis but an idlish uncertain +sort of calling your’s.”</p> + +<p>“I’ve no objection to pay the first week in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133"></span>advance, and, though far from rich, have no +doubt that I shall be able to continue to do so, +therefore make yourself easy on that head, my +good woman.”</p> + +<p>“Good woman, indeed!” muttered she; +“Mrs. Darnell’s my name, Mr. Churchill, as I +hear that’s yours. And what may you get by +this vagabond sort of life? ’tis a pity you +didn’t fix in some town and stick to painting +houses and signs.”</p> + +<p>“The different ranks in our profession are +as various as the colours in which we deal, +from those whose genius elevates them to the +society of the great, to the hacknied drudge, +to whose wholesale daubing you would confine +me: but though I can never aspire to emulate +the first, yet I find that by indulging my fancy +in sketching on the coast in summer, and +making drawings for cheap engravings in the +winter, I can maintain myself, with care and +economy, above all dread of want.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134"></span></p> + +<p>Churchill meant by this last speech accurately +to describe the sort of indefinite situation +in society which he intended to assume. But +much of it was unintelligible to Mrs. Darnell, +who, satisfied by his offering to pay his board +and lodging in advance, that he was not a swindler, +turned to answer her husband’s inquiry, +“Why he had not seen his dear Lucy?” by +telling him that the girl had been over to see +her aunt, where she had probably been detained +by the weather, and might not come home that +night. Churchill therefore made up his mind +that he should not be gratified with the sight +of the object which had brought him there +till the next morning, which, considering his +present grotesque appearance in her father’s +clothes, he did not much regret; and, having +sufficient topic for reflection as to his future +conduct in the situation he had so abruptly +assumed, he remained comparatively silent, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135"></span>whilst Darnell and his wife so far made him +at home as to discuss together domestic details, +without the least regard to his presence.</p> + +<p>But just as they were about to separate for +the night, the latch of the garden-gate was heard +to click, and a light step quickly to cross the +gravel without. The imagination of Churchill +had already anticipated what it was to produce, +when almost at the same instant the door hastily +opened, and Lucy rushed in. The first +impression on the mind of the stranger was, +upon the door opening, that her figure appeared +some inches higher whilst standing in the +threshold than his recollection had led him to +expect. His next remark, however, was the +perfect symmetry of her form, which the last +few years’ progress towards maturity had confirmed; +and as she threw off her bonnet, and +shook back the locks of her rich brown hair, +which had been disordered by the storm she +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136"></span>had just braved, Churchill thought he had +never seen a countenance in which innocence +and intelligence were so happily combined.</p> + +<p>“And what do you come back for in this +gait, spoiling all your clothes?” said her +mother.</p> + +<p>“Nay, mother, I’m sure you’re glad to see +me safe at home,” said Lucy in a deprecating +tone, at the same time kissing her: “I never +slept from under this roof in my life before, +and I did not like to begin now, for all aunt +wanted me to bide with her all night.”</p> + +<p>The tone in which this was said disarmed +even Mrs. Darnell’s fault-finding disposition,—Churchill +would have wondered if it had not,—and +Lucy threw herself into her father’s arms, +whom she had not seen before to-day, and +then drew back upon observing the stranger. +He had risen upon her entrance, but felt an +awkwardness, which was visible in his deportment, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137"></span>as to how to present himself: this was +increased by the unfitness of his present costume: +he felt that to attempt a pretty speech +or courteous greeting would be absurd, and +he was not sufficiently assured what sort of +deportment would be befitting his present +appearance. The consequence was, that he +stood sheepish and abashed; and he, who had +scattered his smiles with a feeling of condescension +round the most brilliant ball-rooms, +and had dropped unasked, with a certainty of +welcome, into the choicest “boudoirs,” blushed +with a sense of shame beneath the enquiring +gaze of a simple country girl. So easily does +disguise or deceit entail with it a consciousness +of inferiority.</p> + +<p>“’Tis a young man in the painting line,” +said her father, seeing he would not answer +for himself, “who is going to stay here a bit, +and paint the country: you must show him +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138"></span>the Black Glen and Deadman’s Crag, and some +of your favourite spots.”</p> + +<p>Lucy gave him, in answer, a smile of welcome, +which Churchill fancied was changed +to one of a more satirical character, as she +examined his dress and figure: this, however, +was checked by her mother, who insisted +upon her no longer remaining in her wet +clothes, but retiring to bed. The whole party +then separated for the night.</p> + +<p>Lord Castleton was left alone in the occupation +of George’s garret. The first thing +he did, as he walked along the floor by the +dim light of his farthing candle, was to knock +his head against the beam which ran across +its low ceiling; the next was to sit himself +down in the only chair in the room, and reflect +upon the novelty of his present situation, when, +spite of his efforts to resist it, a general +sense of discomfort stole across him. Planned +at a distance, his scheme had comprised only +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_139"></span>the great outlines of “disinterested attachment,” +“simplicity of nature,” “unconscious +beauty,” and “freedom from the trammels +of rank;” but the details had either escaped +him altogether, or had worn a different shape, +when fancied from afar, than that which they +now assumed in practice. He had expected +to receive from the cordiality of hearty hospitality, +all those attentions which he scorned +to accept as the servile offerings of dependent +inferiors; and he had not been at all prepared +for the occasional contemptuous jocularity, and +generally protecting tone of the farmer; or +for the half-hinted suspicions, and cautious +bargaining of his wife; both which were carrying +the absence of undue deference to him, +farther than he had anticipated.</p> + +<p>On one subject only he had not been disappointed,—that +was, in the appearance of +Lucy.</p> + +<p>“And, after all,” thought he, “what does +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140"></span>any thing else signify? I ought rather to be +pleased with the rest, however disagreeable +in itself, as the best proof that my scheme +works well, and that if I should, as the unsuspected +Churchill, treated in this unceremonious +manner, succeed in winning her affections, +I need, through all my after-life, +never have a moment’s mistrust that I was +loved for myself alone.”</p> + +<p>Consoled with this reflection, he proceeded +with less dissatisfaction to make a survey of +the various “désagrémens” of his present +confined chamber, which was as uncomfortable +as possible consistent with perfect cleanliness. +An inventory of the furniture might +have been contained in one line, and the walls +presented one unbroken surface of whitewash, +except where, over the chest of drawers, three +bits of paper were pinned up for ornament: +the centre a wood-cut of Lord Nelson’s funeral +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141"></span>car; on one side of it a roaring sea song, +and on the other a sentimental ballad, whose +only possible merit was that the heroine’s name +was Lucy. These relics of George’s fairings +had remained here undisturbed ever since +his departure.</p> + +<p>The bed on which its present tenant prepared +to stretch himself, was not very well calculated +for the literal fulfilment of that operation, +being in length better adapted for the +then height of its last owner than that of its +present occupier.</p> + +<p>It was upon this uncomfortable couch that +Lord Castleton now fell asleep, lulled by the +wind whistling through the low casement, and +the rain pattering on the roof; and dreamed +confusedly, that he broke to Lucy his real +rank, and that she first burst into tears, and +then changed suddenly to Lady Gayland and +began laughing at him. When he awoke in +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142"></span>the morning, with a sort of indistinct doubt +as to where he was, the first object which met +his half-open eyes was, the initials G. and L. D., +combined in a sort of cipher, and cut in the +soft deal-board just by his head; no doubt by +the last occupier of that bed. This he did not +think a good omen, and hastily rising, he gave +way to a momentary feeling of discomfort, at +finding his clothes still in the confusion in +which he had last night left them, and not +carefully arranged for his toilet, as the habits +of his life accustomed him to expect; but +banishing this as unworthy consideration, he +was restored, by the contemplation of the brilliant +prospect which the fine morning showed +him from his window, to that state of mind +which made him enjoy the happiness of his +first meeting with Lucy, whom he found alone +in the breakfast-room.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_143"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Ten">X.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">It were all one</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That I should love a bright, particular star</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And think to wed it, he is so above me.</div> + <div class="verse indent29"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">But several years elapsed since they had met;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Some people thought the ship was lost.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Byron.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">About</span> a week had elapsed since Churchill’s +arrival at Morden Bay, an interval which he +had not failed to improve, by availing himself +upon all occasions, whenever Mrs. Darnell +permitted, of Lucy’s company, as a guide to the +many picturesque scenes with which she was so +well acquainted; and, as the principal maternal +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_144"></span>objection was the interference this caused with +domestic avocations, the evening was generally +chosen as the hour left most free for these romantic +rambles.</p> + +<p>Lucy’s taste for the beauties of nature had +till now lain dormant, for want of any one to +sympathize in her admiration. Her aunt, to +whose disposition it would have seemed congenial, +never wandered far from home; and of +all the various picturesque spots with which +the neighbourhood abounded, those only had +hitherto been interesting to Lucy which she +could animate as the mental scenery of those +parts of Shakspeare which, as read to her by +her aunt, she most admired. But since she had +attended Churchill in his sketching expeditions, +she had discovered new beauties in every spot +they had together visited. From admiring his +power of recording effects and imitating objects, +she had become anxious to emulate the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145"></span>same herself, and upon the two last occasions, +<em>she</em> likewise had attempted the powers of the +pencil.</p> + +<p>It was quite an afternoon for a painter, with +broad effects of light and shadow. Churchill +and Lucy had perched themselves on a small +ledge of rock, just above the shore, commanding +a well-wooded bank of the Black Glen, with some +bold and jutting crags rising out of the surface +of the waters beyond, when Lucy, after a +time, first looking over her shoulder at her +companion’s work, and then comparing it with +her own, said:</p> + +<p>“Oh, Mr. Churchill! I shall never be able +to do it like you. I can’t make two trees, which +really touch on the paper, seem so far apart, +and I meant this like your’s for the sea, with +a ship on the horizon, but it looks much more +like a wall, with a weed growing on the top; +and then my paper is just as big as your’s, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146"></span>but I never shall be able to get half so much +into it.”</p> + +<p>“Because, my pretty pupil,” said Churchill, +examining it, “you have made that distant +cliff higher than this old boat-house.”</p> + +<p>“And so it is, a hundred times higher,” +said Lucy in a justificatory tone; “and if you +were there, you would soon see the difference.”</p> + +<p>“But now we are not there, and we are +here,” answered Churchill smiling; “and in +this world, objects, like events, appear to us, not +according to their intrinsic importance, but in +proportion to our own situation, and the manner +in which they affect ourselves. For instance, +dwelling in this retired spot, and in our +humble rank of life, events that might convulse +the country, and affright the great ones of the +land, would be less observed by us, than the +blight which injured your father’s corn; and +battles might be won and lost, which we should +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147"></span>feel less than the attack of a single fox upon +your poultry-yard.”</p> + +<p>“It is a very stupid and confused attempt +this of mine,” said Lucy, tearing it in two; +“and yet, separately, this is like the boat-house, +and that is like the rock,” holding up the divided +parts of her drawing.</p> + +<p>“Yes, and may you learn to combine the +simplicity of an humble foreground with the +softened outline of greatness in the distance!”</p> + +<p>“That is a little like some of aunt Alice’s +speeches, which I do not always understand,” +said Lucy: “perhaps it is, that you have both +mixed in that world of which I had only previously +heard from her how anxious she had +been to leave it.”</p> + +<p>“This aunt, of whom you so often speak, is +it because she is unhappy that she lives so +retired?”</p> + +<p>“She never complains.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_148"></span></p> + +<p>“And shall I never see her?”</p> + +<p>“I never knew her see a stranger, but she +asked me about you, when I told her that I +should have come to her before, but that I had +been to show you up the burn side: and she +wanted to know why you were staying at our +house; and when I said I could not exactly +tell, she begged me to bring you to visit her +some day.”</p> + +<p>“And why not now?” said Churchill, whose +curiosity was roused.</p> + +<p>“It is rather late,” Lucy replied; “and +mother’s particular about tea-time,” looking at +a little watch which her companion once well +knew.</p> + +<p>“And where did you get that little French +watch?” asked he.</p> + +<p>“And is it French? then I dare say that’s +the reason George couldn’t abide it, for he +hates every thing French, as it is right he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149"></span>should, seeing he’s a sailor. It was given me +by a strange gentleman who came to see the +bay,—and George tiffed about it, and thought +some harm would come of it. But I don’t see +how it’s to be, for I’ve never seen the gentleman +since, as it wasn’t like I should.”</p> + +<p>“But what sort of gentleman was this?” +asked Churchill.</p> + +<p>“Why, from the little I can recollect of +him, not so very unlike yourself, only that he +had light curly hair, a more fresh florid cheek, +and a more easy-like look, as it was natural, you +know, he should; for I dare say he was a great +gentleman, and had none of those cares about +the coming day which mother says must always +be felt by one with such an uncertain calling +as yours; though, I’m sure, I think your drawings +so pretty that, as long as there is money +to throw away in the world, I should guess +they would always be sure to fetch something.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_150"></span></p> + +<p>They had, in accordance with Lucy’s hint as +to the time, concluded their sketching for that +evening, and had begun to wind their way +homewards, when Churchill, recurring to that +part of their late conversation which had made +the least pleasant impression on him, said,</p> + +<p>“And this cousin George, to whose opinion, +as to that watch, you seem to attach no little +value, you have not seen much of him since?”</p> + +<p>“He has not been at home again; that +was the last evening he spent here, which is the +reason, perhaps, that it made the more impression +on me.”</p> + +<p>“But you have heard continually of him, of +course?”</p> + +<p>“Not very often; when he left us, he was +no very handy penman; he used to say that it +took him less time to sail round the bay than to +write its name, and that there was no such +difficult navigation, as tacking through all the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151"></span>ins and outs of a capital B. But I hope he is +improved in all that; though absent, he hasn’t +thought any the less about us; in that, at least, +he used to be apt enough.”</p> + +<p>They had ascended the cliff by a different +path from the one mentioned before, and were +pursuing their way homewards through a shady +lane, and had just reached as far in it as the +point where, at right angles, a stile led to a +footpath through a copse, known only to those +acquainted with the country, as a short cut from +the main road to Morden Bay. Upon coming +in sight of this turn, they beheld two men in +sailors’ dresses, who were threading the narrow +path through the wood, at a brisk pace, the +foremost of whom, looking up and seeing them, +made a run at the stile, bounded over it, and +almost at the same moment folded Lucy in his +arms in an embrace, whose ardour was mixed a +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152"></span>little with that alloy of roughness which is proverbially +nautical.</p> + +<p>The scream with which Lucy shrank from +this unexpected salutation, though it partook +more of the character of surprise than positive +alarm, was sufficient to justify the ready interposition +of Churchill, who, seizing the intruder +by the collar of his jacket, pulled him with a +sudden jerk away.</p> + +<p>“Hands off, messmate!” said he in his turn, +surprised, but good humouredly; “who the +devil may you be? let’s see what colours you +mean to hoist before you interpose between me +and my pretty cousin here.”</p> + +<p>“And is it indeed you, dear, dear Cousin +George?” said Lucy, as she rushed again of her +own accord into his arms, and kissed him +affectionately; then drawing back abruptly and +blushing deeply, she added, “But what a beard +you have got, George, and how you’re grown +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153"></span>and altered! I declare you’re quite a man +now!”