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diff --git a/78846-h/78846-h.htm b/78846-h/78846-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33579c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/78846-h/78846-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,9391 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>The Moors and the Fens | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; margin-right: 10%; } + h1 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: xx-large; } + h2 { text-align: center; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; } + .pageno { right: 1%; font-size: x-small; background-color: inherit; color: silver; + text-indent: 0em; text-align: right; position: absolute; + border: thin solid silver; padding: .1em .2em; font-style: normal; + font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; } + p { text-indent: 0; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; text-align: justify; } + .sc { font-variant: small-caps; } + .large { font-size: large; } + .xlarge { font-size: x-large; } + .small { font-size: small; } + .xsmall { font-size: x-small; } + .lg-container-b { text-align: center; } + .x-ebookmaker .lg-container-b { clear: both; } + .linegroup { display: inline-block; text-align: justify; } + .x-ebookmaker .linegroup { display: block; margin-left: 1.5em; } + .linegroup .group { margin: 1em auto; } + .linegroup .line { text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em; } + div.linegroup > :first-child { margin-top: 0; } + .ul_1 li {padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em; } + ul.ul_1 {padding-left: 0; margin-left: 2.78%; margin-top: .5em; + margin-bottom: .5em; list-style-type: disc; } + div.pbb { page-break-before: always; } + hr.pb { border: none; border-bottom: thin solid; margin-bottom: 1em; } + .x-ebookmaker hr.pb { display: none; } + .chapter { clear: both; page-break-before: always; } + .table0 { margin: auto; margin-top: 2em; } + .nf-center { text-align: center; } + .nf-center-c0 { text-align: justify; margin: 0.5em 0; } + .c000 { margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + .c001 { page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em; } + .c002 { margin-top: 2em; } + .c003 { margin-top: 1em; } + .c004 { page-break-before:auto; margin-top: 4em; } + .c005 { vertical-align: top; text-align: right; padding-right: 1em; } + .c006 { vertical-align: top; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1em; + padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; } + .c007 { vertical-align: top; text-align: right; } + .c008 { margin-top: 4em; } + .c009 { font-size: 80%; } + .c010 { margin-top: 2em; text-indent: 1em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + .c011 { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: 0.25em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + .c012 { margin-top: 1em; font-size: .9em; } + .c013 { text-indent: 0; margin-top: 0.25em; margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + div.tnotes { padding-left:1em; padding-right:1em; background-color:#e6e6fa; + color: #000000; border:thin solid silver; margin:2em 10% 0 10%; + clear: both; } + .covernote { visibility: hidden; display: none; } + div.tnotes p { text-align: justify; } + .x-ebookmaker .covernote { visibility: visible; display: block; } + h1 {line-height: 150%; } + blockquote {font-size: 90%; } + .chapter { clear: both; page-break-before: always; } + body {text-align: justify; } + table {font-size: .9em; padding: 1.5em .5em 1em; page-break-inside: avoid; + clear: both; overflow-x: auto; overflow-y: auto; } + .pageno {color: #585858; font-size: small; background-color:#ffffff; } + div.titlepage {text-align: center; page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; } + div.titlepage p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } + .ph1 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: xx-large; + margin: .67em auto; page-break-before: always; } + .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; + page-break-before: always; } + .x-ebookmaker p.dropcap:first-letter { float: left; } + </style> + </head> + + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78846 ***</div> + + +<div class='tnotes covernote'> + +<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p> + +<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p> + +</div> + +<div class='titlepage'> + +<div> + <h1 class='c001'><span class='large'>THE</span><br> MOORS AND THE FENS.</h1> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div>BY</div> + <div><span class='xlarge'>F. G. TRAFFORD.</span></div> + <div class='c002'>IN THREE VOLUMES.</div> + <div class='c003'><span class='large'>VOL. II.</span></div> + <div class='c002'>LONDON:</div> + <div>SMITH, ELDER AND CO., 65, CORNHILL.</div> + <div class='c003'>1858.</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><span class='small'>[<i>The Right of Translation is reserved.</i>]</span></div> + <div class='c002'><span class='small'>London</span></div> + <div><span class='small'>Printed by <span class='sc'>Smith, Elder & Co.</span>, Little Green Arbour Court, Old Bailey.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c004'>CONTENTS.</h2> +</div> + +<table class='table0'> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>CHAP.</td> + <td class='c006'> </td> + <td class='c007'>PAGE</td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>I.—</td> + <td class='c006'>A New Friend</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>II.—</td> + <td class='c006'>The Way of the World</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_22'>22</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>III.—</td> + <td class='c006'>Marry in Haste, &c.</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_44'>44</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>IV.—</td> + <td class='c006'>The Road to Fortune</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_63'>63</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>V.—</td> + <td class='c006'>Sir Ernest “Scatters his Enemies”</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_83'>83</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>VI.—</td> + <td class='c006'>A Dream of Youth</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_107'>107</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>VII.—</td> + <td class='c006'>Crumbs of Comfort</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_127'>127</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>VIII.—</td> + <td class='c006'>A Sudden Blow</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_141'>141</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>IX.—</td> + <td class='c006'>The Next of Kin</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_160'>160</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>X.—</td> + <td class='c006'>A Proposal</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_169'>169</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>XI.—</td> + <td class='c006'>Mina “in Training”</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_196'>196</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>XII.—</td> + <td class='c006'>The Moors once more</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_214'>214</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>XIII.—</td> + <td class='c006'>A Woman’s Weapons</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_231'>231</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>XIV.—</td> + <td class='c006'>Mina Triumphant</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_255'>255</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>XV.—</td> + <td class='c006'>Stony-hearted London</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_278'>278</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c005'>XVI.—</td> + <td class='c006'>Mina rushes on her Fate</td> + <td class='c007'><a href='#Page_297'>297</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<div class='chapter ph1'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c008'> + <div>THE MOORS AND THE FENS.</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER I.<br> <span class='c009'>A NEW FRIEND.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>There were no bounds to the affection Miss +Warmond had conceived, or professed to have conceived, +for Mina Frazer: her parents had, no +doubt, entertained a sort of love for the girl; Malcolm, +possibly, might be fond enough of his sister; +the laird and Allan were evidently deeply interested +concerning her welfare; but to have seen and heard +Miss Warmond, one really would have imagined +that her very soul was wrapt up in her new friend; +that Mina Frazer was to her, light, air, sunshine; +that where she lived, happiness must ever abide.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Now, every one among us has probably met, at +one period or other, some bright sunshiny face that +claimed and received at once, without the usual +dreary preliminary fee, called long acquaintance, a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>portion of his regard, a corner in his memory, a +very abundant share of friendship; and, therefore, +to deny that occasionally an individual may jump +into an intimacy, and not repent of his rashness +afterwards, would be an absurdity. But for one +person who leaps and finds good safe ground under +his feet, fifty discover they have managed to entangle +themselves in a very difficult quagmire. The +rule is, that friendship, being an affair of sense and +reason, and not a dream of sentiment, ought to be +the result of long acquaintance and great watchfulness; +and the exception that, as some people are +possessed of the great art of making themselves +liked at once, the acceptance of their hand in +friendship is not an act always to be dreaded, +though it may be well to perform even that simple +operation with a sufficient amount of caution to +lessen the risk of subsequent disappointment.</p> + +<p class='c011'>A limited number of individuals are perfectly +irresistible: if they say, “You shall like me,” they +are sure to accomplish their purpose; and if one of +this chosen band do occasionally work mischief, the +victim is rarely blamed for being so absurdly “taken +in,” everybody knowing that some human beings, +like some snakes, are impotent to repel the power +of “fascination,” and that it is not in the nature of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>man to be always suspecting evil, more especially +when it lies hidden under honied words and kind +looks and noble sentiments.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And so, if Mina Frazer had been a peculiarly +“captivating creature,” a bright cheerful gladsome +being, going about claiming a corner in every heart, +a joyful greeting in every home, who had mixed +much in society, and yet remained unspoiled by it, +who went through the world gathering friends as +others do enemies at each brief stopping-place, Miss +Warmond might have professed an undying attachment +for her on the occasion of a first interview, +without incurring the imputation of telling fibs; but, +as it unfortunately chanced that she was the enchantress, +it resulted that Mina was the dupe of +Cecilia, who succeeded to perfection in throwing +all sorts of dust into the unsuspecting eyes of the +laird’s niece, a feat she had often successfully performed +on the much keener orbs of wiser and older +persons.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina Frazer was a girl to become gradually interested +in, not perhaps to be taken with soon, but +to remember for long; to value, not for any particular +grace, or ease of manner, or felicity of expression, +or striking beauty, but for the real genuineness +of her character, the steadiness of her nature, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span>and the earnest truth and purity of her heart. It is +said that extremes meet, that opposites agree, and if +any one who had acquired the least insight into +Miss Warmond, could have dreamt of believing her +sincere in anything save her aversions, the above +paradoxes might have accounted for the sudden +affection she evinced towards Mina. But Cecilia +denied that they were dissimilar in aught “save +manner and, <i>perhaps</i>, appearance:” she said, “their +tastes, thoughts, feelings were identical;” and her +new friend believed this statement to be perfectly +correct, for the General’s daughter could “seem all +things to all men,”—sneer with the scoffer and pray +with the Christian; she laughed with the hopeful +and sighed with the desponding; she had a clever +story or witty repartee for those whose temperament +was more mirthful than melancholy, and yet there +was not a chord of sentiment, a tone of grief, she +was not capable of sounding for the edification of +the romantic, the world-tired, the unhappy.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Her mind was just like her piano, she could draw +anything from it she pleased; whatever air was +called for, whether joyful or sorrowful, plaintive or +spirit-stirring, mournful or triumphant, holy or profane, +came ready to order.</p> + +<p class='c011'>All she required was a hint as to the sort of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>melody her auditor fancied; that sufficed, for simple +ballad or brilliant bravura, slow dirge or rapid concerto, +all seemed alike to her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“She is so clever she can do anything,” said her +father.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Perhaps it might have been quite as well had +fewer talents been entrusted to her keeping, for then +she could not have been held accountable for the +misuse of so many.</p> + +<p class='c011'>There is, however, a charm about real simplicity +of character, which exercises a strange spell even +over those whose minds are as full of twists and +turns as was the Cretan labyrinth of old; and thus, +perhaps, as Mina was by no means so accomplished +or so handsome as Miss Warmond, and appeared, in +that lady’s eyes, in the light “of quite a chit of a +child,” it is just possible, at the bottom of the immense +mountain of absurd pretence which the General’s +daughter raised and styled attachment, there may +have originally existed a little grain of that indefinite +article, liking, beyond which, staid, sensible people +never go,—further than which it might be well for +many never to venture.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina’s boundless admiration probably flattered +the vanity of one whose desire for praise was, indeed, +almost unlimited; besides, Miss Warmond had +<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>a few very cogent reasons for affecting, in the present +instance, a fondness she was incapable of feeling; +and accordingly she lavished such an amount of +attachment on the girl, that Mr. Frazer felt quite +gratified, and Mina wrote Miss Caldera a long letter +full, as that lady drily remarked, of “Cecilia Warmond;” +and Malcolm—who, whenever he once became +enamoured of a face that pleased him, went +on from stage to stage of absurdity till he grew tired +of it, or saw something which pleased him better—began +to think, in the superlative vanity and conceit +of his boyish heart, that the Edinburgh belle, +the heiress of Glenfiord, must have taken a fancy to +his mother’s darling,—that, in short, the lady’s love +for the sister was caused solely by her love for the +brother; whilst Allan, who alone fully comprehended +the whole business, sneered as he looked +grimly on, for it was Cecilia Warmond who had +contrived, with sweet smiles and sweeter words, to +cast the shadow over Craigmaver, the cloud across +the soul of Mina’s clever cousin.</p> + +<p class='c011'>No mortal ever ventured within the magic circle +of her attractions who passed out scatheless therefrom; +no one who once gazed admiringly upon her, +ever subsequently forgot that woman: she was not +a being to be looked at, flirted with, talked to, flung +<span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span>by, and forgotten, but a creature to remember, not +for a few hours merely, but through life.</p> + +<p class='c011'>People liked her too soon, and despised her too +late; nobody ever “found her out” in time: friend, +suitor, enemy, it was just the same,—Cecilia, in due +course, wrought sorrow for them all; if any one +loved her with a lasting attachment, it was grievous +to have to part from her; and it was a worse fate to +stay long enough beside her to get a glimpse of the +dark turnings of her heart, and yet not be able to +leave the enchantress, whose songs had ceased to be +melodious, whose tones struck harshly on the ear, +whose smiles wearied the eye, whose artifices had +no more power to delude; who, the more her captive +struggled to be free, held him the tighter; who +said to those desirous to become her slaves, “I want +you not, away from my presence, and be happy if +you can;” and to those who loathed the fetters they +had once foolishly permitted her to bind around +them, “I will never unloose the chain, and every +effort you make to escape me only renders my determination +stronger.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was, perhaps, merely an act of retributive justice, +that Allan Frazer, the most incorrigible flirt +who ever existed, should finally meet with his +“match” in the person of Cecilia Warmond; still +<span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>it was a hard fate. He had rushed willingly into +the trap; and then he would have given all he +possessed on earth to get out of it again: but he +had caught the bait too greedily to escape the hook, +and a hand, strong and cruel, though apparently +weak and merciful, held the line,—and, spite of her +assumed negligence and careless demeanour and +teazing and tormenting, held it, as Allan well knew, +securely also.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And for all this, the young man confessed he +had nobody to thank but himself: he had fallen so +desperately in love with Miss Warmond the season +previously, when she first “came out” in Edinburgh, +after various “comings out” in London, +Paris, and elsewhere, that he had neglected every +other pursuit, abandoned every other object, and +devoted the whole of his thoughts, energies, and +talents to one great end, namely, that of inducing +her to care for him; and when, thanks to his being +at that time the “rage,” he had succeeded in effecting +this purpose, he never rested, by night nor by +day, till he had gained a promise from General +Warmond, that whenever Cecilia was one-and-twenty +she should become his wife. He had, in +fine, managed, in the course of a few brief months, +to get himself so hopelessly entangled with her and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>her connections—to rush so far along the dangerous +road leading to matrimony, without once seriously +thinking of whom he actually intended to take for +better, for worse—that when, before marriage, he +contrived to do, what many of his relatives had +accomplished after that event, namely, fall out of +love again, he found, to his unspeakable dismay, that +retreat was utterly impossible.</p> + +<p class='c011'>His grandfather beheld the lady in Edinburgh, +just when Allan’s affection for her was at fever heat; +and the beauty, the vivacity, the grace, the position, +the pretended high-mindedness, and the assumed +amiability of the General’s daughter, so completely +captivated old Mr. Frazer, that, with a tremulous +voice, he told the young man that the “dearest, +proudest wish of his heart would be fulfilled when +he brought her home to Craigmaver—a bride;” and +thus matters progressed charmingly, till General +Warmond and his daughter returned to Glenfiord, +and invited Allan to go with them there.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Then, at last, light dawned on his eyes; and when +they were opened, he beheld, like the disenchanted +visitor to some fairy palace, deformity instead of +beauty, affectation in the place of what he had fondly +called candour; in fact, just as paper, on which +words unintended to meet the common eye have +<span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span>been traced, when held before the fire, presents, +instead of its former pure white surface, dark tracings, +whose very existence was previously unsuspected, +so the apparent guilelessness of Cecilia’s +character, when presented calmly and steadily to +view in the clear searching light of truth, was seen +to be spotted all over with stains of hypocrisy, envy, +uncharitableness, and selfishness.</p> + +<p class='c011'>He remained a fortnight to note the process, became +restless, uneasy, unhappy, and returned to +Craigmaver so altered, as to cause his grandfather +to mourn over the fickleness of his character, to +lament the change society and flattery, and the pomps +and vanities of the world, had wrought in the soul +of the boy he had educated and been proud of, as if +he had been a still nearer relation than was actually +the case—his own son.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The quondam lover dared not explicitly state the +opinion he had recently arrived at about Miss Warmond; +first, because it was not one great fact that +could be related against her, but a series of little +droppings that had made such fearful inroads on his +affection; second, because he had heard the old +remark cavillers made anent the inconstancy of his +race in matters of the heart; and, as he knew himself +sufficiently well to be compelled to admit he +<span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>could admire more ardently than steadily, he was +aware that if he confessed the whole state of affairs +to his grandfather, he would only be met with +charges of changeableness and caprice, from which, +on account of various foregone circumstances, he +should be perfectly unable to clear himself.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Besides, what was the use of speaking! it was +utterly impossible for him to draw back now with +honour: if he jilted the girl whom he had professed +to adore, it would blast his own prospects and break +his uncle’s heart; and, besides, if Miss Warmond +really cared for him—which vanity whispered was +more than possible—he must marry her, there was +no help for it. Fifty times a day Allan cursed his +overhaste and his folly and his unlucky destiny, in +terms that would have alarmed the old laird’s piety +had he heard him: and thus, pining and fretting, +because of the chain he had doomed himself to wear, +the young man dragged over a few weeks, at the +expiration of which time Mina and her brother +arrived at Craigmaver.</p> + +<p class='c011'>During those weeks, however, a sort of comprehension +of the storm raging within his grandson’s +bosom had dawned on the old laird’s brain, and the +very day before their relative’s arrival he asked +Allan abruptly,</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>“Do you repent this engagement?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Bitterly,” was the answer, which almost involuntarily +escaped the happy lover’s lips; “but there +is no use in talking, I cannot recede; I have gone +too far for that: if beggaring myself could free me, +I would relinquish every shilling I possess; I would +give up every dream of fame, every hope in life, to +have my liberty restored, to undo ever having seen +or spoken to Cecilia Warmond.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I never had but one fault to find with this +alliance, Allan,” responded the laird, sadly; “I +feared you were too unsteady to make any woman +permanently happy: you have been flattered and +caressed by the beautiful and the amiable till you +have grown like a spoiled child, dissatisfied with +everything; you weary of the loveliest faces and +the most interesting pursuits the moment they lose +the charm of novelty; my conviction is,” he added, +earnestly, “that Miss Warmond is too good to +throw herself away on a ridiculous fellow, who has +not the sense to value the pure sterling love of such +a creature, when he knows himself to be actually in +possession of it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I hope you may always think so, sir,” responded +Allan, as he turned to leave the room; “and I only +wish you could persuade Miss Warmond to become +<span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span>a convert to your opinion. However,” he continued, +noticing the shade that came over his grandfather’s +face, “I have no intention of running off +my engagement; I shall marry whenever the proper +time comes: meanwhile, all I ask is no conversation +on the subject: I must endeavour to forget her for +a space, and try whether absence will, in my unfortunate +case, make ‘the heart grow fonder.’”</p> + +<p class='c011'>And accordingly from that hour the lady’s name +was never mentioned at Craigmaver till she herself +appeared there, for Mr. Frazer had great faith that +separation and silence would rekindle the flame; +and Allan, feeling that when near Mina he breathed +a purer atmosphere than was his wont, not merely, +during the course of the month succeeding her +arrival, strove to forget Miss Warmond altogether, +but occasionally succeeded in this laudable object.</p> + +<p class='c011'>For he was, indeed, fickle as the winds; and, +though, had any one told him he was “getting up a +flirtation with Mina, his cousin,” she who had been +so lately a child, he would indignantly have rejected +the idea; yet there cannot be a doubt that he was +travelling very fast towards it, when Miss Warmond’s +unexpected visit to Locholen startled him +from his dream, and roused him to a full memory of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>how he was situated, whom he had proposed for, ay, +and actually intended to marry.</p> + +<p class='c011'>He would fain have kept Mina and her apart; +but Mr. Gordon knew of the advent of his cousins, +and he could not deny that they were still at Craigmaver: +he pleaded Mina’s delicacy as an apology +for deferring a visit to some indefinite period; but +the General’s daughter was too skilful a tactician to +be so put off. See the new arrival she was determined +she would; indeed, the instant she had heard +of the flutter of a petticoat having been noticed on +the lawn of Allan’s home, her curiosity had become +painfully excited, and accordingly she volunteered +to lay aside all ceremony, and “come and make +friends with the old laird’s niece,” of whom she had +heard so much ever since her arrival in Scotland.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And finding Mina as unlike a rival as can well be +imagined, she took the girl thenceforth under her +caressing hand, petted and fondled her, and treated +her as if she had been a favourite kitten; and poor +Mina, never once imagining aught so beautiful +could ever treat her unkindly, gave herself up altogether +to the care of the lovely vision, who had +glanced so unexpectedly across her path.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Locholen was such a distance from Craigmaver, +Cecilia found it impossible to see as much as she +<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>desired of her new friend, so she appeared one day +in a handsome open carriage, and carried Mina +off bodily with her; but when pressed by the laird +to come and spend a little time with his niece, she +answered, shaking her curls till their brightness +arrested the very sunbeams and caused them to fling +rich golden shades on the tresses of her luxuriant +hair,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, no, the dear grandpapa at home could not +do without me at all; I cannot leave him during my +brief visit, even for a day;” and so Mina passed the +greater portion of a fortnight at Locholen, during +which period Miss Warmond, by dint of a little +judicious feminine cross questioning, contrived to +get everything out of her she wanted to know, +which, in plain English, meant that Mina was so +foolish as to tell her all the particulars of her life, +all about her uncle and Malcolm, and Mr. Westwood +and Miss Caldera, and Ernest Ivraine, and everybody +and everything; and the young lady, when she had +read her through like a book, breathed freely and +felt satisfied.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She had never met any one who resembled his +niece, she assured the Laird of Craigmaver; there +was a something so perfectly natural and unsophisticated +about her, so different from the generality of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>the girls she had known, it really was quite refreshing +to talk with her; and, in fine, she did talk so +effectually to all, that it was ultimately agreed Mina +should return with her to Glenfiord, and General +Warmond politely hoped “Mr. Frazer, his grandson, +and nephew would accompany them also.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Should you like to have a peep at your old +home, my pet?” demanded Miss Warmond of the +girl, when she had fairly set matters in train to effect +the grand explosion she contemplated; “should you +like to see Ben Lomond and Loch Lomond, and the +flowers and the fields and the trees of Glenfiord +once more?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I should be so glad,” answered Mina, after a +pause, “so very glad to see it, only—only—I +should be so sorry.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Not to come and be my sister there for a while, +surely?” said the other; “you have not lost that +home, remember, you have only changed it, as you +will again change your present one for a brighter +and a happier; think of it in that light: let me take +you back there and we will talk about anything you +like under the shadow of the hills, sitting beside the +waterfalls, looking over the silent lake.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina gazed into the distance, as if, at the end +of some long vista of silent thought, she beheld +<span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span>Glenfiord beckoning to her: all her childhood’s +memories came gently up before her—the old haunting +sorrow, the happiness of the present, the possibilities +of the future; and at length her heart became +so full of feelings, half sorrowful, half pleasant, +that she laid her head on her friend’s shoulder and +burst into tears; for the silly child had a way of +crying whenever her father or her old home was +mentioned, for which Cecilia secretly despised her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“She does not weep,” thought that amiable individual, +“for things worth crying about,—for the +want of society and equipages, and excitement; but +she maudles concerning a man who has been dead +for years, and a place which, though well enough in +its way, is nothing remarkable.” Yet, spite of this +soliloquy, the young lady bent down her head and +kissed the broad smooth forehead, and said, by way +of diverting her thoughts, and turning them into a +pleasanter channel,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You shall see everything about the place, if you +will come, from the new wine cellar up to my +eccentric cousin, who lives there, and housekeeps +for me.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I never heard you speak of her before,” answered +Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, she was not worth speaking about; she is +<span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>a most exemplary piece of mechanism,—always +keeps in time, never gets out of tune; is made up +of conscientiousness, religion, and economy; has +not a single idea beyond strict decorum, tidiness, and +cleanliness, though she is trying to acquire one or +two more to please a clergyman who astonished us +all one day by proposing for her, after we had set +her down as an old maid,—a Glenfiord fixture, who +was to go on having things made comfortable for the +household generally till the end of time. Principle +and propriety are her virtues; she possesses no +others, and she has no foibles or sins, unless, indeed, +not thinking very highly of me can be classed as +one of the latter.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Does she not think highly of you, then?” +demanded Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, she has not nearly so good an opinion of +me as she ought,” replied Miss Warmond, laughing. +“I am not neat enough, nor economical enough, to +suit her ideas; perhaps when I am as old as she I +may improve: meantime, however, she imagines I +am far from what I ought to be.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That is strange,” said Mina; “I thought nobody +in the world could wish you to be different +from what you are.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh! but then you are not a prim, stiff, starchedup +<span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>old maid,” suggested the other; “I often wonder +what could have attracted her reverend suitor, +for she is not rich or beautiful or accomplished or +anything.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Is not she good?” asked Mina, and the question, +simple though it was, brought a colour into +her friend’s cheek, as she hastily answered,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“To be sure, she is; perfectly, unexceptionably +good: but mere goodness, you are aware, is occasionally +rather uninviting.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Perhaps so,” said Mina; “but still it is valuable, +for all that: and what,” she added, after this little +hint, which was given more innocently than hint +ever was, “what is he—the clergyman—like?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He! not what either you or I would choose,” +responded Miss Warmond; “but he is well enough, +and has a little money, and everybody agrees is +quite good enough for her. He wears shoes an inch +thick in the sole, it is true, and despises etiquette, +and ‘values only the mind, and not the setting,’ he +says—which inuendo I always pretend not to understand—and, +oh! he is just another piece of +mechanism, wound up to perform certain duties in a +certain manner: they will get on capitally together; +you shall see him when you come, and every other +individual of note who visits at my present quiet +<span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span>home; I suppose it won’t be my home for very long, +though.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Why, is General Warmond going to sell it?” +abruptly demanded Mina, a wild yearning for wealth +to purchase it rising in her bosom.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, silly one,” responded the other, “I said +<i>my</i> home, not his.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Her friend gazed earnestly in her face for a +moment; then, as if she had solved a mystery, she +exclaimed,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You must be going to be married; is not that +it?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Perhaps!” was the reply.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You said, a minute or two ago, that clergyman +was not what either you or I would choose for a +husband. I have never reflected about choosing +any, but you must; please tell me what he is like?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Wonderfully like your cousin Allan,” said Miss +Warmond, smiling.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Is it he? are you going to marry him, are you +really?” Mina demanded; and as the words “I am” +fell on her ear, she cried, flinging her arms around +the neck of her relative that was to be, “Oh! I am +so glad—so very glad; then we shall be cousins, +next to sisters, you know, dear, dear, Cecilia.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Dear Cecilia felt quite gratified at this way “of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>receiving the news,” for it proved conclusively that +Mina had never entertained any evil designs on the +pre-occupied heart of Allan Frazer; still it did +strike her as something remarkable that the matter +should never have been named before such close +connexions; and she, therefore, to make assurance +doubly sure, inquired,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Did your cousin never tell you we were engaged?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Never,” was the answer.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Strange,” half murmured Miss Warmond; then +added, “well, you must not mention the matter to +any one till I give you permission; promise me you +won’t, even to your brother.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I promise,” said Mina; and, after that brief +sentence had passed her lips, she would as soon +have dreamt of cutting off her right hand as of +betraying a trust, no matter of what nature, which +had once been confided to her: and that Miss Warmond +possessed penetration enough to know; wherefore +she had done, what ladies are sometimes in the +habit of doing, sounded the girl by telling her a +secret, and bidding her keep it safely.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER II.<br> <span class='c009'>THE WAY OF THE WORLD.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>“And so, Mr. Malcolm, ye’re goin to take a +man’s look over the place your sister first opened her +eyes to the light of heaven in.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was Colin Saunders who spoke the above sentence; +and Mina’s brother who responded, as he +pulled a flower to pieces and scattered the leaves +carelessly on the ground,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, Colin?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Weel,” repeated Saunders, a little tartly; “many +a one says weel, weel, when it ne’er was waur wi’ +them.” And, after concluding the above sententious +remark, he looked with such a meaning glance +at his auditor, that the young gentleman was induced +to demand, more hastily than politely,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What the devil he meant.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“The deevil and me has no sort of connexion,” +remarked Colin gravely, “further than the universal +<span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span>one Adam and Eve made up with him by partaking +of his food, the apple, off the tree of knowledge, +which brought sin and death into the world, +and——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh! stop your preaching, Saunders,” interposed +Malcolm; “I never could stand sermonizing, even +in my youngest days; and, since I left Scotland, I +have been knocking too much about the world, and +have met too many kinds of people, to have learned +to ‘stand fire’ a single bit better than ever.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“The Lord takes his own time,” groaned forth +the man; “but,” he added,—noticing his late master’s +son removing one foot from the stump of an +old tree, preparatory to finishing the discussion by +“moving off,”—“but I had not the design of taking +the work of reforming you in hand myself, believing +it would be useless; all I wanted to ask was, if you +would be so obliging as not to couple my name and +that of him that’s no canny together in a single sentence.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, I’ll try not,” said Malcolm; “but it can +do you no harm, and it is, after all, only a habit I +have got; I suppose swearing is a sort of sin, but +still I like it, and so I go on with it, as with smoking +and one or two other accomplishments I learnt +in the navy.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>“There is many a thing, sir, ye like besides what +ye learned in the navy that won’t benefit ye much, +either here or hereafter.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Indeed; I am not aware——” commenced Malcolm, +with a very abortive attempt at a guiltless demeanour.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That a pretty face could mak’ you do ony single +folly in the world; that you are fonder of sitting +beside a woman’s piano, galloping wi’ her over the +moors, and walking wi’ her through the gardens, +than of going bravely out and working like a man. +Tak’ care, Master Malcolm Frazer, tak’ care.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Of what?” demanded that personage.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Of her,” replied Colin, “of the lady all Craigmaver, +that is, all the gentlefolk part of it, has +run mad, I think, about: the General’s handsome +daughter, Miss Cecilia Warmond.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Why, you don’t think that she is in any imminent +peril, that you bid me have such especial +charge of her, do you?” said Mr. Frazer, wilfully +misinterpreting the man’s words.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I do not think <i>she</i> is in any great danger, except +what she may choose to make for herself; but I am +sure you are,” replied the gardener: “it maybe +won’t kill you—such like, seldom do—but you’ll get +yourself hurt; and if I were Mr. Malcolm Frazer, I +<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>would neither go to Glenfiord myself nor let Miss +Mina be for ever on wi’ the mistress of it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The youth turned first red and then pale; but +determining not to be “worsted” by Colin, he +answered,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“As to myself, I am pretty competent, I fancy, to +keep out of harm’s way; and, with regard to the +young lady, what possible injury she can have done +you or yours, I confess is a mystery to me.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I never said she did me or mine an injury, but +I do say she will, maybe, do you and yours one, +some day or other; however, I see I might as +well try to stop the rivers from running as to turn a +gentleman on to the right gait, when he has once +made up his mind to take the wrang. I never +do go out of my way and say a word against those +whom my betters have taken a fancy to, but I repent +it;” and Colin commenced hacking and hewing +away at an unfortunate tree he had been engaged in +pruning in a more scientific manner, before Mr. +Frazer’s advent set his brains rambling to other and +more important subjects.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I think you are perfectly incorrigible, Colin,” +said the young man; “you are just the same as I +remember you years ago: not the least changed in +any one respect.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span>“Well,” answered Saunders, “I am sure I might +say the same of my old master’s son, for what he +had as a boy, I see he has carried up to manhood +with him; but I did not mean to offend ye, sir: I +am sorry if I have done so, only as I know it would +have been well for Mr. Allan if he had never looked +twice in that lady’s face, I thought I would just +make so free as to give you a hint, which, as I +might have expected, you don’t feel obliged to me +for; and I hope, sir, you may never find my words +come true. And now I have no more to say, except +that I trust the Lord will take better care of you +and that kindly-hearted child Miss Mina (who, I +thank God, is <i>not</i> changed) than either of you seem +willing or able to do for yourselves:” and, as Malcolm, +after muttering, “A pious finale to a prosy +sentence,” strolled off, whistling, the old man gave +over pruning, and stood sadly gazing at his retreating +figure till it disappeared altogether, when he +exclaimed,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You will have sense taught you some time or +another: I hope it wunna come to you as it did +to your father, too late to benefit either him or +those who were near to him. Ah, well-a-day! to +think o’ <i>his</i> children going back to that place wi’ +her.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>Poor Colin did more than think about them going, +for he saw their departure.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I never saw good come of a woman who could +not keep her mouth quiet, who was for ever smiling +or laughing or singing or talking or something,” he +soliloquised. “There surely is a ‘thraw’ in her, +some place, she wants to hide, or she would let herself +be at peace sometimes, if it was but by way o’ +variety.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>And one other person in the world besides Saunders +had grown weary of the eternal brightness of +Cecilia’s face, who journeyed to Glenfiord as he +would to a funeral, and took up his abode there as +he might in a cell in Newgate.</p> + +<p class='c011'>He said he was ill, to account for his lack of +spirits, and the laird, who thought he really was so, +backed this assertion so warmly that their host grew +quite uneasy about him, and Cecilia tormented him +with so many kindnesses that he often ungallantly +wished she were lying at the bottom of the lake; +whilst Malcolm, who, in such cases, was blind as an +owl with the light shining full on him, fancied his +cousin was jealous of the progress he had made in +Miss Warmond’s affections, and Mina and the quiet +mechanical cousin wondered and surmised, but said +nothing.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>It had been a source of much astonishment to +Mina to find the said “cousin” a placid, amiable +looking person of about thirty, with no token of extreme +eccentricity about her, who seemed to have +only one object and aim in life, and that to make +others happy, and to forget herself as completely as +if such an individual had no place on the outside of +the round ball we live on; and it had been a still +greater matter of surprise to her, when, on the night +of their arrival, she heard—after Cecilia had kissed +her twenty times and wished her pleasant dreams +and departed—first, a gentle tap at her chamber door, +and then beheld the door opened, without ceremony, +by Miss Lynd, who walked in and closed it after +her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do you ever take advice?” asked the lady, +gazing from the elevated point of view, which superiority +of height gave her, on the girl, who, having +been engaged, ere she entered, in the task of settling +her long refractory tresses for the night, stood now, +brush in hand, contemplating her unexpected visitor. +“Do you ever take advice?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Sometimes, if I like it,” responded Mina, a +vivid memory of Miss Caldera’s rejected counsel +recurring to her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But if it happen to be good would you refuse +<span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span>to accept advice, solely because it might seem a +little disagreeable?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, no,” returned Mina, after a pause, “not +if I thought it good too.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do you, then, never take anything on trust?” +was the next question.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Scarcely ever.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Not even a friend?” Miss Lynd inquired.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina made no answer, but fastened her eyes on +the other’s face as she proceeded:</p> + +<p class='c011'>“In a general way I permit people to plod along +their several paths without dreaming of interfering +with them; but you are so young, I have thought +it my duty to give you this warning—never make a +confidante of one you have not known well and long; +place nothing in anybody’s power, and believe that +occasionally a fair exterior may conceal a false +heart.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do you mean to imply——?” commenced Mina, +indignantly.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Nay, nay, do not get into a passion; you think +me prejudiced, eccentric, odd, I know,—in fact ere +you came here you were possibly taught to expect +to meet something decidedly peculiar; and, perhaps, +trouble, which has not spared me, may have made +me different from my happier fellows: but still I +<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>am a great deal older than you; and, because of +your extreme youth, because you have no mother or +sister or friend near, I have come to say, that the +less of your private affairs you tell any one, in the +course of your passage through life, the greater is +the probability of your making that passage smoothly +and safely. Read the hint as you please, apply it as +you choose, repeat it if you will; I have performed +my duty: good night;” and, as she had appeared, so +she vanished, abruptly and rapidly, leaving Mina to +complete the brushing and disentangling of her +hair, after having supplied some new thoughts to +keep her company and prevent her mind from stagnating +during the process.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Early the next day Mina arose, and, flinging open +her window, gazed over the scene that lay sleeping +peacefully beneath her, bathed in the sunshine +of morning; it was so early that not one of the +household, excepting a few of the servants, was +stirring, and all looked so exquisitely still and quiet, +that she felt as if no better opportunity were likely +to present itself, during her stay at Glenfiord, for a +lonely visit to the abiding place of the only friend +she possessed, who had lain him down to rest in the +land of his birth, under the shadow of the mighty +Ben Lomond: and accordingly, tying on the rustic +<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>hat she had worn since her arrival in the Highlands, +she quitted the house, and crossing the gardens and +passing through the plantations, arrived ere long at +the enclosure, wherein reposed generations who +after ‘life’s fitful fever’ slept there ‘well.’</p> + +<p class='c011'>She pushed the rusty iron gate open and walked +up to the corner, where a plain marble slab, bearing +the name of Allan Frazer, covered the dust of him +whose child she was. She stood for a minute or +two motionless; but then, flinging the flowers she +had carried with her on the grave, she crept close +down to the ground, as if that brought her somehow +nearer to him, and, laying her face on the damp +grass, she wept, as most of us have, at one time or +other, over the last home of a loved and dear relative +for ever departed.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Is it now ye are beginning to miss him, poor +bairn?” said a harsh voice in a kindly tone at her +side; and Mina, starting up, found herself face to +face with the sexton’s wife, who had known her +when a child, known her and him and all of them.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I am not <i>beginning</i> to miss him now, Margery,” +she answered; “I have felt it just the same always, +only time, perhaps, has softened the trial and reconciled +me to it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Ye’ll feel his loss more yet than ye have ever +<span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span>done,” was the consolatory reply; “and that minds +me, Mr. Allan sent me out to bring ye away from +the grave and the wet grass: see how your gown is +pairfectly dreeping; come in and get it dried, if ye +are no set to kill yersel’,” and the worthy woman +fairly dragged Mina into her wretched abode, where, +half-choked with smoke and surrounded by a swarm +of dirty, hungry children, she managed, with the +assistance of a blazing wood fire, to dry her garments; +during which operation her hostess entertained +her alternately with laments of the family +that “was gone,” and commendations of the family +that “had come,” applying the corner of her apron +to her eyes one minute, as she related some instance +of liberality on the part of the late Captain Frazer, +“who was the best gentleman that ever lived;” and +brightening up the next, when she told how Miss +Warmond had given the children dresses a-piece +the Christmas before, and new bonnets at Easter, +and “behaved like a real born lady, as everybody +knew her to be.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Come, Mina, are you ready?” said her cousin +Allan at length, putting his head in at the door and +speaking through a dense mass of smoke and dust; +and, thankful to escape from the woman’s garrulous +details and endless reminiscences, she at once replied +<span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>that she was, and went out to join him, after +placing such a souvenir in Margery’s hand as caused +her to be ranked from thenceforth as something +little, if at all, lower than a duchess.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Now, little one, you are not to do that foolishness +again, remember,” were the only words her +cousin spoke to her during the progress of their +homeward walk: he was commencing, indeed, +another sentence, when the appearance of Cecilia +Warmond, who came tripping across the garden +bright and fresh as ever, cut it short.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You are a pretty pair,” she said laughing; “I +concluded you had run off together, and papa was +just suggesting the advisability of a pursuit to +Gretna, whilst my cousin, in a state of tranquil +despair at being put out of her usual methodical +course, has sat down to read Shakespeare before +breakfast—only think of that—Shakespeare with the +“beauties,” for fear she might not be able to find +them out herself. Now what apology have you to +offer for thus setting a whole household in disorder, +turning my cousin’s brain upside down by upsetting +her whole system of domestic management, and +forcing her to begin the day at the wrong end?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina had heard such sentences as the foregoing +uttered perpetually by her friend without ever once +<span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>thinking they were out of place; but, fresh from a +graveyard, newly arrived in a place which brought +all sorts of memories back to her mind, the words +jarred upon her feelings, and, for the first time in +her life, she fancied Cecilia a little flippant. Could +it be that the doubt Miss Lynd had whispered in +her ear was taking effect? She had no time to +analyse the matter, for Allan, after apologizing as +best he might for their long delay, led Miss Warmond +into the breakfast room, while Mina ran back +to her own apartment to arrange her costume and +render it altogether, as Malcolm would have said, +“presentable.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>That day Cecilia made herself more charming than +ever; there was no end to her affection for her +guest: whatever Mina liked, she liked; whatever +the other wished, she was delighted with; she gave +her a lesson on the guitar; she had the quietest +horse in the stable brought round for her to try; +she was wonderfully solicitous about her friend’s +health; declared early rising was most injurious to +the constitution; made Malcolm take them a row on +the lake by moonlight, as Mina was romantic and +liked moonlight, and was so obliging as to teach both +of them a form of invocation to the moon, which invocation +had reference to the future partner fate had +<span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span>in store for them, and the answer whereto was to be +conveyed through the rather uncertain medium of a +dream.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The following morning she inquired first of Mina +what vision had appeared to her; and, after receiving +an answer, which she deemed a fib, to the effect +that the girl had not been favoured with any lunar +reply, she turned to Malcolm, and demanded of +whom he had dreamt.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Of you,” said that young gentleman, which impertinent +and most untrue response caused Miss +Warmond to blush most becomingly, and declare he +was “perfectly unbearable,” while Mina wished +greatly, that Cecilia either would cease flirting with +Malcolm—or, rather, encouraging him to flirt with +her—or else permit her to tell him the grand secret +she was not then at liberty to reveal, viz., the engagement +subsisting between Miss Warmond and +Allan Frazer.</p> + +<p class='c011'>For though Mina would not at first admit such an +idea, there could not be a doubt but that the poison +was beginning to work. Suspicion—that many-eyed +fiend—had been set on the trail of Cecilia’s errors; +and when once a correct scent is given, we know +how fast it is possible to follow it, particularly when +it leads to anything disagreeable. Hitherto, it had +<span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>been Mina’s habit only to look for virtues in her +friend, but now she had an eye for the failings also, +a sort of distrust—of what she scarcely knew—having +been infused into her. Ere she had been quite +a week at Glenfiord, she had absolutely detected +Cecilia covertly sneering at her three times in the +prettiest manner conceivable, and she detected her +fibbing twice and flirting, whenever an opportunity +presented itself, always. Cecilia was not perfect: +Mina found that fact out in an incredibly short +space of time after her arrival at Glenfiord, and, +like many another person in the world, she felt a +little inclined to be angry with her friend for not +possessing all the qualities she had most absurdly +imagined her to be endowed with.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The veil soon dropped partially from her eyes; +ere long it fell altogether, and she beheld Cecilia, +not as she seemed, but very much as she actually +was.</p> + +<p class='c011'>For Mina now saw Cecilia under different circumstances +from those under which they had first +become acquainted; and Miss Warmond, by dint of +ceaseless watching, came to know that Allan Frazer’s +malady was not a bodily one, that his affection for +her was most sensibly diminished, and that he +entertained altogether too high an opinion of his +<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>cousin to suit her uncommonly strict ideas of propriety.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What beautiful hair you have,” Mina said, as +the junior portion of the Glenfiord party stood, one +bright sunshiny day, among the flowers of the garden, +“what beautiful hair you have,” and Mina, as +if the fact had never struck her so forcibly before, +twisted one of the long silken curls round her finger +while she spoke.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Not more so than your own,” responded Miss +Warmond, who could afford to praise a ‘decidedly +inferior article,’ “as, I have no doubt, some people +in England would tell you if they were here.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Don’t teach the child folly,” interposed Allan +Frazer a little sharply, “she will learn nonsense in +the world soon enough when she mixes with it, believe +me.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The blood mounted even to Cecilia’s temples at +these words, which, had the speaker reflected a +minute, he would never have uttered, and she +quickly retorted,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You would like to have the instructing her in +all kinds of lore entirely to yourself, signor, I doubt +not; well, be it so: she is not altogether such a child +but that she will make an apt pupil. Is not your +cousin becoming a perfect Goth?” she added, turning +<span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span>to Malcolm, with a laugh; and that young gentleman +gladly declared he was, and rejoiced in his +heart to see how savage Allan looked, not that he +disliked the laird’s grandson, but it proved, he +thought conclusively, what fair way he himself must +be making in the good graces of their hostess, who, +from that day, treated Mina with a sort of sarcastic +fondness, which estranged them more than any actual +unkindness could have done. Just as a cunning mischievous +boy lures a dog up to him by all sorts of +devices, by tones of encouragement, by calling ‘poor +fellow,’ holding out a bone, and fifty other treacherous +expedients, to the end that, when he has got the +animal within reach, he may give him a sly kick or +a sound thrashing and send the creature away howling; +so Cecilia would spend half a day, sometimes +in making herself fascinating to Mina, and then deal +her a telling blow, which was struck nobody could +say how, and felt nobody but the actors could point +where, but the sharp pain of which, nevertheless, +frequently kept Mina weeping for hours after she +had laid her head on her pillow.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She could not have repeated the words containing +the sting: it was a thing to be felt, not seen, heard, +or repeated. In the art of irony Cecilia was an +adept; thus she wounded her visitor under cover +<span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>of a compliment, and, by pretending to be a useless +being, good for nothing but accomplishments, not +by the one half so intellectual and learned as Mina, +she effectually turned every scrap of knowledge the +girl called hers into ridicule, and by a process, imperceptible +to any eyes save those of her victim and +Allan Frazer, succeeded in making her so miserable, +and placing her in so very inferior a position, that +one morning, when a letter arrived from London, +requiring her return on account of her mother’s +indisposition, Mina felt as if heaven had suddenly +opened before her, she was so rejoiced to get away +from Glenfiord, and leave her persecutor hundreds +of miles behind.</p> + +<p class='c011'>To have heard Miss Warmond begging her to +stay, if it were only for one other week, any person +might have arrived at the conclusion which delighted +the old laird of Craigmaver, that the girls +were bosom friends, and likely for ever to remain +so; but, if her mother had been at the point of +death, Mina could not more strenuously have urged +the necessity of her immediate departure, and Malcolm, +to his sister’s unutterable thankfulness, wished +to be gone also: so without any unnecessary delay +they bade “good bye” to the hills and the waters +of their native land and the people who dwelt there, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>and set off on their long journey to that mighty +city both of them now called “home.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina had clung for an instant round her dear old +uncle’s neck, and a tear had fallen on his face as she +said farewell; she had looked sadly at Allan’s +troubled countenance, and gazed back again and +again at Glenfiord; but still, though the sorrow of +departure hung heavy on her soul, it was not the +passionate unmixed sorrow of her childhood; she +had learnt one lesson from her northern tour, +namely, that happiness abides not in place; that +true hearts make pleasant homes anywhere; that +there is a treasure of more account than beautiful +scenery or lovely faces—pure affection, which can, +thank God, dwell in hovels, and exist in atmospheres +killing to mawkish sentiment and pretence, +and which is to be found in the bosoms of +those whose countenances are stained and weather-beaten, +furrowed by time and seamed by trouble. +Mina had learnt a great deal; so Miss Caldera +thought.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, dear,” said that sterling friend, as she +poured out scalding tea for her and Malcolm on the +night of their return, “well, dear, did your visit +realise <i>all</i> your anticipations?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Not quite,” was the rejoinder.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span>“And Miss Warmond, whom you were so fond +of, has she proved all you expected——?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“She has proved the most confounded flirt I ever +met,” burst in Malcolm, to the astonishment of both +ladies; after which remarkable assertion, he hurried +through his meal in silence, and then sulkily ascended +to his mother’s room.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And so, dear foolish child, you are not, on the +whole, sorry to be back here once again,” said Miss +Caldera.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Sorry!” repeated Mina, “I’m very glad; I +will tell you all some time if I can: I do not want +to see the Highlands again till I can carry you all +there with me; and I have brought the cairngorm +quite safe, indeed I have, it is in my trunk upstairs.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And the heart, Mina?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I left it behind in the old places when I was a +child; but it has come back to England with me +this time,” she answered.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I had fancied your cousin, Allan——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh!” broke in Mina, “you don’t know about +Allan; he is so clever and talented and altered, I +would not have known him; and, besides——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, Mina?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, you see, though I don’t think it could +<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>do any harm to tell you, still I promised not, +and——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Quite right,” said Miss Caldera; “so that is +the way of it, is it? and do you feel very glad?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I did, but I am not sure I do now,” was the +reply; and Mina, by way of a finale to some unspoken +train of thought, put her arm round the +governess’s neck, and kissed her over and over again. +“I often imagined when I was away,” she said, “I +had not been half fond enough of you; but I will +be now, and never grow cross or impatient or discontented +any more.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Don’t be too sure,” answered Miss Caldera +laughing; “we shall know more about that when you +are next tempted.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, I will love you from this night twice as +much as ever I did,” replied Mina, colouring.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Love me just the same, and keep the affection +unchanged through time; that will be a deal better +for both of us,” remarked Miss Caldera, earnestly: +and Mina acquiesced in the truth of this observation +so meekly, that the lady thanked the fates for +having sent her former refractory charge to Scotland, +and taming her so effectually when they got +her there.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I only hope it may last,” murmured Miss Caldera, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>as she stole silently up the stairs of her relative’s +house, and thus went noiselessly, and more +tranquilly than usual, to rest.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER III.<br> <span class='c009'>MARRY IN HASTE, ETC.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>Yes! Mrs. Frazer was ill, and John Merapie +silent, and Mr. Westwood in existence, and Miss +Caldera truthfully candid as ever, and Belerma +Square had not grown one whit more cheerful during +her absence, and yet still Mina was glad, thankful +to be back. It is true she did not quite comprehend +the deliberate badness of Miss Warmond’s +nature: much as she had seen, much as she had +discovered, she did not fully understand the utter +worthlessness and deceit which were covered by so +fair a mantle of beauty and of grace; but she had +found out enough, and suffered sufficiently, to render +her grateful to leave luxury and scenery and +fashion behind, and find herself once more amongst +those who pretended nothing, but loved her much.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Miss Caldera was right: the girl had learnt a great +deal when she returned to be contented in John +<span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span>Merapie’s town house. She had taken her first +lesson in the world, tasted one drop out of the cup +of fashionable life, and found it wonderfully bitter; +she had become convinced that one word of praise +or kindness uttered by a sterling steady friend, aye, +even a sentence of warning or rebuke spoken by +such an one in loving sincerity, is more really valuable +than all the deceitful compliments and flattering +falsehoods which hollow hearts can dictate and +fulsome tongues whisper.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She returned, not very strong perhaps, but still +much better, with a colour in her cheek and a light +in her eye, and a style in her manner, carriage, and +deportment, which she had learnt from Cecilia. For +she was at that age when association is everything, +when accent is improved, an air of fashion conferred, +ideas of elegance implanted, by being brought into +contact with persons whose every movement, tone, +gesture, tells that they have mixed in <i><span lang="fr">le beau monde</span></i>, +and that its usages and customs and ceremonies are +familiar to them as household words. “Wonderfully +improved in appearance,” even her mother +thought her. She retained her former manner, it is +true, but the brusqueness, living in a secluded solitary +kind of way had formerly caused her to acquire, +was almost gone; the tone of her voice bordered +<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>occasionally on the very confines of liveliness, her +step had lost its languor, her face its melancholy; +quiet and reserved she seemed still at intervals, but, +taking her on the whole, a decided change for the +better had been effected by her Highland trip; perhaps +the mountain air might have benefited her +health, which, for a considerable period previous to +her departure—indeed, almost from her childhood—was +anything rather than good; perhaps the “rubbing +up” she had got, the mixing with other people +besides her own exclusive home circle, the being +drawn out of herself and forced to think of others +and their concerns, exercised a beneficial influence +on her mind; perhaps the glimpse she had gained +of “fairy land,” of fine ladies and clever gentlemen, +and the other beings who move in that sphere we +call, <i><span lang="fr">par excellence</span></i>, ‘the fashionable world,’ had +tended to reconcile her considerably to a mere terrestrial +common-place existence in Belerma Square: +at all events Mina came home to her uncle’s, altered,—not +for the worse.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And if, after the first peaceable fortnight, she and +Miss Caldera did again commence to have various +little “tilts” of opinion, still they never signified, +and were by no means so frequent as of yore, for the +governess had apparently arrived at the determination +<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>of permitting Mr. Alfred Westwood to manage +his matrimonial plans as best he could without her +interference; and as this was the only point on +which she and Mina had been wont to have arguments, +that might almost have been termed quarrels, +they plodded on together without any greater differences +of opinion arising between them than served +to prevent their tongues growing rusty by want of +sufficient exercise.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Occasionally, indeed, Malcolm became a very +serious bone of contention for both to try their teeth +on, for that young gentleman, whose chances of a +commission seemed far off as ever, grew day by day +so much more useless and indolent and fashionable +than had been his wont before, (and “Goodness +knows,” said Miss Caldera, “he was bad enough +in those respects always”) that the worthy governess +at last fairly lost all patience on the subject, and frequently +asserted, “He ought to be ashamed of himself.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But what can he do?” demanded Mina, who +was very fond and proud of her brother, “what can +he do?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Work,” responded the lady; “is not that what +men are sent into the world for, and what right has +he, blessed with youth, health, and talent, to be standing +<span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span>idle, whilst older and better men are toiling +wearily from day to day?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He has no profession,” suggested the girl.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Let him choose one, then,” replied Miss Caldera, +“or rather let him get rid of some of his absurd +dandyism and family pride and dreamy anticipations, +and settle quietly down at business and become a +useful member of society.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Like uncle John?” added Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He will never be like any one half so good,” +remarked Miss Caldera warmly, for she thought +Mina’s words implied a sneer, which they did not.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Her former charge looked for a minute or two up +at the clear blue heavens, then she said in a deprecating +tone,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I do not think I have any pride, or absurdity, +or ‘notions,’ as you call them, and yet I should not +like Malcolm to do what he styles, ‘put himself +into harness’ and be buried alive at Wapping, and +sit there the whole day leaning over a desk, writing +from morning till night, and thinking of nothing but +money—money—money—till he grew a regular old +city merchant like some of my uncle’s friends: I +cannot fancy my brother ‘a business man.’”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Indeed!” angrily retorted Miss Caldera; “and +pray, my dear, what can you fancy your brother?”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>“An officer,” replied Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“A nonsense!” exclaimed her friend.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I don’t see why he should not,” said his sister; +“he is handsome enough, and daring enough, for +anything, and my father was in the army, and many +of our relations; I really do not see why Malcolm +should not be an officer, if he choose.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, I do,” answered Miss Caldera; “for he +has so provoked your uncle, that I can see plainly +he will never buy him a commission.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Then we must get him one some other way, that +is all,” replied Mina, so quietly, that Miss Caldera +began to think her almost as foolish as her brother, +and told her so; at which the girl laughed, and said +she believed her friend imagined both of them to be +perfect simpletons, but that, indeed, she was mistaken.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That may be,” responded the governess, in a +manner, however, which clearly implied the unspoken +mental addition of “but I don’t believe +I am.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Meanwhile, very shortly after her return to +London, the old laird’s niece received a long letter +from Cecilia, so full of “dears” and “loves” and +“darlings” and all sorts of fond expressions, that it +fairly astounded the recipient, and induced her +<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>almost to believe she must have misunderstood her +friend, and felt displeased with her on very slight +insufficient grounds.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Cecilia hoped her “pet” would come and be one +of her bridesmaids, for she was to be married in the +autumn, and though Mr. Malcolm Frazer and she +had not parted on the <i>very</i> best terms, she hoped he +had not quite forgotten her, and desired best and +kindest remembrances to him. And she gave an +account of her cousin’s wedding, and said how <i>very</i> +lonely Glenfiord seemed after Mina’s departure, and +filled half a sheet with wishes that they were living +close to each other, and asked how she was contriving +to exist in that dreadful Belerma Square, and +made particular inquiries concerning the state of +Mrs. Frazer’s health, and said that if Mr. Merapie +were going to retire, and thought of purchasing an +estate in the Highlands, there was a beautiful property +to be sold not a mile from Glenfiord; how +delightful it would be if Mina could induce him to +buy it; and she wound all up by saying, “Of course +my engagement is no secret now. Ever dear, dear +Mina, your affectionately attached—<span class='sc'>Cecilia Warmond</span>.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Miss Caldera smiled when she finished reading +through the epistle her former pupil handed to her +<span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span>for perusal, and in answer to Mina’s question, +“Well, what do you think of it?” she said briefly, +“Not much;” which reply, undoing the effect the +letter had produced, brought the individual who +was so happy as to be called by Miss Warmond +“friend” back to her preconceived opinion of that +young lady, and caused her to doubt if every word +traced in that fair, delicate, Italian hand were true, +and whether the one half at least of the contents of +the epistle did not sound, as Miss Caldera, who +never could resist a saw or a proverb, said, “a vast +deal too sweet to be altogether wholesome.” Also, +on Mina’s informing her brother of the projected +marriage, he curtly rejoined,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh! yes, I knew all about it long ago; she told +me she was engaged to Allan after she had drawn +me on to propose—hang her!” and, in fact, so much +evidence, circumstantial and otherwise, was produced +just about this period in Miss Warmond’s +disfavour, that poor Mina began to be thoroughly +convinced she was very far from what she ought to +be—very, very far, indeed, from being the sort of +person she had fancied that bright spring morning, +when she threw her arms around the beautiful neck +and said she was so glad, so very glad Cecilia was to +become her cousin.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>“What is making Mr. Allan Frazer marry such a +creature?” demanded Miss Caldera, as she folded +up the letter with an air of supreme contempt; +“what in the world has possessed him?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I am sure I do not know,” replied Mina, and it +was true, for she felt Allan’s love for the General’s +daughter was nothing remarkable, and she had speculated +often concerning what could, as Miss Caldera +said, “have possessed him.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>But Allan Frazer himself knew, and that was +sufficient; he was aware of how he had longed to +be free—of a painful interview between himself and +his uncle, which terminated with his saying, “Oh! +if she would only give me up,” a thing she had not +the remotest intention of doing, either for him or +anybody else.</p> + +<p class='c011'>For, as far as she was capable of loving man or +woman, she loved the laird’s grandson—loved him +for himself, his appearance, his talents, and the sort +of celebrity he had acquired; further than all this, +she stuck to him because he desired to cast her off, +and showed her he did; and, because she fancied +he cared for Mina, “that little, insignificant, uneducated +child,” and she was determined as he had once +proposed for her he should marry her, or else she +would know the reason why.