</p> + +<p>“Such things will happen in four years, between +sixteen and twenty, Lucy: you yourself +are shot up wonderfully; why, you’d carry +twice as much sail as formerly:—Lord love her +sweet face!” he added, again kissing her now +averted cheek: in shrinking from which second +salute she met Churchill’s eye, and blushing +more deeply, said in a confused manner,</p> + +<p>“We were going home, you know, Mr. +Churchill: you’d better come, George, and see +father and mother.—This young man,” she +added in a low tone, “is staying here a bit, +painting the country, like those other two you +remember once, George, some time before you +left us.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, that’s what he is, is it? To be sure, +I remember the others well enough, and how +you used to be sent out with one, and I with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154"></span>the other, and how I frightened my man one +day, by stealing his own red paint, and smearing +myself with it: I made believe to fall off a +rock he was drawing; he took it for blood, and +thought I lay there for dead. My friend here +seemed to have had a mind to shed my blood in +real earnest; however, as ye took me for a rude +stranger, it was all right, and respectful like, +interfering to protect a woman when she cried +out; so here’s my hand, my man, and now +just take my friend Captain Collett under your +convoy, for you may guess I’ve many a thing +to say to Lucy here, which won’t concern either +of you two.”</p> + +<p>Churchill, still bewildered at the unexpected +turn which events seemed to have taken, looked +round mechanically, to examine the stranger thus +unceremoniously introduced to him. He was +standing on the other side of the stile, leaning +his elbows upon it. He had remained in this +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155"></span>attitude during the whole of the preceding +scene, an amused, though uninterested spectator +of its incidents. He had chuckled aloud at +the momentary scuffle between George and +Churchill, but had not stirred a step to take +part with either; and now as his eye met +Lucy’s, just as she and George were about to +move on, he assented to the arrangement proposed, +by a familiar nod and grin, without, +however, removing his elbows from the stile, or +his hands from his chin. He was a short +thick-set man, with that fresh, though not +youthful appearance, which the eye generally +registers at about five-and-forty, unless the parish +annals give some more precise date as to +age. The expression of his countenance was +the reverse of serious; but a physiognomist +would have said that the lines were rather the +joint production of cunning and conviviality, +than the impression of natural, quiet cheerfulness. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156"></span>His dress, like George’s, consisted of a +sailor’s blue jacket and trowsers; but his +waistcoat, which was ornamented with many +little buttons and some lace, had rather a +foreign appearance, and was not unlike those +usually worn by couriers. He eyed Churchill +curiously, as the latter looked first at him and +then after Lucy, feeling not the less disgusted +at the turn things had unexpectedly taken, that +he did not know of what to complain, or why +to resent it. Nothing could be more natural +than that Lucy should be glad to welcome +home her cousin, the favourite companion of +her childhood; or, upon his sudden return, that +she should neglect at the moment one, to whom +she was bound by no ties; an itinerant painter—the +acquaintance of a week.</p> + +<p>Yet during that week, Churchill had thought +he was every day making great progress in her +regard; she had appeared to take a new sort +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157"></span>of pleasure in his society,—had been delighted +either to hear him talk, or see him draw; and +even now, he thought, when her cousin had +attempted a second time to kiss her, her eye +had sought his, and upon meeting it she had +blushed, and avoided the kindred embrace. +Yet now, as they walked away, George’s arm +was round her waist, and his profile looked +offensively happy. “Come, Sir, if you please,” +said Churchill, rather hastily to his new companion, +thinking that the others had already +got sufficiently far in advance.</p> + +<p>“No hurry,” said Captain Collett, as George +called him, getting even more deliberately over +the stile than the square cut of his figure required; +“we are only to keep within hail, you +know. I’m sorry for you; it is but a poor +exchange to have only Kit Collett for your +consort, instead of yon gay pinnace. But +it can’t be helped; you’re clean cut out, that +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_158"></span>I can see. A nice tight little prize too. Is it +that you’ve been over slow in making her your +own, or have you stayed long enough for her to +get tired of you?”</p> + +<p>“Come, Sir,” repeated Churchill again, loud +and angrily, his attention having been a little +taken off from the last speech by watching +George and Lucy, who had now disappeared +round a corner in the lane: “I desire you +won’t talk to me in that manner. As that young +lady seemed to wish me to show you the way +to her father’s, I am ready to do it, provided +you don’t take advantage of that circumstance +to speak impertinently of her; if you do, I +shall consider that you would be an improper +guest, and take the liberty of leaving you +behind.”</p> + +<p>“Well, no offence, man; I meant none. +Young lady! Lord, how grand all that is!” +still speaking with a half suppressed chuckle; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159"></span>“however, move on, my friend; it’s all one to +Kit Collett what he talks about, or indeed +whether he talks at all, as long as he has one +of these to stop his mouth,” taking a cigar out +of a case and deliberately lighting it.</p> + +<p>This being satisfactorily deposited in his +mouth, and his two hands in the side pockets +of his jacket, he, without attempting any farther +conversation, rolled on, following Churchill +as fast as he could, whose impatient strides +soon brought them inconveniently near to the +couple in advance. However much Churchill +might have wished to join company with them, +he did not feel authorized to do so, unless +he had been more sure that such an intrusion +would be welcome; and of this he +could see no symptoms; for though once +Lucy looked round, and, upon seeing him, appeared +to wish to stop, and to require urging +on by her companion, yet, except at that one +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_160"></span>moment, she seemed completely and satisfactorily +occupied with her newly restored cousin, +and Churchill felt therefore unwillingly obliged +to slacken his pace, much to the relief of Kit +Collett; and it was in two separate detachments +that they arrived at home.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_161"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Eleven">XI.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">He was a man as dusky as a Spaniard,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">Sunburnt with travel, yet a portly figure;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Though colour’d, as it were, within a tanyard,</div> + <div class="verse indent2">He was a person both of sense and vigour—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A better seaman never yet did man yard.</div> + <div class="verse indent36"><span class="smcap">Byron.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">George’s</span> unexpected arrival that night, +produced in all the family that sort of intoxicating +exhilaration of spirits, which, whenever +the natural feelings are allowed to show +themselves, is the effect of the restored presence +of a long-lost inmate.</p> + +<p>Even Mrs. Darnell suppressed, for the moment, +her desire to complain of his protracted +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162"></span>silence, and of the ignorance in which he +had left them as to how he had spent his +time since his engagement in his uncle’s ship +had been out—which was now twelve months +since.</p> + +<p>As for the farmer, he was so delighted to +see his favourite, that he hardly knew what +he did, and went about shaking hands with +everybody, and even asked the painter, with +a cordial gripe, whether he wasn’t d——d +happy: a question, the repetition of which +Churchill contrived to evade, as it would have +puzzled him to answer it heartily in the affirmative. +Captain Collett, the farmer pronounced, +after they had had two glasses together, to be a +man after his own heart, and was rather disappointed +when, in answer to his enquiry whether +he had been George’s last Captain, George +replied, “that he had sometime sailed with +him, and added, that he was known to be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163"></span>the best seaman between the Thames and the +Tweed.”</p> + +<p>“And, as my voyages are not now very +distant, George will have more opportunities of +seeing his friends here, as he is about to engage +with me.”</p> + +<p>“I am not quite sure about that,” answered +George gravely, and a cloud, for a +moment, came over his brow, which was, however, +as soon dispelled by the eager attentions +of all around, by which he was overwhelmed. +George was soon much excited by finding himself +the great man of the party. Thus encouraged, +he rattled away merrily, sometimes +boisterously, stringing one story on another +with much humour, not always confined within +the narrow limits of fact, nor scrupulously +restrained by the bounds of decorum; once +or twice, even on this night of licence, he +incurred the displeasure of his aunt, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164"></span>raised a blush on the cheek of Lucy, who was +seated at the supper board between him and +Churchill.</p> + +<p>During this time it would be difficult to +analyze the conflicting feelings of Lucy. Certain +it is, that she did not attempt to do so +herself. If she had, she would have been aware +that the sensations with which she had welcomed +the return of George were of a warmer +nature than would have sprung from the mere +renewal of childish companionship; and in the +course of their walk homewards, whilst listening +to his passionate expressions of delight at +his return, she had admired more than it was +necessary for a mere cousin to do, the improvement +the interval of absence had made in his +fine manly figure; and during that time, if her +thoughts wandered from the happiness of the +present moment, it was to distant days, and +not to recent scenes. But now, when an inadvertent +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_165"></span>coarseness in one of George’s expressions +made her avert, a moment, her head, and +she beheld the displeased but enduring character +of Churchill’s countenance, and then, as her +eye met his, she read in it, more plainly expressed +than it had yet been, that feeling towards +herself which woman cannot long mistake; +and as she combined with that her recollections +of his many gentle and delicate +attentions to her in the course of their recent +rambles, her wishes became rather confused +and bewildered; but perhaps the predominant +one was, that George should be rather different +from what he was. She could not, at the same +time, but be aware that Churchill had been +much neglected during the evening; and it was +as much regret at this, springing from that considerate +good-nature which in her rank of life +supplies with the interest of sincerity the place +of good breeding, which made her say to him +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166"></span>in a tone and with an expression which amply +compensated for the previous neglect which it +acknowledged:</p> + +<p>“I am afraid all this must have been very +tiresome to you.”</p> + +<p>As the breaking up of the supper-party at +that moment prevented other answer, he took +advantage of that circumstance to reply to her +by a gentle squeeze of the hand.</p> + +<p>Immediately after supper was finished, Captain +Collett signified his intention to depart, +resisting the entreaties with which he was +pressed to share with his friend George the +best spare room, from which, for their reception, +the hams, &c. had just been unceremoniously +rejected, as it was not thought hospitable to +disturb the stranger, and his drawings and +portfolios, from the room formerly George’s, +which he at present occupied.</p> + +<p>“But, Captain,” said the farmer, “it’s a +double-bedded room, and you’d better bide to-night +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167"></span>with your friend George, for the night’s +dark and murky, and if it had been as light as +day, one’s way is never somehow so canny to +find after supper as afore.”</p> + +<p>“Thank’ee the same, but I can’t stay,” replied +the Captain. “As for the night, I’m +rather partial to dark nights; a’n’t I, George?” +chuckling: “and as for supper, if it’s along of +the grog you mean, Kit Collett would drink as +much again, and walk as steady as on the +quarter-deck in a calm.”</p> + +<p>“But it’s rather an awkwardish road to the +Lobster near Placeden Point, for a stranger, +if that’s where you’re going.”</p> + +<p>“Stranger! why nothing comes strange to +me, that’s within three miles of the coast from +Beechy Head to Berwick Ness.”</p> + +<p>“But,” said Mrs. Darnell, “you know it +must depend on the time of the tide whether +you can cross Newland Creek.”</p> + +<p>“It’s just now half-ebb, and by the time I’m +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168"></span>down there, there won’t be half-fathom water +within a quarter of a league of the shore of +Newland Creek, and be hang’d to it.”</p> + +<p>“That friend of your’s is a man that knows +his business well, I should say, George,” said +Farmer Darnell, as he bolted the door after +him.</p> + +<p>“Good reason he should,” answered George +rather gravely.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_169"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Twelve">XII.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Oh, Childhood—blessed time of hope and love,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When all we knew was Nature’s simple law,—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">How may we yearn again that time to prove</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When we looked round, and loved whate’er we saw.</div> + <div class="verse indent26">*<span class="ss" style="width:1.5em"> </span>*<span class="ss" style="width:1.5em"> </span>*</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">When</span> Churchill retired to bed, he in vain +attempted to think of the events of the day as +of no importance to him,—merely the return of +a relation of the family, whom it was natural +that warm-hearted amiable people should be +very glad to see again, and who would soon +again depart to follow his precarious profession, +perhaps only to return after another such long +interval, to be once more received in the same +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_170"></span>manner. But still, whenever he thought he had +succeeded in closing his eyes upon this idea, +the image of George walking away with his +arm round Lucy’s waist would disagreeably +intrude itself: true, she considered him as a +near relation,—had been educated as a sister; +but was that the way he considered the matter, +and was it likely that this innocent illusion +would long continue if he chose to enlighten +her? He could not at the same time help flattering +himself that he had made a favourable +impression on her; and, confirmed as this hope +was by her deportment towards him, at the +conclusion of the supper, he believed that if he +made up his mind then to press his suit he +might bear off the prize. Yet there was something +in this manner of effecting that object +which did not altogether satisfy him. In his +project of being loved for himself alone, he had +always anticipated that, whilst abandoning the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171"></span>outward advantages of rank and fortune, he +presented himself as an equal to a person like +Lucy; still he would retain the power of inspiring +her with a decided passion, and he +had never looked forward to any thing like +competition with such a rival as George +Darnell.</p> + +<p>I am afraid it must also be allowed that +there were some things in Lucy’s deportment +that evening which, desperately in love as he +found himself, charmed as he was with her +beauty, fascinated with her simplicity, had not +quite pleased him. In their <i lang="fr">tête-à-tête</i> rambles, +there had never any thing occurred to weaken +the illusion of her perfections; on the contrary +her soft and gentle manners, animated only by +an attractive freshness of character, which was +brought into play by the workings of natural +good sense, were constantly strengthening his +attachment. But the unrestrained ebullition +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172"></span>of high spirits is a terrible touchstone by which +to try the want of conventional refinement, either +of mind or manners; and there were many moments +in the course of the evening, whilst she +was enjoying to the utmost some of her “cousin +George’s” nautical jokes, when her lover +could not help thinking “Is that exactly the +way in which I should like Lady Castleton to +behave?”</p> + +<p>Churchill rose the next morning with one +conviction impressed strongly on his mind, as +the result of the contradictory reflections with +which he had been perplexed during the night, +and this was that at any rate he had no longer +any time to lose in inaction; that either his visit +to Bankside Farm must now draw to a conclusion, +or it must assume the more decided +and permanent character with which he had +meant before long to invest it.</p> + +<p>As a mere itinerant artist, his stay had now +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173"></span>been prolonged enough for any assumed object +which in that character he could put forward. +And if as such only, he meant to be recollected +by the inmates of farmer Darnell’s, it was now +high time that he should pack up his portfolios, +already superabundantly stored with +sketches, in every variety of light, close studies, +and distant effects, of every object worth +commemorating, within the reach of a walk +with Lucy.</p> + +<p>He had his misgivings too, that even if this +did not occur to himself as a reason for shortening +his stay, it would, ere long, be hinted +to him in no very indirect terms by Mrs. +Darnell, with whom he had never been a great +favourite, as being, as she said, “at best, but a +bit of a vagabond, only better than a stroller +or a mountebank, inasmuch as he daubed his +nasty paint on paper, instead of on his own +person.” His taking Lucy gadding about with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174"></span>him, was also a great waste of time: but his +worst offence in the eyes of this orderly housewife +was, that by occupying George’s room, he +had caused the ejection of the hams from the +spare bed-room. All these reasons made it evident +that it would not be entirely optional to +himself to prolong his stay indefinitely. On +the other hand, he could not but be aware that +if he had, as he flattered himself, already made +a favourable impression on Lucy, it was very +desirable now, that he should confirm and +strengthen that, without allowing time for any +<i lang="fr">retour</i> of her earlier partiality for her cousin +and playmate to arise and occupy even a corner +of that heart which was to love him exclusively +and for himself alone. Still that it should be +necessary, in regulating his future conduct, to +guard against such a possibility, grated unpleasantly +against his feelings, and gave a dissatisfied +and undecided turn to his thoughts, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_175"></span>and when he had slowly descended the stairs +to breakfast, even whilst he had the latch of +the parlour-door in his hand, the question +rose unbidden in his mind, “Am I really in +love?”</p> + +<p>The next moment, however, the effect of the +first sight of Lucy answered that question beyond +a shadow of doubt, as he thought, in +the affirmative. It was Sunday morning, and +Lucy was dressed for church. There is, perhaps, +no costume, however studied, so attractive +as the unaffected assumption, in simplicity +and good taste, of their best attire on this day +of rest, by persons in that rank of life to whom +Sunday really makes a distinction of dress; utterly +perverted and lost as that effect is, when +it causes an awkward and exaggerated imitation +of the already <i lang="fr">outré</i> fashions of their betters. +But Lucy was simplicity itself, and fresh +and radiant and lovely as she looked in the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176"></span>maiden purity of her snowy robe, so did she +always present herself on this day of thanksgiving, +coming out with as little alloy of coquetry +as the flowers of nature, which greet +in their gayest and most brilliant colouring +the spring which gives them birth.</p> + +<p>So dilatory had Churchill’s complicated reflections +made his toilet, that the breakfast was +far advanced when he entered, and the conversation, +which he only for a moment interrupted, +was one not calculated to please him; for he +found George arranging, apparently very much +to his satisfaction, a <i lang="fr">tête-à-tête</i> walk with Lucy +to church; whilst it was suggested that Churchill +should go bodkin between Mr. and Mrs. +Darnell in the taxed-cart.</p> + +<p>From this uninviting mode of conveyance +he was, however, opportunely relieved by a +declaration on the part of Farmer Darnell, that +he was unfitted for service by a touch of lumbago, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177"></span>which he had caught riding home that +stormy evening from Mayton, instead of staying +there quietly till morning. The excuse +having been admitted by Mrs. Darnell, with +the qualification, that this was the first she had +heard of it, and the prospective consolation +that he certainly ought not to go to Mayton at +all next week, it became necessary to arrange +some other division of march, as, luckily for +Churchill, Mrs. Darnell decidedly objected to +trusting her precious person to his charioteering +powers. “How should he know how to +drive? he was never like to have had a chay, +a poor <em>predistinarian</em> painter!” as she called +him: “No; her dear George must come with +her in the cart.” George, however little he +liked the change, did not make any decided +objection, probably recollecting enough of earlier +days to know that, if his aunt chose it, +objection would be of no use; and also a little +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178"></span>tickled by the decided superiority over Churchill, +which this preference marked, as he already +began to entertain an indefinite feeling of jealousy +of the other’s position in the family.</p> + +<p>He therefore undertook with confidence to +“pilot” his aunt to church, though he professed +that of late his hands had been more +used to manage the “rudder” than the “ribbons.” +It was impossible for the most practised +woman of the world to have shown less +by her manner than Lucy did whether this +ultimate arrangement was or was not agreeable +to her. “After all,” thought Churchill, as +they started together from the front door, +“her natural manner is easy and unembarrassed, +and it is only while in actual collision +with what is coarse and uncongenial around +her, that a momentary taint is breathed upon +its purity; when I shall have removed her +from the reach of contagion, that innocent simplicity +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_179"></span>will alone remain, upon which I may +engraft what impression I like, and I shall +learn to think of her only as a being whose +whole existence is comprised in my happiness.”</p> + +<p>“Lucy,” screamed Mrs. Darnell at the extent +of her voice, just as they had cleared the +garden-gate, and Churchill had closed the foregoing +reflections, “Lucy, have you minded +that the crust to George’s pie is made of short +paste, as he used to like it?”</p> + +<p>“Oh yes, mother, I wasn’t like to forget +that,” answered Lucy, with an eagerness which +Lord Castleton thought was not very appropriately +applied to another’s pie-crust, by a +being whose whole existence he had just settled +was to be devoted to his happiness.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIII"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Thirteen">XIII.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">If ever been where bells have knolled to church.</div> + <div class="verse indent29"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">All things are well digested for the purpose;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Then, throwing off the title of a duke, I will</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Appear to her a low-born peasant.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Tobin.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">This</span> unfortunate episode rather deranged +the train of ideas by which Churchill had determined +to probe the real state of Lucy’s feelings. +Instead of availing himself, as he had +intended, of the whole of this two-mile walk +artfully to ascertain her real sentiments, and +attempt to regulate his own accordingly, he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181"></span>spoke not at all at first, then asked her three +times abstractedly the different lengths of the +footpath by which they were going, and the +carriage-road, to church; and at last blurted +out the question point-blank, “Whether she +thought her cousin George improved?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, so much! that is, in some respects,” +she answered, the first words eagerly, then +checking herself, added, “I am sorry to see +you didn’t like him, Mr. Churchill; I think I +should have liked him much better if you had.”</p> + +<p>“Why, my dear Miss Darnell, should you +fancy I do not like him? It is true, that our +different modes of life may prevent my perfectly +understanding all his stories. The poor +painter, who has nothing but daubing colours +on canvass to show as the labour of a lifetime, +can never compete in interest with him who has +soul-stirring adventures by sea and land to +boast.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_182"></span></p> + +<p>“And fearful dangers he has had, poor +dear George! has he not? The embarking +the troops there—at what’s the name of the +place, among the Yankees—Old Orleans? +New Orleans was it? and that frightful hurricane +in latitude—; he told us what latitude +it was in. But it wasn’t that I was going +to say. Do you know, Mr. Churchill, you +sometimes made me ashamed of cousin George?”</p> + +<p>“How? Explain yourself, I pray you, +Lucy,” said Churchill eagerly.</p> + +<p>“Why, for all what you say about a poor +painter, and having nothing to tell of, I like so +much to hear you talk, whatever it is about, +and you speak to one so soft and kind, just +like one of the gentlefolk; and I have been +always trying to answer you the same, and +somehow, I’ve got used to your ways lately; +but last night, when cousin George talked +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183"></span>rather rude like, I looked at you, and I saw +by your face that you were fashed, and +then I felt so uncomfortable—and, don’t be +angry!”</p> + +<p>“Angry! no—why?” asked Churchill.</p> + +<p>“And then I wished you away with all +my heart.”</p> + +<p>This was not exactly the conclusion to which +Churchill had hoped to hurry Lucy; but still +there were many circumstances in the foregoing +conversation favourable to him. In the first +place, it was evident that she cared for his +opinion, and also that he had awakened in her +mind a sense of what was, or was not offensive +in manner. Yet, from the tone in which she +had spoken the last sentence, he could not but +draw the conclusion, that situated as she was +last night, it was his presence that she had felt +as a restraint—it was to his absence she would +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_184"></span>have looked as a relief. He would have liked +to ascertain whether this merely arose from +considering George’s return—a return as of +right to the home of his childhood, which +would have prevented her imagining it possible +that he could be removed from thence, +though he might be superseded in her affections. +But just as, intending to pursue this +inquiry, he approached his companion with +a tender earnestness in his manner, which was +certainly not intended to meet the comments of +a third person; he was interrupted by the unwelcome +apparition of Captain Collett, who +meeting them at the narrowest part of the +path, Churchill was obliged to draw back in +order to let him pass by Lucy, which as he +did, he said with a leer, meant to be full of +meaning, “Sorry to separate you!” and as he +brushed by Churchill, he hummed the burthen +of a nautical ballad then in vogue.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_185"></span></p> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="verse indent0a">“From our night-caps so clean,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Our fresh laurel was torn,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And the prize of the e’en</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Was recaptur’d at morn.”</div> + </div> +</div> + +<p>Ere they could recover the thread of their +discourse, thus disagreeably broken in upon, +they had come within sight of the parish +church, and as the last loitering groups gradually +disappeared within the porch, whilst +the lingering tones of the slowly-stopping bell +died away upon the ear, they felt that they +were late, and Lucy quickened her steps, and +led the way to their family seats.</p> + +<p>The sacred building was one of the humblest +of its kind; for centuries (necessary repairs +excepted) it had remained much in its present +state, the weekly resort of the simple and +secluded neighbourhood: there never had been +any opulent landed proprietors within the parish; +no <em>squirearchial</em> elevation broke the regular +equality of the divided aisle, or claimed +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186"></span>distinction or superiority from the height of +its railing or the colour of its lining.</p> + +<p>There was here no appearances at variance +with those professions of equality in the sight +of Him they came to address, which the service +they came jointly to engage in, alike +places in the mouths of the rich and of the +poor, of the high-born noble and the humble +peasant, sentiments which the unadorned simplicity +of the sacred edifice was so well calculated +to awaken in every mind. Hence, as Lord +Castleton cast a look around upon the simple +single-hearted groups who came there, without +disguise or reservation, to confess their errors, +the falsity of his own position struck him more +forcibly than it had ever done before, accompanied +with a sense of shame at the deception he +had been practising. True, there was no unworthy +motive at the bottom of that deception; +those upon whose credulity he was imposing, it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187"></span>could not be denied, would in every worldly +consideration gain immensely by his being other +than he seemed. But still no candid mind, +and such was Lord Castleton’s naturally, can +satisfy itself with the practice of deceit or +artifice in any serious affair. Was it so certain, +after all, that the splendid elevation he +designed for Lucy must necessarily insure her +happiness? He had <a id="chg3"></a>found her satisfied with +herself, contented with all around her—the centre +of a little world, which knew no other. +What had been the effect which his society +had already produced upon this tranquil state +of mind? It was evident that it had lowered +cousin George in her estimation; this was an +effect, which, if it had stood alone, perhaps he +might not so much have regretted; but was it +not accompanied by a feeling of dissatisfaction +at herself, at her involuntary participation in +many former sources of pleasure? and if this +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188"></span>was produced merely as the consequence of +adopting his views when listening to him only +as the poor painter Churchill, how much would +such a painful sense of unfitness be aggravated, +when bewildered with the strangeness of that +world to which he meant to transplant her; +and what could he offer in compensation, for +inflicting that constantly-corroding sense of +self-inferiority, where all had previously been +peace and content? Not only her gentleness +would prevent her braving the difficulties of +such a situation, but her very sensibility, which +she possessed in a degree unusual in her rank +of life, would make her more alive to painful +sensations.</p> + +<p>All these reflections, vague and half-formed, +but generally unsatisfactory, floated through +Castleton’s mind in the intervals of the service, +and gave to his deportment a restless air, as if +he feared impending discovery. This vague consciousness +of insecurity arose principally from +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189"></span>the disorder of his own mind, but was not a +little increased by the anxiously inquiring expression +on the face of the person immediately +opposite to him, whose penetrating eyes he +found at intervals fixed intently upon him with +a searching, though not an unkind gaze: this +he rightly imagined to be Alice Darnell. It +was a countenance which, though it had already +lost the freshness of youth, none could +have beheld without interest, even if she had +not appeared in some degree to reciprocate that +interest, as was the case in the present instance. +He could not conceal from himself, that though +this must have been the first time she had +seen her nephew George since his long absence, +most of her attention was bestowed upon +himself, the stranger. Yet, though her expression +was rather that of melancholy interest +than of reproof, the feeling it excited in his +mind was principally dread of her penetration, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190"></span>which caused him instinctively to drop his eyes +beneath her gaze.</p> + +<p>When the service was concluded, and the +family party left the church together, Alice +Darnell addressed a few words to him, in which +he could not help fancying that some feeling +of interest lurked beneath a form of studied +coldness, and through the guise of commonplace +inquiry; and when the tones of his voice +in reply first struck her ear, the arm which +held Lucy trembled violently; and, turning +away, she addressed him no more, but drawing +Lucy closely towards her, after some +lengthened whispering between the two, the +niece begged that he would announce to her +family, that in consequence of her aunt not +feeling well, she had returned home with her, +and they were not to expect her back to dinner; +and turning together down one path, they +left him to pursue his solitary way by that +which he had come.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_191"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIV"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Fourteen">XIV.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The crows and choughs, that wing the midway air,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Show scarce so gross as beetles.</div> + <div class="verse indent31"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">For many fathoms doth the beetling rock</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Rise o’er the breaker’s surge.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Maturin.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Churchill</span> found that George and his aunt +had already returned some time, as the young +sailor’s anxiety to rejoin his fair cousin had +induced him to apply repeated hints, as to the +rate of progress, upon the fat quarters of the +cumbrous quadruped before him, which were +the more readily attended to, as that experienced<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192"></span> +beast knew that his head was now turned +homewards.</p> + +<p>The announcement with which Churchill +was charged of Lucy’s absence, made him +very ill received by all the party. Farmer +Darnell always missed his daughter’s affectionate +attentions most when labouring under +a fit of lumbago; Mrs. Darnell liked particularly +to be assisted in the arrangement of the +Sunday’s repast by some one more handy than +big Betsey, as George always called the Patagonian +maid-of-all-work. And as for George +himself, he had been thinking all the way home +how very agreeable he was going to make himself, +and how he meant to show off and amuse his +cousin after her dull walk with that prig of a +painter. He therefore looked upon this interloper, +when he appeared alone, as a bird of ill +omen to him, and he began to owe him a +grudge for this second separation, though it +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193"></span>was not like the first one, by which the object +of his increasing antipathy had himself profited.</p> + +<p>With such a state of feeling shared amongst +the party assembled, the substantial meal of +which they were about to partake was not +likely to be a very lively one, and contrasted +singularly with the heartfelt merriment of the +supper of the night before. Indeed, as the +majority of those assembled were not of a rank +in life who make conversation for civility sake, +but who, strange as it may appear, literally +say nothing when they have nothing to say, +not a word would have been spoken, had not +habit rendered this inveterate silence so irksome +to Lord Castleton, that he could not help +hazarding a trite observation or two on the +weather, which, if dropped elsewhere, would +have been taken up, and handed back, and led +to reply and rejoinder, but which were here +considered such undeniable truisms, that they +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_194"></span>were only received with an unencouraging +“humph,” and all again relapsed into silence, +broken only by the clattering of the knives on +the plates; and even this was muffled, when, +instead of tearing asunder slices of beef, they +dived in smoother intersections through thick +portions of plum-pudding.