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>“If you have not changed your mind,” said +Allan; coldly, to her one day, when, at length, some +kind of an explanation had become unavoidable, “if +you have not changed your mind, or repented your +choice, or come to the conclusion that I am not +qualified to make you happy,—if, in one word, you +wish me to fulfil my engagement, I am ready to do +so; if not——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You will start for London and resume your +interrupted flirtation with Mina Frazer,” she added, +with an angry laugh.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“With Mina Frazer! heaven forbid!” ejaculated +Allan; “no, no; Mina is too good and gentle-hearted +to flirt with, and as to marrying, if she ever +do commit the folly, I trust the fates will provide +her a better husband than I feel I am competent to +make any one: no, no,” he said again, in a less +hurried tone, “I am fond of her as a cousin, as a +sister, as a dear, good, truthful little girl; she always +rises to my mind like a pure pleasant memory of +childhood, or something very close to childhood: +never say that again, Cecilia; I cannot bear to have +even Mina’s name mentioned in connection with +that horrid word.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I spoke thoughtlessly,” responded Miss Warmond, +who felt she had ventured a little too far on +<span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span>dangerous ground, “and it was wrong for me so to +do, as you were talking seriously concerning a +serious subject.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Our marriage!” acquiesced Allan. “You have +now had a long period to reflect upon the matter, +and I wish to know if you are still of opinion that I +am an individual with whom you could endure to +pass years—a life time. I do not desire to hold you +bound because of any engagement between us: I +have endeavoured not to deceive you in any point, +whether relating to my family, circumstances, or +self; you have seen everything as it is, had ample +opportunities of judging for yourself. I am well +aware that I can offer you no home equal to some +others, the doors of which would open gladly to +receive you; and therefore I ask you to consider +yourself as perfectly free, and to decide for the +second time, as if it were the first, whether you will +take me as I am and my fortunes as they are, or +whether we shall part now, never to meet again +excepting, perhaps, as friends.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Cecilia knew what this speech meant just as well +as the person who uttered it: she knew he was +really asking her to set him free, though he worded +the sentence as if it were he conceding that boon to +her; she read down into the depths of his heart and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>saw that his love for her, vehement, wild, romantic +as it had been, was gone; she felt he was yearning +with a soul-sick longing to be set at liberty; that he +was waiting, like a criminal to hear his doom, dreading +lest she would accept him. Cecilia knew and +saw all these things, and yet, and perhaps because of +them, she held him to the contract he had madly +rushed into and would not give him up.</p> + +<p class='c011'>There was a burning fury raging in her heart; +if she had hated Allan Frazer she would still have +forced him to marry her: she resolved to be revenged, +even though, in working out that vengeance, +she should wound herself; jealousy, anger, +resentment, affection, mortified vanity, determined +obstinacy, a truly feminine spirit of contradiction, +and a lamentable deficiency of womanly feeling and +womanly pride, urged her on, and, amidst a torrent +of, for once, perfectly genuine tears, she sobbed +forth the decision, which it was death to the laird’s +grandson to hear, “She would marry him.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The fiat had been pronounced that sealed and +blasted his destiny for life; like the victim who feels +the last plank drawn from beneath his feet; like the +child of care, on whose bosom the chill hand of misfortune +has just stamped some ineffaceable mark; +like the bereaved one who is told of the death of a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>friend, loved better than land or gold or station; +like the merchant who hears his wealth has vanished +and that he is left a beggar, so Allan Frazer listened +to her final resolution; and when at length he slowly +and gloomily quitted the apartment, it was with that +look of fixed despair in his face, which marks so unmistakeably +the man who feels his peace is wrecked, +his happiness destroyed, his future blighted.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Moore, in one of his songs, tells us how wretched +man would be</p> + +<div class='lg-container-b c012'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“If, when deceived in love,</div> + <div class='line'>He could not fly to hate.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c013'>Which may be strictly true, not merely in poetry, +but in fact, when the parties who hate are compelled +to separate.</p> + +<p class='c011'>But hatred, or even indifference, is a commodity +of rather questionable utility to start with in the line +matrimonial; so Allan Frazer thought, yet still he +did start with nothing beside it, excepting, perhaps, +a little contempt and a great deal of anger, as a +happy benedict: and he found, as time went on, he +was never likely to become a bankrupt, for his stock +in trade increased rather than diminished, and when +people congratulated him and admired her, the new-made +husband turned away sick and dispirited; for +<span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span>the beauty that had won was impotent to retain, the +grace and the accomplishments had grown distasteful +to his soul, her soft low voice affected him sadly, +as a melody—no matter how sweet it may be—that +awakens disagreeable memories palls on the ear of +the listener and causes him to desire to fly from the +sound of it: where she dwelt was a place to be +absent from as much as possible; in one word, the +doom of many of his race was upon him, only he +had repented sooner than they. The change, he was +conscious of before marriage, but that, perhaps, +made the sorrow only the greater, for the lady, not +desiring the engagement to be cancelled, he had +felt himself bound in honour to make her his bride; +and thus Cecilia carried her point, as she would +have carried any other on which she had once set +her mind, even had the same been going up to her +neck in Loch Lomond and finishing her earthly experiences +there: and if she did not get all she +wanted, why Allan got nothing he desired, and that +was an immense advantage gained, considerably +more than half the battle; it was indeed almost the +whole of it, so the General’s daughter consoled +herself by thinking at times—when the conviction +forced itself upon her that both had been worsted +in the struggle, that she had paid a high price for +<span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>something not particularly well worth having, that, +in short, for the sake of loving him a little, it had +been scarcely worth while to persist in tying herself, +whether he would or no, to a husband who loved +her not at all. But whatever she thought about the +business signified not; there was nothing now to be +done but make the best of it, for they were married. +Oh! yes, there could not be the least doubt about that +fact; they were married one bright sunshiny morning +in the autumn, as Cecilia wrote to her “Dear Mina” +was to be the case; and the ceremony proved a very +sublime affair indeed, for an Indian commander-in-chief—or, +to speak more correctly, a commander-in-chief +who had been in India—honoured the nuptials +with his presence; and his niece, Lady Matilda +Cintra, looked charming, as one of the bridesmaids; +and, in brief, so many grandees, gathered from far +and near, came in carriages and pairs and carriages +and fours, flanked by outriders and surrounded with +a sort of halo of liveries and crests and coats of arms +and pedigrees, to see one person, at least, made +miserable, that the leading Edinburgh paper of that +period devoted a paragraph to the affair; and it got +stuck somehow in the <cite>Morning Post</cite>, and cards went +flying about to the houses of the great and the noble +and the wealthy; and John Merapie, who hated humbug, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>read the passage through from beginning to +end, and then told a city friend, who asked if the +bridegroom were not a connexion of his, that he +believed he was cousin or something of that kind +to the children (Mina and Malcolm), and that +the bride had wanted his niece to be one of the +bridesmaids, but, he was thankful to say, she was +too sensible to run mad after folly and fashion +and Mechlin veils and lords and ladies and—humbug.</p> + +<p class='c011'>All of which impressing the city friend with a +magnificent idea of the grandeur of Mrs. Frazer’s +Highland relations and of the wealth and sense of +her brother—a man who could afford to talk lightly +of a commander-in-chief and a Lady Matilda Cintra—he +turned over thenceforth a new leaf in his behaviour +towards the family in Belerma Square, and +found out that Malcolm and Mina had the “stamp +of aristocrats about them and no mistake.” “Real +true blues,” he remarked to an acquaintance who +had extensive dealings in indigo, and who, therefore, +stupid as he generally was, understood that +style of praise, and grunted forth an acquiescence +thoroughly genuine and sincere, though he did outrage +Lindley Murray and mangle Dr. Johnson horribly +during the performance.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span>And that paragraph was perused by many another +besides John Merapie and his city friends.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Alfred Westwood learned it off by heart, and then +silently cursed some mysterious parties, and communed +for hours with himself, after which he took a +fixed resolution. Miss Caldera glanced through it +and said, she “hoped they’d be happy.” Mina +skimmed the list of fashionables over the governess’s +shoulder, and sighed, she knew not why, to find so +grand a lady was actually her cousin.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mrs. Frazer got her son to read all about the +wedding aloud for her edification, and though he +sneered when he came to the part about the lovely, +amiable, and accomplished bride, still the whole +thing gratified his Highland pride and snobbish +nonsense. The cards so beautifully tied together +and inscribed, Mr. Allan Frazer—Mrs. Allan Frazer, +to the end that they might be better seen, were +taken carefully out of the highly enamelled envelope +and placed on the top of the papier maché basket +John Merapie’s sister had filled with bits of pasteboard +collected during previous years, on which +were printed the names of grandees, who had forgotten +such an individual as herself ever existed.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Well, well, it was a harmless vanity, a reminiscence +of more fashionable days, a sort of silent +<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>denial that Belerma Square was a proper place for +her to reside in, a mute protest against the injustice +of shutting her out for ever from intercourse with +“the persons moving in the sphere of life she had +formerly been accustomed to.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>I once heard a tale of an individual who <i>stole</i> a +card, having the name of a peeress traced on it, and +who, if the story were not a fiction, preserved it +among lesser and more ignoble cards till it grew +yellow with the action of time, worn with the process +of perpetual fingering. Poor Mrs. Frazer did +not carry her absurdity so far as this; she merely +exhibited to, or rather placed within view of, curious +visitors what was <i><span lang="fr">bonâ fide</span></i> her own, acquired legitimately +in other times; and finally, as if by accident, +so disposed the heap, that the last precious +<i>morceaux</i> the fates were pleased to send her should +be seen by everybody at a glance: only did this, +and got Malcolm to read her a dreary newspaper +paragraph through.</p> + +<p class='c011'>One other person permitted his eyes to wander +over that chronicle of the goodly company who went +to see Miss Warmond transformed into Mrs. Frazer; +and, when he concluded, a darker shade came on +Ernest Ivraine’s brow, and he sighed as he looked +at the swamps of Paradise to find Mina’s relatives +<span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>appeared to be, not merely rich, but aristocratic; +that to the beautiful land of her birth she had so +many ties; that Malcolm’s assertions regarding their +family were quite correct; that his own impressions +had been a little wrong. Ernest’s hand trembled +slightly as he laid down the paper which a sycophantish +neighbour sent his father day after day; +why it should have done so he knew best; “she +was nothing to him—nothing;” he said so constantly, +and tried to believe the statement correct.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER IV.<br> <span class='c009'>THE ROAD TO FORTUNE.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>Months previously the baronet’s son had returned +home, looking, as Sir Ernest kindly told +him, like a “resuscitated corpse:” and, in truth, +his long illness had produced anything rather than +a beneficial change in his appearance. His pale +face, haggard looks, and emaciated person, completely +removed a suspicion his father had entertained, +that Ernest, for some unknown purpose, +“was shamming;” it was a vast deal clearer than +a finger-post that the young man was just recovering +from sickness,—long, severe, dangerous; and +having satisfied his mind on this point by one keen +scrutinising glance, the baronet’s thoughts, which +constantly turned to gold—“true as the needle to +the pole”—reverted to money, and he began to consider +what a deal his son’s accident must have cost, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>and how the fees and medicines and etceteras were +to be paid.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“So you have been very ill, you say,” was almost +the first remark he vouchsafed.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, sir, nearly dead,” responded Ernest, laying +an unconscious, but still most mournful, emphasis +on the “nearly,” as if he regretted an answer +could not have been given regarding him without +the presence of that word.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The baronet mentally calculated the cost of having +his body conveyed from London and buried at +Lorton; debited and credited the accounts of life +and death, so to speak, and finding the balance decidedly +in favour of the former, the expenses of the +latter being, at a moderate computation, more than +double, he said, in a much more satisfied tone,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, but you’re better now, are not you?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“A great deal; I am, I may say, quite strong +again.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And so your journey might have been saved; +the opinion is——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What I wrote you,” supplied Ernest, as his father +stopped, “that you have not an inch of ground to +stand upon. Scott and Smeek took that view from +the first; but as they did not like to go by their +own judgment alone, they said it would be better to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>lay the affair before some eminent barrister, which +we did. The very first legal opinion of the day has, +therefore, been taken on the question, and the sum +and substance of that opinion is, that if you wish to +go to law you can, but it will be with a positive +certainty of being beaten.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Humph! that would scarcely suit Sir Ernest +Ivraine,” said the baronet reflectively.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“So I told Scott, and he said he knew that, and +intimated to the barrister you were not accustomed +to that sort of thing. The other said shortly, ‘He +had heard of your having twenty law suits and +never losing one; but that if you brought this into +court you would get the worst of it.’”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“A straightforward honest speech,” remarked the +baronet, who was pleased to find his fame, in respect +of successful litigation, had spread even to the heart +of England’s metropolis. “Lawyers are the only +class of men I care to have any dealings with; they +are up to every kind of villainy, and make no pretence +about it; and when they say, ‘Don’t go to +law,’ you may depend they are sincere, seeing it is +their interest everybody should be at loggerheads +with his neighbour. The first ‘case’ I have, I will +retain that fellow, and my opponent shall pay him: +ha, ha! Well, Ernest, anything else?”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span>“Nothing, excepting that, in return for the +guineas he received from me, he sent back a ‘full +opinion’ to you, which you can read at your leisure, +I having now condensed the matter of it; and further, +Mr. Scott called frequently upon me during +my illness, or, rather, when I was getting better—not +in the way of business, but as a friend—and, before +I left, he advised me to urge you by no means to +go to law, as it would certainly entail enormous +expense and could serve no good purpose, except +to give your opponents a triumph over you.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And he styles that a good purpose,” soliloquised +the baronet; “well, so be it, only it’s one I won’t +be the means of accomplishing just at present: and +he went to see you without wanting to be paid for +it, did he?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I presume, on account of certain former business +transactions with you, he considered it only respectful +to call on your son after I had been so unfortunate +as to get my arm broken; besides which, Belerma +Square is scarcely a stone’s throw from his office in +Arras Street.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I wonder,” said Sir Ernest with his usual benevolence, +“you could not have watched where you +were going, and avoided such an accident; I never +heard of anything so clumsy or provoking in my life,—stumbling +<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>for no other conceivable purpose than +to make work for the doctors. Pshaw! I thought +you had more sense; the expense of them alone +must have been something frightful; set of leeches +as they are, they never let a patient out of their +hands till they have sucked his pockets dry: I +would hang the half of them, and that might be a +warning to the remainder of their brethren.” And +the baronet, who loved lawyers, delivered this sentence +with peculiar gusto, and chuckled, in his customary +savage manner, at the idea of how summarily +he would settle the bills of the numerous and much +libelled class, who either prefix Dr. to their surnames +or else stick M.D., as an appropriate and +ornamental finish to the same.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I beg to assure you,” said Ernest, when the old +man, having thought better about suffocating himself, +had stopped his detestable laugh before it fairly +took away his breath for ever, “I beg to assure you, +my expenses for medical attendance were so moderate +as quite to surprise me, and you must remember +I was at none other.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“None other? ah, yes! I had forgotten: somebody +picked you up and carried you home,—a philanthropist +was it, or an undertaker anxious to get +the job of burying a gentleman, or a lady desirous +<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>for a good matrimonial settlement, who thought if +she could bring you round, you might ‘do,’ eh! +Ernest, which was it?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The blood mounted into the young man’s cheeks, +and he bit his lip to find it doing so, particularly as +the baronet’s cold, shrewd, searching eye was upon +him; but he answered with an attempt at unconcern.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I do not think the person who performed the +very kind act of rescuing me from the tender mercies +of a policeman and an hospital can lay any claim to +the character of a philanthropist, or, indeed, would +wish to do so; but that certainly is the only one of +the three personages you have named he even faintly +resembles.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Don’t like philanthropists,” remarked the +baronet, determined to sift the matter to the very +bottom; “glad to hear he does not set up for one, +though I admit they are occasionally useful, as in a +case of this kind, for instance; but who was your entertainer? +open your mouth wide for once, Ernest, +and tell me: I am desirous of knowing who saved the +life of my son; naturally anxious—you understand,” +and the wretched, ungrateful old man smiled like a +fiend and fastened his glistening eyes on the thin worn +face of him who grew alternately red and pale under +a scrutiny which was becoming almost unbearable.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span>“My entertainer was a Mr. John Merapie, of the +firm of Merapie and Westwood—rich I should +think, kind I know, eccentric I believe—who resides +at number 12, Belerma Square, and is reported to +be a first-rate man of business and to stand high +in the commercial world as a person of strict integrity, +and so forth.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What family has he?” demanded Sir Ernest, as +his son paused.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“None: he never was married and seems a confirmed +bachelor,” was the reply.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Humph!” This favourite ejaculation of the +baronet’s was uttered after the fashion of a confidential +soliloquy, and his son was just praying he had +got to the end of his queries—in other words, he +either had never smelt the game at all or else been +lured off the scent of it, when suddenly out came +the next question, and the one Ernest had been +dreading from the commencement.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What kind of a feminine creature keeps house +for him? He does not live all alone in one of those +Belerma Square mansions without some female relative, +I suppose, eh?” and the miser finished off this +interrogatory by stretching forth one hand, as if he +would fain have shaken information full and accurate +out of his son.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>“His sister, or, rather, his half sister, manages +the establishment,” Ernest responded.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And what may she be like?” persisted his +father; “is she young or old, handsome or plain, +rich or poor, a dependant or what? Tell me at +once, sir; I—I want to understand this business +thoroughly. I always suspect these disinterested +people: I am not going to have you inveigled into a +vulgar pauper marriage, I——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“For heaven’s sake, sir, don’t agitate yourself so +unnecessarily!” interposed Ernest, in the calm +sarcastic tone he had surely inherited from his +parent, for it was one Sir Ernest could assume at +pleasure; “the lady is neither young, handsome, +nor peculiarly attractive; she may either be a dependant +or not for aught I know about her: John +Merapie never made the slightest effort to ‘catch’ +her for me, and if you remain without a daughter-in-law +till I ask you to receive that gentleman’s +sister, greatly indebted as I feel myself to both of +them, you will live to see the youngest oak on your +property a giant tree. Pray set your mind at ease; +nobody has spread the net matrimonial for me since +I left here; great catch as I admit I would be for +the relative of a man who is worth some quarter of a +million at any rate.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>For about the first time in his life the baronet +found himself at fault; there was a quiet scorn in +his son’s manner that threw him off the trail: it was +long before fresh occurrences set him on it again, +and caused him to reflect that there might be other +ladies living at number 12, Belerma Square, than +John Merapie’s sister. Ernest’s tone satisfied him +the young man was not in love with the merchant’s +relative; and, as he had no particular fault to find +with the pair who had saved him from the infliction +of a long hotel bill, and no very good pretence for +quarrelling with Ernest, and as, moreover, he +wanted to inform him he had thought of a way of +“doing” Sir Hugh Xifer and the rest, without +going to law with them, he contented himself by +saying,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If he have a quarter of a million, he will hardly +ask you to marry his sister, I am perfectly satisfied +about that; only I like to see my way and not to +be blinded: Henry has brought disgrace enough +into our family, without your making us any worse; +and for what he has done I have renounced him, +cut him off from my heart and my home, blotted +out his name as child of mine; remember that, sir, +never forget it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It strikes me you were a little premature with +<span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span>regard to my brother, just as, a few minutes since, +you were too hasty in reference to myself,” remarked +Ernest, still maintaining the withering tone +which alone ever seemed to produce the slightest +effect on his parent; “I told you years ago Henry +would rise to name and fortune yet, and you then +laughed my assertion to scorn; but the boy had the +materials in him out of which heroes are moulded; +he has risen, as I asserted he would; he has flung +back the lie in the teeth of those who would have +prejudiced you against him by tales of his rashness, +his discontent, his waywardness; he has struggled, +he has conquered, he has won; your son is no +longer a ‘common private, a vagabond soldier.’ +Without money, without influence, almost without +a friend, he has raised himself from the ranks, and +now stands in a position in which you will not blush +to acknowledge him. To what station he may further +attain it is impossible to say; perhaps his name may +yet become one famous in history; if life be spared, +he will certainly achieve some brilliant destiny for +himself: meantime, you will learn from this letter +what he has already accomplished; he enclosed it +in one to me, and bade me be sure to give it, +whether you were willing or not, into the hands of +‘his father.’”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>These were the concluding words of the longest +sentence Ernest had ever uttered in his life; but +this time the miser did not inform him he was +“becoming eloquent.” No; during the progress of +the speech he turned pale, livid almost with excitement; +his face assumed a totally different expression, +his whole frame quivered and trembled, as +though shaken by some violent emotion; and when, +at last, his son held out the missive, he looked at +him, first wildly for a moment, and then clutching it +with convulsive eagerness, he bade Ernest, in a +voice almost inaudible from emotion, leave him alone—leave +him alone quickly.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And when Ernest obeyed, the old man tore open +the letter, and devoured rather than read its contents. +If Henry’s speeches had been of the longest, +assuredly his epistle was of the shortest: but what +did that signify; “good news,” like “good goods,” +go in small bulk, and thus a few honest manly lines +sufficed to tell the struggles, the disappointments, +the success of the younger brother; he possessed +nothing to give in exchange for a commission, he +said, “but his blood,” and of that he had not been +sparing: his upward course was marked by a deep +broad track of crimson, but he had won, at length, +name, fame, epaulettes, position; and standing—after +<span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>years of toil and struggle, of weary climbing and of +sickening disappointments, on the broad sure stone, +Success—he wrote, for the first time since they +parted, to his parent, and conveyed to him the story +of his experiences, his long-deferred hopes and +their final realization, in a score or so of concise +decided words.</p> + +<p class='c011'>But oh! what volumes did those words not contain: +the story of manhood’s toil; the exultation of +youthful pride; the firm purpose of a noble soul; +the unalterable steadiness of a truthful generous +heart; the natural triumph of one who, having been +misunderstood and traduced, was able to fling the +undeniable fact of having carved out his own way to +fortune, unassisted, unpatronised, unsullied, in the +faces of his former calumniators: there was everything +in that short letter, everything—even to a +vague instinctive attachment for his miser parent—save +love of home.</p> + +<p class='c011'>He desired not to revisit Paradise, that was self-evident; +he loathed the very memory of that place, +amid the fields and the trees and the swamps of +which the old miser baronet sate him down to read +and re-read, with a half-proud and a half-angry +heart, the history of his disobedient son’s wild projects, +and their just commenced fulfilment.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span>“It was in him, in him always, Henry, my brave +rash son.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>So muttered Sir Ernest, and the letter shook in +his hand, and something very like a film came for a +moment over his restless grey eyes as the record of +step after step—how longed for, how won—swam before +him; no one could have believed it was actually +the unfeeling old baronet who thus grasped, who +thus perused, the letter of a soldier—his gallant boy; +he seemed as different as night is from day, as the +tempest from sunshine, as storm from calm, as good +from evil; but still he was just the same, only the +single good chord in his nature having been touched, +a sort of harmony—not the less affecting because +strange and wild and a little harsh and irregular—pervaded +his whole being; he was thinking then, +kindly, gently, of the only creature under heaven he +loved, after his selfish sordid fashion, well and disinterestedly; +and as the words and the looks and the +tones of old came stealing into his soul, and with +their magic fingers woke the music of that one solitary +string which alone ever vibrated at the swell of +gentle passions, the miser became, for a brief space, +a man, the cynic a father, the sneerer a something +capable of experiencing human emotions, and being +melted for a moment by them.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>There was a wild joy and a strange sorrow in the +heart of Ernest Ivraine when he beheld how his +parent received the news of Henry’s success, when +he noted how, for a period after the receipt of that +letter, the miser seemed softened, subdued, altered: +a mingling of many feelings,—triumph, regret, impatience, +anger, grief; boundless exultation at the +leap his brother had so unexpectedly made from the +dull dark shore, called poverty, to that other, its +bright opposite comparative, prosperity. Henry’s +pride was his pride; he could now, in his name, +give back scorn for scorn to those who had dared to +question the abilities and the sense of his brother, to +measure the exact height at which he should always +remain stationary, to point out with sarcastic finger +a spot close to the base of the hill of fame where he +was ever to stand still, gazing wistfully up to that +summit, which it would never be his good fortune +to reach; he could now keep them at bay better +than formerly; he possessed a hold over the old +miser, more potent than flattery, or subservience, or +cleverness; the second chance was again restored, +and its influence he found to be, not merely unimpaired +by the lapse of time and change of circumstances, +but strengthened fourfold; it had almost +ceased to be a “chance,” for their hope of a goodly +<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>inheritance might now, Ernest saw, be called a certainty.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And if the hate he bore some of his kindred made +him rejoice their assertions had been proved false, +a far better and more Christian feeling, the love he +felt for his brother, caused every pulse of his heart +to beat quicker in fraternal sympathy with the triumphant +expressions of the young officer.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The weight was at last lifted from his soul; he no +longer lay awake at night, mourning for the generous +youth whose spirit had been crushed by disappointments; +who, having chosen his lot, was forced to +drag out year after year in weary servitude, uncheered +by congenial companionship, unillumined +by a hope; who had no friend out there or anywhere +to help him up; who loved no one and was +loved by no one, save Ernest, his silent, melancholy, +absent brother.</p> + +<p class='c011'>No; light had dawned in India at length: the +night was passed, the morning come, and sometimes +when sorrow pressed sorely upon him, when his own +chains galled and his own thoughts oppressed him, +the elder brother turned his mournful gaze away +to the glorious east, to the land of splendid luxury, +of pearls and perfumes, of gorgeous flowers and +towering mountains, of cactus hedges and impenetrable +<span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span>forests, of palaces and magnificence; to the +land where great destinies have been achieved and +valour recognized and diplomacy rewarded; to the +land which had become that of promise to the +miser’s youngest born. From the dreary fens of +Lincolnshire he turned his mournful gaze away +to the east, and, forgetful of himself for a period, +drew comfort and gratification from watching the +proud confident strides that were being taken in +rapid succession by him who so resembled the fairhaired, +gentle woman they both had called, in childhood’s +first faltering accents, “Mother.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>So much for the joy; so far all was as, perhaps, +it ought to have been, as pure, as unselfish as human +feelings ever are; but a craving, never-sleeping +sorrow, which devoured his peace, intervened at +this point and prevented his good thoughts obtaining +entire mastery over him,—prevented, in one sentence, +Ernest Ivraine from rejoicing so fully and completely +with him who rejoiced as he would unquestionably +have mourned had ill fortune fallen to the +lot of the youth, who, having gone forth nobly to +breast the stream of fate, had reached, with the help +of Him in whom he had put his trust, a safe and +happy port at last.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Oh! why in those far back years had Ernest not +<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>been strong in faith, brave in honest self-reliance, +too? why had he not ventured out into the strife, +that he might now have been free, unfettered, independent? +why, when with a sickening heart, a +vague repentance oppressing him, he asked himself +these questions, did he not, earnest in purpose, +hopeful in spirit, leave Paradise behind him, and +casting from off his soul the shackles of that which +Henry had called “accursed gold,” commence, even +at the eleventh hour, the struggle of existence?</p> + +<p class='c011'>Because their dispositions, temperaments, and +gifts were so different; because the one was rash +and the other prudent; because the one was enthusiastic +and the other calculating; because Ernest +had more patience and Henry more energy; because +the former saw no sin in lingering, watching, waiting +for a parent’s death, while the latter felt, as he +said, the guilt of even the idea oppress his soul; +because the elder had inherited something of his +father’s indomitable obstinacy and adhesive persistence; +because a little of woman’s blind impulsiveness, +of her foolish impetuosity, and absurd ideality, +had been bequeathed by his dead mother to the +younger.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Difference of character! in that brief sentence was +contained the key to diversity of conduct; the bold +<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>fearlessness of the one had sent him out on a vague +desperate errand into the world; the cold cautiousness +of the other kept him hanging on for ever about +Paradise, a man toiling and slaving for another’s +benefit, enduring, hoping, waiting for a chance.</p> + +<p class='c011'>But now when, without his assistance, Henry had +climbed so high as to be able to reach down a helping +hand to aid him in his ascent, when each Indian +letter, as it arrived, came laden with words of affection +and promises of assistance if he only would join +the writer, when he called all the money he had so +long and uselessly hoarded for Henry’s benefit his +own, and was thus possessed of enough to leave his +father’s house and take his first step in life’s highway—a +gentleman, with gold sufficient to buy civility +and courtesy from the cringing throng,—when +after years of anxious waiting, the end he had longed +for seemed far off as ever, why did he hesitate?</p> + +<p class='c011'>Because, though circumstances might have altered +he had not: the old temptation was strong as ever +to retain, the new lure feeble as formerly to attract; +he repented him, it is true, that he had not gone +<i>then</i>, but he asserted it was too late for him to commence +<i>now</i>; if his father bequeathed them wealth, +he should be better off than any exertions of his +own could possibly make him; and if, on the other +<span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span>hand, he left Paradise and failed—ay, there was the +old doubt again—Henry could only give him assistance, +not wealth; whilst, by lingering a little longer, +taking a fresh stock of patience on board to serve +him for a brief space, he should become a rich +baronet without a care.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And what if Mina married in the interim? What +if, before he was able to go and tell her, with unclouded +brow, the history of his secret troubles, of +his former reserve, of his affection for the sister of +one who had saved his life? What if, before death’s +kind hand left him at liberty to try whether a +woman could be induced to love him as well as +Henry had done, she—the only creature, save his +mother and Henry, for whom he ever entertained a +sincere attachment—should have made new ties for +herself and become incapable of being ever aught unto +him, save a sad memory and a gentle-hearted friend?</p> + +<p class='c011'>The thought flickered through his brain at intervals, +and so surely as it struggled to light, Ernest +smothered it with a sentence he tried to believe, but +could not, “She is nothing to me, can never be;” +and as rapidly as he smothered the reflection in one +form, it sprang to life in another, and thus—a vague, +indefinite, painful idea,—it remained with and constantly +haunted him.