</p> + +<p>After dinner the society, if such it could be +called, seemed mutually anxious to separate,—Farmer +Darnell to his easy-chair and pipe, +Mrs. Darnell to her household avocations; and +as to George and Churchill, though they probably +had the same object and destination in +view, one went out at the back-door merely +because the other went out at the front.</p> + +<p>Churchill bent his way towards the part of the +cliff by which he knew Lucy must return, with +no other pretence for lingering there till her appearance, +than that furnished by his small pocket +sketch-book; having got into a great scrape with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195"></span>Mrs. Darnell, on that day week, by sallying forth, +portfolio in hand, as he was considered so completely +as a professional person, that it was +reckoned a profanation of the Lord’s day for +him thus to labour in his vocation on it. The +ledge upon the side of the cliff, from which he +could best command the prospect of Lucy’s +return, was, however, too much of a bird’s-eye +point of view to be advantageous to a draftsman: +this circumstance, joined to the imperfect +implements with which he was upon this +occasion provided, induced him soon to relinquish +even the attempt to exercise his assumed +“metier,” and abandon himself to those reflections +which the singularity of the situation +in which he had placed himself, and the events +of the last four-and-twenty hours, had rendered +more than ever striking.</p> + +<p>Though sitting with his book open before +him, and his pencil in his hand, so completely +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196"></span>had the inward bent of his thoughts shut out +the consciousness of any external objects, that +he felt startled when he heard a voice some +paces above him, exclaim, “There she is at +last.” Instinctively, his eyes followed the path +by which Lucy must return; the more natural +was this direction, as he recognised the voice +above to be George’s. But he could discern no +moving object in the whole length of the track. +Another voice from above, which reminded +him of the harsh tones of Captain Collett, now +rejoined,</p> + +<p>“Yes; there, that’ll do; I see you, that’s +near enough to show her to us; now, about +with her, you lubbers, there she goes, that’s +right.”</p> + +<p>Churchill’s eye dropping from the path on +which it had been fixed, to find out what else +these remarks could apply to, he now observed, +for the first time, what under other circumstances +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197"></span>would have struck him merely from its +picturesque appearance. Unnoticed by him, a +lugger had neared the point of the cliff, the sun +shining gaily on its light sails, and sparkling +in the foam which was dashed back from its +side as it was pressed close up against the +wind. Now, however, even whilst these words +were spoken from above, confirming him in the +idea that it was to this vessel the allusion was +made, she was on the sudden put about, more +sails were set, and with a fresh breeze from the +land, she dashed rapidly out into the open sea.</p> + +<p>The projecting ledge of rock, which formed +rather an awful sort of canopy to the niche +within which Churchill was sitting, effectually +prevented his being seen by those who might +be leaning against the stone-wall at the top of +the cliff; as he rightly conjectured the two +persons whose observations he had just heard +now were. Provided with so unsuspicious an +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198"></span>excuse as his sketch-book for continuing where +he was, he determined to take his chance for +overhearing some more communications which +(he hardly knew why) powerfully excited his +curiosity.</p> + +<p>But though only separated by a few paces +from those who spoke, in spite of straining his +attention, which the more he listened the more +he felt inclined to do, he could but very imperfectly +catch the purport of what was said; +sometimes, in the middle of a sentence, a louder +and a longer wave would break, roaring on the +shingle beneath; sometimes a screaming seabird +would hover round his head, as if on purpose +to baulk him.</p> + +<p>“Well, Darnell, my lad,” said Captain Collett, +“so all’s right. Jack Dawkins has not +mistaken the land-marks. And you were not +more glad to see again your friends of last +night, not even the tight little Lucy, than I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199"></span>am to see heave in sight my first of favourites, +‘<i lang="fr">La Pie voleuse</i>.’”</p> + +<p>“And I should see her with much more +pleasure if she were not so near my friends of +last night. She’s not the right sort of company +for them; and between ourselves, Captain, +now it’s come to the point, I dread their +becoming better acquainted with each other.”</p> + +<p>“And since when has the wind set in that +quarter, lad? Didn’t you, yourself, remind +me, who know the whole line of coast, what a +snug place to land——”</p> + +<p>Here the screaming of the sea-gulls above +Churchill’s head, and the roar of the breakers +beneath his feet, combined to prevent his catching +the remainder of Collett’s answer; and +when these noises were again comparatively +calmed, he heard George protesting—“Nay, +never say I’m ungrateful, or that I can forget +the ugly scrape you helped me out of this time +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_200"></span>three years; or that I repent the merry period +of adventure we passed together the last months +of the war in our privateering cruises; but +that was other-guess work, when, if one did +chance to get knocked of the head, no one knew +or cared whether the venture we were engaged +in chimed in with the exact letter of the law. +Who thought of George Darnell then? and +whether he was washed overboard with a bullet +in his body or without, no one would grieve +about his death more or less for the manner +of it. But somehow, coming back here amongst +kith and kin, and finding them all the same, I +can’t help wishing I was so myself.”</p> + +<p>“Oh, certainly!” rejoined Captain Collett +with a sneer, “they must seem all the same to +you: above all, Lucy; she has thought of no +one else since you first left home, and she’s +only had that painter chap here on purpose to +meet you, that he may paint her your picture +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201"></span>against your next cruise. He was a studying +her face pretty closely, you’ll be glad to hear, +when I met them going to church this morning.”</p> + +<p>Churchill could only hear, in reply to this, +the immortal part of himself condemned to +everlasting perdition in the emphatic monosyllable +usually applied to such a purpose. +Whether the very vehemence with which this +was uttered warned the speaker himself afterwards +to drop his voice, or the surrounding +noises again conspired to drown it, but it was +some time before the listener could again make +out what was said; when he did, George was +saying, apparently in answer to some remonstrance +of the other, “Never fear, you have +my word, and you shall find me as faithful +here as if I was still on the smooth white sands +of Cherbourg or the shingles of Sussex; all I +meant was, that when this morning I paced +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202"></span>along the churchyard amongst the tombstones, +that told of those who had borne the name of +Darnell in peace and good-will to all around +them, and now seemed to meet my eye on all +sides as if to remind me of that with honest +pride, I felt——But what signifies explaining to +you feelings which are not at all in your line; +they may be between me and my rest, but they +shall not come between my word and you.”</p> + +<p>The conference seemed here to be interrupted, +for George halloed out suddenly in a +louder voice, “Avast, Mary! whither away so +fast?”</p> + +<p>“To Bankside, to say that mistress is but +poorly, and Miss Lucy will stay with her aunt +to-night.”</p> + +<p>“All goes contrary,” muttered George in +reply.</p> + +<p>“Well, Mary, say you spoke me by the +way, and I bore the message for you;” and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203"></span>George and his companion upon this prepared +to return homewards.</p> + +<p>Churchill remained a few minutes behind, +absorbed in reflections upon what he had so +imperfectly collected. It appeared, though he +could not exactly make out in what enterprise +they were at present engaged, that Captain +Collett was a very dangerous companion for +his young friend, and that he had, perhaps, +already involved him in some scrape which +would effect his future respectability in life. +There was nothing which he could distinctly +gather in the shape of an accusation from the +conversation he had just heard; but he determined +to be upon the watch, and, should any +thing further happen to confirm his suspicions, +to communicate them to Farmer Darnell, and +in the mean time to watch the next apparition +on the coast of the “Pie Voleuse,” which he +now saw, after having run about a mile before +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204"></span>the wind straight out from the land, was standing +to the southward: he felt, at the same time, +much disappointed at the protracted absence of +Lucy; and, anticipating nothing but discomfort +in the present state of the Darnell family, returned +to Bankside Farm.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_205"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XV"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Fifteen">XV.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Out of thy long experienced time</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Give me some counsel.</div> + <div class="verse indent27"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A faint, but faithful, portraiture of one</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Most dearly loved, and now for ever lost.</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> agitation of Alice Darnell, which had +struck Churchill as remarkable, was not seen +without surprise by her niece, who had never +previously, in all their intercourse, observed +any break in her usually composed demeanour, +or a ruffle in her equable manners. She said +no more in the course of their hurried return +to her cottage, but occasionally pressed affectionately +Lucy’s arm, on which she leaned, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206"></span>gazed earnestly in her face with an expression +of anxious tenderness.</p> + +<p>Upon reaching home, she drew her niece into +her snug little neatly-furnished parlour, and +throwing herself upon the sofa, covered her +face for some minutes with her hands, seeming +not to hear Lucy’s repeated requests to know +what she could do to comfort her. At last, +raising herself, as if with an effort, and looking +up in Lucy’s face with a countenance strongly +marked with the expression of inward suffering, +she asked abruptly—“And you say his name +is Churchill?” Her niece answering in the +affirmative, she continued—“But what can the +name tell, which may easily be an assumed one? +It is not that the features, or even the countenance, +are the same; but there is something in +the air and manner which too strongly recall—— +And oh, above every thing, the expression of +those eyes, when he looked tenderly on her—I +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_207"></span>had hoped that I had forgotten that of which +they renew the recollection with the freshness +of yesterday. In the last few minutes I +have lived over again months of suffering, +which I had hoped, in vain, subsequent years +of repose and resignation had almost effaced +from my too vivid recollection. It is but one +effort more, and for your sake I will make the +attempt. Those events, which, by constantly +refusing to dwell upon, I had hoped the obliterating +hand of time was gradually glossing +over, I now find as distinctly scarred as ever in +the deeply-cut tablets of my memory. It will +but cost me one more pang, that they should +assume the tangible shape of words, and operate +as a warning to my beloved niece, in the danger +which I think at present threatens her. Lucy, +Churchill loves you, and you must cease to +love him.’”</p> + +<p>The poor girl, whose youth, innocence, and +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208"></span>ignorance of the world would have prevented +her being able to define the nature of her own +feelings towards Churchill, had that habitual +deference for her aunt’s judgment, that she +would never have supposed that she could +be mistaken in any opinion so oracularly +delivered, and, therefore, never thought +of disputing what she seemed to take for +granted, that she had already begun to love +Churchill; though she could not account why, +if this was the case, the idea of George should +rise at the same moment in her mind. She +made no reply, but seating herself at her aunt’s +feet, and hiding her face on her knees, waited +some explanation of the last sentence.</p> + +<p>“I feel assured,” continued Alice Darnell, +“as of my own existence, that he is elevated +far above your rank in life; and trust me, I +speak from my own experience, when I say +there are no sufferings at all to compare with +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209"></span>those which arise from unequal attachments. +Whether the resemblance which so strongly +struck my imagination is other than a strange +coincidence, I have no means of judging; but +that Churchill is other than that which he here +passes himself to be, I feel I cannot be mistaken.—Lucy, +it is necessary that, in what I +am about to say, I should speak to you much +of myself; that I should disclose many parts +of my early life, which have been hitherto concealed, +not only from you, but from those of +your relations nearer my own age, with whom +you have been living. My brother is only partially +informed of much of what I am going, +without reserve, to lay before you. Much I +shall have to speak of feelings which neither +his habits nor his disposition would have enabled +him to understand. The principal facts +I felt it my duty to confide to him, and it +was at his desire that no mention whatever was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210"></span>made of them to your mother; for though +blame might not be attachable to me, there +were circumstances which, he said, her peculiar +mode of thinking might make subject of +reproach. If now I speak more openly to you +than I have ever done to any one, it is because, +in spite of that complete ignorance of +the world, which your position has implanted, +I have always observed in you a fund of natural +good sense, which will induce you to make +the right use of that practical warning which I +am urged to try as an experiment, from the +similarity, in many respects, of the position in +which you at present are, to that whence I +derived every misery except disgrace.</p> + +<p>“Your father and I were early left orphans. +George’s father had already been some time at +sea when our parents died, therefore the loss to +him was not so great as to myself and my elder +brother. An old bachelor, relative of ours, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_211"></span>undertook the management of the farm, and +the instruction of your father in the art by +which he was to live. It was more difficult to +decide what was to become of me. But it was +at length determined nominally, upon the authority +of our guardian, but in reality by the +advice of the gossips in the neighbourhood, and +my own wish, that I should be placed at what +was called a finishing-establishment for young +ladies, at a small sea-bathing place thirty miles +from hence. I had not, however, long been +there, before, at one of the exhibitions for +which this school was celebrated, I attracted +the attention of an excellent and talented, but +eccentric elderly lady of the name of Nesbit, +who happened to be staying at —— for the +season. Mrs. Nesbit had long been left a +widow with a large fortune, the greater part +of which she spent in the encouragement of the +fine arts. In most of these, in her younger +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_212"></span>days, she had herself been no indifferent proficient; +but latterly, her increasing infirmities +had confined the exercise of her taste to admiration +of the skill of others. Frequent attacks +of gout in the hand had prevented her continuing +her pencil, of the previous success of +which her boudoir still showed some favourable +specimens; and the same cause deprived +the world of many records of her playful imagination, +in which she had formerly indulged, +when still able to write as quickly as she could +think. Perhaps, of all the trials to which the +progress of physical infirmities subject us, +there is none so melancholy as when they produce +the forced inaction of previously well +exercised faculties.</p> + +<p>“Yet, though my acquaintance with Mrs. +Nesbit only commenced after she was already +suffering in a cruel degree from manifold privations +of this nature, I never saw her temper +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_213"></span>the least ruffled by any feeling of envy at the +happier state of others; her kind disposition, +and her still fresh feelings, enabled her to +derive unalloyed pleasure from the success of +others. When in London, her house was +always full of those who had most recently +exerted themselves in any line with distinction; +and even when I have known her to have been +suffering acute bodily pain, I have seen her +benevolent countenance light up, as if the triumph +was her own, when any new aspirant for +fame has been brought to one of her choice little +evening reunions, to hear from her own lips +the acknowledgment of the pleasure she had +derived from his successful efforts. At the period +when I first became an inmate in her +house, she had just acquired the afflicting consciousness +that she could not, without risking +the total loss of eyesight, indulge as formerly +in reading for any time together to herself. +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214"></span>This was, to a person of her tastes, the most +cruel privation with which she had as yet been +threatened, and one which it required all her +resignation to bear with equanimity.</p> + +<p>“It was to alleviate her loss in this respect, +that having been pleased with something she +observed in my voice and elocution at one of +our school exhibitions, she easily persuaded +me to accompany her to London as a companion, +whose principal duty was to be reading +aloud to my benefactress,—most sincerely may +I so style her. For though I know that generally +there is no fate more deplored than that +of a dependant companion, yet, whilst I was +in that much stigmatized situation, I experienced +nothing but kindness, and I derived +nothing but pleasure from the occupation +which it entailed on me.</p> + +<p>“Our readings generally consisted of the best +works of the day, and when not satisfactorily +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215"></span>supplied with those, selections from the first +poets and dramatists. Mrs. Nesbit was an +enthusiast about many of these, but Shakspeare +was her idol; and it was in my endeavours to +please her, by showing that I really felt the +beauties which I was the medium of conveying, +that I first cultivated that taste for elocution, +which, as you will see, I afterwards exercised in +a wider field. The first feelings of gratified +vanity I had upon the subject, was when Mrs. +Nesbit would half raise herself upon her sofa, +and after gazing at me intently for some time, +interrupt me with,</p> + +<p>“‘My dear Alice, what an actress you would +make!’</p> + +<p>“Amongst the many distinguished persons of +every profession who used then to frequent my +friend’s select circle, was often to be found +that great actor, whose name you have often +heard me mention with enthusiasm, when we +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_216"></span>have been reading together either Hamlet or +Macbeth;—I mean the head of that family who +have for nearly half a century upheld the character +of the stage, as much by their virtues, +as they have supported its attraction by their +talents. He was, indeed, a noble creature; perhaps +only too exalted and abstracted in his +view of human nature for the matter-of-fact +age in which he finished his career. But the +revival of recollections of that time is leading +me from the point on which I wish to speak, +even had I no other and graver object in what +I am saying. It is not with you, who never +beheld him, that I should vindicate my opinion +of the professional pre-eminence of the person +in question. I only alluded to him, because +my partial benefactress often led this great +artist to participate, apparently with warmth +and sincerity, in her favourable opinion of my +uninstructed attempts at recitation; and as +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217"></span>enthusiasm, real or assumed, was not his characteristic, +this testimony gave us both the +greater pleasure.</p> + +<p>“In the midst of all this, and whilst my friend +was getting every day more attached to me, I +was unexpectedly deprived of her invaluable +protection, by a sudden attack of gout in the +stomach, which proved fatal to her in the nighttime, +and before assistance could be procured.</p> + +<p>“One moment I must pause upon the awakened +recollections of my earliest friend and benefactress, +whose awfully sudden end exercised +so great an influence on my future fate, and I +will then proceed.”</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_218"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVI"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Sixteen">XVI.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Is it not monstrous that this player here,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But in a fiction, in a dream of passion,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Could force his soul so to his own conceit?</div> + <div class="verse indent30"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">When and where and how we met, we wooed</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And made exchange of vows, I’ll tell thee.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Ibid.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">“It</span> had not been in Mrs. Nesbit’s power to +provide adequately for me; the whole of her +income having been derived from a handsome +jointure, which, at her death, reverted to her +husband’s heir-at-law. A codicil to her will +conferred on me, as a legacy, the small sum in +ready money which her liberal, though not extravagant +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219"></span>style of living, had left at her banker’s; +it also conveyed to me all her library of books, +most of which you now see round you. Utterly +unprotected as I was, thus once again left, +and still only eighteen, it was necessary that +I should determine without delay upon the +course which, under these circumstances, I +wished to pursue.</p> + +<p>“Perhaps it was a natural defect in my +character, only elicited by the situation in +which I had been lately placed, that made me +shrink instinctively from returning once more +amongst the kind, but rude and uncivilized +companions of my earlier days. Combined with +this dislike to that which was the obvious course +for a young girl like me to pursue, recollections +arose continually of Mrs. Nesbit’s evidently sincere +opinion—‘My dear Alice, what an actress +you would make!’ which gradually produced +an uncontrollable longing to embark in that +precarious profession: the exercise of which, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_220"></span>in my unpractised mind, as yet only associated +with the idea of such partial encomiums +and kind criticisms as had hitherto met my +ear from the friendly circle in Mrs. Nesbit’s +drawing-room.</p> + +<p>“Once having made up my mind, I determined +to consult the great actor, whom I have +before mentioned, upon the best manner of +putting my project into execution. He seemed +much embarrassed at the nature of my +appeal. It appeared as if it never had occurred +to him, from the sort of society in which he +had heard me give specimens of my abilities, +that it was likely I should ever be called upon +thus to exert them professionally.</p> + +<p>“He told me, that he should be deficient in +candour, if he did not repeat what he had formerly +said, ‘that he thought me eminently +qualified to succeed should I really be determined +to try the stage; but,’ he added, ‘in +spite of those brilliant prospects, he could +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221"></span>never dispassionately advise any one so young +and unprotected to take such a step; and if +the advice which I sought from him was not as +to the best means of doing that upon which I +had already decided, but that I would consult +him as to the expediency of doing so at all, he +would do all in his power to dissuade me, at +least at present, from thinking of such a +thing.’ I thanked him sincerely for his kindness, +and expressed no more gratitude than I +felt towards him, but still adhered to my determination, +representing to him how little I +knew what else to do with myself, and how +sanguine I felt at being able and willing to +surmount all the difficulties and inconveniences +of the first steps of the profession. Seeing me +determined, he gave me letters of introduction +and recommendation to some connexions +of his, then in the management of one of the +first provincial circuits.</p> + +<p>“By them I was, in consequence, most cordially +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222"></span>received, and offered a choice of any character +I chose for my <i lang="fr">debut</i>. Long before +that night arrived, I found out how differently +my exertions were likely to be estimated here, +and at Mrs. Nesbit’s. There, in the absence of +all competition, praise excited no envy, and +captious criticism would have been avoided as +ill-breeding. Here my arrival had disturbed +long-established claims to admiration, and had +excited, first dismay, and then dislike. I had +chosen Juliet for my first appearance, a choice +most young ladies have made before me, and +probably will do as long as ‘debutantes’ of +eighteen each season succeed one another. I +was not aware of the offence this was likely to +give till after it was all settled; when I found +I had displaced a majestic-looking widow lady, +whose name appeared upon the prompter’s +books as having been in undisputed possession +of the part for nearly twenty years; a prescriptive +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223"></span>right upon which she rested her claims, +perhaps rather technically than judiciously. +Had it been a young girl, like myself, with +whom I interfered, she might have relied upon +the anticipation of my failure, and upon the +part then reverting to her; but this lady +felt that her hitherto uninterrupted tenure once +broken in upon, it was not likely it would ever +be revived.</p> + +<p>“Under her auspices, therefore, was organized +a party to cry down my inexperienced +attempts, and, with my eyes thus officiously +opened to my own defects, I felt, as much as +they could impress upon me, how very far from +perfect I then was.</p> + +<p>“It was all so different to me from the dining-room +of Mrs. Nesbit—the mere walking the +stage was a difficulty which I thought I should +never get over, particularly when, at each of the +wings, I always found during my rehearsals, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_224"></span>some of my new friends to explain to me, solely +for my good, how ridiculous something which I +had done had been. The contrast between my +present mortified feelings and my previously +over-sanguine expectations was so great, that I +should have been completely disheartened, and, +perhaps, abandoned the stage in despair, but +for the good-natured encouragement of many +others of the company. All the effect, therefore, +which this attempt had upon me, was to +determine me to defer, till we removed to the +next town in the circuit, my first appearance; +and in the mean time, to study hard to acquire +technical facilities, and to conquer those defects, +of which I ought to thank my rival for +having taken such pains to make me aware. +The play had been announced, and therefore +was not withdrawn, but an apology was made +for the non-appearance of the <i lang="fr">debutante</i>, and +my matronly substitute once more “strutted +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225"></span>and fretted” with ill-concealed triumph +through the childish sorrows of Juliet. This +exhibition was also a useful preparation for me, +as it taught me many practical tricks to avoid.</p> + +<p>“The company removed to a fashionable +watering-place, then in full season, and at +length my first appearance was positively fixed. +And here let me do justice to the general +kindly feelings of fellowship which I found +to exist amongst the members of a profession, +which by no means creates evil passions, +though it may occasionally concentrate into a +strong focus the causes which usually excite +their display. That constant and close collision +of pretensions, in which self-love must +receive daily wounds, may naturally have a +tendency to produce that envy and spirit of +detraction, from which no society is free, not +even that, where the contests of vanity are for +the most unimportant objects, and between the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_226"></span>most independent persons. But amongst my +brethren of the stage, I generally found these +feelings as fleeting as the passing pageant +which had excited them; and in all essentials +they might challenge a comparison with any of +those whose own means were most assured, in +their eagerness to extend from their own precarious +provision, encouraging sympathy to the +efforts of the inexperienced, and substantial +support to the decay of the aged.</p> + +<p>“In my own case, the interested attempt to +crush a young beginner, excited in many of the +company a strong feeling in my favour; and +the interval which had elapsed had certainly +been of considerable service to me, perhaps not +a little in destroying that ill-grounded feeling +of self-confidence, in which the partial panegyrics +of friends had previously nursed me. But +the want of this very much increased the terrors +of the awful approaching trial.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_227"></span></p> + +<p>“Perhaps the time I had now unassumingly +passed amongst them had predisposed the company +in my favour; but during the last day or +two before my attempt, it is impossible to do +justice to the almost paternal interest shown for +me by nearly every member, from the amiable +manager himself, down to the apothecary of the +night. Still, nothing could alleviate the overpowering +sensation which I experienced when +the anxious moment I so long anticipated actually +arrived. The house was crowded in +every part. The cheering welcome with which +I was received upon my first entrance did not +dispel my fears, as I felt that it was only so +much advanced in trust that, by my exertions, +I would afterwards repay it. But as the play +proceeded, and I recovered my confidence, the +first spontaneous burst of applause which rang +from every part of the house caused a consciousness +of triumph, quite unlike any thing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_228"></span>I had ever before experienced. It proclaimed +a mysterious command over the unsuspecting +sympathies of a mixed multitude, which was +immeasurably superior to the finest compliment +that had ever gratified my ear in Mrs. Nesbit’s +drawing-room. My success was complete; I +may now, without vanity, refer to it as unparalleled.</p> + +<p>“Amongst the most enthusiastic of my supporters +was a party of officers in the stage-box. +The period to which I refer was that during +the late war, when the militia was quartered +about the country, the officers of which often +contained in their number many men of rank +and fortune; of this party the greater number +were uniform in their acclamations. But even +on that night of agitating triumph I could not +help remarking the evident admiration of one +officer, who did not join in the vehement demonstrations +of his companions, but sat in the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229"></span>corner nearest the stage, with his speaking eyes +fixed upon me with an expression which, perhaps, +derived some of its intensity from the +strong glare of the foot lights, which cast a pale +hue over the rest of his features. Overpowered +with congratulations on all sides, I retired to +rest after my triumph, and slept soundly, only +that in a confused dream of happiness the one +distinct object that presented itself was the +expressive countenance in the stage-box.</p> + +<p>“My <i lang="fr">debut</i> had been so beyond expectation +successful, and the crowded houses every night +I played was such an unquestionable proof of +increasing attraction, that the very excess of +my triumph destroyed at once every spirit of +rivalry, as it became obvious that my stay there +could not extend beyond the little probationary +practice, and that before many months elapsed +I should be on the metropolitan boards. Even +my <i lang="fr">ci-devant</i> rival, whose term was just up, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_230"></span>accepted a re-engagement, subject to the condition +of her exchanging for the present the +girlish white satin of Juliet for the motherly +black velvet of Lady Capulet.</p> + +<p>“Still, upon every succeeding night of my +appearance, the same young officer, sometimes +alone, sometimes accompanied, was always in +the same corner of the stage-box.</p> + +<p>“This had continued for some weeks without +our ever becoming acquainted, and thus his +admiration appeared purely professional. The +fame I had acquired, and whatever personal +attractions I then at eighteen could boast, +caused me, whenever I stirred out, to be much +followed by many of the idlers of the public +walks, but never by him; and the wise regulations +of the manager, considering the mixed +nature of the company at a watering-place, put +many difficulties in the way of the intrusion of +strangers into the green-room.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_231"></span></p> + +<p>“One evening, however, under some pretence +or other, two of the brother officers +of my unknown admirer had contrived to +introduce themselves there in a state that +evidently showed they had rendered themselves +unfit for any society. But, at the period to +which I refer, it was not so well established, +as now I hear it is, that, to appear drunk, +was ‘unbecoming the character of an officer +and a gentleman.<a id="chg4"></a>’ The most noisy of these +made me the object of his loathsome addresses; +the disturbance he created had +reached the front of the house, and my brother +actors were endeavouring, by quiet remonstrances, +to induce him to withdraw, when my +unknown friend entered the room, and seizing +him by the arm, with an authoritative movement +of the head, motioned him to retire with +him.</p> + +<p>“The offender seemed awed for the moment, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232"></span>and did as he was desired. Being called at that +moment to the wing, I overheard, at the distance +of a few paces from me, the continuance +of their conference.</p> + +<p>“‘What d——d nonsense,’ said the offender, +‘why, she’s only an actress.’</p> + +<p>“‘If you had any of your senses left,’ +retorted the other, in an impassioned tone +which went to my heart, ‘you would see that +there could be no reason that a person who, +by the display of every grace, and the exercise +of consummate talent, commands the sympathies +of the most refined, should, on that very +account, tolerate the disgusting approaches of +such a beast as you have made of yourself.’</p> + +<p>“‘A very fine sermon for a soldier; so, +amen! and I shall go back to my beauty.’</p> + +<p>“‘Hold!’ said my defender, stopping him, +‘I am most serious—if you will listen to my +advice, so much the better; but I am determined +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233"></span>by foul means, if I cannot by fair, to +prevent your returning.’</p> + +<p>“A short scuffle, and but a short one, ensued; +for my defender, though much the slighter +of the two, was perfectly steady, an advantage +of which the other had deprived himself, and, +seizing his athletic antagonist by the nape of +the neck, with one push he sent him from the +top of the stairs to the bottom.</p> + +<p>“Persons, in the state in which he then was, +are said not to be easily hurt, or else I should +have thought he must have been killed; however, +he rose without injury, and departed, +very angry, and determined to take ulterior +measures.</p> + +<p>“Just at the moment this occurred, I was +obliged to appear upon the stage, which I did +in a state of agitation that was afterwards +remarked upon. The consequence of this altercation +was a meeting between the two officers; +my champion received a ball through +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234"></span>his right arm; but his antagonist, from his +conduct in the whole brawl, suffered, like +Cassio, such a wound in his reputation, that +his brother officers visited his fault with the +same punishment as Othello did that of his +lieutenant, and compelled him to quit the +regiment.