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>Thus the summer, passed in dim reveries under +spreading trees, wore slowly away, and autumn came,—that +autumn when Cecilia Warmond was married, +and the baronet’s son read all about the ceremony +in the aristocratic columns of the <cite>Morning Post</cite>.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER V.<br> <span class='c009'>SIR ERNEST “SCATTERS HIS ENEMIES.”</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>Meanwhile the select committee had not been +idle; the bridge progressed apace, the farmers rejoiced +as the affair proceeded rapidly towards completion. +Sir Hugh Xifer rode down day after day +to note how the workmen were “getting on;” the +owners of land in the vicinity had become reconciled +to the idea of a most moderate toll, as the “roundabout” +seven miles nuisance had really become unbearable. +Everybody was satisfied, everybody, even +to Sir Ernest Ivraine, only the baronet did not tell +the select committee so; no, he held his peace, and +they saw their bridge rise quickly to something fit +to put a toll on, and were thankful.</p> + +<p class='c011'>There were many, indeed, who whispered “Sir +Ernest meant mischief,” but the wise men of Lorton +laughed the assertion to scorn.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He would like to do us mischief, we have no +<span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span>doubt,” they said, “but we defy him legally to +carry out his wishes, and if he attempt to carry +them out illegally, we ‘have him;’ but he is too wise +by far for that.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Yes, Sir Ernest Ivraine was too wise for that, +particularly as he knew he “had them.” He neither +summoned them for trespass nor served them with +notice not to build on his premises, nor bribed +“parties” to undermine the foundations, nor ordered +out a select band to pull down the toll gate; he did +not threaten, or rage, or trouble himself apparently +in the slightest degree about the matter; he expressed, +indeed, perfect indifference on the subject +when it was named in his presence, and was altogether +so externally careless, that he contrived to +deceive his old enemy, Sir Hugh, and the remainder +of the select committee most completely; he lulled +them into a state of the most placid contentment and +unbounded confidence, induced them to believe he +was vanquished; in fine, he was so clever as to let +them build away in peace and make them think they +had triumphed over him so completely, that he had +ceased to talk of opposition or of annoyance.</p> + +<p class='c011'>There was a look, however, in the baronet’s face +which Mr. Medill distrusted, a sort of half-suppressed +malicious expression, that puzzled the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>worthy attorney; he could not, indeed, tell exactly +what plot the old miser was hatching, but he felt +convinced there was something disagreeable in the +wind, else Sir Ernest would never be taking the +matter so quietly and making so little noise about +it.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I fear,” remarked Mr. Medill to Sir Hugh, +“the weather is too calm at Paradise; we shall +certainly have a storm before long, blowing due +north from that quarter.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Nay; rather,” returned the knight, “remember +the inverse of the proverb you were thinking of, +‘after a storm comes a lull.’ We had high winds +and high words and thunder threats some months +since: I am sure it is not to be marvelled at there +should be a little peace now, after the tempest he +raised last winter.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But that tempest did no harm; it was fierce, it +is true, but it was also open: this time he is brewing +some precious mess in that impenetrable cauldron +of a brain of his; and I know, by the sarcastic +twinkle of his eye and a peculiar curl, or rather +twist, of his lip, that he is not merely bent on crossing +your plans, but has found out some way of +effecting his design.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I defy him,” said Sir Hugh solemnly.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>“Do you defy the devil?” demanded the attorney.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And all his imps,” answered the other; “he +has no law on his side: the road is ours; we repair +the bridge at our private cost, and every individual +who has any influence in the matter, excepting, perhaps, +himself, has agreed that our proposal of a +nominal toll is only just and equitable. He dare +not damage the building, he cannot pass over the +bridge without paying; he could only remove the +gate by using illegal force; in short, I defy him to +outwit us now in any way which would not overstep +the bounds of law and render him liable to an +action. I have looked at the matter from every +point of view, and I see nothing that he can do to +annoy us or benefit himself.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, you may depend he does,” briefly responded +Mr. Medill.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do not believe it,” said the knight, shaking his +wise head in a sceptical manner; “I feel sure we +have got the better of Sir Ernest Ivraine for once.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Never knew any man yet who was so fortunate,” +was the reply. “Other people swear and +bluster quite as much, perhaps, but they stop sometimes: +now there is <i>no end</i> to Sir Ernest; he never +lets go his hold; he never lifts his nose from the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span>scent till he has hunted his game down; he never +turned aside from any purpose in his life: if he +cannot do harm one way, he will in another; he +never forgets, he never forgives. Take my advice +and have a care; I know there is danger near at +hand, for the owner of Paradise is never so dangerous +as when apparently perfectly tranquil.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>But Sir Hugh laughed the injunction to scorn; +and he laughed still more confidently when the +bridge was finished, when carts passed over, and +their drivers paid tolls, and the temporary plank +affair was removed altogether, and the other opened +and presented to the public, renewed, strengthened, +beautified, as a route for regular traffic.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Still the lull remained unbroken at Paradise: it is +true Sir Ernest had been heard to remark he would +pay toll one day on the bridge, but never again; it +was also noticed that not a single one of his tenants +had been seen to pass over it, and somebody asserted +that a fresh “opinion” had been taken on +some mysterious subject connected with the bridge +affair; but the committee pursued the even tenor of +their self-sufficient course, perfectly satisfied that +they were so excessively clever, nobody could, by +any stretch of human ingenuity, manage to outwit +them.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>The structure, however, had not been a “perfect +miracle of art” for more than three days, ere +the worn-out old pensioner, whom Sir Hugh and +his brethren—he being fit for nothing else—had +hired “cheap” to do their “dirty work,” as the +ungrateful farmers now styled the task of collecting +their pennies, came hobbling up to Lorton Hall, and +craved an interview with its owner, Sir Hugh Xifer.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I am afraid, sir,” he began, “there is something +astir up there,” and he jerked his head in the direction +of Paradise, “so I made free to come and tell +you so, and to say I think it might be well to +keep a sentinel or two about the place for a few +nights.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Confound your sentinel,” said Sir Hugh, +savagely; “we are, and have been, at sufficient expense +already; he <i>dare</i> not do us any injury; he +will never put himself within the clutch of the law; +I only wish he would, hang him, but he won’t, I +know he won’t.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, sir,” recommenced the old man, who had +“stood at ease” during the rapid delivery of the +above speech, “when I served under the Duke I +learned two things; the first was to report all I saw +to my superiors, the next, to obey their commands +implicitly; so I will, first, if you please, tell you +<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>what happened this afternoon, and then leave you to +order what you think best to be done.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Make haste, then,” growled Sir Hugh, who +listened only with one ear to the pensioner’s +harangue, the other being amply engaged hearkening +for the sound of the dinner bell; “make haste, +then,” and, accordingly, thus graciously permitted +to proceed, the man began:</p> + +<p class='c011'>“About half-past three, sir, I was leaning over +the side wall, looking at the river, and thinking how +quiet and sluggish it seemed, and of how it could +brawl at times, when who should I see coming to +have a glance at the work but Sir Ernest Ivraine—he, +and a friend with him, and they did take a +precious stare at it to be sure.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I hope they admired it,” remarked the knight.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I don’t know about that, sir; but they walked +over and over and round and round it, and down on +to the bank, and stood for more than fifteen minutes +staring at the supports and buttresses, or whatever +they call them; and then they came up again and +leant over the parapet, and talked like pickpockets +together for ever so long: and, at last, when they +passed me on their way home, I saw the baronet +was laughing in that strange fashion of his, not out +loud, but in to himself—quietly in his throat; and, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span>when they had got twenty yards or so from the +bridge, again I saw them stop and look back, and I +heard the gentleman, whoever he was, laughing, till +the very arches rung, as they walked away to +Paradise.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Is that all?” demanded Sir Hugh.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, sir, that is all,” answered the man, “and +plenty too, I think,” he added, <i>sotto voce</i>.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Sir Ernest Ivraine dare not tamper with that +bridge,” remarked the knight, who really felt more +uneasy than he cared to confess; “we won’t begin +with watchmen, or any other useless expense; but +it is quite right for you to notice everything, and let +me hear it, quite: however, I am sure we have +nothing to fear in that way; you may rest perfectly +easy; if he could have given us any trouble, he +would have done so long ago:” and, as the dinnerbell +rung at this juncture, Sir Hugh summarily dismissed +the pensioner, and repaired to that meal with +what appetite the rather disagreeable intelligence +just received had left him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Medill was right,” he muttered, “there is mischief +brewing; I wonder when death will try a +tussle with the old fellow. I am sure it could not +be too soon for the peace of the shire.” And Sir +Hugh spent the remainder of that evening in grumbling +<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>about his neighbour, wishing savage and unchristian +things concerning him, and hoping all sorts +of evil might shortly happen to him: for the society +about Lorton was none of the most select; manners +were of rather a common standard, and refinement +at the lowest ebb: the knight was much coarser in +demeanour and rougher in speech than the baronet; +but still he was rich enough to head and lead on a +band of insurgents, whose pride Sir Ernest had +wounded by his taunts, his contemptuous sneers, +and his unanswerable sarcasms; and thus war for +ever raged betwixt the owners of Paradise and +Lorton Hall, thus it was that Sir Hugh defied Sir +Ernest, and that the baronet declared, with a diabolical +grin, he “had” the knight at last.</p> + +<p class='c011'>For there were times and circumstances in and +under which the miser never scrupled to expend +money to effect a purpose; and, having once vowed +that the Lincolnshire sages should have, as he styled +it, “to knock under,” he rested neither by day nor +night till he discovered a plan likely to meet his +views, and disconcert theirs: and, that he might be +enabled to carry it completely into action, and know +exactly on what ground he was standing, he first +got an “opinion” as to whether the committee, +having opened the bridge as a public thoroughfare +<span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>for general traffic, had the power to refuse any toll; +and, finding such was not the case, he got a friend +of his, an engineer, to come and inspect the masonry, +and give an idea of how many tons weight it would +require to injure it: then he had a vehicle purposely +constructed, tested, and found suitable, procured +horses <i>ad libitum</i>, and at length announced himself +ready.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Come, Ernest,” he said, “and see the fellows +settled;” so Ernest walked down by his side to the +scene of action, and witnessed the final result of his +parent’s long concerted experiment.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The men in charge of the enormous load soon +came in sight, and the old pensioner, who had +closed the gate, in anticipation of a passage being +forced, was agreeably surprised to find the toll instantly +paid without a word of remonstrance or +irritation.</p> + +<p class='c011'>As the horses dragged countless tons over the +bridge, a slight cracking, however, was heard, which +filled the soul of the old pensioner with dreadful +alarm.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“The general in black uniform must have dealings +with you,” he thought, scowling at the baronet; +“but, thank heaven! it is safe over at last.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Turn,” called out Sir Ernest, as he had just +<span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span>muttered the last words; and, with some difficulty, +the horses’ heads were turned, and again the bridge +was passed, but this time it bent perceptibly.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Turn,” was again the baronet’s order; “here, +fellow, take your toll,” he added, holding out the +proper amount. “What, in the name of all the +fiends, are you doing, closing the gate in the face of +my servants! Open it at once, sirrah, or I’ll make +an example of you.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You are set to break down the bridge,” answered +the man, assuming a defiant attitude—a stiff +military position.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And what business is it of yours what I do?” +returned Sir Ernest; “you are here to receive tolls, +not to obstruct traffic: open the gate, I say, and let +the horses pass.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I won’t,” responded the man, doggedly. “I +understand perfectly what you are up to, but I +know something too——and——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You absolutely refuse to open that gate?” said +the baronet.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I do,” was the reply.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Though the proper toll be offered to you?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Though fifty tolls be offered to me.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And you persist in obstructing the passage of +my carts and horses?”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>“Yes.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, then, the consequences be on your own +head,” finished off the baronet; “you are only making +trouble for yourself and your employers. Put +rests under the shafts and keep the horses quiet,” he +added, addressing the men, “till I can obtain legal +assistance to enable me to cross a bridge on a public +road.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Run and tell Sir Hugh Xifer that Sir Ernest +Ivraine is going to break down the bridge by law,” +whispered the pensioner to a boy who stood near +him; “run like the wind, and say I want to know +what I’m to do; make haste and I will give you a +penny,” which remarkable piece of liberality produced +such rapidity of movement in the youth, that +before five minutes had elapsed he was standing in +the presence of the worthy knight, gasping forth the +frightful legal intention which had taken unexpected +possession of his neighbour and enemy, the +miser baronet.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Hang him!” exclaimed Sir Hugh, who could +have adjusted the rope himself and swung the adversary +with pleasure; “hang him! Here, boy, +run off to the other gentlemen and tell them, and if +you can find Mr. Medill, bring him down to the +place too, and there’s a shilling for you,” and the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>owner of Lorton Hall absolutely flung the lad the +coin he had mentioned, and then hurried off to the +point of action, the much-canvassed, greatly-endangered, +long-menaced bridge.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Good morning, Sir Hugh,” said the baronet, +nodding superciliously to him, whilst Ernest, who +wished himself at the antipodes rather than where +he was, vouchsafed a more gracious inclination.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You are come, I presume, to make straight a +matter your servant has chosen to put crooked,” +continued the miser, with a diabolical grin; “he +declines to receive toll or to permit my horses to +pass; may I inquire whether or not he is acting +under your orders?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“How the deuce could he be acting under my +orders, when I was not here to give him any?” +vociferated the knight, whose flushed face and excited +manner afforded a striking contrast to the cool +sardonic self-possession of his opponent, who, long +and pale and thin, and apparently unconcerned, +stood leaning against one of the pillars of the bridge, +listening carelessly to Sir Hugh’s answer.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Then am I to understand,” he said, “that this +person has no instructions to close the gate?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I never instructed him anything about the +matter,” growled forth Sir Hugh, who, in a face-toface +<span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span>encounter with the baronet, found himself no +match for the owner of Paradise.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If he have acted without orders and without instructions, +I conclude you disapprove of his conduct +and have come to make reparation for it,” said Sir +Ernest.</p> + +<p class='c011'>No verbal answer was vouchsafed to this speech; +but a puzzled scowl and an eager straining look +along the road leading to Lorton, implied, as the +baronet knew, volumes.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“This delay has been and is a serious inconvenience +to me,” he resumed; “if you wish me to believe +your servant is really the party in fault, and +not merely an instrument in your hands, please +express your desire that no further annoyance be +given to me or my people.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The Knight of Lorton Hall looked wistfully at +the load, then at the bridge, then at Sir Ernest +Ivraine, finally along the road.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If you let them ’ere blocks of granite over one +time more all will go down together,” ventured the +pensioner, who thought he read indecision in his +employer’s face.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Silence, fellow!” bellowed Sir Hugh, as he +noted the sneer which curled his opponent’s lip; +and thus “put down,” the gate-keeper—by far the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>honestest man of the trio—relapsed into silence, +still, however, sticking as resolutely to his post as if +it had been the key to some strong position in the +Peninsula, unexpectedly menaced by the French.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do you know, Sir Hugh, you are acting very +foolishly?” recommenced the miser; “it is nothing +to me, or at least merely involves a few minutes’ +delay till I procure legal assistance, but it may be +much to you: as a friend, therefore, I counsel you +not to lend your countenance to such a business.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Sir Hugh merely bit his lip, by way of rejoinder, +and glanced back, for the twentieth time, to see +whether help and counsel were coming; as he beheld, +however, a solitary figure advancing, he inwardly +muttered a fervent “Thank Heaven!” and fresh +spirit and fresh hope revived within him, when Mr. +Medill, the very man he most desired at that moment +to see, drew near to the spot, and inquired, in a cool, +quiet tone, what was the matter.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He wants to break down the bridge,” spluttered +forth Sir Hugh.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Good morning, Medill,” said the baronet in +quite a friendly manner, extending one long finger +to the attorney; “rather a stand still here, you perceive: +I have offered this fellow the proper toll, +and it has been refused. Your client won’t cross +<span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>his servant’s whim, so I am just waiting till proper +authority arrives to enable me to get a load of stone +along a public thoroughfare. Then I can insist on +the gate being opened: meanwhile it is rather idle +work standing here; fine morning, though, is not +it?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>What response the attorney would have made to +this explanatory speech can never now be known, +for just as he opened his lips to reply, Sir Hugh, +who—feeling himself re-inforced, so to speak—could +keep silence no longer, burst forth with the question,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Pray, Sir Ernest Ivraine, is it your desire to +break down that bridge?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It is my desire that my men and my horses and +my property should cross that bridge,” replied the +other.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That you may demolish the work of months in +a few minutes.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That is your idea of the matter,” said the +baronet.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And a correct idea, is it not?” retorted Sir +Hugh.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That you can discover for yourself,” replied the +miser; “Sir Hugh Xifer’s remarkable powers of +mind and rapidity of conception are so well known, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span>it would be worse than superfluous for me to attempt +enlightening him.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The person to whom this polite speech was addressed +absolutely gnashed his teeth with rage; he +longed to strike his opponent with the riding whip +he carried, but a wholesome fear of the consequences +restrained him: there was no use getting into an +outrageous passion with a man who only became +more cool as he became more excited. Sir Ernest +would not quarrel—he knew that by experience; +and therefore, after a moment’s hesitation, he turned +to Mr. Medill and demanded,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Has he a right to demand leave for that pyramid +to cross?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Clear,” was the brief response.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And if we persist in keeping the gate shut——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He can force you to open it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Quite correct, my dear sir, else I had never +been here,” remarked the baronet.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Stand aside, then,” roared out the knight to his +<i>employé</i>, “let them pass and be——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The holy finale to this brief sentence was lost in +the noise which had ensued on a sign from Sir +Ernest to his men, who commenced forthwith shouting +to their horses and striving to get the animals +to start.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>“They’ll all go in together,” groaned out the +pensioner.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Let them,” said Sir Ernest with the utmost +<i>sang froid</i>, and he crossed his arms on his chest and +watched—triumph gleaming from his eyes—the +countenance of Sir Hugh, who heard the bridge +crack and bend under the enormous weight it required +almost a regiment of horses to drag over +it.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I have a right to come back now without paying +any toll,” remarked the baronet drily, and once +again the horses’ heads were turned.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That will be the fourth time,” said the gate-keeper.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Will you hold your peace, sirrah!” exclaimed +Sir Hugh, who vented his spleen on him in default +of being able to expend it on the original cause of +irritation.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“May I beg that you will order your drivers to +stop for a moment?” interposed Mr. Medill, addressing +the baronet; “I see the remaining proprietors +coming, and it would be a pity for more +damage to be done before they arrive: perhaps you +and they could settle the matter amicably.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Amicably with him!” said Sir Hugh Xifer, +who was fairly distracted; “amicably with——”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>“Oh! you might have finished your speech +aloud,” laughed Sir Ernest; “the devil, you know, +listens to terms occasionally.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You know that,” retorted the knight; “for, if +all we have heard be true, there is a sort of compact +between you and——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Don’t excite yourself unnecessarily,” interposed +the other; “here come your friends, they will +relieve you from the trouble of conversing with +me.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>And, as he spoke, the three other individuals, +who, with the owner of Lorton Hall, composed the +select committee, arrived, filled with vague alarms, +in consequence of assurances they had received +from the lips of the boy who had been despatched +to summon them, that “Sir Ernest Ivraine had sent +for a body of police, and was breaking down the +bridge by law.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mr. Medill, being the only disinterested party +present, explained the state of the case to them, +during which explanation the baronet stood with +his hands buried in the pockets of his threadbare +trousers, listening with the most perfect unconcern +to the recital. When Mr. Medill concluded, however, +he added, by way of a “settler,”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“To condense all into one brief sentence, gentlemen, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span>I have the power, if I pay the proper toll, to +cross and recross that bridge till eternity, or rather, +as there is little hope of the structure lasting so +long, till it break down.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Here was a “fix;” the proprietors looked at one +another, then the stupidest of them inquired,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“How often Sir Ernest wanted to draw the load +over?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“As often as I please,” was the response; “and +now, as I have delayed a considerable time to the +end that you might have an opportunity of personally +admiring the strength of the pile of masonry +that owes its existence to your enterprising spirit, I +must beg that you will stand a little to one side and +let my men pass.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“For Heaven’s sake, stop!” vociferated the trio +with one breath; “what is it you want us to do? +only tell us.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“To keep out of the way, that you may not be +knocked down and trampled to death,” answered +the baronet.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But will you listen to no terms, agree to no conditions?” +they demanded.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Ah! now you begin to talk like sensible men,” +remarked Sir Ernest; “offer me reasonable terms, +and you won’t find me difficult to deal with; be +<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>stiff, and, if it prove in the power of granite to do +it, I’ll set your bridge swimming.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I’d let it swim or sink or stay,” said Sir Hugh +Xifer, “before I’d offer you terms or agree to any +you proposed.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, but you are only one out of four,” replied +the baronet; “a very important unit, I admit, but +still only an unit.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I wish——” began his neighbour.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I know you do; but what is the good of it? +Meantime, your friends are wishing to speak, and +you prevent their doing so. Now, gentlemen, if +you please,” and Sir Ernest made a patronizing sign +for the crest-fallen landowners to commence.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“We can’t propose terms, as we don’t know what +ground we are going on: we want to hear what you +want.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“A clear sentence, concisely constructed,” sneered +the baronet: “let me see; you can’t propose terms, +you have no idea of what ground you are upon, and +you want to hear what I want. Well, the latter +part seems all I have to do with, and, as I cannot—not +having been blessed by nature with the talents +of my friend, your colleague—answer such an important +question in a moment, I propose, first, a +sort of truce between us; and, second, that you send +<span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span>some accredited agent—say Mr. Medill, for instance—to +Paradise any time before twelve o’clock +to-morrow morning, to hear my decision. If he and +I come to terms, well and good; if not, well and +good, still: meanwhile, I undertake that my carters +do not cross the bridge during some fixed period, +say the next four-and-twenty hours; and I shall +take means to prevent any injury being done to my +property in the interim. Really the air is chilly +to-day,” added the baronet, assuming an erect position: +“Shall we settle the matter that way, then, +gentlemen, for the present?” he continued, after an +instant’s pause; and, having received a doleful +affirmative from the lips of all concerned, save Sir +Hugh Xifer and his <i>employé</i>, he first addressed a few +words to one of the carters, and then walked off +towards Paradise, accompanied by Ernest.</p> + +<p class='c011'>For a full hour the committee remained on the +bridge, canvassing, contradicting, grumbling; but +there was no use in it: Sir Ernest Ivraine had laid +his plans well; there was no getting out of his net; +no cheating or deceiving or “putting off” him; and +the end of it all was, that when Mr. Medill was +despatched to Paradise, he was empowered to +accede to any terms the baronet might propose “in +reason.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>“As if,” growled out Sir Hugh, “anything he +expects could be in reason.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“They have put me to a deal of expense,” said +the person thus spoken of, “a great deal, and given +me an incredible amount of annoyance; but I don’t +want to be hard with them or impose any disagreeable +conditions, solely because I am master now: +no; these are the terms I propose, from which I +will not abate one iota; and if they do not like +them, we need treat no further, that is all.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>And the end of the business was, that Sir Ernest +extorted from the proprietors a paper, exempting +him and every individual who called him “landlord,” +or who should, at any future period, become +a tenant of his, from the payment of any toll or tolls +whatsoever, by whomsoever demanded, on a certain +bridge, built across, etc., etc., flowing through, and +so forth.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And, moreover, he made them give him a sum +sufficient to repay every shilling he had laid out +since the commencement of the affair; and, while +Sir Hugh Xifer first swore till he was almost +black in the face, and then grew so furious that +a doctor had to be sent for to save him from a fit +of apoplexy, his enemy, whose power he had defied, +remarked, with a quiet smile to his son, pointing +<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>at the same time to a cheque for a very respectable +amount,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That settles the cost of your visit to London, +Ernest, at any rate.”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER VI.<br> <span class='c009'>A DREAM OF YOUTH.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>One August afternoon, about a month after Mina’s +return from the Highlands, and before Allan Frazer +had been, as the hacknied phrase runs, “made completely +happy,” John Merapie’s niece asked Miss +Caldera if she should have any objection to go out +with her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Not the least,” was the response; and, accordingly, +out they went together, Mina piloting their +way up streets and down streets and across squares +and through all sorts of strange places with an expertness +and “knowledge of her business,” which +would have struck the worthy Laird of Craigmaver +as something rather remarkable.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Why did you never ask me where I was going?’” +she demanded at length, after they had walked a +considerable distance in silence.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span>“Because I know, my dear, you can occasionally +give a short answer,” was the reply.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Just because of that ill-natured one of yours, +then, I won’t tell you,” said Mina, colouring even +while she laughed, for the little thrust, like all Miss +Caldera ever attempted, went home; and—perhaps +rather glad of the excuse than otherwise—she spoke +not another word on the subject till she finally +paused before a door, graced by a dingy brass plate, +intimating to the world in general, and to authors +with money in their pockets, in particular, that on +the other side of it lay the publishing office of the +Messrs. Hannade.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It might have cost any one, excepting Mina +Frazer, a smile to behold the contortion Miss Caldera +pulled when her former charge halted in +front of the above-mentioned inscription; but the +only visible effects it produced upon that young +lady were to heighten her colour considerably, and +to induce a rather irritable inquiry of,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Will you come in?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I may as well see the play out,” said Miss Caldera, +resignedly.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina made no reply, but turning the handle, +entered without ceremony and without fear—(as is +the fashion of young aspirants, who, never having +<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>gone through the ordeal of a rejection, entertain +little dread of a repulse)—a dreary-looking place, so +strewed with books and papers, that somehow it +gave Mina the idea of being painted, furnished, and +carpeted with manuscripts.</p> + +<p class='c011'>There was no one in the office when they first +glanced around it; but almost immediately after an +individual of the shortest stature, with fiery red +hair, brushed angrily back from his forehead, and a +quick, shrewd, intelligent, though not intellectual, +expression of countenance, emerged from an inner +chamber, and advanced to learn what business might +have brought two ladies from the fates knew where, +and set them down on the much worn matting covering +the floor the fates, not he, knew how.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was palpable to the most unobservant that he +must have been engaged in the not very literary or +romantic, though occasionally necessary, operation +of washing his hands, for the cuffs of his coat and +the wristbands of his shirt being turned back, in a +suspicious manner, implied the fact, whilst a very +coarse towel, with which he was industriously drying +his fingers, confirmed it.</p> + +<p class='c011'>He appeared, however, not in the least degree +concerned at having been detected in this employment, +but coolly continuing it, looked first at the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>elder lady, and then at the younger, not speaking, +but calmly awaiting information.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina glanced appealingly towards her friend, but +Miss Caldera remained impracticable. It was her +principle to let “everybody talk for himself;” and +as, moreover, Mina had never asked her to interpose +in her behalf, she resolved to permit her emancipated +pupil to say what she chose as she chose.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Is Mr. Hannade in?” stammered the girl at last, +feeling some one ought to say something, and that +her companion would not, “is Mr. Hannade in?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“My name is Hannade,” responded that gentleman, +in a rapid manner; indeed, he talked so fast +that his words tripped over each other in their passage +from tongue to lips, the result of which was +that the listener came quite as soon into possession +of the last syllable as the first; and, having intimated +the fact, he shut up his mouth again and looked at +Mina to see what impression the intelligence produced +upon her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I wished to speak to you about a book,” she +said.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Pray be seated,” answered the publisher, and +down went a pile of papers on the floor, after which +performance Mr. Hannade graciously presented his +visitors with—chairs.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span>A long pause ensued, the only noticeable thing +during which was, that whilst he appeared to be +waiting for Mina to speak, and keeping an attentive +ear open to catch any word of wisdom which might +fall from her lips, he fastened his eyes on Miss +Caldera, and never once removed them from her +face, as though he were endeavouring to discover +from its expression whether her companion, the +young Miss in her teens, were a hoax, crazy, or +jesting.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do you ever read manuscripts?” was the question +with which Mina ventured, after some deliberation, +to break the ice.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It is what we are here for,” tumbled out Mr. +Hannade, with a facetious grin.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Would you then read one of mine?” asked the +girl, a smile on Miss Caldera’s lips having rendered +her quite desperate.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“We are rather overstocked at present,” he said, +cautiously; and, in rather a slower tone, “you desire +to publish on your own account?” this last was +interrogatively.