</p> + +<p>“That all this could not occur in a small +gossiping watering-place, without being recounted +in a thousand different ways, and not +all to my advantage, you may well imagine;—though +when I say <em>you</em> may well imagine, I forget +my poor dear child, that, up to this moment, +you are happily ignorant how peculiarly prone +that ever-changing compound, called the world, +is to decry any one who has previously excited +its admiration. Many stories that were then +circulated never wounded my ears; but they +had been widely diffused: for one morning, +some days after this had happened, I was +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_235"></span>sitting in my room with my fellow-lodger, +an excellent elderly lady, the <span class="smcap">Duenna</span> on the +stage, but off it the Lady Bountiful of our +company, with whom I had arranged to keep +house, as a sort of protectress to my youth, +when the maid brought in a card with the name +of Captain Somers, who begged to be admitted. +The publicity which had been given to +the late affair, had, of course, made me acquainted +with the name of my declared +defender and previously unknown admirer. +Gratitude, of course, required that I should +admit him. He looked dangerously interesting, +with the arm which had been wounded +in a black sling over his uniform, and his +countenance still showing traces of his late +confinement. He appeared embarrassed at +first, as he apologized for his intrusion, which +he said was to hope I would excuse any unpleasant +construction which might be put upon +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236"></span>his unauthorised interference in my behalf, +which, he said, had arisen unintentionally out +of the circumstances of the case: that he felt +at the time he could not do otherwise; but +that he much regretted the publicity of the +whole affair. I could not do less than thank +him most warmly for his generous interposition +to save me from insult; and I, in my +turn, felt embarrassed in doing so: an awkwardness +which was not diminished by my +fellow lodger taking advantage of that opportunity +to rise and leave the room.</p> + +<p>“If Captain Somers and I then were lovers, +we were not perfect in our parts, for the conversation +was by no means easy or animated, +now we were left alone; indeed it was many +weeks before he spoke of love, and so imperceptibly +did we arrive at that point, that when +he first pleaded his passion, so far from falling +strangely on my ears, it seemed to me as if he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237"></span>had never previously spoken on any other subject. +But where is the woman who requires to +be told she is beloved? and how much more +precious are the moments, when that consciousness +is derived from any other source than that +of the tongue?</p> + +<p>“The innocent intercourse which from this +time subsisted between us, so far from detracting +from my profession, gave me an additional +stimulus to exertion. Somers was an accomplished +critic; and no indifferent praise, however +unqualified, is half so sweet as little improving +suggestions softly hinted by an admiring lover. +Yet ignorant as I then was of the world, and +wrapped up in my own day-dreams of love and +fame, I had my misgivings that Somers’s was +not an unmingled happiness; indeed, sometimes +it was with pain I beheld the occasional fits of +despondency to which he seemed subject, without +my being able to divine the cause. During +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238"></span>all this time he never mentioned his family, +and I knew nothing of it beyond the reports +amongst the company, to which I listened +little, and did not attach much credit. Months +passed over, and the time arrived when we +were to remove to our next quarters, a large +seaport town in the south, whilst the ****shire +militia were to continue in their present +station.”</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_239"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVII"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Seventeen">XVII.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">A greater power than we can contradict</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Hath thwarted our intents. Come, come away;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Thy husband in thy bosom lieth dead.</div> + <div class="verse indent29"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">“The</span> prospect of this separation appeared +to be anticipated with much dread by Somers, +and he sighed over each succeeding day that +diminished the interval that remained to us. +Having always beheld in him this desire to +linger over each departing moment, I was +much surprised, two days before the time that +I was to have left, to receive a note from him, +announcing his own departure. It was short, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240"></span>and only, ‘I dare not say more, till farther +assured of the truth of what I have heard, +than that I trust this temporary absence will, +in the end, lead to the reverse of separation.’ +I endeavoured to rest satisfied with this mysterious +consolation, and contrive to keep up +my spirits during our own removal; but when +week after week passed over at our new quarters, +without my hearing farther from Somers, +the secret anxiety which preyed upon me began +to affect my professional exertions, and +diminish my popularity. At length Somers +returned: he was in deep mourning, and from +his manner had evidently something to communicate, +whilst the warmth of his affection +for me seemed to have gained strength from +absence.</p> + +<p>“The whole mystery of his conduct was +now unravelled. It appeared that he was the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241"></span>only son of Lord Castleton; that whilst yet +scarcely of age, he had been induced by his +father, whose estates were much embarrassed, +to marry a rich heiress; that she, well knowing +for what he had married her, never thought it +necessary to give him that affection which he +did not seem to require; that after the birth +of one son, they lived little together. The +peace of Amiens happening about that time, +she had, under the pretence of ill health, obtained +his ready permission to go with some of +her own family to the Continent, whilst his +parliamentary duties, which were then new to +him, gave him, on his side, as ready an excuse +for remaining in England.</p> + +<p>“At the sudden breaking out of the war, +Mrs. Somers, with many others of her countrymen +and women, became a <i lang="fr">detenue en France</i>. +As long as she had been allowed to remain at +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242"></span>Paris, this forced detention had not appeared +to be unpleasant to her, but when, for +some reason not explained, she had forfeited +the favour which had procured her that +indulgence, and had been exiled to a small +provincial town in France, she had become +very anxious to return to her own country. +But reports which had reached Somers +of her levity, had not caused him to regret +more than he would have done at the period +of their former separation, that it was utterly +out of his power to facilitate such an event. +He owned that upon first becoming acquainted +with me, he had looked forward to that sort of +temporary connexion, which would have thrown +a gleam of happiness over his at present solitary +home; but that as a more intimate knowledge +of my character showed him the purity of my +unsuspecting innocence, he at the same time +began to entertain doubts both as to the propriety +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243"></span>of acting upon such an intention, and +the probability of succeeding in it. Hence all +his inward struggles and ill-concealed fits of +despondency. Just as he had almost brought +himself to determine that the period of my removing +from * * * * * should terminate our +connexion, he received a report of the death +of Mrs. Somers in France. His first impression +was merely the shock of the sudden +removal of one so young from the world, with +whom he had been so closely connected: and +though he had never loved her, all his own +faults towards her now crowded upon his +recollection. Oppressed with these feelings, +though he already began to cherish half-formed +hopes for the future, he would not see me +before leaving * * * * *; especially as he +wished first that the intelligence which lie had +heard should receive farther confirmation. +This had been obtained in London to the full +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244"></span>extent that could be expected, from the imperfect +communication between two countries +in a state of war.</p> + +<p>“He now pressed for an immediate and private +marriage. That it should be immediate, +he pleaded only too strongly the excess of his +passion: that it must be private, he at the same +time owned, to allow him to remove the opposition +of an aged parent, and from a feeling of +delicacy on account of the deep mourning he still +wore for Mrs. Somers. Almost wild as I was +with the prospects of happiness which were thus +opening to me, I still felt shocked at the suddenness +of the proposal; but so unlimited had +become his influence over me, that he could +have proposed nothing, consistent with honour, +to which I would not have readily acceded. I +pleaded for delay, I fear feebly—I know ineffectually. +Somers had brought with him an +old college friend, to perform the ceremony, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245"></span>upon whose secrecy he could rely, and who was +to leave the town immediately after. Fatal +precipitancy! We were married the next +morning. So anxious was Somers that nothing +should occur on which to hang a suspicion +of the event which had taken place, that +he even recommended my performing as usual +that night at the theatre. His will was law to +me, and I made no objection, though I own, a +presentiment of evil oppressed my spirits, when +the prompter gave out ‘Isabella, or the Fatal +Marriage,’ as the performance of that evening.</p> + +<p>“My husband, with what pride I then +thought of him as such, occupied his usual +place in the stage-box. In the first act, whilst +kneeling before Count Baldwin, I could not +help fancying that the words were addressed to +that obdurate father-in-law, whose forgiveness +was necessary to the acknowledgment of our +marriage; this gave a peculiar energy to my +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246"></span>appeal, which added much to the effect of the +scene, and crowned my exertions with a success, +much beyond that which had latterly +attended my more languid efforts.</p> + +<p>“In the midst of the thunder of applause +which followed, a party of naval officers entered +the box where Somers sat, accompanied +by a lady, dressed in the height of the French +fashion, which, as there was then little communication +between the countries, was never worn +without exciting much attention. The eyes of +the whole house were in consequence turned on +the lady. Somers rose upon their entrance; +but upon turning round to observe them, it +appeared to me as if he staggered, and leant for +support against the side of the box; in this position, +the light of the stage-lamps fell strongly +upon his features, and showed to me his whole +face, even his very lips, of a deadly paleness. +Before rushing out of the box he cast one long +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_247"></span>look of utter despair on me. I could not then +comprehend its meaning, but it was the last I +ever received from my husband. <em>My</em> husband +did I say? He was <span class="allsmcap">HER’S</span>. It was Mrs. +Somers who had entered the box!</p> + +<p>“Yet even in the dreadful suspense in which +I was left, my surmises never reached the horrible +truth. What agony it was to go on acting—acting +through five long acts; yet I forced +myself to proceed, with the recollection that +Somers had wished me to avoid anything that +might lead to the premature discovery of our +marriage. Yet, what a night was that on +which to assume fictitious woe! And there she +sat, and at such a moment ’twas I that was +pampering her morbid sensibilities. Even then +she wept in torrents at my ideal sorrows, and +was carried out in convulsions, unable to bear +the sight of my assumed madness and despair—she +whose unlooked-for appearance in the world +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_248"></span>was about to bereave me of every earthly hope. +And even in those moments thus trifled away +in such wretched mockery of grief, what fatally +real horrors were preparing for me!</p> + +<p>“Somers had rushed homewards in a state +approaching to delirium; he locked himself in +his dressing-room. Fatal chance! His pistol-case +lay on the table beside him. He was +alone. His state was desperate. The sudden +revulsion from the height of expectant happiness +had been too much for him. Look which +way he might, he saw no opening for hope; +and there was no friendly hand to stay his +frantic purpose. Where was I then? Which +way employed? I never can bear to think of +it. Hurrying impatiently homewards the moment +I was free to do so. All was then over. +Amidst a crowd which was already collected, +I found Mrs. Somers, who had left the theatre, +overpowered by her sensibility, which my fictitious +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_249"></span>sufferings had excited; now bending over +the remains of what had been <em>her</em> husband, and, +I still thought, <em>mine</em>. But the mouth which +that morning had breathed its vows to me, was +now distorted in death—-shattered by the desperate +aim of the pistol. Oh, Lucy, even I endeavoured +in vain to recognize those loved features +as I pushed aside every one,—yes, even +<em>her</em>, to assume for the last time that position +by him which I thought mine by right.</p> + +<p>“Mrs. Somers rose indignantly, and the dreadful +cause of this horrid scene broke fearfully +upon me, through a torrent of the most vehement +abuse which she launched upon my devoted +head, such as an irritated woman thinks +herself justified in venting upon the most degraded +of her own sex. I could have submitted +meekly to all she said—I hardly heeded +it, till she called me her husband’s murderess. +Was I that?—Yes, at that moment I felt myself +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_250"></span>a guilty creature; for what precious moments +had I not wasted in the unmeaning garb +of mimic woe, whilst he was left alone in his +despair to do the horrid deed! Had I but +been there, I would have suffered shame, I +fear even dishonour, to have saved him; nay, +more, I would have renounced him for ever, +I would have restored his newly-plighted faith, +to have preserved his precious life, and to have +been allowed to offer prayers for his happiness.”</p> + +<p>Alice Darnell forced herself to gasp forth +these last words, and then sunk back senseless. +When Lucy had succeeded in restoring her to +herself, she said, “I thought I never could +have brought myself to revive in words these +harrowing recollections. You see to what a +state it has reduced me, and how unfit I am +now to draw from the sad tale that practical +warning I had wished, as to the danger of unequal +attachments,—above all, of surrendering +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_251"></span>the affections where any mystery involves the +object. One word I may as well now add, that +you may understand the events which I have +detailed. I said that Somers had one infant +son, but it had remained with his grandfather, +Lord Castleton, from the time its mother first +went abroad. The rumour of Mrs. Somers’ +death had been purposely circulated to facilitate +her attempt to escape: so anxious had +she latterly been to leave that country which +she had sought for pleasure, that she embarked +in an open boat, and had been taken up by an +English cruiser, the captain of which paid her +every attention. It was accompanied by him +that, upon landing, she had gone to the theatre, +and within a twelvemonth from that time she +became his wife. To-morrow, dearest Lucy, +I shall be calm, and better able to speak farther, +but you must stay here with me to-night.”</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_252"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Eighteen">XVIII.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent8">Your sorrow was too sore laid on,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Which sixteen winters cannot blow away,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">So many summers dry. Scarce any joy</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Did ever live so long; no sorrow</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But killed itself much sooner.</div> + <div class="verse indent31"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Is passion to be learned then? wouldst thou make</div> + <div class="verse indent0">A science of affection? guide the heart,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And lead it where to fix?</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Such</span> was the sad tale of her own blighted +hopes which Alice Darnell forced herself to +reveal to her beloved niece, with the fond hope +that so striking a proof of the danger of unguardedly +pledging the affections, where evident +incongruity of station was combined with mystery +and apparent concealment, might operate +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_253"></span>as a check upon that growing partiality for +Churchill, which she dreaded had already taken +root in Lucy’s heart. With this view, when +the next morning she had in a great degree +recovered her usual composure, she dwelt more +on how much she had herself suffered from her +imprudence, in having admitted a stranger, and +one obviously her superior, into an intimacy, +without due caution in previously ascertaining +what his actual situation was. Had she but +been timely informed of Colonel Somers’ marriage, +how much would have been spared them +both, and how dearly had he paid for his tacit +deceit on this subject.</p> + +<p>She farther proceeded to affirm her own conviction +that Churchill was not exactly what he +pretended to be: in this opinion she owned +that she might be rather biassed by the extraordinary +resemblance, though more in air and +expression than in form and features, which he +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_254"></span>bore to one, the recollection of whom she had +never ceased to cherish since his untimely loss. +But though this coincidence might rather influence +her judgment, yet, independent of this, +she had had opportunities, in the best society +at Mrs. Nesbit’s, just at that age when outward +impressions are more strongly distinguished, +of exercising her talents as a close observer +of manners; and the peculiar tact which she had +on this subject, had very much contributed to +make her efforts in comedy rival her success in +tragedy, during her short theatrical career. It +has, too, been remarked throughout, that +Castleton was by no means a skilful actor of +the part he had assumed; and to a person of +Alice Darnell’s discrimination, the evident constraint +with which one of his rank in life assumed +the manners of an inferior station, +though distinct in its nature, was not less remarkable, +than the awkward assumption of refinement +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_255"></span>by a vulgar person. The obvious +embarrassment, too, with which he avoided her +searching observation, could only be explained +by there existing some reason for concealment.