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I do not precisely understand,” observed Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You wish to retain the copyright and pay the +expenses,” he explained.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No,” said the would-be authoress, “I want you +<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>to do that,” which reply brought a less agreeable +expression over Mr. Hannade’s face and caused +Miss Caldera to smile again.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“We are rather overstocked at present,” repeated +Mr. Hannade, in a tone sufficient to have annihilated +the hopes of a much more confident individual +than Mina Frazer.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was the first time in her life she had ever been +refused anything by a stranger; it was the first +check that had met her in this absurd literary attempt, +and absurd though it assuredly was, it did +not strike her as being such. She made a violent +effort to appear unconcerned, but it would not do: +a deep burning flush came up into her cheek and a +tear persisted in dimming her eye; and when, after +an instant’s hesitation, she arose to go, there was a +look of such mortification in her face as moved the +pity of the governess, even while she tried to convince +herself, “the conceited child deserved a regular +‘setting down’ for her presumption.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Now, spite of the war-like style in which he +arranged his hair, and the dry, shortness of his +address, and the excessive rapidity of his speech, +Mr. Hannade was really a kind-hearted man; +though he was a publisher, he was still a mortal, +and he did not like to send anything of the feminine +<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>description out of his office almost crying: no doubt +he would have acted more prudently and kindly +in the end, had he permitted Mina to depart and +take her manuscript with her; but the sorrowful +look in her dark soft eyes, and a certain tremor +about the mouth, fairly conquered his previous +determination, “not to be tormented with her,” +and he, therefore, let in a gleam of sunshine upon +the previous darkness of his address, by inquiring +on what subject the work in question was +written.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It is a novel, sir,” answered Mina brightening +up so suddenly, that Mr. Hannade felt he had +“fairly committed himself.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I knew that, well enough,” he thought; then +added aloud, “So I presume, but what kind of a +novel?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I cannot tell——” Mina began.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I mean, what sort of a novel: is it a religious +one or——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>A violent fit of coughing from Miss Caldera +caused the remainder of the sentence to be strangled +in Mr. Hannade’s throat; but, after a moment, he +resumed, a just perceptible smile lingering around +the corners of his mouth, “Or historical, perhaps, +or sentimental, eh?” and the publisher insinuated +<span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span>this last idea in a well-pleased tone, as if the +right nail had been finally struck on the head by +him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No,” answered Mina in all seriousness, “it is +not exactly any of the three; it is more, I think, +what would be called, a moral novel.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“A what?” gasped out Mr. Hannade.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“A moral novel,” she repeated, blushing to her +very forehead; “that is, I mean it is about people +trying to do right and be good, and there is some +religion in it too, and——but perhaps you would +be so good as to read it, and then you would know +better what is in it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>And the girl stretched out the manuscript so +entreatingly that Mr. Hannade felt himself constrained +to take it from her and promise to “look +over it,” even whilst he shrunk with horror from the +idea of fulfilling that promise, and made a sort of +composition of one page in the hundred with his +conscience, which whispered he ought not to tantalize +and deceive his visitor by accepting the imposing +looking parcel, with the intention merely of +laying it carefully aside till she called for it again. +Yes, yes, he would “look at it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Oh! if young authors could only be made to understand +the precise meaning publishers attach to those +<span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>three words, how many an hour of weary sickening +suspense, how many a bitter disappointment, how +many a dispiriting miserable walk they might save +themselves! How many a high vision that brief sentence +has conjured up; how many an air-castle has +been built on the strength of it, raw youths fresh +from college and women just cast adrift on the +world’s wide ocean, who have unadvisedly flown to +the pen as to a means of fame and wealth, could +tell: they turn from the publisher’s door as Mina +Frazer did, fancying the rubicon is past, the battle +won, the prize gained; and they come back to have +all their lovely edifices levelled in the dust, to be +recalled from dreams of countless sovereigns to the +horrible actuality of scanty shillings, to be sent out +despairing as they had entered triumphant by the +three other words, which sound the knell of the +rejected manuscript, “does not suit.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina Frazer, however, in common with many +another aspirant after literary reputation, had never +been favoured with a peep into the brief convenient +dictionary publishers have compiled for their own +especial behoof, relief, and benefit; and imagining, +as most young scribblers do, that if she could only +get her book read, it was certain to be accepted, +Mr. Hannade’s tardy “I will look over it,” appeared +<span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>to her merely next door neighbour and intimate +friend to “I will take it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I am greatly obliged,” she said, in a tone so +polite it might have astounded Malcolm, though it +did not surprise Miss Caldera.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If you knew all, you need not be,” thought the +publisher with a sort of compunctious twinge, holding +the door open for his visitors to pass out, and +wishing most fervently they had never come in; +but he merely smiled and bowed in actual reply.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“When shall I call to know?” vaguely demanded +Mina on the threshold.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh! give me a few days,” answered Mr. Hannade; +then noticing Miss Caldera’s quick glance +settling on him, he turned a little red and added, +“let me see, I fear I can scarcely promise to read +it under a fortnight, we are so very busy,” and he +looked hopelessly at the papers around, as Mina +thought, in utter despair. “Could I write to you?” +he added; “I should be very happy to do so.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I don’t doubt that in the least,” half murmured +Miss Caldera; but her charge settled his hopes of +escape through the medium of the post by hastily +replying,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, thank you, I will call again in about a fortnight; +I need not give you the trouble of writing.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span>“It would be no trouble,” said Mr. Hannade: +“rather a pleasure,” he added, after he had returned +Mina’s good evening and Miss Caldera’s stiff +bow and seen them fairly “off the premises.” +“Rather a pleasure: I wish I had let her go at the +first, it would have saved me an immense deal of +subsequent annoyance, but it is no use wishing now. +Bless my heart, what a bundle! and such a title, +and a moral novel, of all things under the sun, +written so carefully: well, I promised to look at it, +and I will.” And Mr. Hannade, leaning with +folded arms upon his desk, skimmed the first page, +read a few lines of the fifty-seventh, glanced again +at the hundredth, and, after making one rapid jump +to the end of all, found himself master of the contents +of the entire manuscript; at least he had seen +enough of the contents to know, “it would not +suit.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Won’t do,” he soliloquised, tying it up again in +a meditative manner, “won’t do, and she won’t do; +but how I am to tell her that, I don’t know: no +good her starting in that line at all: she has not the +gift as they call it; only if she’d publish herself, +that would be no great concern of mine if she +wished to test the experiment. If she only had it +back now: but still it is a fortnight a-head, and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>perhaps she may get some new ideas in the meantime.” +Haying concluded which speech, complimentary +to Mina’s talents, and really creditable to his +own rapid powers of discrimination, he thrust the +parcel into a box filled with others in a similar predicament, +and, on the old principle of “out of sight +out of mind,” forgot all about Mina Frazer and +Mina Frazer’s “effort.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Totally unconscious, however, of the very summary +manner in which her darling child had been +tried, condemned—or, to speak more properly, left +in a sort of literary morgue, to be claimed—Mr. +Merapie’s niece walked along the London streets by +her friend’s side, waiting eagerly for the latter to +speak, longing, yet still not liking, to open the conversation +herself. Miss Caldera, however, maintained +a resolute silence, until at length, as they +were crossing one of the most crowded of the many +crowded thoroughfares, she chanced to meet Mina’s +eye fastened so intently upon her, that she found +it impossible to repress a smile.</p> + +<p class='c011'>There was something about that smile which +annoyed the girl so much, that, forgetting all her +good resolutions, all her affection for her friend, all +she had thought about her when in Scotland, all +about the omnibuses and carts and cabs and vans +<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>and broughams, she came to a dead halt right in the +middle of the crossing, and demanded in an extremely +angry manner, what Miss Caldera was +laughing at?</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You, my dear,” returned that lady, as she +dragged her from under the nose of a carriage +horse, and so over the broom of an Irish ‘sweeper’ +to the side path and safety; “if you do not wish +to form the subject of an interesting newspaper +paragraph, I should advise you never again to halt +right in the centre of a London street; you were +very nearly knocked down that time.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, suppose I had been?” said Mina, sulkily.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And if not killed, been crippled or invalided +for life, perhaps!” added the governess; “how +should you have liked a finish of that kind?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Not at all,” was Mina’s frank confession; “but, +you see, you provoked me just then.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“As I very often do,” retorted Miss Caldera; +“as it is not a very difficult business to effect: but +still I do not see why you should endanger your +life every time you get out of temper.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I do not get out of temper so very often,” +pleaded the girl, who felt she had been both irritable +and ungrateful; “and, indeed, I try not to be +cross, but you know I cannot endure to be laughed +<span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>at, particularly when I am in earnest about anything: +and I am very much in earnest about beginning +to write and make money, and——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Make folly,” interposed Miss Caldera; “have +you not everything you want, everything money can +procure? What new mania is it that has set you +scribbling now? I declare, Mina, I thought you +had more sense.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, don’t be angry without a reason, dear, +cross old friend,” said the young lady, “and I’ll +tell you all about it, and how the idea of writing +occurred to me; only, remember, you are to keep it +a great secret, and not to speak about the matter to +anybody.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I have too much regard for you to do anything +of the kind,” retorted the governess.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You see,” continued Mina, without noticing +this friendly remark, “my cousin Allan is very, very +clever, and he has published a great deal, and——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You thought the talent ran in the family,” interrupted +Miss Caldera.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I thought nothing of the kind,” responded +Mina; “and, if you keep catching me up so every +minute, I will stop talking altogether. I had been +wishing for months and months to have money, you +understand, <i>of my own</i>, to do what I liked with: +<span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span>but it never once crossed my mind I could by possibility +make any myself, till one day, at Glenfiord, +Cecilia said, when we were all out on the lake +together—I knew she was making fun of me, but +that did not matter—</p> + +<p class='c011'>“‘I do so wish, Mina, you would begin to +write a book, I am sure it would be unique; I +would pay all expenses just for the pleasure of +getting a peep at it:’ then she turned to Allan, and +added, ‘could not she write a book, don’t you +think?’</p> + +<p class='c011'>“‘Anybody could do that,’ he answered, in the +stiff brief way he has trained himself occasionally +to speak in, ‘anybody could do that; but Mina is +quite clever enough to write a book worth reading, +though I hope she will never be so foolish as to +make the endeavour.’”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Your cousin Allan is a simpleton,” broke in +Miss Caldera; “as if you were not conceited and +puffed up enough with flattery before, he must commence +complimenting, to see if it were possible to +make you vainer, and more absurd than you had +become without his assistance.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Indeed, you are mistaken,” said Mina; “Allan +has, I admit, changed into rather a fashionable man, +but still he never complimented me.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>“Oh! you thought it all truth, I have no doubt,” +replied her friend.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And whenever,” resumed the girl, without heeding +this remark, “he heard Cecilia Warmond praising +me, even in the most simple things, he seemed +vexed and irritated.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I don’t care what he did, or what he did not +do,” persisted Miss Caldera; “if it be he who set +you on this ridiculous writing scheme, he has a +great sin to answer for, that is all.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But he did not; it was Cecilia who spoke at +first, he merely answered her. Well, I thought and +I thought after that whether I could not make out a +book some way, and at last I resolved to try; and, +whenever I came home I did try, and I have +managed to finish one, and you know the rest.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, I know plenty,” grumbled Miss Caldera; +“and pray what do you propose to do now you have +‘made out a book?’”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I propose—always supposing I can get enough +sold—to buy Malcolm a commission, and then work +very hard till I grow very rich indeed; then some +time, many years hence, when Malcolm is a great +man, and has retired from the army, he and I will +club together and buy a fine place in the Highlands +and have carriages for mamma, and Uncle John will +<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>come and stay with us, and you shall give up that +horrid teaching and have everything in the world +you want, and we shall all be as happy, oh! as +happy, dear old friend, as kings and queens.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Miss Caldera fairly faced about and stared at +Mina, who, with flushed face and beaming eye had +uttered the above rapid sentence.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Having satisfied herself that she had not suddenly +been deprived of whatever small amount of sense +might formerly have belonged to her, she became +completely bewildered which course out of three to +adopt; whether to cry over the simple nonsensical +vision Mina had so speedily conjured up, in which +the comfort of her quaint governess had not been +forgotten,—to reason with her on the worse than +folly of such wild day dreams,—or to laugh at her +excessive absurdity: ridicule being, as she well +knew, the only weapon capable of making any permanent +wound, she resolved to use it and let matters +take their course.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And have you informed Malcolm of your benevolent +intentions concerning him?” she demanded, +after a short pause.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No,” said Mina, “I thought it would be so +delightful a surprise.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Decidedly, when it comes to pass,” acquiesced +<span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span>Miss Caldera, laying an ominous emphasis on the +three last words; “and you have no fear of success?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mr. Hannade said he would look it over,” was +Mina’s reply.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, to please a foolish girl whom he knew had +no more genius than I have; to get rid of you without +a crying scene, in short, my dear, as men, you +know, have a horror of hysterics: and, when you go +back, he will tell you he is extremely sorry that ‘it +does not suit;’ that the public are tired of moral +novels; that historical, or religious, or sentimental, or, +to speak plainer English, every kind but that you +happen to have tried, are those which go down at +present; that he is greatly obliged by your favouring +him with a perusal; in brief, he will tell you +everything under the sun but—truth.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, we shall see,” said Mina, in a rather crest-fallen +tone; “but I do not think,” she added, “it +is kind of you to snub me as you are doing, particularly +when it was you who first made me reflect +about our being dependants, and the possibility of +our having, at some time or other, to maintain ourselves; +I do not think it kind of you.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“When I reminded you that business was uncertain, +affection quite as much so, that changes +<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>came into all houses, and affliction into most, I said +also distinctly that the reason I asked you to reflect +on these things was, to induce you to consider well +before you rejected a comfortable settlement, for no +conceivable motive that I was ever able to divine. +I never recommended you to turn milliner, or governess, +or amanuensis, or scribbler, or adopt any +other absurd expedient for making a few pounds per +annum; if you are not satisfied with your present +position, and desire to assist Malcolm to become an +officer, why do you not marry Mr. Westwood? He +would do anything in the world you asked him, +even to buying your brother the right to wear a +scarlet uniform. I should advise you to think +of it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Should you!” retorted Mina; “well, I won’t: +I am determined to assist Malcolm myself by my +own exertions, by my own labour.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Just try the experiment,” said Miss Caldera, +“you will soon tire; I have only two other things +to say to you before we part for to-day: I know not +one woman out of a thousand can effect anything, +and I seriously recommend you to marry Mr. Westwood.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And I say,” replied Mina, “that one woman +will effect much, and that I will not marry Mr. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>Westwood;” and having given her head a decided +nod as she concluded this sentence, the girl bade her +friend good-bye, with her hopes a little shaken, +perhaps, but her resolution never, under any circumstances, +to marry from prudential motives, as +she fondly fancied, more immovable than ever.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER VII.<br> <span class='c009'>CRUMBS OF COMFORT.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>Time jogged, after a somewhat dreary fashion, +through the rooms and up and down the staircases +of number 12, Belerma Square, for about the space +of two calendar months from the conclusion of my +last chapter; he brought no commission to Malcolm +Frazer, no money to his sister, no greatly improved +health to that young lady’s mother, nor cheerful +expression to John Merapie’s face. Excepting, perhaps, +that Mina had learned a little experience, had +just sipped of the cup of disappointment, and acquired +a vague disagreeable idea of its taste, had +made the acquaintance in a very slight degree of +that “hope deferred,” which the wise man assures +us “maketh the heart sick,”—excepting these very +trivial changes, things had remained <i>in statu quo</i> +(to use for once a very hacknied, very much imposed +upon, very pedantic sounding Latin phrase, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>which happens to express my meaning better than +any English one ready to my pen at present), for +the period above-mentioned, when one evening some +slight variety was afforded by the most unexpected +advent of Mr. Ernest Ivraine, who “having come +to London to discharge a series of Indian commissions, +could not resist the temptation of calling, at +a rather unseasonable hour, to see Mr. Merapie.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>John Merapie had been, for a considerable number +of months previously, in that state of mind +which, though it induces most other mortals to desire +solitude and to detest company, makes the +Londoners hail the society of any one as a perfect +God-send; add to this the fact of his liking Ernest, +both for himself and his position, and you have, +surely, reasons enough to account for his grasping +the young man’s hand in cordial friendship, and +inviting him not merely to stay and dine in Belerma +Square, but also to make number 12 his abiding +place during the remainder of his sojourn in +London.</p> + +<p class='c011'>But Ernest Ivraine could not, or would not, avail +himself of the last clause in Mr. Merapie’s hospitable +speech; he remained to dinner, however, and called +once or twice afterwards, and accepted a second +invitation to come and take John Merapie “as he +<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>was,” such being the worthy merchant’s favourite +style of expression; and everybody in the house +was glad to see him, for his manners were mild, +quiet, and gentlemanlike; and the whole household +was so bored to death with its own society, that, +though the baronet’s son was by no means the most +cheerful guest in the world, he was still a vast +deal better than many, and infinitely preferable to +none.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina never forgot that evening; it was the last +landmark she beheld before plunging into a boiling, +bubbling ocean, blackened by poverty, clouded with +sorrow, beset with danger: she stood, or fancied she +stood, then on firm ground, and before she well +knew what had occurred, she found herself battling, +struggling, suffocating in a perfect sea of doubts, +difficulties, and calamities.</p> + +<p class='c011'>What a cheerful pleasant circle they formed round +the fire, talking about foreign lands and books of +travel and strange adventures,—of the topics which, +though now forgotten, were then the engrossing +“news of the day.” How the hours sped by, how +loath Ernest was to rise and depart, feeling, as he +did so, he was leaving much he cared for behind +him; how gladly he availed himself of John Merapie’s +invitation to come and breakfast there the next +<span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span>morning before setting out on his long journey +home; how pretty Mina looked, he thought, as he +bade her good night; how pale and abstracted his +host seemed at times,—he remembered afterwards: +time brought that evening and took it away again. +“That pleasure is past for ever,” thought Ernest, as +he silently wended his way back to his hotel, murmuring +sundry discontented observations concerning +the old enemy’s various rates of progress in +London and at Paradise.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Paradise! how, as fancy recalled the memory of +the bright blaze he had left, and of the faces—one +especially—on which it shone, he sickened at the +name of that place, and loathed the galling chain +which drew him back to it! And as slumber with +him was the rarity, wakefulness the rule, he lay +through weary hours, counting the chimes as they +solemnly pealed forth their warning sound in the +deaf-adder-like ears of millions,—counting the chimes +and thinking of himself and his home, and of her +and her home.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What a happy home it must be,” he reflected, +a haven of rest, a heaven upon earth, a luxurious +palace in comparison with the place where he resided. +“Oh! that I could shape my destiny and +hers as I would,” he exclaimed, half aloud, “that I +<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>had never seen her, or else died ere I learned to +know I loved her.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>And thus care kept guard beside his pillow; but +at length sleep laid a gentle hand on his eyes, and +brought, with that touch, oblivion, peace, repose; +and though care never left its post, but stood there, +alert and watchful, ready to pounce upon its victim +the instant he awoke, still, during that temporary +respite, sorrow and pain vanished; and in the +dreams of night Ernest Ivraine was at liberty to +fancy himself free and unfettered, able to grasp happiness, +competent to feel pleasure, to defy grief; to +forget, for a brief period, that the curse of gold was +upon him, that he had wasted the best years of +existence in almost total inaction, waiting and sinfully +longing for the death of a man who, though a +miser, was still his father, and who, after his waiting +and watching and bearing, could, at any moment, +cast him off or leave him a beggar.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Sleep brought, as it occasionally does, forgetfulness +of his actual position to the wearied spirit of +the baronet’s first-born; but with morning’s dawn +recollection awoke also: what a bitter thing that +waking, morning after morning, to the consciousness +of disappointment, the necessity of endurance, +the need for patience, the repentance of errors, the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>perception of follies, the importance of exertion, +always proves! Oh! who that might sleep on, after +he has once eaten of the tree of knowledge, and +learned a little of life’s weary teachings, would, if +the choice were given to him, desire to open his +eyes on earth’s vanities again? Who, having the +option granted of quitting the trouble and the care +and the vexation and the turmoil, would voluntarily +plunge for the second time into the dangerous whirlpool, +the maddening vortex, the uncertain strife? +Who would not thankfully choose to be at rest, to +slumber peacefully for ever?</p> + +<p class='c011'>So, at least, thought Ernest Ivraine; but then he +was not peculiarly well adapted to decide on the +question, seeing that he had started in life on a wrong +principle; that he might have made a better use of +it—turned it to a far more profitable end; that he +was living for himself alone; that he had refused to +go forth and work and labour like a responsible +being; that he would not employ whatever talents +had been given to him to shape out some happier +destiny for himself, to benefit others, to make a +more endurable thing of existence: he was no fair +judge, nor is any one who permits his faculties to +sleep, though his body is awake; he had decided +wrongly years before, and he was now commencing +<span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span>to pay the full penalty of that great desire for +wealth, to be won by no merits or exertion of his +own, which had prevented his leaving Paradise +years previously, which compelled him to return to +it even then.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Even then! yes, he meant to go home again that +very day, after he had breakfasted, according to +invitation, in Belerma Square, and said good-bye to +the friends who dwelt there.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mrs. Frazer, Malcolm, and Mina welcomed him +when he entered the dining-room; he had never +seen the latter look so bright and happy before; +new life seemed to have been infused into her; +there was a flush in her cheek and an elasticity in +her step and a change in her usually quiet manner +that puzzled him not a little: but if he had heard a +brief dialogue which passed between her and Mr. +Merapie on the preceding night, he would have +understood all perfectly.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina,” said that gentleman to her immediately +after Ernest’s departure, “I want to speak to you;” +and, accordingly, Mrs. Frazer having gone off yawning +to bed, and Malcolm having ascended to a special +sanctum of his in the third floor, where he retired +to smoke cigars when his uncle—who detested the +“lazy practice,” as he termed a habit which involves +<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>Certainly more exertion than not smoking at +all—chanced to be at home,—Mina sat quietly down +in the drawing-room to hear what her uncle had to +say in peace and quietness.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You are no longer a child,” began Mr. Merapie, +in a blank straightforward manner, which defied +contradiction, as did also the fact stated. “I do not +know that I ever thought about the matter till the +other day, when Mr. Westwood pointed it out to +me.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>He paused, as if a little embarrassed; but Mina +resolutely maintained silence: she knew what was +coming, but she thought her uncle might explain it +himself without her assistance.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You know, Mina,” he began again at last, “I +can never make long speeches, and I am not much +accustomed to talk or think about such matters, only +I promised to speak to you on the subject; to cut +all short, he—Mr. Westwood—wants to marry you.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, sir,” said she, looking very steadily at the +fire.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well,” resumed John Merapie, wonderfully fortified +by this most unsentimental comment on his +information; “well, what I want to know now is, +do you want to marry him?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, I don’t,” she replied, most emphatically.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>“Oh!” exclaimed John Merapie, and he cogitated +over her answer for a few minutes; then, remembering +he had promised Mr. Westwood to use +his influence, he continued,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It might be well for you to think about this +offer, Mina, notwithstanding; you see, a love match +is a very foolish thing, never ends well; it is a sort +of taking for the look, not for the reality; it always +disappoints. Now, I know most girls have a great +many absurd ideas on the subject of matrimony, but +I fancy you have not; and, though Alfred Westwood +is a little too old, yet still he would be very +fond of you, and he is a good sort of fellow, uncommonly +clever, with a clear head for business, and he +is tolerably well off, and indeed, Mina, the more I +reflect about it, the more sure I feel you could not +do better.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, but uncle, I do not want to do any better, +or to marry any one. I am quite content as I am; +quite satisfied with my present home; far fonder of +you than I could ever be of fifty Mr. Westwood’s. +I am so well, I do not wish to be better; I do not +see why I should think of marrying at all.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Faith, neither do I,” exclaimed Mr. Merapie, +“and that’s just what I told him.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Did you?” said Mina; “oh! thank you for it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span>“The truth is,” returned Mr. Merapie, “I never +did entertain a very high opinion of this eternal +marrying and giving in marriage which is going on +in the world: matrimony never seemed to me so +extraordinarily desirable a consummation as it is +deemed by most people. I always considered it a +great risk to undertake running in harness with a +comparative stranger for life—till death,” added the +merchant, in a strange tone; “and so I told Westwood, +that, though I had no objection to the match, +and should, in fact, rather like it than otherwise, +still that I would leave you to decide as you chose, +unbiassed by any expressed wishes of mine.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I am sure,” suggested Mina very softly, “you +would never compel me to marry——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Compel!” echoed Mr. Merapie, “God forbid; +I have always considered that the greatest sin a +parent or guardian can commit; and, as you say, I +do not see why you should think of wedding at all. +If girls are left penniless and orphans and so forth, +I suppose it is better for them to marry than turn +governesses and one thing or another of that kind: +I don’t know, but I suppose it is. When they are +certain, however, always of a competence, the case +is entirely different, and I will take care you are +amply provided for, I will never leave you dependent, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>my dear good little girl, rely upon +that.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>There was something so earnest and tender in the +tone of his voice, so sorrowful an expression stole +over his face as he spoke, that Mina, feeling she +had never half appreciated the solid goodness of his +character, never been sufficiently grateful for all the +kindness he had shown her since childhood, arose +from the seat she occupied and, taking possession of +a low stool at his feet, placed her small soft hand +lovingly in his, and answered,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You have been so nearly a father to me ever +since I lost my own, you have made this place so +much like home, that I should be a monster to wish +to leave either it or you. There was indeed a time—I +may well blush to own it—when, spite of all your +kindness, your generosity, your ready compliance +with every wish, I did so long for the land of my +birth, that nothing here completely satisfied me; +but I see things so differently now: I have learnt +so much latterly, that I am twice as happy now as +ever I was, and doubly grateful to you for having +provided such a home for us when an unexpected +misfortune deprived us of our own. I cannot say +all I feel and have felt for a good while past,” she +added, with a sort of tremor in her voice; “but +<span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>though I cannot talk much of all we owe you, I can +think a great deal and remember it always.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was the first time in his life John Merapie ever +recollected hearing such a sentence addressed to +him by true faltering lips, and it melted the worthy +merchant so much, that, moved by some strong impulse, +he bent suddenly down and kissed his niece, +who flung her arms round his neck and began to +weep, as was her absurd fashion when her heart was +either touched with joy or moved by kindness.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What a foolish child you are,” said John Merapie +at last; “I have done nothing for you but what +was my imperative duty, not so much as I ought; I +might have made this home a little gayer for you, if +I had thought of it,—yes, and I will do it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I do not wish it to be different,” sobbed Mina; +“I am quite happy, quite: I have not a single wish +on earth,” she paused, and then added, somewhat +reluctantly, “but one.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And what may that be?” demanded her uncle, +but she remained silent. “Will money gratify it?” +he asked.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It might,” she said: “I’ll tell you what it is, +uncle, if you won’t be angry.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Angry! no, indeed; go on.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I wish so much, then, poor dear Malcolm had a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span>commission; he has set his heart on being an officer, +and indeed, indeed, I know, if you gave him a +chance now, he would be very, very steady; he has +told me he would, often: he knows he did wrong +before; but he was quite young, uncle, and he felt +so ashamed of himself and was so sorry about all the +money he spent, that he could not ask you to get +him into the army. I hope you will not be displeased. +That is the only wish I have, uncle.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Her uncle had fixed his eyes very moodily on the +fire when she commenced this speech, and, at its +conclusion, he said, rising,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Malcolm has disappointed me grievously, Mina, +and I do not think he is at all improved, or likely to +improve; I cannot tell what I ought to do with him, +but still I will think about it and see: meanwhile, +with regard to yourself, you do not wish to marry +Mr. Westwood?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, indeed, uncle, I do not.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, then, you shall not,” he answered, and +rose to retire for the night.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Before he had quite reached the door, however, +he turned back a step, and, taking Mina’s hand—she +wondered at the time what made him do it, and +she remembered the action long, long afterwards—he +squeezed it very tight in his, then said,</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>“God bless you!” twice over, in a strange, +troubled, yet still earnest sort of way, after which +he went hurriedly out of the room, looking very +pale and haggard.