</p> + +<p>But the penetration with which Alice Darnell +had discovered her niece’s danger, was more +conspicuous than the judgment of the course +which she took to avoid it. For though Alice +Darnell had been a faithful and interesting representative +of the outward aspect of human +passion, as described by others; though in her +own person she had internally felt as strongly +as any one its devastating power; she had, +perhaps, for that very reason, never examined +closely or coolly the various causes to which it +sometimes owes its origin, or traced to their +sources the crooked channels through which, in +its earlier stages, flow some of those springs +which all combine in the end to give irresistible +power to its headlong course.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_256"></span></p> + +<p>True, even in this age of mixed and mitigated +feelings, there does sometimes rise, pure +and powerful at its fountain-head, the sympathetic +impulse of “love at first sight;” but +for one instance of this kind, how many may +be found where that passion, instead of ripening +regularly from original sympathy, has +been unaccountably grafted on habitual indifference; +and of this might be cited instances, +even amongst those who, once under its influence, +have given most decided proofs of its +power, in braving disgrace and ruin. It seems +sometimes as if the heart only then acquired a +predisposition to infection, when every human +motive of action, prudent as well as virtuous, +had combined against it. Lovely girls have +been known to bloom unnoticed in the same +society with him who, when they have become +the wife of another, has urged elopement +with all the energy of passion; this, be +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_257"></span>it observed, not from any selfish distinction of +the different requisites of a wife and a mistress,—for +grant he succeeds in his suit, and, by +every tie of honour, his wife she must become, +not as she might formerly have assumed that +character, richly endowed in good name and +wealth,—the ornament of society,—but dragging +him forth an outcast, impoverished by the +very price at which he is forced to purchase +her blighted fame. How, then, shall we account +for such early misplaced indifference, +and subsequent ill-timed susceptibility, but +upon the endless and unaccountable perversity +of the human passions?</p> + +<p>But though Alice Darnell need not have +been expected to enter into these abstract reflections, +yet she made two mistakes, which +might have been obvious even to her, in the +influence she expected to produce upon her niece.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_258"></span></p> + +<p>In the first place, no one in love is ever +diverted from their course by the recital of the +sufferings of others, under similar circumstances, +if these sufferings, however great, are +invested with interest. She had also, by +what she had said, inadvertently disposed her +niece’s feelings much more favourably towards +Churchill, for she had flattered her vanity; and +the breast which beats under the modest tucker +of the country maiden, is not less accessible to +the influence of vanity, than is that which +openly swells with the pride of conquest in +sight of the crowded ball-room.</p> + +<p>In all her intercourse with Churchill, there +had been something which she could not understand; +she was never quite at her ease, and +this had produced a consciousness of constraint, +which had left a feeling of humiliating inferiority, +not improving her favourable opinion +of her companion. But now she had been +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_259"></span>given some intelligible ground on which to +place that superiority on his part, which she +had felt without acknowledging, and, at the +same time, she was taught to suppose that he +was willing to forego all that very superiority +for her sake. This placed him in a light much +more dangerous to her peace of mind, than that +in which she had been accustomed to consider +him. If, therefore, his influence over her was +still far from being certain or confirmed, her +defence rested on quite different grounds from +those on which her aunt had been inclined to +place reliance; and her best protection arose +from the nature of her early attachment to her +cousin George.</p> + +<p>Many circumstances had combined to keep +her inexperienced mind in doubt as to her +feelings towards him during all their early +intercourse, the constant intimacy of childhood +had swallowed up the first symptoms of courtship; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_260"></span>to this had succeeded protracted absence, +and apparent neglect on his part. He had at +length returned, as we have seen, with undiminished +affection; but many things had conspired +to prevent its appearing in his manner +to her, not the least of which was the evidence +of those assiduous attentions in another, which, +whenever preference is sought in the “checkered +shade,” or in the “gala glare,” never fail +in producing some effect, and mostly succeed in +attaining their object.</p> + +<p>The fact was, therefore, that at this moment +Lucy was herself, if not in a delusion, at least, +in doubt, as to how much she cared about her +“cousin George.”</p> + +<p>She, however, listened most attentively to all +her aunt’s cautions as to the danger of encouraging +her other admirer, and bowed assent to +her parting advice.</p> + +<p>“I do not wish you abruptly to show distrust; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_261"></span>but above all, avoid as much as possible +being alone with him.”</p> + +<p>To this tacit promise Lucy meant to adhere, +but the state of things she that day found upon +her return home did not favour her immediately +acting up to her intention. George had +left home early in the morning, as he said, +upon business, professing an intention not to +return in the course of the day—perhaps not +even at night. Her father and mother had just +revived some well-contested point in dispute, +which, from long experience, she knew would, +like some of the fights of the middle ages, be +conducted without loss of blood, and only end +in a drawn battle at close of day. This did +not render the prospect of remaining at home +during the afternoon very inviting, and therefore +she could not resist Churchill’s gentle suggestion, +that she should accompany him to the +cliff, on a sketching expedition. She again put +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_262"></span>on her bonnet, announcing to the parental combatants, +during one of those pauses in the +fight which Mrs. Darnell never allowed to be +of long continuance, “That her object was to +see whether her aunt, whose illness had been +the cause of her absence the night before, was +better that evening.”</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_263"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XIX"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Nineteen">XIX.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent6">My Anah! let me call thee mine,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Albeit thou art not: ’tis a word I cannot</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Part with; although I must from thee.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Byron.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">We’ll so bestow ourselves, that near, unseen,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">We may of their encounter frankly judge.</div> + <div class="verse indent33"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">’Tis true they are a lawless brood,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">But rough in form, nor mild in mood;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And every creed, and every race,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">With them hath found—may find a place.</div> + <div class="verse author"><span class="smcap">Byron.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Churchill</span> and Lucy sat side by side on +a projecting ledge which she pointed out to +him on the face of the precipitous cliff; this +position, for an admirer of the picturesque, was +much better chosen than that which he had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_264"></span>himself accidentally selected the night before, +and of which, as a painter, he had so little +availed himself. The intersections of the +craggy cliffs, which rose one behind another, +as they looked along the line of coast, were here +bolder and more broken and varied. From the +height of the point whereon they sat, all below +was blended in that deep, purplish, hazy hue, +which, in a painter’s eye, gave to indistinctness +a charm. The sea-birds, Churchill’s unwelcome +intruders of the evening before, now +skimmed in silence the mid air far beneath +them, the undulating motion of their white +wings being the only sign of animation around. +Not a sail was seen in the wide surface of the +distant expanse: and along the deeply sheltered +sides of the little bay beneath, the waters lay +dead, and dark, and still. The next promontory +of the succession of crags before them, +less precipitous and lofty than that on which +they were placed, had scattered over its face +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_265"></span>huge clumps of thriving brushwood, just then +touched with the first mellow tint of autumn; +whilst the heather, which grew in patches +wherever the light soil clung to the interstices +of the cliffs, contrasting its rich dark blue +colour with the lighter grey of the broken +rocks, gave sharpness to the fantastic shapes in +which these were dispersed about. In the +middle distance, looking rather inland, could +be traced the valley down which ran the course +of the little mountain stream, by whose side +Castleton had first wound his way to Morden +Bay. And this path he followed once again +in his mind’s eye, and he recollected his then +follies, and he thought of all his checkered life, +his successive feelings—of his hopes—of his +frivolous pursuits—which had all produced +heart-burnings and disappointments since that +evening when he had first beheld the lovely +being who now sat beside him in matured +beauty and still unsullied purity and innocence; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_266"></span>and as he again looked on her with a long impassioned +gaze, their eyes met, and she thought +that it must have been thus Somers looked on +Alice Darnell. More fondly she felt he could +not look, and this feeling gave a sensibility +to her own expression, which her lover had +hitherto sought in vain; and they sat long +while they fancied they were drawing. Though +they did little the while, and said less, it +seemed, for the first time, as if they understood +each other, and all Churchill’s gestures were +those of impassioned tenderness, and it was so +that Lucy felt them; and it is certain, that at +that moment she thought of no one else; and +her glances, though timid and stolen at intervals, +vied with his in tenderness, and had he +then pleaded, a negative could hardly have +found its way to her lips through the inward +agitation of her frame.</p> + +<p>But there had been throughout his whole +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_267"></span>scheme too much plan and method in Churchill’s +romance, and now the moment had come which +might fix his fate, and make her his wife—for +it was with such an intention that he wooed her—incongruous +doubts rose in his mind,—he +hesitated,—he would not for the world have +abandoned his object, yet he almost wished +to delay the irrevocable step; but it was not +without an effort that he could force himself +to do so, for his feelings were much excited, +and more than once the conclusive words trembled +on his tongue, but he checked himself, +and blurted forth an indifferent observation in +an altered tone.</p> + +<p>The effect of this was instantaneous: there +is no female breast, however untutored and inexperienced, +which does not feel, in its inmost +recesses, the reaction caused by an opportunity +slighted of profiting by its tenderness. In a +moment, Lucy became aware that the evening +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_268"></span>shadows had redoubled their length; that the +sun was on the point of setting; that it was +already late for her to proceed to her aunt’s: +rising for this purpose, Churchill eagerly offered +to accompany her, but this she firmly +opposed, naturally from not wishing to show +that she had braved her aunt’s caution, the +prudence of which the experience of her late +sensations had confirmed.</p> + +<p>She declined, therefore, his offer of help, +even down the first winding track, where, +indeed, from its narrowness, assistance would +have been impracticable. This track led from +the spot where they now were into the broader +path, which conducted along a lower ledge +round the point towards her aunt’s; and she +proceeded to descend it with the secure and +elastic step which is the combined result of +habit and natural activity. Churchill watched +her with an anxious eye through the first part +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_269"></span>of her progress, and afterwards with an admiring +one, as her fine form gradually receded, +whilst she pursued her way with an unconscious +grace in every motion, which would +have done honour to many in a more elevated +rank in society. But the fact is, the drawing-room +school, though it may improve, no more +creates grace, than the <i lang="fr">manège</i> does the +most admired paces of the horse.</p> + +<p>Churchill watched her round the point, and +knowing that she would again become visible +in passing the next, which jutted farther into +the sea, he stood there awaiting the moment +in a state of mind in which were blended dissatisfaction +with himself, with increased admiration +of her. Whilst absorbed in these mingled +reflections, he was startled by a large +stone, which, detached from the cliff above, +rolled close beside him, and striking the portfolio, +in which he had been just loosely depositing +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_270"></span>the different half-finished productions of +Lucy and himself, scattered them about; and +the evening breeze, just then risen, catching +them up as it swept by, they “soared, ducked, +and dived in air,” and were soon carried far +out of reach of recovery. Churchill, looking +up to see what accident had caused this, beheld +George at the distance of a few yards, +standing between the edge of the cliff and the +wall at its summit, against which he leaned, +whilst one foot, which without doubt had been +the means of propelling the stone, was still +thrust forward. He had a broad grin on his +face, and was evidently enjoying the mischief +he had caused.</p> + +<p>There was nobody in the world from whom +Churchill could at that moment so ill have +borne a joke, if indeed it really was a joke. +Without a moment’s reflection he sprang upwards, +and finding himself beside his unprovoked +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_271"></span>aggressor, whom he still found forcing +a laugh, though evidently only to suppress +some less pleasant feeling to himself which +lurked beneath, said,—</p> + +<p>“I don’t ask you whether you did that, but +why?”</p> + +<p>“I wanted to put up that brood of cormorants +that roost below yonder, and cared not +what other birds of ill omen I frightened by +the way. As for your trash, I’ll buy you +better, printed and painted too, at any pedlar’s +stall for a penny apiece.”</p> + +<p>“You mischievous imp of a cabin boy,” +retorted Churchill enraged, and lifting at the +same time a small slight cane which, from +habit, he always carried, even on these inappropriate +excursions, “you ought to be turned +over to your own boatswain for chastisement; +it would be too much honour to touch you +with this.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_272"></span></p> + +<p>It is probable that Churchill did not intend +really to assault his antagonist, but as he had +raised his cane as if with that view, George, +whose passions were just as much raised, and +whose experience had not taught him to consider +such threats as figurative, grasped firmly +the bludgeon with which he was described on +the eve of his first departure from home, and +which, in all his vicissitudes, had never been +farther from him than where it was still within +reach of his cot. He gave it one masterly +flourish over his own head, and then allowed it +to descend with its full swing upon that of +Churchill, who fell senseless at his feet.</p> + +<p>Lucy in the mean time had reached the +farther projecting point, from which this foremost +part of the cliff was again visible, just +at the moment when the stone which had +struck the portfolio, had scattered Churchill’s +drawings to the winds; and this she had +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_273"></span>witnessed, for upon arriving at that point +she had paused a moment, and cast “one lingering +look behind,” to the spot where she had +left her late companion, scarcely conscious +herself that that action was prompted by feelings +for him at the time, which, could George +have interpreted, would have given additional +force to that jealousy, of which he had just +shown such a violent symptom. She had been +unable at first to account for the cause of the +loss of the drawings, but though the distance +was great, and the light becoming more uncertain, +she too well knew the figures of both +of the combatants not to see only too plainly +the progress of the scuffle above; and observing +the violent action of George’s powerful arm +followed by the dead stiff fall of him whom he +struck, she was riveted to the spot with dumb +horror at the idea that the tender companion +whom she had but just left, who had so lately all +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_274"></span>but spoken the assurance that he lived only for +her, had been even at that moment murdered +by her earliest friend; whilst her conscience +whispered that she herself had been the unhappy +subject of dispute.</p> + +<p>Whilst still deprived by the horrific sight +of any power to move, she beheld three or four +other men approach the scene of the late conflict, +and her first impression was, that they +were both ministers of the law and witnesses +of the deed, and that George, arrested by their +authority, and condemned upon their evidence, +would pay the penalty of that act to which +perhaps he had been driven by her cruel +caprice; and she thought of their early inseparable +years, and their former parting, and +how different that was from the dreadful final +one which such a state of things would too +surely bring, and she pressed her hand against +her eyes in mute despair;—but when again she +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_275"></span>looked, it was obvious that the men approached +George with no hostile intent, but on the contrary, +that, evidently acting under his direction, +they had raised the body of Churchill from the +ground—and George’s hand pointed downwards +over the edge of the cliff, and the men bore their +burthen towards the brink of the precipice, +and she, shuddering, thought that in another +moment she should behold the mangled limbs +dashing from rock to rock, as they fell; and +the dreadful idea rousing her from her previous +stupor, she gave one piercing shriek, +but was answered only by the startled wild +fowl screaming discordantly as they whirled +round her head. But in one minute more her +immediate fears as to the intentions of those +who bore the body, were relieved, when she +saw them take a steep and winding path which +descended the side of the cliff to the shore.