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And Mina sat down by the dying embers and +cried very much; why, she scarcely knew, excepting +that she had been greatly flurried and agitated, +and was now immensely relieved and rejoiced. But +when she arose next morning, not a tear dimmed +her eyes or a trace of one was visible on her cheek, +for she felt sure Malcolm would now have another +chance given him; and she was delighted to think +she had “done with” Mr. Westwood for ever. +Her uncle had removed a load from her heart: Miss +Caldera was quite astray—Malcolm and she would +always be provided for. There was nothing wrong +with the business, no reason to fear any reverse: +they would always be independent; Mr. Merapie +had said so: and thus it was only natural that she +should trip down stairs with a much lighter step +than usual and greet Mr. Ernest Ivraine in such a +remarkable cheerful manner, that the miser’s son +found himself marvelling what extraordinary piece +of good fortune had befallen his host’s niece, which +caused her to seem so altogether changed a being +from what he had ever fancied her before.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER VIII.<br> <span class='c009'>A SUDDEN BLOW.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>“Malcolm,” said Mrs. Frazer to her son, a few +minutes after Mr. Ivraine’s arrival, “I wish you +would see what is keeping your uncle; tell him +breakfast is ready.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina,” cried Malcolm, one of the laziest of +mortals, unless he were engaged in some occupation +he cared for, “run up stairs like a good child and +deliver your mama’s message; be quick now, and +do not get into any mischief by the way;” and +having thus shifted the trouble on to his sister’s +shoulders, he drew his chair a little closer to the +fire and, commenting on the coldness of the morning, +began to stir the already blazing coals into a +brighter glow, talking and jesting in his usual careless +style as he did so.</p> + +<p class='c011'>He had just uttered some pleasantry, when, in +the middle of the laugh which followed it, the door +<span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span>was flung suddenly open, and, making but one +bound to where he was seated, Mina, as if the sound +of his merriment maddened her, laid her hand over +his mouth and uttered the single word “stop,” in +a tone which rung in Ernest Ivraine’s ears for +months afterwards.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What is the matter?” demanded her brother, +looking in blank amazement in her horror-stricken +face; “have you seen a ghost? speak, can’t you?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I—I’ve seen a corpse,” she gasped out, cowering +down on the hearthrug and burying her face in +her hands, as though to shut out some horrible +sight; “he is dead!”</p> + +<p class='c011'>With a simultaneous exclamation of horror, Malcolm +and Ernest rushed out of the apartment and +up the staircase together. The door of an outer +chamber, which Mr. Merapie had used half as +dressing-room, half as library, was wide open, and, +hurrying in, they beheld John Merapie sitting behind +a small writing-table, his head falling back +over the top of an old-fashioned chair, his eyes +staring; his features fixed, rigid, cold, in death.</p> + +<p class='c011'>To have seen Malcolm Frazer’s demeanour, one +would have imagined he had lost his senses; he +moaned and raved and tore his hair, and finally +betaking himself to the bell-pull, he commenced +<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>ringing with such violence as speedily brought the +few servants the house contained to the spot.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What is it you want?” Ernest Ivraine kept demanding, +whilst he busied himself endeavouring to +discover whether any spark of life still remained, +“what is it you want?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“A doctor, send for a doctor, go for a doctor!” +Malcolm almost screamed out at last; and though +he saw it was perfectly hopeless, Ernest Ivraine did +speed forth on his dreary errand, and returned in +five minutes’ time, dragging little Dr. Richards with +him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Been gone for hours,” were the first words the +brusque man of medicine spoke when he glanced at +the stiffened countenance; “past human aid long +ago, long ago; poor Merapie!” and the doctor’s +voice softened as he murmured the concluding +words. “It’s of no use doing anything,” he added, +in answer to Malcolm’s wild entreaty for him to +bleed, to blister, to restore heat, to try some vague +means for bringing back the dead to life, not to +lose time, but if he could suggest nothing to send +for further help at once.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What you desire is impossible,” said Dr. Richards +in a much gentler manner than usual; “all the +physicians in England, all the skill and medicine in +<span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>the world, could not make his pulse beat even once +again.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>But still Malcolm implored so earnestly that +means might be employed, that Mr. Ivraine whispered +in the doctor’s ear, “It is useless, I see, but +do humour him, he is almost crazy.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Never minded a syllable his uncle spoke when +living, but goes frantic about him now he is dead,” +growled out the doctor; then, addressing Malcolm, +he continued, “I tell you, young man, we can only +treat breathing bodies, not inanimate corpses; but +if it will be any satisfaction to you, go quietly down +stairs, leave me in peace, and I promise that, if +mortal power can be of any avail, I will do my very +best.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And I will assist you,” cried Malcolm; and as, +spite of all persuasion and entreaty and command, he +would not leave the room, Ernest stole away from +the dreary apartment to see how it fared with Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She had never changed her position since the +first; Mrs. Frazer was in a swoon, and women were +ministering to her, but Mina, as though turned into +stone, still remained in the attitude into which she +had fallen at the beginning: they had spoken to +her, but she never answered; striven to move her, +but in vain; there she was, just as when he left her, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>half kneeling, half sitting, before the fire, her face +hidden from observation, neither weeping, moaning, +nor sobbing; she was shivering and trembling, that +was all.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Miss Frazer,” said Ernest; but she gave no +answer: then he strove to arouse her by a gentle +touch, laid on her shoulder; but finding all his +efforts as ineffectual as those of the women had been, +he stooped down, and by means of some slight violence, +at last succeeded in withdrawing her hands +from her face.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Such a look! the dark terrified eyes never met +his, but gazed afar off, as if fastened on some horrible +spectacle, from which she found it impossible +to avert them. Every vestige of natural colour had +fled from her face; it was not white or red, but +almost black; her lips were parted, and the chattering +teeth, and quick unequal breathing, showed +the shock she had received—the fright she was even +then experiencing. Ernest was glad to release her +hands again, and let her head drop upon them once +more; but nothing could obliterate the recollection +of that fixed expression of horror from his mind: it +haunted him in dreams in after years.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Doctor,” he said to his old acquaintance, after +Malcolm had been dragged from the death chamber +<span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span>and Mrs. Frazer carried to her own apartment, +where the man of medicine had first drowned her +in hartshorn and sal volatile, to rescue her from a +fainting fit, and then dosed her with opiates to +avert a series of hysterics, or, rather, to lessen their +violence, “doctor, there is a poor sufferer here, needing +your assistance as much, or more than any one; +I can do nothing with her, will you try?” and he +led him into the room where Mina—still crouching +down on the floor—sat silent, asking no sympathy, +speaking no sentence, making no sign.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina!” exclaimed Dr. Richards, who had entertained +a sort of regard for her since she was a +child, “Mina!”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Finding no response came, he pulled her hands +away with a not unkindly jerk; then, raising her +drooping head by the simple contrivance of placing +his forefinger under her chin, he was met by the +same look which had frozen Ernest’s heart within +him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“This must not go on,” said Dr. Richards, decidedly; +“crying is bad, and fainting too, and +screaming, and hysterics worse, but of all evil +methods of taking sorrow I like this least, it does +far the most harm in the long run: Mina!” he +added, speaking to her in a louder, and, as Ernest +<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>thought, unnecessarily harsh tone, “you must answer +me some questions; rise up now, it is necessary +for you to do so: now, attend to me; I want +to know exactly what you saw when you went to +call your uncle to breakfast?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>He had by this time managed to get her placed +in a large arm-chair, and he stood before her, striving +to attract and retain her attention; but still that +look he so disliked remained on her face, and her +teeth continued chattering, while she seemed totally +unconscious or unmindful of anything which was +passing around her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You must speak!” exclaimed Dr. Richards, in +an angry determined tone, that appeared to affect +every quivering nerve, and cause it to vibrate with +acute pain.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Ernest, who had gone to work far more gently, +felt as if Dr. Richards were devoid of common +humanity; but the desired result had been at length +produced. The eyes wavered for an instant in their +steady stare, and making an almost convulsive effort, +she asked, a sort of spasm or suffocating sensation +apparently impeding her powers of utterance,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What is it, what do you want?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I want to know,” replied the doctor, speaking in +a still louder key,—never for one instant relaxing +<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>hold of his victim’s hands and grasping them with +greater force the more she shrunk from him, “I +want to know what you saw in your uncle’s room +this morning?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The old look came over her countenance again, +and she struggled for an instant so violently, that +she managed to release one hand from her tormentor; +but Dr. Richards caught it again, and held +her by the wrists in such a vice-like gripe, that the +mere bodily pain seemed at length to exercise a +beneficial influence over the wandering faculties of +her mind.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I saw—I saw,” she gasped, every muscle in +her face working, till Ernest really began to fear +the doctor would throw her into a fit,—“him, +sitting with his head leaning on the table; and +then——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Go on,” insisted he, as she paused and shuddered, +“go on, and then——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Then I went up to him and spoke.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well,” persisted the doctor, wringing the words +out of her, “you spoke, and what did he answer?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Answer!” she echoed, and the trembling and +chattering recommenced worse than before; “answer!”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, answer!” he repeated. “Come make +<span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span>haste now, I have not time to wait here all day; +get on, what did he answer?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Nothing,” she almost panted out, “nothing.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What did you do?” he further demanded.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Then I lifted his head and looked in his face—and—and—I +saw he was dead!”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“There, she will do now,” said Dr. Richards, +as a sudden burst of tears succeeded the conclusion +of her short story: then, discarding the harsh commanding +tone he had hitherto used, he commenced +addressing all sorts of soothing expressions to her, +giving her whatever scraps of comfort came most +readily to hand, striving to console and pacify her +with such genuine kindness and almost womanly +gentleness, that Mr. Ivraine, looking gravely on, +confessed he had done the little doctor grievous +injustice, and never, until that moment, fully understood +how tender and feeling a heart may beat +under the roughest and most unpromising exterior.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Having succeeded in calming her in some degree, +Dr. Richards walked over to the sideboard, +and, pouring out a glass of wine, presented the +same—after he had insidiously dropped something +out of a small phial into it—to his patient, and bade +her swallow the mixture.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Now,” he said, “sit perfectly still where you +<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>are till I return,” and, drawing down the blinds, he +beckoned Ernest to follow his example and left the +apartment. “That,” he remarked as he coolly +turned the key in the wards and then deposited it +in his pocket, “that will keep her quiet for some +hours, at any rate; and now, my dear sir, what is +the next thing to be done?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mr. Ivraine did not know, but he went in search +of Malcolm, whom he found pacing up and down +the drawing room, rather more composed than when +he had left him about an hour previously, but +scarcely arrived, even then, at a state which might +properly have been called sane.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mr. Frazer,” began Ernest, “is there anything +I can do for you? Do you think I could be of the +slightest assistance in this emergency? If it is in +my power to prove of the least use, I hope you will +allow me to be so; but if not, I feel I ought no +longer to intrude.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh! for pity’s sake,” broke in Malcolm, “do +not leave me; there is not a person in England I +care to speak to but yourself: I don’t know what to +do, or where to turn, or how to manage, and—and—for +Heaven’s sake don’t leave me here alone, with +a corpse lying in the house and not a soul to exchange +a syllable with but a lot of helpless women.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>“I shall certainly not go; but if you wish me to +remain,” replied Ernest in a soothing tone, “sit +down for a little while and do try to compose yourself: +you must recollect how much has suddenly +devolved upon you,—the entire care and comfort of +your mother and sister and the whole management +of your uncle’s affairs. A heavy responsibility now +rests upon you, and you ought to prepare yourself to +meet it with a man’s heart and a man’s quiet unmoved +steadiness: you are a boy no longer; you have +solemn duties to discharge; you have, as you say, +helpless women depending upon you as their only +male prop. You must prove yourself a strong one; +sit down and calm yourself, and then we will look +the worst steadily in the face and see what has actually +happened, and what, under the circumstances, +is best to be done. Dr. Richards has promised to +return in a couple of hours, and we can then consult +with him who, having known you and yours for +years, takes a deep interest in all that concerns you.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That fellow Westwood,” here broke in Malcolm, +who had listened to the above exhortation +without heeding a single syllable of it, “has been +prowling about the house all the morning; I wonder +what business he has here, or who sent for him, +or who wants him: I wish to heavens we could turn +<span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>him out. Ivraine, could you not give him a civil +hint that if he would go, it would be an immense +relief? I’d feel for ever obliged if you just would +rescue me from him. I came here solely to be out +of his way; he is the most impudent——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mr. Frazer,” interposed Alfred Westwood at this +juncture, pushing open the door, which Ernest had +left slightly ajar, and cutting right across the flattering +remark his late partner’s nephew was just +commencing, “Mr. Frazer, will you excuse me, as a +friend, asking you an apparently very impertinent +question?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I suppose it makes very little difference whether +I will or not, as you are sure to ask it at any rate,” +replied Malcolm sulkily.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I must ask it,” returned Mr. Westwood; “still +I trust, though I am aware my words must sound +very unfeeling at such a time, that you will not be +offended. Has your uncle left any will?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What business is that of yours?” demanded +Malcolm, his whole countenance flushed with anger; +“how the devil can it concern you, whether he has +or not?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mr. Westwood shuddered, as if the sound of the +young Scotchman’s hasty oath appalled his refined +religious ears; but getting, with wonderful rapidity, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span>over the horror with which he desired it to be +thought it had inspired him, he answered,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It concerns <i>me</i> not in the least, Mr. Malcolm +Frazer, I admit; but you may yet discover it a +matter of some importance to you and to some +others, after whose interests you are now most certainly +bound to look with an eye of watchful affection: +you, however, dislike to hear truth from the +lips of a friend; I will, therefore, relieve you of +my presence.” And Mr. Westwood, a half-triumphant, +half-insulting expression on his face, turned, +as he concluded, to leave the room.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Stop!” cried Malcolm, a vague dread of some +unknown evil flashing through his mind and bringing +him ‘to his senses,’—“stop!” and he flung himself +between his late uncle’s partner and the door. +“Now, sir,” he continued, folding his arms resolutely +across his chest and using a quick decided +tone, “now, sir, I see by your face, I judge by your +words, that you are aware of some circumstance or +circumstances of which I am at present in ignorance, +but of which I ought to be informed; and, as you +have thought fit to come here without invitation, +you shall stay here on compulsion till you explain +your meaning clearly and satisfactorily.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>A smile of contempt and malice curled Mr. Westwood’s +<span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>lip, and, for a moment, Mr. Ivraine imagined +he had some intention of swinging Malcolm from his +position and clearing a passage for himself; but, if +he ever harboured such an idea, it was instantly +abandoned, for he answered without even a trace of +irritation and, as the looker-on thought, with the +most wonderful temper and forbearance.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I came here as a friend, and you received me as +an enemy; now, when I propose going, you insist +that I shall remain, but I am willing to make every +allowance on account of your youth, inexperience, +and the trying situation in which you are placed; +and, as I really wish to be of service to you if I can, +I overlook the insulting style of your address, and, +merely remembering that you desire information, +reply, that I am here ready and willing to answer +any questions you may think proper to put, always +supposing they are of such a nature as that good +and not harm can result from responding to them.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I detest long sentences, sir,” was Malcolm’s +polite rejoinder to Mr. Westwood’s temperate speech.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I really think you are acting foolishly, Mr. +Frazer,” interposed Ernest, over whom a shadowy +alarm had begun to steal, “I really think you are.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And I know he is,” returned Mr. Westwood; +“but that is no affair of mine: my motto is, ‘let +<span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>everybody take care of himself, and manage his own +business as best suits his own fancy.’”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I wish you’d carry your theory into practice,” +exclaimed Malcolm pettishly; “but, whether foolish +or wise, I want to put an end to this interview, +therefore suppose we proceed at once to the matter +in hand. Why, therefore, do you assert that the +fact of my uncle not having left a will can be an +affair of importance to me and mine?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Because,” replied Mr. Westwood, “a few +strokes of the pen have sufficed, in some instances, +to make a man independent for life, while the +absence of two or three words has reduced many +individuals to beggary and want.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But, in our case, a will is unnecessary; an unfavourable +one might have unmade us, it is true; +the want of one altogether merely leaves us in possession +of what my uncle always intended should be +ours.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Perhaps so,” said Mr. Westwood.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Why, don’t you know,” burst forth Malcolm, +“that we are his nearest relatives, that the next of +kin always succeeds to property in the event of an +intestacy, that nothing <i>but</i> a will could deprive us of +it? Are you not lawyer enough to understand this, +or,” he added, a sudden suspicion occurring to him, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span>“do <i>you</i> know of any will? By Heavens! if you +have worked upon him to disinherit us, if you have +been scheming and plotting against either me or my +sister, if you have dared to meddle in family concerns, +or got my uncle to leave you anything to our +prejudice, I swear you shall never enter into possession +of the property, never live to spend a single +shilling of the money so iniquitously acquired.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Ernest Ivraine never could tell, at least not until +long years afterwards, why this scene affected him +with a sort of deadly sickness, that faint sinking of +the heart, which is induced, not by bodily illness, +but by mental excitement: he felt as if he, too, had +an interest in the matter; as if he, too, had a right +to interfere; as if he were one of the parties concerned—likely +to be benefited, or possibly to be +wronged: it was a sort of acting by others of what +might come to himself; it was a kind of rehearsal +of something, in which hereafter he was to be a +principal character—a prominent figure; he had +felt at the first that loathing of hearing pecuniary +matters discussed in a house shadowed by the wings +of the mighty angel, Death, which the sensitive or +the uninterested always experience, when the mercenary +and the grasping introduce the theme of +probable legacies, and wrangle concerning their +<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>various chances, in a room next to that desolate +apartment tenanted by the corpse of one who has +done with earth, and the curse thereof—gold—for +ever. But Malcolm’s words had touched the vibrating +chord in his heart; the demon was at length +roused; the legacy hunter—the man who had voluntarily +doomed himself to a hateful slavery, to the +end that he might keep all other claimants at bay—all +other vultures off the spoil—felt himself sympathising +with Malcolm, and anxious for his prosperity, +desiring to hear more, wishful for accurate +information, doubtful of Mr. Westwood, fearful of the +event; and, accordingly, before he well knew what +induced the action, he found himself standing, dark +and stern, at Malcolm’s side, with one hand on the +youth’s shoulder, entreating him to greater calmness, +to attend patiently, and hear Mr. Westwood’s reply.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Let me talk to you,” said that individual, turning +from Malcolm with an angry gesture; “let me +talk to you, as you seem disposed to be a friend to +those who will, I fancy, ere long require friendship +from many a one who will not be ready to extend it +to them. It is useless speaking to him; the boy is +a fool—a child, not in understanding, but in wayward +passion, absurd caprice, senseless prejudice; +do you act for him, and lose no time; search every +<span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>drawer, box, desk, safe, in the house, possible or +impossible, and see if you can discover a will. I +intend to proceed to Mr. Merapie’s solicitors, and +see whether they possess any document of the kind; +and if not, I request that some disinterested person +may search the office. It is of no importance to me +whether any be discovered or not, further than that +I wish well to this ungrateful youth, and the two +delicate beings, who may be reduced to beggary by +<i>the absence</i> of such an instrument. Directly or indirectly +I shall never benefit by my late partner’s +demise. Mr. Frazer’s suspicions have done me most +foul wrong. I think it the height of villainy in any +man to attempt to step between relatives; and if I +were left sole legatee to-day, the only use I should +make of my wealth would be to hand it over to the +rightful owners to-morrow. Do not let prejudice +blind you; have the house thoroughly examined: +I am giving good sound advice, for which, perhaps, +at a future day, even Mr. Malcolm Frazer may thank +me.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>He made a step forward, as if to leave the room, +but Ernest detained him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Tell me,” he said, “what it is you mean? Are +not Mrs. Frazer and her children the sole living +connections Mr. Merapie has left behind him?”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>“They are not,” replied Mr. Westwood.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Has he any nearer relatives?” demanded Mr. +Ivraine.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Time will show,” was the brief response uttered, +as Mr. Westwood pushed Malcolm—who stood like +a statue, gazing intently and half stupidly in his +face—gently aside, and walked past him out of the +room and down the stairs and so out of the house.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER IX.<br> <span class='c009'>THE NEXT OF KIN.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>The hunt for the lady, so faithfully recorded in +the song called “The Mistletoe Bough,” was a mere +apology for a search in comparison to that Ernest +Ivraine forthwith instituted from garret to cellar of +number 12, Belerma Square; and the reason is +obvious: in the first case, “only a wife” was the +article missing; in the last, an all-important document +was required to be found. Had the poor bride +been a piece of parchment, blackened over with +legal hieroglyphics, rely upon it she would have +been discovered in a very brief period; for, in that +event, no place, likely or unlikely, no nook, cranny, +box, hole, or spring chest, no matter how long it +might have “lain hid,” would have been neglected +or overlooked: the value of the thing absent, makes +all the difference possible in the zeal and activity +and sharp-sightedness of the searchers: and who on +<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>earth, possessed of half an ounce of common sense +or worldly prudence, would look with the same indefatigable +industry after a lost woman as for a lost +will?</p> + +<p class='c011'>Malcolm was in far too unsettled a state of mind +to be of any very great assistance, but he did his +best; whilst Mr. Ivraine laboured through desks +and papers and <i><span lang="fr">secretoires</span></i> with as much interest as +though the whole of his future welfare depended on +the existence of a proper testament—sealed, signed, +and delivered. The sheet of foolscap that had been +discovered lying before John Merapie’s corpse, upon +which the merchant had probably been engaged, +when death, so abruptly entering the chamber, interrupted +him in his labours, proved, on examination, +to be the commencement of an unfinished will; +but it was merely the commencement, for after a +short preamble, in which a life annuity was devised +to his sister, payable quarterly, came the words, +“and to my beloved niece, Mina Frazer, I bequeath +the sum of——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Here the chill visitor had seized his hand, apparently +with so firm and sudden a grasp that the +pen dropped from his lifeless fingers before another +syllable could be added; and he carried the knowledge +of what he had intended leaving his niece to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>the grave with him. He remembered her, and tried +to repair a fatal error whilst standing on death’s +very threshold; but that was all Mina or any one +else ever knew about it—he had died almost in the +very act of writing her name. The girl wept bitterly +when she heard that; but she had still more cause +to weep in after years that he expired, before being +able to carry the good thought fully out—before the +kind intention assumed the firm unchangeable character +of a deed.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Alfred Westwood, “prowling,” as Malcolm had +stated, about the house, perused the few brief lines +the paper contained, and gathered from them, before +descending to the drawing-room, the certainty that +John Merapie had died intestate. Ernest Ivraine +read it also, after hearing Mr. Westwood’s words of +“friendly” warning, and—he did not know himself +exactly why—but the fact of an incomplete will +existing, made him feel doubly anxious to find a +perfect one; and, accordingly, he pored over deeds +and fitted keys to locks and searched and hunted +through every place, possible and impossible, where +a deed of the kind could by any accident have been +mislaid or secreted.</p> + +<p class='c011'>But in vain; everything but the required document +was forthcoming; and, at length, fairly dispirited +<span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span>and disappointed, Ernest Ivraine came to +the conclusion that if no will could be discovered in +the dining-room, the key of which Dr. Richards had +in his pocket, no such deed existed; for Mr. Westwood +had most considerately despatched a messenger +from Wapping to inform them that the late Mr. +Merapie’s solicitors were not in possession of the +desired paper, and that not a vestige of any testamentary +disposition of property could be detected +at the office, though such exertions were used in +prosecuting the search as must inevitably have led +to its discovery had it been forthcoming.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“We want the key of this apartment, if you +please, doctor,” said Ernest, addressing the little +M.D., who, after listening to a detail of the hints +Mr. Westwood had thrown out some hours previously, +reluctantly unlocked the door of the dining-room, +and gave the pair admission as they desired.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina was lying back in the easy chair, just as +they had left her, buried in that profound stupor +which more resembles death than sleep. There she +sate, her countenance pale as that of a corpse, her +long dark hair hanging in disordered masses over +her face, neck, and shoulders; one hand was flung +carelessly over the arm of the chair, the other she +pressed tightly, even in slumber, upon her heart, as +<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>if some dreadful pain abode there; her breathing +was scarcely audible; and altogether she looked so +unlike a living being—she so resembled that which +appals our humanity—as to cause Ernest Ivraine to +exclaim, turning a quick glance on the doctor,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Can you waken her?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“All in good time,” he replied, calmly.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Was it not rather a dangerous experiment?” +persisted Ernest.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I am sure it was,” here broke in Malcolm; “if +I had been here she should never have been so +dosed: I wish Dr. Richards,” he added, speaking +passionately, like a wilful yet frightened child, “I +wish you had let her alone; I really do not know +what right you had so to stupify her, at a time when +she could have been of such use too: she would +have been able to tell about this paper at once, as +she used to arrange my uncle’s books and desks for +him; do try and rouse her.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I tell you what it is, young man,” retorted Dr. +Richards, savagely, “if you have no regard for your +sister, I have, and, therefore, instead of submitting +to be ordered by you, I insist that you carry the +girl to her own room, and leave her there in peace; +she will wake soon enough, poor child, without your +hurrying the process: remember, in any house where +<span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>a patient of mine resides, I am master for the time +being, so do what I desire; you are strong enough, +surely, to bear so light a burden; and I tell you it +is necessary almost to her very existence that she +should sleep on for some time longer.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Very sulkily Malcolm Frazer complied with the +doctor’s command, and then, spite of the little man’s +pooh poohing, and speaking of their pursuit as unfeeling, +mercenary, and so forth, he and Ernest recommenced +their search, but all in vain: there was +no will, and John Merapie had died intestate.</p> + +<p class='c011'>For hours Ernest Ivraine sat by the dim firelight, +striving one moment to comfort Malcolm for the loss +of a good, kind relative, and the next endeavouring +to persuade him the absence of a will was a matter +of little or no consequence, as—even supposing +other relatives did present themselves—there was +surely sufficient property to give several individuals +handsome fortunes; but still—why, he did not +know—Ernest’s heart misgave him: Mr. Westwood’s +face, more than his words, had impressed +him with the dread of impending evil; he distrusted +the man with his cold, polite, perfectly imperturbable +manner, with his fixed smile and sarcastic expression; +and the malicious triumphant look he had +noticed in his countenance as he shoved Malcolm +<span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span>aside, had filled the baronet’s son with more alarm +than a volume of threatening sentences from any +other individual could have done. Still, however, +he did his best to console the youth just entering +upon life, whom he who knew most about John +Merapie’s affairs had said <i>might</i> be reduced to beggary; +he spoke soothingly, hopefully, strove to +pacify his fears, calm his excitement, and induce +him to forget his sorrows even for an instant.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Ernest Ivraine had never talked so before, not +even to Henry; but he felt as if he were comforting +a child, not a man,—a wayward, dependent, half-formed +creature, not one his equal in any way, in +mind, character, or experience.</p> + +<p class='c011'>At last he partially succeeded in his endeavour of +diverting the conversation from the events of the +last twenty-four hours; the dead and the missing +deed had not been spoken of for some five minutes +previously, and Malcolm was looking with a calmer +quieter expression of face into the fire, when a loud +ring of the house bell—a peal such as might have +sufficed to break even the repose of the “seven +sleepers”—caused him to start from his seat, nervously +exclaiming,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Good heavens! what is that?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Sit down,” said Ernest, thrusting him back into +<span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>his chair and holding him there; but the quick +anxious ear caught a sound of hurried words and +rapid footsteps. The next instant the dining-room +door was flung violently open, and the servant announced, +in a voice shrill with surprise and excitement,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“<i>Mrs.</i> Merapie, sir.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Widow of the late Mr. John Merapie,” added a +determined looking woman, still handsome and, +comparatively speaking, young, who advanced into +the dining-room and uttered the above sentence by +way of a pleasant explanatory introduction. Ernest +Ivraine gazed for an instant curiously on her, and, +as he did so, unconsciously relaxed his hold of Malcolm, +who, making one resolute effort, released himself +altogether, crossed the room at a single bound, +and darted up the staircase with the rapidity of the +wind.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina,” he yelled rather than spoke, flinging +himself down by the side of the couch, “Mina, for +God’s sake waken and speak to me; I shall go mad +if you don’t: uncle John has left no will and he +has a wife, and we—we are beggars!”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The way he screamed out the words thrilled +every nerve of the girl’s body. Like one roused +from the dead by the powerful aid of galvanism she +<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>started up, her large eyes distended, her body +quivering with excessive fear and horror.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Speak to me,” he again cried out; “oh! Mina, +Mina, we are beggars!”</p> + +<p class='c011'>A sort of convulsive throe shook her frame for a +moment; then Mina Frazer, burying her face in +her hands, strove to realize the meaning of the +words she just had heard.</p> + +<p class='c011'>When she raised her head again she was calm and +cold as stone, and she rose and took her brother’s +hand in hers and bade him tell her all; then she +put an arm round his neck and kissed him two or +three times over—why, she did not know—and she +sat down and talked to him for a few minutes.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She was composed now; the potion had done its +work; she had awakened, as Dr. Richards said she +would, too soon,—ah! yes, too soon by far.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER X.<br> <span class='c009'>A PROPOSAL.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>Morning at length broke—as it will break, after +hours of pain and watching and trial—type of that +glorious eternity which must eventually, sooner or +later, succeed to, and dispel the darkness of, the +dreariest existence that ever fell to the lot of mortal +man—man who is “born to trouble as the sparks fly +upwards.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>It dawned, bright, cold, and clear, upon that +miniature nation, that vast human beehive, filled +with all sorts of labourers and drones, that city of +wealth and solidity and striking contrasts and worldwide +renown—London, the mighty, and silent and +beautiful: its beams fell on the windows of number +12, Belerma Square, and, spite of drawn blinds +and closed shutters, found, by some means, an entrance +into each dingy, desolate apartment.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The rays, at first dim and uncertain, straggled in +<span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>through a chink to the room where the corpse was +lying, and cast strange lights on the ceiling, floor, +and walls; then gathering strength, one among +them crept curiously forward, little by little, bit by +bit, till it finally fell full on the calm, still face of +the dead. There it rested for a considerable period, +as if content to remain stationary over that emblem +of mortality, whilst its brethren peered into other +parts of the chamber and obtruded their cheerful +presence into other portions of the house.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Light, full, clear, and brilliant, at length streamed +on every corner in the mansion, into the apartment +where John Merapie’s unfeeling widow sat, exulting +over the change in her condition, over the +grand wide prospect now spread out before herself +and her only child, a boy some twelve years old—hard, +keen, precocious, selfish, like his parent; +whilst, on the next floor, Malcolm and Mina kept +together in their mother’s dressing-room, talking +and wondering and waiting for some indefinite +event, which they felt to be approaching towards +them with hurried, rapid strides.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was strange, almost pitiable, to notice how Malcolm—for +the time being thoroughly broken down +and prostrated by the force of the unexpected blow—hung +like a child about his sister, followed her +<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>every step, watched her every look; he seemed so +impressed by the calmness of her manner, as to entertain +a vague idea that she would be able to effect +some arrangement for their benefit; he appeared to +feel that, whilst with her, no fresh sorrow could +come near them: she spoke so little, made so few +laments about their misfortunes, exhorted him so +earnestly not to give way, not to look at the very +blackest side of things till they knew for a certainty +there was no other; seemed to consider the sorrow of +their uncle’s death so much more than the pecuniary +difficulty, that Malcolm, who never looked beyond +the surface, imagined her cold, collected manner was +the sign of a hopeful heart instead of a breaking one, +of a spirit buoyed up by expectations of sunshine +speedily bursting through the gloom, instead of a soul +nerved to endure and meet the worst by firmness +of purpose, by natural strength of character.</p> + +<p class='c011'>In answer to his incessant query of, “But, Mina, +what are we to do?” she had invariably answered,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Wait, for the present, and see.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>But as eight, nine, half-past nine o’clock came, +passed, and brought no further knowledge on their +rapid wings, even she grew restless to learn their +doom for a certainty; and, therefore, going to the +fountain head direct, she sent in a message to Mr. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>Westwood, requesting a few minutes’ conversation +with that gentleman.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Why could you not have asked to see <i>her</i>, +Mina, at once?” inquired Malcolm; but his sister +shrunk from an interview with the imperious +stranger, of whose loud commanding voice and +haughty overbearing manner, the servants had +brought such hurried intelligence to her the preceding +night, so she answered,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mr. Westwood can tell me all I want to know +much better, and I am accustomed to speak to him, +whilst I have never even seen her.” And, accordingly, +the message was despatched to Mr. Westwood, +who received it just as he was in the act of +pouring out his last cup of coffee.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“She will be glad enough to see me <i>now</i>,” he +soliloquised, “in spite of the airs she used to give +herself, glad enough to see me now, and hear me +speak, and ready enough to speak to me; I always +knew it was pride: but I am of a forgiving disposition +and will overlook past offences, particularly +as she has made the first advance to reconciliation, +and I will marry her, though I might do far better. +Yes; I vowed I would, and I never broke a vow +yet, but one; but, oh! what a confounded thing it +is to have a conscience.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span>Having concluded which peroration, he struck +his hand upon his forehead and then walked quietly +into number 12 and up the wide staircase leading to +the drawing-room he had so often entered during +the lifetime of his late partner.</p> + +<p class='c011'>There was a lady in the apartment when he +crossed the threshold, but it was not Mina Frazer. +She was a woman, not young, but still in the prime +of life, with fair hair, clear red and white complexion, +large blue eyes, pouting mouth, and high +smooth forehead, the <i><span lang="fr">beau ideal</span></i> of a “vulgar +beauty:” it was only the quick determined glance +and somewhat aristocratic curve of the scornful +upper lip that redeemed her face from the general +impression of commonness the remainder of her features +conveyed to the beholder.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Without word, without salutation, without apology, +Alfred Westwood, turning, perhaps, a shade +paler than usual and keeping his eyes steadily fixed +on her countenance, advanced towards the new-made +widow.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She had wheeled round when he first came in, +and contemplated him, for an instant, with an indifferent, +half-curious, half-defiant expression of +face; but as he drew slowly nearer and nearer, +that expression gave place to one of doubt, surprise, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>terror; and, suddenly stretching out both arms, as if +to prevent his approach, she uttered a short startled +cry and fell back in a dead swoon.</p> + +<p class='c011'>With a fierce stormy cloud on his brow, Alfred +Westwood remained contemplating her for a moment: +he never moved a finger to lift her; the idea +of endeavouring to restore consciousness never +seemed to occur to him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, woman, yes,” he muttered, after he had +scanned every lineament with a settled stare of +hatred; and then something like an oath came +hissing forth from between his tightly-set teeth, a +sort of malediction breathed over the inanimate +form of John Merapie’s widow: there could be no +doubt of the matter, he was inwardly cursing her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>But at length remembering he had not come there +merely to look at the face of a fainting woman, he +laid a hand on the bell pull, and then stooping, +raised, with no very compassionate or gentle gesture, +Mrs. Merapie from the ground.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Take care of your mistress,” he said to the +former housekeeper, Mrs. Colefort, who appeared in +answer to his summons. “Let Miss Frazer be told +I await her in the dining-room: after a short time +I will speak to Mrs. Merapie here;” and, without +casting another glance on the person last mentioned, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>he strode out of the apartment to seek some other +portion of the citadel not yet occupied by the +enemy, where he might hold a few minutes’ uninterrupted +conversation with Mina Frazer.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I will go with you,” Malcolm pleaded, as his +sister rose to leave the room when Mr. Westwood’s +message was delivered to her; but she answered,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, no; stay with mamma,” and ran down the +stairs without him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The visitor had drawn a mental portrait of how +she would appear before him,—a pale, despairing, +stricken, suppliant, a being as different as possible +from the Mina of former and more prosperous days +as can well be conceived: tears, lamentations, entreaties,—he +had pictured them all, and smiled +grimly and contemptuously as he did so. He had +fully prepared himself to meet one sort of feminine +sorrow; to speak words of hope and comfort to one +who came to him as to the sole friend misfortune +had left her, whose pride had yielded to her poverty, +whose vanity had melted away together with the +dream of riches, which was, as he conceived, the +sole cause of her former coldness and reserve towards +him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Standing with his back to the fire-place, looking +at the pattern on the hearthrug, Mr. Westwood had +<span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span>drawn the above fancy sketch, which a nearer view, +a few moments after, pronounced to be, in many +most important respects, erroneous.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Pale and calm, though bearing on her face unmistakable +marks of the blow which had struck her +heart, the girl came gliding in: changed she was—changed, +but not as he expected to find her; +changed by sudden sorrow, a great trial, an agonizing +fear; changed, but not bowed: she looked as if +she had passed through a chastening lifetime of +trouble since last he beheld her, a sea of danger and +strife and uncertainty, which had only braced her +nerves and developed some traits of greater firmness +in her character; altered she was for the better for +herself, perhaps; but he saw, and saw it with bitter +anger, for the worse for him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>They shook hands in silence, as people do shake +hands upon the occasion of their first meeting after +some great misfortune has blasted the happiness of +one; the eloquent sentence he had prepared to check +a torrent of imaginary tears died away on Mr. Westwood’s +lips.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Instead of his being the first to speak as he had +intended, she broke the stillness of that room where +city men had laughed solemnly over their wine, by +saying, whilst she pointed to a chair,</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>“Will you not be seated?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Cool, with a vengeance,” thought Mr. Westwood, +dropping into the chair, however, as meekly +as if he, not Mina, had been, as the newspaper +advertisement phrase runs, “the party in distress.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I have sent for you——” Mina began.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Sent, indeed!” soliloquised the indignant visitor, +whilst she proceeded,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“To learn from your lips precisely how we are +situated.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Right to the point, at all events,” he reflected; +and the conclusion of her sentence reminding him of +her exact position and of the elevated pinnacle he, +by comparison, occupied, his former confidence returned, +and he accordingly replied to her simple +question by demanding what she meant.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I believe,” she resumed, “you know everything” +(the girl did not intend this as a compliment, +but Mr. Westwood accepted it as such), “and therefore +I thought I would ask you how the fact of my +uncle being married will affect us now he is dead?” +The white lips trembled slightly as she spoke. “My +brother seems to fear we shall be reduced to penury; +I do not clearly understand, but—is it so?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If I do not mistake your meaning, you wish +information on three points,” answered Mr. Westwood +<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>in a blunt straightforward sort of way: “first, +if the person who arrived here last night be no impostor; +second, whether she and her son take precedence +of you and your brother; third, if any +money will be left for you out of the wreck. Am +I right?” he demanded.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, I think so,” she replied.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Before going any further,” he responded, “I +must ask you whether your uncle has left a will +behind him? for if so, the aspect of your affairs +might be considerably brightened.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Malcolm says not,” she returned.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Did he look?” asked Mr. Westwood.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mr. Ivraine did, I believe,” she replied, “but +nothing finished; nothing but the few lines he died +before completing could be discovered.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>A dry burning sensation, caused by excess of +agitation and the absence of tears, oppressed the +girl’s aching eyeballs as she spoke of that document, +and Mr. Westwood, noticing the look of pain, asked +if she were ill.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, not very; that is, not at all: please go on.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I feared, from the commencement, there was +none,” he resumed; “your uncle promised me he +would make some provision for you, and I presume +was just about to carry out his intention when——but +<span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span>we need pursue that painful topic no further,” +he added, with exquisite consideration. “With regard +to the marriage, I have known it for some considerable +time. Mrs. Merapie and her son succeed +to <i>all</i> the money your uncle left behind him, the +widow claiming one-third, the boy the remainder; +and there will be nothing for yourself, mother, or +brother, either now or at any future time.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Nothing?” she repeated.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Not a solitary shilling,” he returned; “you +have now no home, for you were merely here on +sufferance from the moment of your uncle’s demise: +you wish to learn the worst, and I tell it to you. +Mrs. Merapie is so indignant at having been kept in +the background for such a number of years, that +she is eager to retaliate a little on those who she +imagines, during that interval, usurped her house +and her position: you are liable, at any moment, to +rudeness and insolence; you are perfectly powerless +to resent either, as nothing here—not a single article +the place contains, excepting your own personal +effects—belongs to you or yours. I am speaking +frankly, as you desired; it is best, perhaps, for you +to learn these facts from the lips of a friend than to +hear them, for the first time, spoken by an arbitrary +vindictive woman.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>Though his words were stinging, still the tone +was not unkind. Mina looked for a moment right +into the fire, whilst a faint colour suffused her cheek +and a sudden gush of her old pride, a sad thought +of how truly desolate they were, swept across her +soul: the next instant she was calm again, and said +in a low voice, as if communing with herself,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Then we are beggars.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mr. Westwood made no response; indeed, none +was required.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Thank you,” she said, after a brief pause, rising, +as if about to leave the room, “thank you, very +much for devoting your time to me: I know all I +want to know, now.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“More than it has been a pleasure to me to communicate,” +returned Alfred Westwood, who felt something +nearer genuine love for the girl now than he +had ever done before. “Miss Frazer,” he hurriedly +added, “this is no time, these are no circumstances +under which to consider ceremony; will you excuse +my again adverting to a subject we discussed in +happier days? If you would only give me a right to +assist you, I will lay down my life to serve you: I +cannot promise what, perhaps, once you had reason +to expect, but I can give you a comfortable home, a +competence, sterling affection. Mrs. Frazer and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>you are both unfitted to bear the chill blast of misfortune: +I can provide a shelter as good as this, at +all events; I will help your brother to wealth, fortune, +position; I will guard you more tenderly now +than even might have been the case had your lot +been a more fortunate one. Sorrow only makes real +love stronger; I can preserve you from knowledge +of poverty, from grief, anxiety, vexation: only speak +one word, and I will smooth every difficulty away +from your path and devote my whole existence to +making yours happy.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>There was no doubt about the matter now, so +Mina thought; she had done him great injustice: +he had not been a mere mercenary fortune hunter; +in the hour of gloom, in the dark time of trial, he +remained unchanged; he had been weighed in the +balance, and not found wanting; he had been subject +to the test, and discovered to be the sterling +article. Mina felt touched, softened—as what woman +would not under similar circumstances? There could +be no mistake concerning his disinterestedness at +that moment; and though Mina felt no hesitation +as to the nature of her reply, still she paused for a +moment ere uttering it.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Slowly—not as they had done twice previously, +rapidly and indignantly—the words of refusal were +<span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span>uttered: she could not marry him; she was very, +very grateful, but it could not be.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Think though,” said Alfred Westwood, “of +your desolate position: a delicate mother, a brother +out of employment, all near relatives dead, hundreds +of miles from any who feel an interest in you; +think of having to go from hence without another +place of shelter being provided for you, of the +skeleton poverty, of the daily fret and difficulty of +procuring, not luxuries, but the merest necessaries; +think of poor mean lodgings, the expense of medical +attendance, the hopeless struggle, the endless pinching +and saving, the eternal outlay and demand; +think that the chief part of all this anxiety will fall +on you, that friends will grow cold and relatives +careless and acquaintances callous. It requires +some time to realize such a position; therefore all I +ask at present is, for you to think of it. I have +striven to keep myself and my own wishes and +everything, save yourself and your ultimate good, +in the background; but let me just remind you that +this is not a mere affair of sudden caprice or wayward +fancy: I have loved you for years, ever since +you—then quite a child—came, with your Highland +heart and thoughts fixed intently on the moors and +the hills and the streams of your native land, to be +<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>caged up and imprisoned in a dull, depressing London +square; and now I love you better than formerly, +because I have latterly learnt more thoroughly +to appreciate your character.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Here was a change, indeed,—Mr. Alfred Westwood, +instead of conferring the immense honour of +his hand on a portionless girl, instead of graciously +hearing her trembling petition for succour and help, +and acceding with triumphant superiority,—begging +her to marry him, as he might in the hey-day of +her prosperity; the more difficult the prize became +to gain, the more valuable it appeared in his eyes. +He had formerly thought her a good catch, a pretty +little self-willed being; but now she seemed something +more, a reasoning, reflecting, brave-hearted +girl, looking sorrow so steadily and undauntedly in +the face, suffering so much, talking so little, that +the man of the world, quite losing his wonted self-possession, +absolutely forgot for once to act and +simulate, became natural, unaffected, earnest, and +spoke in those tones of truth which strike home to +the understanding.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina Frazer felt her bosom swell and her conscience +reproach her with ingratitude as she listened +to him, whom in prosperity she had despised and +rejected, renewing his suit with double ardour, now +<span class='pageno' id='Page_184'>184</span>she had fallen from her great estate and stood a +pauper hearkening to his tale.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She did think, too; the rapid procession of +mother, brother, self—of the probable future and +the certain present—of scanty means and expensive +tastes and contending opinions—of ill health and discontent—of +murmurs, repinings, reproaches, regrets,—swept +across that stage we call the mind. There +was not a spectre he had conjured up before her, +which did not appear in obedience to his command.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The troop wanted nothing but reality to make +them perfect; but the girl had never yet experienced +actual poverty, never known a day’s want, +never been short of money in her life; therefore the +phantoms presented for her contemplation were, +after all, merely phantoms. She certainly would +have preferred not encountering them at all, but she +did not dread them sufficiently to prefer marrying +Mr. Westwood to going forth and meeting them; +they were a chance, he a certainty: she had thought +if it might not be her duty for one brief instant, and +then she reflected, an union without affection never +could be otherwise than a sin: “It could not be; +it could never be,” so she told him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I shall not receive that as a final answer,” he +returned; “think more about your situation, give +<span class='pageno' id='Page_185'>185</span>yourself time to understand the danger and difficulty +of your position; look on both sides—at the +prospect the world presents, and the love and security +and home I offer; ponder the matter sensibly, +quietly, rationally, and then decide: meanwhile, +consider me as a friend, a sincere, though humble +one, and——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>What he was about to propose she should do with +him when she had got the length of friendship must +ever remain a mystery, for at this juncture the door +of the dining-room opened and in stalked Mr. Ernest +Ivraine, who seemed destined to interrupt or overhear +every dialogue Mr. Westwood held, whereof +matrimony was the theme.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I—I beg your pardon,” he stammered, finding +that he had happened to stumble in on the wrong +people at the wrong time: “I wish to see Mr. Malcolm +Frazer.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You will find him in the breakfast parlour,” +fibbed Mr. Westwood, angrily; and hastily precluding +the possibility of a reply from Mina, and seeing +his presence was most unwelcome, the baronet’s son +walked across the hall, and, entering the vacant +breakfast parlour, sat down to wait in patience till +some one should have leisure or inclination to come +and see what he was doing.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_186'>186</span>Mina could not tell why she blushed to the +temples when Ernest Ivraine appeared so suddenly +before her, but she felt the tell-tale blood mount to +her cheek while Alfred Westwood saw it; and, forgetting +everything but indignation at the advent of +a supposed rival, he turned almost fiercely and said, +as if it had been a criminal he was addressing, so +totally devoid of consideration and respect was his +manner,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“So that’s the way of it, is it?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Sir!” she exclaimed.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, yes,” he continued, “I see it all; a +baronet’s son would be a very nice catch: a protracted +illness is a capital time for——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mr. Westwood,” she vehemently interposed, +“how can you allude to such matters at a time +when my heart is bleeding for the loss of a kind, +beloved relative, when my mind is distracted with +our unhappy situation, when I have less leisure and +less inclination than ever to hear subjects of the +kind discussed? Your remark was worse than mistimed, +it was unfeeling and cruel; but,” she added, +seeing the scarcely suppressed sneer which curled +his lip, “let me assure you, Mr. Ivraine is nothing +to me, except an acquaintance, a friend, like yourself.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_187'>187</span>“So I thought,” remarked Mr. Westwood drily.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I mean,” she eagerly explained, “that he is +merely a friend to us, nothing, nothing more; like +what you offered to be a little time since, like what +I feel to you.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh, indeed!” sneered Mr. Westwood, who had +managed to forget Ernest’s very existence during +the course of his conversation with Mina till that +gentleman, walking so unhappily in, reminded him +of it; “Oh, indeed!”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I think it very unkind,” began Mina, her large +eyes filling with tears of mortification, wounded +sensitiveness, pride, irritation, and resentment, +“and——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mrs. Merapie’s compliments, Miss, and would +be glad to know when you can leave the house,” +here broke in the <i>ci-devant</i> housekeeper, flinging +open the door and addressing the above speech to +the young lady from a hostile position she occupied +on the mat outside.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mr. Westwood turned with a triumphant glance +to see how “Mina took it.” It seemed to him as if +every drop of blood forsook its accustomed channel +to rush into her face. The tears dried on the +quivering lashes, her eyes seemed literally to flash +fire, and as she repeated the words “leave the house,” +<span class='pageno' id='Page_188'>188</span>her nostrils distended and her bosom heaved like +one restraining, by a violent effort, the outburst of +a paroxysm of passion.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, Miss,” responded Mrs. Colefort, “she says +she just wants to know, and then she can make her +arrangements accordingly, and so she sent me to +you to ask when you will leave.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Now,” said Mina, in a tone so emphatic that it +implied more than a dozen sentences could have done, +and quickly sent Mrs. Colefort back to her mistress, +silently admiring the spirit which dictated it.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina,” said Mr. Westwood, as she too turned +to leave the room, “Mina, matters have hurried +much more than even I feared they would do; for +mercy’s sake let me counsel and assist you; give me +liberty to act for you: I spoke hastily a few minutes +back, forgive me; do not refuse help when you +stand so lamentably in want of it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If you will help me as a friend,” she returned, +“if you will forget everything which has heretofore +passed between us, and let us start afresh on that +footing, I shall gratefully accept your offer; God +knows, friends are not so plentiful we can afford to +refuse any, nor are they likely now to become more +so.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>There was a deep accent of despair running +<span class='pageno' id='Page_189'>189</span>through the hurried current of her words; she +looked imploringly at him, as if she would have +accepted succour almost from an enemy; but Mr. +Westwood was not to be “done” now. He rapidly +reflected that if he could not mould the iron of the +girl’s heart into the shape he wished in its present +heated pliable condition, he had no chance of effecting +his object in calmer, cooler moments; he had +no idea of working for her Now, and being rejected +afterwards; he saw events were moving with such +giant strides, that it was needful for some decided +steps to be taken at once, and he therefore thrust +his former scheme of friendship and gratitude impatiently +aside, and, with a vivid memory of Mina’s +look when Ernest Ivraine entered, tincturing his +speech, he returned,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You must give me a right to interfere in your +concerns; after toiling and working for your benefit +and the benefit of those dearest to you, I have no +desire to be cast aside as a worthless instrument—a +tool which is no longer required; to have your +brother call me a meddling fellow; to have others +considering me, perhaps, obtrusive, officious, presumptuous; +and, by way of a finish, when I have +done all I can in your behalf—when I have completed +my task, and placed you beyond the reach of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_190'>190</span>want, to hear you coldly say how ‘grateful’ you +are, and bid me good-bye, wishing all the time it +had been possible to do without me, and that any +other person save myself had been able to assist you +in your need.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Once again Mina felt every syllable he had said +was true; she knew Malcolm would resent his interference +the moment it ceased to be of importance; +that she should feel gratitude towards him a wonderfully +irksome burden; that obligation to him would +be insupportable: besides, unless she married him, +or promised to marry him, what could he do for her +or hers which she could endure to accept from his +hands? No, she would not receive assistance from +him; she and Malcolm were young; there was +plenty of work open in the world for both; she +would rely on herself and those in whom she had +trusted for years, not on a man whom, even whilst +she acknowledged she had wronged, she disliked,—of +whom, almost in spite of herself, she felt a distrust. +He had proffered service to her, and she was +grateful for that kindness; but further she could +not go, more she would not say.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It cannot be,” she repeated, “I can give you +no right. I thank you for the kindness you have +been wishful to show, most sincerely. Let us part +<span class='pageno' id='Page_191'>191</span>friends,” she added, extending her hand, “it may +be long before we meet again.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If I had influence enough with this woman to +wring out of her an annuity for your mother, would +it make no difference in your sentiments towards +me?” thoughtlessly demanded Mr. Westwood, +thrown off his guard and provoked by the girl’s +inexplicable refusal to become his wife; and the +question let light in on her understanding; she saw +through him now; trickery will reveal itself at last; +she comprehended him fully, but she made no reply.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If you will but say, ‘Yes,’ to one simple request,” +he proceeded, “I will undertake to represent +your case to her in such a way as will ensure a small +competence for Mrs. Frazer, and, perhaps, a commission +for your brother; give me the right to interfere, +and I will use the little influence I possess to +some purpose.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do you think,” said Mina, fixing a steady, +searching gaze upon him, “do you think you could +manage to get me a fortune?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The words were spoken in a cold, almost careless, +tone, yet they made Mr. Westwood look as confused +as if he had been detected in a robbery, and though +he tried to stammer out an answer, his usual volubility +had forsaken him.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_192'>192</span>“No, no,” said Mina, “I see you were not as +disinterested as I thought; I am very sorry for it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I am thoroughly disinterested,” he interrupted; +“I could contrive to get as much to portion any +bride I might choose perhaps; or, better still, wed +your uncle’s widow, and so get all into my own +hands. I am speaking fairly now; I love you, and +you are the only being on earth I do love; once for +all, will you marry me?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I will not,” she answered.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And you cast from you my assistance, and consequently, +any chance of fortune for yourself and +your brother, or a competence for your mother; you +cut off the sole hope of reconciliation, or rather, of +a commencement of friendly feeling, between your +family and Mrs. Merapie; you fling yourself without +a shelter, almost a pauper, on the world: will +you do this?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If you have any influence, as you seem to imply, +having received my final answer and knowing my +positive decision, I leave all the rest to your generosity.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“To the devil,” muttered Mr. Alfred Westwood, +stamping furiously on the carpet as Mina left the +apartment; “well, be it so, Miss Frazer; you shall +repent this yet.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_193'>193</span>Long, long afterwards, when he had concluded a +confidential conversation with Mrs. Merapie and was +just about taking his departure from the house, Mr. +Westwood encountered some weeping servants carrying +boxes, bags, portmanteaus, etc., into the hall.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What’s this for?” he demanded.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“They are going,” was the brief reply.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What, now?” he ejaculated.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Immediately, sir.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Smart work, egad!” soliloquised the <i>ci-devant</i> +clerk, once again re-ascending the staircase, in the +hope of meeting Mina, for if there were one thing +more than another he admired, it was a commodity +he mentally styled “pluck,” of which it appeared +the lady of his affections had an abundant store.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She had gone into the room where the corpse lay, +after everything was prepared for their abrupt departure; +she had fallen on her knees by the side of +the bed, and kissed the pale cold face with a passion +of affection she had never felt for her uncle in life; +tears of regret and anguish fell abundantly on the +countenance of the dead, and the drops remained +there till Mrs. Colefort came and removed the moisture, +for the natural heat had departed, which once +would have absorbed them.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Dear, dear uncle,” she moaned forth, “where +<span class='pageno' id='Page_194'>194</span>shall I ever find another friend like you? No place +in the wide world.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>And then she took one long farewell of the inanimate +body, as if it had been a living being dearly +loved she never hoped to see again; and, passing +drearily out of the room, was met on the threshold +by Alfred Westwood.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I will give you another chance, Mina,” he said, +“I offer you fortune, position, establishment, affection: +will you marry me?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No!” she responded; and, drawing her veil +closely over her tearful face, she passed him hastily +to meet on the next landing the lady who now +called that place home, and had come so cruelly, +and with such unnecessary haste, to dispossess them +of it.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Their dresses brushed together as Mina swept by +her with the proud defiant carriage of her childhood; +there was no pause, no salutation, no word: +for an instant the broken-hearted girl seemed +superior to the triumphant haughty woman, for +there was a confused upstart endeavour at unconcern +visible in the manner of the one, and nothing but +contemptuous indifference in the bearing of the +other; the slight figure had been drawn up to its +full height, but there was nothing of stiffness about +<span class='pageno' id='Page_195'>195</span>the way in which she discharged her portion of the +ceremony, while an awkward attempt at well-bred +stateliness failed altogether on the side of Mrs. +Merapie.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Cleverly done, in truth,” thought Mr. Westwood, +who witnessed the little scene from his position +above; “a very good beginning, Miss Mina: +well, they may talk as they like about men doing +things better than women, but there is one point the +ladies excel in, and that is, cutting one another: +why, I could not have passed my worst enemy with +the same cool disdain as that girl has just done if it +were to save my life.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>And Mr. Westwood, having concluded this sentence, +and given the <i><span lang="fr">pas</span></i>—as every one does—to the +feminine sex for natural talents in the grand science +above alluded to, exchanged a few more words with +the widow of his late partner, and then left her; +but, while he was talking, a cab had driven from the +hall door, bearing another widow and her two children +to comfortless lodgings—to a new home—drearily, +sadly conveying them out into the world; +and from that time forth the house in Belerma +Square “knew them no more;” and that place +which had once been a home, became, to all intents +and purposes unto them as though it had never been.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_196'>196</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER XI.<br> <span class='c009'>MINA “IN TRAINING.”</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>A space of three months has passed away since +the conclusion of the preceding chapter, unmarked +by any events, save such as may be chronicled in a +few brief lines—spoken of and dismissed in a single +passage.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It seemed at first as if the violence of the blow +had neutralised its painful effects—as though the +dreadful shock, the abrupt descent, the desperate +fall, had produced—after the momentary pain—a +sort of mental stupor, numbness, or apathy, which +rendered the sufferers, for a period, almost insensible +to the anguish they endured, and prevented +their comprehending the nature and extent of the +misfortune which had befallen them; and, before +they awoke from this torpor, so long a time had +elapsed that the first sting of the reverse was past—the +first force of the blow expended. Bitterness +<span class='pageno' id='Page_197'>197</span>enough remained behind assuredly; but it was not +the unbearable bitterness which had filled their +hearts to overflowing during the dreary twenty-four +hours succeeding their bereavement and loss of fortune.</p> + +<p class='c011'>There is something healing in the mere passage +of time, something soothing in the very flutter of +his wings; so the mourners discovered when, at last, +they recovered sufficiently from the sort of stupefaction +into which they had been thrown, to be able to +raise their heads a little and look, as some of the +Irish who occasionally cross the Channel in search +of employment express it, “the trouble in the +face.