</p> + +<p>She then guessed that they were conveying +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_276"></span>their burthen to a well-known cave, close to +which the path conducted, and which she remembered +from its having been the point of +some of her early rambles with George. A moment +she hesitated, from dislike to trust herself +amongst such apparently lawless men; but +depending upon George not being so changed +but that he would be both willing and able to +give her protection, she determined to try her +influence over him, with a faint hope that +Churchill might not actually be dead, and that +she might still be the means of preventing further +danger to him.</p> + +<p>By the faint indistinct glimmering of twilight +which yet remained, as she descended the +cliff and approached the small bay into which +the cave opened, she could perceive a large +boat which had been run ashore, whilst on the +shingles beside it were scattered several barrels +or kegs, and a little farther out at sea, yet +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_277"></span>sheltered by an abrupt projecting cliff from the +more inhabited line of coast, a small vessel lay +moored, and several figures appeared engaged +in conveying the kegs from the open shore into +the concealment of the cave. The wild air of +these men, as far as the increasing darkness +allowed her to distinguish them, and the rough +blasphemous oaths of which almost their whole +communication seemed to consist, as far as the +suppressed tone in which they spoke allowed +her to make out what they said, both conspired +to make her shrink from advancing nearer, or +presenting herself to their notice; but being +detected even where she stood aloof and trembling, +by the quick and restless eyes of one of +the party, ever on the look-out against surprisal, +and being rudely dragged forward, she +was almost at the same time recognised and +rescued by George, who, upon hearing a noise, +came forward from the interior of the cave, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_278"></span>accompanied by Captain Collett, whose command +to unhand her, backing the more manual +interference of George, the men muttering +oaths, and, to her, unintelligible ribaldry, returned +to their labours, and she found herself +at the mouth of the cave with George and +his Captain.</p> +<hr aria-hidden="true" class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + + +<div class="chapter"> +<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_279"></span></p> + <h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XX"> + CHAPTER <abbr title="Twenty">XX.</abbr> + </h2> +</div> + +<div class="poetry-container"> + <div class="poetry"> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent26">But my sins</div> + <div class="verse indent0">No more the pleasure from the stripling wins;</div> + <div class="verse indent0">And such, if not yet hardened in their course,</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Might be redeemed, nor ask a long remorse.</div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">The hours that we have spent</div> + <div class="verse indent0">When we have chid the hasty-footed time</div> + <div class="verse indent0">For parting us. Oh! and is all forgot—</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Our schoolday friendship—childhood innocence?</div> + <div class="verse indent33"><span class="smcap">Shakspeare.</span></div> + </div> + <div class="stanza"> + <div class="verse indent0">Do you remember all the sunny places</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Where in bright days, long past, we played together?</div> + <div class="verse indent0">Do you remember all the old home faces</div> + <div class="verse indent0">That gathered round the hearth in wintry weather?</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">This</span> cave, which had two arched openings, +both leading to the same interior, and supported +by a colossal rocky pillar, was at low +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_280"></span>water nearly dry, excepting near the centre, +where a clear pool of brackish water was left +from one spring-tide to the next, surrounded +by a bed of the finest white sand. All this +outer cave was entirely the work of Nature, and +had probably been progressively scooped out +to its present size, by the whirling eddy of +water, which, during high tides and storms, +rushed in through one opening, and out at the +other, according as it was driven by the directing +force of the wind. Within this outer +cave was another large recess at right angles +to it, which had at some time been assisted by +the hand of man. The narrow, low opening to +this, was generally choked up by a bank of +the white sand, which, as the waters rolled +round, they dashed against it; and as the +small passage behind, thus concealed, gradually +rose as it opened into the inner cave, +that part was itself quite dry; and the entrance +to it being thus unsuspiciously closed from observation, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_281"></span>it had been thought by George, who +had accidentally dug through the bank with +his fingers when a boy, that along the whole +line of coast, a better spot could not be selected, +in which to stow their kegs, till an opportunity +occurred of by degrees disposing of +them inland.</p> + +<p>It appeared to Lucy as if her arrival had +interrupted for the moment a dispute between +George and his Captain; and in this she was +confirmed by Collett saying, as soon as the +men had returned to their work,—</p> + +<p>“It is true, it can’t be helped now; but it is +a d—-d foolish scrape you’ve got us into: why +couldn’t you leave the man alone? It’s true, +I begin to doubt his dying. Perhaps it would +be better if he would, for we can’t leave him +here to blow us; and anyhow, there’ll be such +a hue-and-cry raised, that, hang me! if I know +when we shall be able to look after the cargo. +The tide’s ebbing over-fast, or I’d chuck ’em +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_282"></span>in again, and take a long last leave of Morden +Bay, and be d—-d to it, for an unlucky hole; +but there’s not time to think of that, so the +kegs must even stay here, and we must stow +this lumber in the hold in the place of them.”</p> + +<p>Touching Churchill’s body with his foot, +and finding him still insensible from loss of +blood, he added,—</p> + +<p>“But let me tell you, that to exchange all +these <em>spirits</em> for one <em>body</em> is a losing trade, +either for this world or the next;” and chuckling +complacently at this last idea, as a man +who thought that the mere scoffing at serious +matters in itself constitutes a good joke, he +retired towards the inner cave, calling out to +George, “to take the girl in tow, and drop +down out of sight of their job.”</p> + +<p>But George seemed stupified by the conflicting +feelings which struggled for mastery within +him, and allowed himself to be silently drawn +by Lucy on to the beach, through the opposite +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_283"></span>opening of the cave to that through which +the smugglers were carrying the kegs.</p> + +<p>“And is it come to this then, George!” she +said: “these are then your companions,—that +is your friend, your master! And has all +sense of shame left you, that you could bring +such a ruffian under my dear father’s peaceful +roof? And then to finish all by murdering +that poor good gentleman! Heaven, in its +mercy, preserve him!” added Lucy fervently, +in a low tone.</p> + +<p>“He’s not good—no more are you, and he’s +no more a gentleman than I am,” answered +George, doggedly, his good feelings being for +the moment overpowered by the evident sympathy +of Lucy for his rival. “And it’s all +along of you both, that I’ve come to this.”</p> + +<p>“How can you say so, George? The poor +man, since it offends you to call him gentleman, +never saw you till two days ago; and +your present courses you must have adopted, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_284"></span>with these associates, long since; and for me, +it’s now more than four years since we have +met at all. And think of this spot, George—this +cave. The last time we were here together, +who would have thought that it would +be thus we should meet again? Do you remember +the smuggler we then saw chased by +the King’s ship; it was the last vessel of that +sort, till to-night, that had ever appeared on +this coast; and the running fight, and the sound +of the guns gradually dying away in the distance, +and then our suspense; and we heard no +more, till you brought that printed paper of +the travelling pedlar, which you read to me, +and which told how they were all hanged: +George, dear George! why did you ever forget +that paper?”</p> + +<p>“’Tis too late to think of all that now, +Lucy; though I thank you for still caring for +me, if it’s ever so little. There was a time +when you might have saved me, when I wrote +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_285"></span>to you, about my first scrape, before I got +from bad to worse.”</p> + +<p>“You wrote to me, George! When? Never +from the day you went away have I heard +once.”</p> + +<p>“Ah, there was the mischief, then. But I +wrote all about it, when I’d lost all my money, +like a fool as I then was, and am still; and +how it was a girl like you—no, not like you—but +a girl, who had taken it all; and that’s what +it was, and I was rather ashamed at first to +own so to you. Yet I was easier, when I +had done it, for I never felt so much how I +loved you better than all the world. And as +we were a long way off at the time, and the +Atlantic rolled between us, I was rather matched +how to make sure of your getting it; but +though I was never much of a scholar, I took a +sight of pains with the direction. And I +wouldn’t put Mayton on it, as they used to do +on most of our letters here; for I found, when +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_286"></span>I had got to London even, most people there +had never heard of Mayton, so I argued that +a-tother side of that great water they warn’t like +to know it: so, instead, I put ‘Lucy Darnell, +Bankside Farm, England,’ for I made sure, at +least, they must have heard of England. And +long I waited there in the Indies, in hopes of +an answer—and none ever came, as indeed it +wasn’t like, if you never received the letter. +And so at last I took up with the offer of this +here Messmate, though at the time I had but +half a mind, for I thought you’d never approve +of the like.”</p> + +<p>“But, George, how came you in this distress? +Where was the uncle with whom you +sailed?”</p> + +<p>“Oh, he and I agreed that we suited each +other best at a distance, so he got me swapped +to another ship, which I liked well enough, for +I got double wages; but I soon found that the +more money I had, the less I could keep it; +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_287"></span>and when I landed in the Indian Islands, it +went in more ways than I like to tell, or think +of myself now. And then Captain Collett +spoke me fair, and a merry time we had together +in the privateering line, in which he then +was; and when the Peace came, we had been +too used to dangers and their reward, to take +to carrying coals along the coast. So we’ve +been dodging backwards and forwards across +the Channel ever since, in defiance of the revenue +Sharks. But being a bit over-well known +there now, we got a correspondent at Flushing, +and popped over here unexpected like.”</p> + +<p>“Unexpected indeed!” said Lucy, “and +that it should be most unwelcome too; for I +had rather never have seen you again, though +Heaven knows how I’ve longed to do so! than +that you should come back to bring shame on +us all. And my poor father too, who was as +fond of you as if you’d been his own son. +He’ll feel this more than all the rest of the +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_288"></span>world put together—except me!” she added +falteringly.</p> + +<p>“It needed not to speak so to make me +feel,” said George: “all along, my fear has +been the loss of your good thoughts; and +when I came back the other day, I had made +up my mind to ask all your pardons, to give +over the connexion, and stay at home; but it +maddened me to see that you had clear forgotten +your poor cousin George, for that plausible +painting chap!”</p> + +<p>“Shame on me!” interrupted Lucy, “that +I have now so long forgotten him, whilst listening +to your bad tale of yourself. That I +could do so at such a moment, may prove to +you what now you shall never hear from me, +unless you learn to deserve it better, how long +and how much I have thought of you. But +if you would not have me hate you, George, +instantly rescue from these ruffians, this poor +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_289"></span>person, whom your own mad violence has +placed in their power.”</p> + +<p>George, touched by her manner, and rendered +docile by shame, instantly repaired to +Collett, who was himself much puzzled to know +what to do with their prisoner, and consented +to leave him behind, provided he would bind +himself solemnly not to disclose what he knew +of their proceedings; to which George, for his +own sake, added the condition, that he should +instantly leave that part of the country, and +particularly Bankside Farm.</p> + +<p>Lucy in the mean time entered the cave, to +observe in what state poor Churchill then was. +She found one of the smugglers bending over +him and holding a dark-lantern close to his +features, which he appeared to be examining, +and which were still fixed and insensible. The +man had undone both waistcoat and neckcloth, +and evidently was searching about his breast, +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_290"></span>as she thought, for plunder; though, as he +pretended, to find out whether he had any +other wound. There was, however, an appearance +of care and attention in this man’s manner, +which she could not reconcile with his +purpose. He stated that the sufferer had shown +some signs of returning animation; had called, +as he fancied, on her name, but had relapsed. +Now he again began to move, and with the +first symptoms of consciousness, George made +the offer of liberation, coupled with the conditions +mentioned above.</p> + +<p>The wounded man seemed to make an effort +to give force to the articulation of his reply, as +he answered,</p> + +<p>“Never! I will make no bargain with such +as you: ruffians! do your worst, and at your +peril be it.”</p> + +<p>The smugglers, who had now finished their +work, and were anxious to depart, enraged at +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_291"></span>this untractable answer, became clamorous to +shove off with him, and Captain Collett gave +the orders to bear him to the boat; Lucy +clinging wildly to George, implored him, “Oh, +leave him! leave him, for my sake leave +him!”</p> + +<p>George’s bad feelings were again roused by the +manner of this appeal; he roughly replied, shaking +her from him, “For thy sake!—never! +What! that he may stay behind to hang us, +and bless you!” He then jumped into the boat, +already filled with his companions, one of whom, +who had secretly helped himself too freely to one +of the kegs which had been opened that its +contents might encourage them at their work, +cried out, “Oh, if the land-lubber stands in +the way of our messmate George, I’ll soon +settle his business.”</p> + +<p>He then presented a pistol to Churchill’s +head. Lucy thought she saw George spring +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_292"></span>forward and knock the pistol out of the fellow’s +hand, but neither that nor any thing afterwards +could she recollect distinctly, such had +been the agitation of this dreadful evening; +and as she endeavoured to fix her eyes on +the boat as it heaved unsteadily through the +surf, her brain seemed to reel responsively +within her. She fell powerless on the beach, +and tearing up the sand convulsively with her +outstretched hand, she cried wildly for help, +till her senses completely abandoned her, and +she lay there in unconscious exhaustion much +of that awful night.</p> + +<p>At times she partially awoke to confused +visions of Churchill’s mangled form, and the +last moments of George’s disgraceful career; +and more than once she raised herself and endeavoured +to strain her sight through the +intense darkness, and to collect her scattered +senses to decide whether it was fancy only +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_293"></span>made her imagine that another sail rose on +the waters, still nearing the smugglers; but a +sound which followed, like the roar of cannon, +vibrated so painfully on her shattered nerves, +that she raised her hands to her ears, again +pressed her head against the sand, and when +the first dawn of the morning found her still +on the beach, with partially returning consciousness, +the first object she plainly distinguished +was a crowd of men moving towards +her, in the midst of which were the crew of +smugglers, Captain Collett and George, handcuffed +two and two, and guarded by some men +of the Preventive Service, and a file of soldiers.</p> + +<p>Still half bewildered, she rushed amongst +them, screaming in vain for some one, and +crying, “Where, where is the body?”</p> + +<p>“The body!” exclaimed the man, who +seemed in command of the party, “then it +was as we suspected, and a murder has been +<span class="pagenum" id="Page_294"></span>committed. Come, my young woman, you +must along with us; you will be an important +witness, I guess;” and the whole party moved +on towards Hornscliff Abbey, the seat of the +nearest resident magistrate, Sir North Saunders.</p> + + +<p class="p4 center ls allsmcap"> +END OF THE FIRST VOLUME. +</p> + + +<p class="p2 center muchsmaller"> +LONDON:<br> +PRINTED BY SAMUEL BENTLEY,<br> +Dorset-street, Fleet-street. +</p> + +<div class="chapter transnote"> +<h3>Transcriber’s Note:</h3> + +<p class="nottall">A simple table of contents was added for the convenience of users. +Words may have multiple spelling variations or inconsistent +hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged, as were +dialect, obsolete and alternative spellings. One misspelled word was +corrected, one upside down letter was righted, and two words were +added where they appeared as blotches on the printed page. Single +quotation marks were used for quotes within quotes.</p> +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78688 ***</div> +</body> +</html> + diff --git a/78688-h/images/cover.jpg b/78688-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4290bde --- /dev/null +++ b/78688-h/images/cover.jpg |