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>For the all-important “time-being,” they were +by no means badly off; there was the amount Allan +Frazer had settled, when a young subaltern, on his +wife, still untouched, and, so long as one thousand +pounds lasted, the “battle of life” promised to be +anything rather than a losing game, a hopeless +struggle, a weary, unprofitable fight.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But when it was done?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina once propounded this question and was met +by Malcolm with a “Pooh, pooh, child! then I’ll +provide for you.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“How?” she further ventured, and he concluded +<span class='pageno' id='Page_198'>198</span>the conversation by answering, “How! any how,” +and walked out of the room, softly whistling the +“British Grenadiers;” for Malcolm was now more +independent than ever he had been. His mother +never said he spent too much; never wondered +where the last ten pounds had gone; never refused +further advances, thought everything he did and +said was right; lay helpless on a sofa in West +End lodgings, visited by a doctor whose charges +in town were only a guinea a time, and in the +country only a guinea a mile; and distracted Mina +by rushing into and countenancing expenses which +made fearful inroads into the thousand pounds, and +foretold that, before any immense time had elapsed, +the amount standing to their credit on the books of +a bank in Fleet Street would be easily described +and easier counted as nought.</p> + +<p class='c011'>When, at length, Mina began to look with fearful +eyes at their enormous expenditure, the evil had +proceeded too far to be checked; Malcolm found +the life he was leading too easy and pleasant to be +readily abandoned; Mrs. Frazer still thought money +would “turn up,” that the thousand pounds would +last for ever, that there was no use in such “niggardly +economy;” in fact, with all canvass set, she +and her son were evidently bent on sailing down +<span class='pageno' id='Page_199'>199</span>upon the black shore—poverty: and what could +Mina—who, of course, had no control of the money—do?</p> + +<p class='c011'>Very little, but spend nothing herself and drift +along the current leading to destruction as patiently +and resignedly as might be.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The trial of woman’s life was already upon her; +and in the hard school of daily discipline, in expensive +lodgings near Eaton Square, with money flying +about and squandered as Mina had never seen +money squandered before, she commenced to learn +the verb “to bear” through; it took her years and +years thoroughly to master the task, but patience +does a deal, and everything in this life, we know, +must have a beginning; even the “British constitution” +had one, why not Mina Frazer’s patience?</p> + +<p class='c011'>She was being put into “training” at last, so +Miss Caldera said. What a pity young hearts, like +young horses, require to be “broken in;” what a +“breaking down” it frequently proves; what a +common-place affair it makes of life, being driven +through it “in harness.” How differently people +view the world when wandering untrammelled at +their own sweet wills, free to stay, free to roam, +free to stop, and free to go, from what they deem it, +when stern necessity compels their daily journey +<span class='pageno' id='Page_200'>200</span>along a certain “line of rail:” how the flowers lose +their perfume; how dark the sky grows; how +weary the road seems. What an altogether unsatisfactory +affair life appears, hacking, hacking eternally +on. The wild colt of the Indian prairie, bounding +over the plains free and unconfined, bears not less +resemblance to the stupid, ill-used beasts of burden +we sigh to look at in the city streets, than does the +poverty-stricken wretch, whom misfortune has rendered +patient, and sorrow quiet, to the glad impulsive +youth, who left his father’s roof some years +previously, hopeful, buoyant, rejoicing, to go forth +and make “his fortune.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>He did not mean <i>that</i> fortune, however, but so it +has “turned out.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>No doubt it is all for some good end, to serve +some inscrutable purpose, that these perpetual +“breakings in” are permitted; and no doubt it +was, as Miss Caldera asserted, “very good for +Mina” to be instructed in the art of bearing, for the +girl was unquestionably learning a great deal very +rapidly.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Malcolm said her knowledge was extremely disagreeable, +called her his “prudent little sister,” +said she had a real Scotch head, capable of working +out any account and crammed full of £ <i>s.</i> <i>d.</i>, that +<span class='pageno' id='Page_201'>201</span>“she was a sordid calculating monster,” and many +other equally polite names; and when she would +have persisted, he told her she was too pretty to +turn miser, and not to trouble herself about the +money, for that when it was gone he would get +more.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina, however, had an idea that it would be too +late for him to go and look for further supplies +when their present stock was quite exhausted; and, +accordingly, one evening when Mrs. Frazer, being +more ill than usual, had retired earlier than was her +wont, leaving Malcolm, as he expressed it, “to the +tender mercies of his sister,” the latter most determinedly +opened fire upon him in the following +words:</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Malcolm, do you know how much money we +have spent in the last four months?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Now, for pity’s sake, Mina, do cease eternally +harping on that ‘monetary’ question,” he pleaded; +“see, I’ll play a game at chess with you, or hold +silk while you wind it, or listen to you reading a +sermon, or do any other disagreeable thing you +choose to name, if you will only, my dear, wise little +sister, shirk that subject, upon which, it seems to +me, you have gone perfectly insane.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If you will listen to me to-night, I will promise +<span class='pageno' id='Page_202'>202</span>not to tease you again,” she returned; “it really is +quite necessary for us to talk about the matter: do +you know, Malcolm, how much we have spent?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No I don’t,” he responded; “a pretty smart +sum, I dare say, for the expenses have been rather +heavy: a couple of hundreds, possibly.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Just three hundred and fifty pounds,” she +answered.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Nonsense, child; how could that amount have +gone?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That I cannot tell,” she answered; “but it is +gone for all that, and if we live the next eight +months at the same rate as we have been living for +the last four, there will not be a shilling of the +thousand left at the end of the year, and——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And we shall be fifty in debt besides,” supplied +Malcolm; “was not that what you were going to +add, little Solomon? Well, don’t torment about the +matter; I will do something before the eight months +expire—I will indeed.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Had not you better do something now, Malcolm?” +she demanded: “I wish that while the +money is there you would buy a commission.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Buy a folly,” interrupted the young man; “and +pray, my dear, how should I live when I had procured +it?”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_203'>203</span>“On your pay,” she suggested.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That’s impossible,” he said; “I always calculated +when I spoke about Uncle John buying me a +lieutenantcy, that he would also allow me a hundred +a year or so besides to enable me to keep up a +gentlemanly appearance: no, I cannot enter the +army without private means; I must look out +for a genteel and lucrative government appointment; +in fact, I have mentioned my wishes to two +or three persons, and I mean to set about the business +in real right-down earnest whenever we return +from our intended visit to Craigmaver: and talking +of Craigmaver reminds me that I must write to Mr. +Ivraine; have you any message?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Why what are you going to write to him +about?” she demanded.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You are as curious as Mother Eve, Mina,” +replied her brother; “but since you must know, I +have been requested by Colin Saunders to procure +him an English situation, either as gardener, caretaker, +or “useful body,” and it has occurred to me +that Mr. Ivraine might very possibly know of some +one wanting to meet with a person like him; therefore,” +continued Mr. Frazer, carefully selecting an +unexceptionable sheet of highly glazed letter paper—he +need not have been so particular if he had +<span class='pageno' id='Page_204'>204</span>only known the sort of place it was going to—putting +the same before him, and commencing forthwith +a wild irregular scrawl, which would have +settled his chances for ever of promotion in a merchant’s +office, though, very possibly, it might have +done well enough for a government one,—“therefore +I am going to write to him.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina laid down the trifling piece of work she +held in her hands, and watched her brother scribbling +away in silence till he reached the bottom of +the sheet; then, as he paused for a moment, she +inquired,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What has happened at Craigmaver that Colin +can want to leave it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Why, little one, he says that he and the new +mistress don’t ‘sort,’ or, at least, he implies that +fact; and, besides—but pshaw! there is the letter,” +he added, pulling a species of “whitey brown” +epistle out of his pocket-book, and flinging it towards +her, “read it, and understand it for yourself.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>She lifted the missive, but did not open it for a +minute.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, Mina, on what other subject do you +require information?” demanded her brother, noticing +her eyes still fixed upon him.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_205'>205</span>“Nothing particular; only is there no other way +you could get a place for poor Colin without +troubling Mr. Ivraine?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, there is not,” he somewhat angrily retorted, +“at least, none which appears so easy and altogether +desirable. Mr. Ivraine made me promise that if I +thought he could ever be of the slightest use to me, +I would write to him at once; and I feel sure he +will be able to procure something good for Colin; +and, if you were not a little idiot, you would see he +is a desirable acquaintance, and one I ought to +endeavour not to lose sight of.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If he do not write to you, Malcolm, I would +not force myself on him,” she timidly returned. +“Remember how changed our position is, and——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If you do not cease lecturing and tormenting +me, Mina, I shall have to cease talking to you at +all; you have acquired so many ridiculous ideas—you +are becoming so absurdly particular, so fastidious +and provoking, that there is really scarcely +any doing with you. You do not want to remain +in London, because so much money is spent, and +yet still you demur about going to Craigmaver to +save; you implored me not to accept any favour +from Alfred Westwood, even if he offered to assist +me, and insinuated that it was mean to put myself +<span class='pageno' id='Page_206'>206</span>under an obligation to a person whom I considered +beneath us in birth and station; and now you want +me not to make a trifling request to a man who +owes his life almost to me, and who exerted himself +like a brother about our affairs, solely because my +uncle died before leaving us what would have made +us independent for life. The truth is, Mina, I do +not understand you, and believe that disappointment +at not being a great heiress has utterly soured +your temper, never a particularly mild or contented +one. There, there, don’t begin to cry; it is a +deuced hard thing a fellow cannot do what he likes, +without being meddled with by a nonsensical girl, +and that, when he does say what he thinks for once, +he must be treated to an ocean of tears; but weep +or not weep, Mina, I do repeat, you have tried me +greatly, and that I really don’t profess to have +patience to bear such perpetual dictating, particularly +from you, and I won’t bear it, that’s more.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>And Malcolm very determinedly turned over the +sheet and went on with his letter, whilst Mina rose +and quietly left the apartment, without answering +him even by a look.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was scarcely nine o’clock, but still she took a +candle and ascended to her bedroom, where, sitting +down before the dressing-table and, crossing her +<span class='pageno' id='Page_207'>207</span>arms upon it, she drooped her head on the support +thus afforded, and remained in this position immovable +for hours. She was not weeping now; +she was thinking, with a racking pain in her temples +and an oppression about her heart, of their almost +hopeless prospects, of her mother’s state of health, of +her brother’s unkind expressions, of some fruitless +efforts of her own, of their present home, and the +proposed journey northwards.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was one of those periods when fifty things, all +unpleasant, are thought of simultaneously; when +there seems no hope in the future, no enjoyment in +the present, no brightness in the past; when every +disagreeable occurrence rises to the memory; when +every pleasant reminiscence fades totally from the +recollection; when all around, above, below, looks +cloudy, stormy, unpromising; when the heart lacks +courage to face the gathering tempest, and the soul +wants faith to believe the sun will ever break +through the darkness again; when there appears no +good, no use, no happiness in anything; when the +mind grows dangerously active in conjuring up +phantoms wherewith to terrify itself; when life +spreads out a huge blank page—blank, save for the +word “unhappiness” written across it; when no +succour can be discerned approaching from any +<span class='pageno' id='Page_208'>208</span>quarter; when, although the tired brain confesses +there is “no use in thinking,” it still persists in +going on thinking and wearying itself to death.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The fit rarely lasts long, it is true; it produces no +apparent injury, inflicts no permanent harm, therefore +no one sympathises with these states of mental +depression. They are hard to endure, for all that, +however—so Mina felt; though, had any one asked +her what had occurred particularly to annoy her, +she could scarcely have answered the question in a +satisfactory manner, still she was more thoroughly +wretched as she sat there with her face concealed +from view than she had ever been in her life before. +The worst malady of the body is that for which +doctors can discover no sufficient cause, which affects +the patient he can hardly tell how; and, in like +manner, any vague mental unhappiness is always +more difficult to endure than the anguish arising +from some decided misfortune.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The one can be grappled with and overcome, +perhaps; at all events, it can be grappled with, +being tangible, whilst the other flits about so as to +elude the touch of the most skilful and experienced +amongst those who make it their business to search +out the secret griefs of the heart and eradicate them +therefrom.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_209'>209</span>Men fight with men, but the bravest shrink +appalled from the mere representation of that +which reason assures them exists only in fancy—a +ghost. I have known persons who would have +walked without flinching up to the cannon’s mouth, +confess to having hesitated facing what, by the +dim moonlight, bore the semblance of an apparition.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Well hath the secret sorrow of every home been +styled a skeleton; if it were a living creature, possessed +of flesh, bones, muscles, it would be speedily +routed out of the citadel; as it is, no hand can be +laid on it, no one can ever exactly say, “There it +stands.” It glides from room to room, steals into the +soul and out of it again, skulks in the heart’s dark +corners, and defies the might of man to drive it +from its stronghold.</p> + +<p class='c011'>But that mental depression produced by a variety +of causes, which occasionally bows down the spirit, +cannot last long; and thus, at length, the first +bitterness of wounded feeling having past, the girl +raised her head, and, pushing back the masses of +long waving dark hair which, falling loose and unrestrained +over her eyes, obscured her sight, she +looked for an instant half dreamily at the candle +burning dimly down into the socket, and then at +<span class='pageno' id='Page_210'>210</span>Colin Saunders’ epistle that she had almost unconsciously +retained in her hand.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was indeed, inside and out, a unique missive; +written on the coarsest of paper, with the thickest +of pens, and the palest of ink, in a straight up-and-down +crabbed hand; easy to read, however, notwithstanding, +as the character—straightforward, +honest, and simple—of him who indited it.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Scripture passages were somewhat strangely intermixed +with details of what he was “fit for,”—the +heavenly kingdom forming the burden of one passage, +and the amount of temporal wages he would +be “content with,” being the intelligence conveyed +in the next. The account of how his daughter +Jenny, who married James Frith, the English +butler, as Mr. Malcolm might recollect, was about +returning to London and starting together with her +husband (whose master had just died and left him +four hundred pounds) a sort of boarding-house, was +succeeded by reflections on the mutability of all +earthly things and the importance of looking after +the affairs of eternity. Then followed a pretty +plain hint that Craigmaver was not what it used to +be, and that the young laird’s wife was too grand +and fine to “put up with” humble bodies like himself: +and the whole epistle wound up with requesting +<span class='pageno' id='Page_211'>211</span>Malcolm to procure him a home among the +“strangers,” for that he could not think of serving +any one in Scotland, except “one of the old clan.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>After a cramp signature came a postscript, begging +his dutiful remembrances to “Miss Mina,” +and hoping the mistress was better, and that Mr. +Malcolm would excuse the liberty he had taken of +writing to him and of getting the address off a letter +the laird was sending to Miss Mina, and he said he +should not have thought of troubling him about a +poor man’s business, had he not “been the son of +his old master.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Tears, such as she had not shed for months previously, +moistened the page as Mina read the quaint +effusion Saunders had penned, after his day’s work, +in his little cottage at Craigmaver. What a change +must have occurred there, to make him dream of +leaving “the old place,” Mina guessed; and where +he could not stay she must go: she would never +say another syllable against that or any other thing +her brother chose to propose; she would try herself, +silently and quietly, to avert the misfortunes +she saw threatening on every side. There was one +thing certain, her hopes whispered—Malcolm would +not wish to remain in Scotland very long, and she +resolved to do what she could before leaving London, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_212'>212</span>to see the result of her latest experiment, and +to hold her peace about money matters and seem as +patient as it was in her nature to seem. Perhaps +her brother was right; she had tormented him a +little too much: men, she always heard, did not like +to be interfered with; but still she thought he had +been rather unkind, and she wished, oh! so much, +he had not written to Mr. Ivraine.</p> + +<p class='c011'>There was no help for it, however; she would +never meddle with him again: and, after all, it was +merely a folly on her part; why should he not +correspond with any one he liked? it had nothing +to do with her; it was altogether a matter of business. +So she mused, looking at the expiring candle +abstractedly, till it gave one long bright leap up +into a flame, after which it died out altogether: +then she crept to rest and soon, tired out, sank to +slumber. It might have prevented her falling asleep +quite so soon, had she known that, prompted by the +spirit of opposition, her brother had inserted in his +“business” despatch a clause to the effect that “his +mother and Mina sent their kind remembrances to +Mr. Ivraine.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>But she did not know; and Malcolm had never +heard what Mr. Westwood implied during the +course of his final conversation with Mina. Perhaps, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_213'>213</span>if she had told him, he might not have written +at all; but she did not like to repeat the words +which stung her so bitterly at the time: so Malcolm, +in ignorance, sealed up the letter, and Mina, in +ignorance, slept tranquilly, and arose quite resigned +about that matter, but to find her mother worse, to +hear speedy change of air recommended by the +doctors, to acquiesce in rapid arrangements for her +removal by easy stages to the bracing Highland air, +and finally to go away to Miss Caldera and tell her +all about it.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh! dear old friend,” she said almost in despair, +“we are to leave for Scotland almost immediately.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do you remember how glad you were at the +prospect of a similar journey this time last year?” +demanded the governess.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I have learnt a great deal since then,” answered +the girl, sorrowfully.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Lay it to heart,” was the emphatic reply; “it +may profit you much hereafter.”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_214'>214</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER XII.<br> <span class='c009'>THE MOORS ONCE MORE.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>When the laird of Craigmaver first wrote, inviting +his relatives to his Highland home, of course +he meant for them to stay at the place of his own +actual abode; but Mina suggested, when she found +her mother inclining to yield to Malcolm’s desire for +them to go and see their grand connexions, that if +the cottage near the lake were vacant, it might be +better for them to remain there, as Craigmaver +proper was now always so crowded with company +as to render it anything rather than a desirable house +for an invalid, requiring occasionally perfect rest +and total quietness: accordingly young Mrs. Frazer +had the “wigwam,” as she styled it, made habitable. +She delighted the old laird by walking down with +him every day to see that the workmen were doing +their duty; she sent furniture from the “castle on +<span class='pageno' id='Page_215'>215</span>the hill” to the “cottage in the vale;” she assisted +with her own fair hands in the arrangement of +draperies; had the garden “done up” under her +especial <i>surveillance</i>; went almost crazy on the subject +of well-aired beds and rousing fires; and declared +to her husband’s grandfather that she would +do anything in the world to make his “dear little +niece and her mother comfortable.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>And he whom woman had never blinded before, +was deceived by her, and he humbly thanked God +for the great comfort He had granted to be the pride +and blessing of his declining days; and he trusted +Allan, when he grew a little older, and became +tired of the world’s flatteries and vanities, would +learn to appreciate her in time also; for surely, +thought the old man, “there never existed so almost +faultless a creature as Cecilia.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Who, having tact enough to perceive that so long +as she possessed his grandfather’s ear she retained a +strong hold on her husband, had devoted herself to +the old man, with something more than the affection +of a daughter, ever since, standing with his grey +head uncovered on the threshold of that beautiful +home, he welcomed her lovingly to it. She brought +sunshine with her to his soul; he felt lonely if she +left him for a few days; he thought every one must +<span class='pageno' id='Page_216'>216</span>be wrong excepting herself: there was a charm +about her which captivated his very soul.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mrs. Frazer looked with perfect wonder on the +lovely being who greeted her with such tenderness +in the lonely romantic spot.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Standing at the cottage door, the sun beaming on +her hair, and turning each tress into a lock of gold, +her purple eyes soft and sympathising, her features +perfect as those of a statue, her colour a little +heightened, and her voice more musical than ever, +what wonder if the exhausted invalid thought her +more an angel than a woman; what marvel if she +felt proud to hear her greet Mina as a sister, and to +see her kiss the girl over and over again.</p> + +<p class='c011'>How kind she felt it of her to stay and pour tea +out for her, and make her lie down on a sofa, the +pillows and cushions of which she arranged with a +skilful hand, and remain coaxing her to eat, though +she said they were going to have a large dinner +party at seven o’clock, and that she should scarcely +have time to dress for it.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I must go, I fear,” at last she said; “and I am +so sorry, but we could not avoid having these +people, as Lord Cintra and Lady Matilda leave us +to-morrow; but I shall be down first thing in the +morning to see how you have slept. Mina, make +<span class='pageno' id='Page_217'>217</span>your mamma go to bed immediately: I mean to +take the entire management of you both, and to +bring back a colour into your cheeks: but now I +must really be off,—see, it is more than half-past +six;” and she darted out of the house and up the +hill with the speed and gracefulness of a fawn. +Malcolm Frazer said she was the only woman he +had ever seen who could run gracefully; but +then once, after she had regained her dominion +over him, Mina heard him affirm that his cousin +Cecilia—as she insisted on their calling her—could +bring “creeping on all fours” into fashion +if she chose; there was nothing she could not do, +nothing.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And, accordingly, she laid herself out to cure +Mrs. Frazer, took her drives in the tiniest of pony +phaetons, exhausted even the invention of a French +<i>chef</i> to concoct tempting dishes for her; got the +doctor to say “donkey exercise” would be most +beneficial, and procured one of the tribe “that +would go” over from Locholen, and walked miles +across the moors, sometimes leading the beast +by the bridle, sometimes sauntering gaily along +by Mrs. Frazer’s side, singing snatches of wild +mountain songs to amuse the invalid; then she had +cushions laid down in the pleasure-boat, because +<span class='pageno' id='Page_218'>218</span>she felt sure the breeze on the lake would revive +her; she almost went distracted one day when she +found Mina had permitted her parent to stand for +two minutes in a draught; she insisted on writing +to an old Edinburgh doctor, a great friend of her +father, and asking him to come and stay at Craigmaver, +with a view to learning his opinion of what +was the exact nature of Mrs. Frazer’s malady; she +nursed and petted the lady for months; and at last, +by dint of almost superhuman exertions, she had +her—before the golden glory of summer was half +expended—almost well again.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Then came, however, a slight change: it was +hardly perceptible; it was a thing to be felt, not +seen—a sort of occasional superciliousness—an assumption +in the presence of strangers, and, in the +absence of her husband and the laird—a half patronizing +air, which wounded Mina to the very soul: +there was a gradual falling away in her affection for +the trio—Malcolm, perhaps, who was handsome, and +flattered her, alone excepted; a little touch of sarcasm +mingled at times in her discourse; fresh visitors +came in flocks to Craigmaver, and, of course, it was +impossible for her always to be attending to, and +studying the wishes of, her husband’s relations. +Mina knew they had been too long there, but Malcolm +<span class='pageno' id='Page_219'>219</span>would not move; the gay life, the grand +society, the perpetual excitement suited him; so +she said nothing, but bore—she knew how much—“patiently +and silently.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was one balmy day in July that Cecilia glided +into the parlour of the cottage. Allan and she and +one or two others were going out on the lake, and +they wanted to know if Mina and Mrs. Frazer would +not join them; she said it in her old bright frank +manner, for her husband had told her to make them +come, and she wanted to please him; but her eye +had wandered round the room, and in one corner +she spied what caused the angry blood to colour her +cheek, though she took no notice of the discovery +at the time, and so prayed and begged and beseeched +them to join the boating party, that Mrs. +Frazer, after vainly urging a slight cold as an +apology, felt constrained to rise and put on her +bonnet, and desire Mina to do the same.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh! never mind a bonnet, never mind anything +but the straw hat, Mina, and your scarf,” said +Cecilia, “the day is so warm, you will be baked;” +and accordingly she commenced tying on the hat in +question, and flung the tartan scarf about the girl’s +shoulders, exclaiming, “There, that will do beautifully! +I see,” she added the next minute, in a +<span class='pageno' id='Page_220'>220</span>quick light tone, as Mrs. Frazer left the room, “I +see you have got a new guitar.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, Allan brought it me from Edinburgh,” +answered Mina, simply; “it has such a sweet tone, +have you tried it yet?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Tried it yet!” repeated Cecilia; “no, indeed, +how should I?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Will you play something on it now, while +mamma is getting ready?” said Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Another time, <i><span lang="fr">ma chére</span></i>,” said the lady; “I did +not know it was the fashion for married gentlemen +to give presents: when did it come out, Mina—you, +who are from London and have seen more of the +world than I, must be better informed—when did it +come out?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What do you mean, Cecilia?” demanded Mina; +“though Allan is married, he is still my cousin, is +not he? I really never thought——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, no, I know you did not,” sneered the +other, “and neither did he—of his wife; I wish he +would buy <i>me</i> a new one.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Take that, do,” cried Mina eagerly; “I do not +want it at all, I told him so; I never could learn +to play well, and indeed it is of little or no use to +me: do please take it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It was from him, not you, I wanted a present,” +<span class='pageno' id='Page_221'>221</span>said Cecilia coldly; “but here is Mrs. Frazer, let +us be gone,” and she turned with a bright smile to +meet the lady, and they all walked down together +to the landing stage near the boat house, where +the visitors, with Allan and Malcolm, were already +standing.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was a close sultry day; there was not a#38; leaf +stirring, there was scarce a ripple on the waters, the +song of the birds was hushed, there was a dead stillness, +a suffocating closeness in the air,—so Allan +remarked when they had got some distance from +shore.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I fear there will be a thunder storm before very +long, sir,” remarked one of the rowers, wiping the +perspiration from his forehead with the back of a +horny hand.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“So do I,” returned Allan, glancing anxiously +up at the darkening sky; “I think we had better +return.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Now, Allan, do not be tiresome,” expostulated +Cecilia; “when it is threatening, you will not venture +out at all, and when it is fine, you immediately +want to return; as we have got so far, do let us go +on.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It is only on account of Mrs. Frazer,” said +Allan; but a “Pray don’t mind me,” from that +<span class='pageno' id='Page_222'>222</span>lady, settling the question, they proceeded a considerable +distance further, till at length Allan again +exclaimed,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, really I think we had better return; +there is no pleasure in getting wet, and——” his +eye fell on the thin dresses of the widow and her +daughter, which glance decided Cecilia’s answer.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And there is no pleasure in always anticipating +evil, and the day is so delightful; we shall never +have a finer, if we wait for a year.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>She had barely concluded ere a flash of lightning, +succeeded by a deafening peal of thunder, announced +that the storm had commenced. The +rowers instantly turned the boat’s course homewards +and pulled with might and main. Cloaks +and shawls, which had, unfortunately, been provided +in the very scantiest quantities, were produced and +adjusted with anxious care, but all in vain; the +tempest swept down upon them with relentless fury; +the men found it difficult to make “headway;” the +rain poured in torrents on the devoted heads of +those who had gone out on a party of pleasure; the +wind whistled, the thunder roared, the lightning +gleamed: it was, in fact, a terrible mountain storm, +more violent than enduring, and so, ere long, it +went rushing over the hills to seek some other spot +<span class='pageno' id='Page_223'>223</span>whereon to expend the remnants of its fury, and +left the boat and its occupants, unswamped, it is +true, but thoroughly drenched, as people only can +be in some lonely spot in the lonely Highlands, +or else on the bosom of the waters, far from human +shelter, far from human habitation.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Nothing could exceed Cecilia’s grief on this +occasion; she said she was quite distracted with +anxiety about Mina’s poor mother; she would not +let her return to the cottage, when they had at +length regained <i>terra firma</i>, declaring Craigmaver +was nearer. Before changing her own garments, she +insisted on seeing Mrs. Frazer in bed, with a glowing +fire in her room, warm bottles at her feet, and +every other precaution taken to avert the injurious +consequences of a chill. She made Mina put on +some clothes of hers, and persisted in forcing her to +wrap shawls and cloaks about her till the girl +thought she should be fairly suffocated; she sent a +servant galloping off for the nearest doctor, with a +full statement of events and a request for the learned +gentleman to bring something with him likely to +cure Mrs. Frazer, supposing she became ill after +such an exposure. She was solicitous about all +her guests, but she lavished any amount of attention +on Mina and her mother: there was no end to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_224'>224</span>her kindness; and when Mrs. Frazer, the following +day, was able to come down in time for luncheon, +it might have been imagined that some incredible +piece of good fortune had occurred to render Cecilia +so joyous, light-hearted, and happy.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Then she would not hear of a return to the cottage +for a day or two; she wished to make certain +of the completeness of the recovery, before letting +Mrs. Frazer out of her sight.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She could not trust Mina, she said, and hurt +Mina by saying so; but the words were spoken in +such a kind, cordial manner, that nobody, save one +inclined to fault finding, could have quarrelled with +them; and so she did keep the widow for a couple of +days, to be quite exhausted with the eternal bustle +of visitors, and wearied with the sight of gaiety and +fashion and society, which she had no longer health +or spirits to enjoy.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The third morning there were to be grand races +some five miles off, whither all the household, excepting +Mina, her mother, and a few servants, proceeded. +Cecilia had implored her “little cousin” +to be good natured and leave her mother, who was +now so much better, under the charge of an exemplary +lady’s maid, but Mina was firm; she did not +care for the races, and she did for her mother, wherefore +<span class='pageno' id='Page_225'>225</span>she resisted all entreaties, and for once successfully.</p> + +<p class='c011'>As she and her parent stood at the window +watching the departure of the gay cavalcade, it +seemed as if a sudden feeling of affection for her +daughter and consideration for her situation came +into the widow’s breast; previously, Malcolm had +been all in all to her—the idol of her soul, the being +for whose welfare no sacrifice could be considered +too great, whose word was law, whose lightest wish +must be fulfilled; but now, even while she smiled +in answer to his proud, happy glance, her eyes +turned from his face to the pale countenance of her +who, with less ostentation and less skill than Cecilia, +had nursed and tended her with untiring devotion, +with silent, earnest care. She knew that for nights +the girl never left her bedside, that she was there +ready to listen to her smallest request, to comply +with her lightest demand. Because Mina had never +made a “fuss,” she had never imagined she was +doing anything; but, at that moment, the whole +state of the case burst upon her, and, for the first +time in her life, she inquired, almost tenderly,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina, should you not like to go too?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, indeed, mamma, I had far rather stay with +you.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_226'>226</span>There was no other word spoken, but they both +bent their eyes steadily on the group of happy faces +clustered below—on the carriage containing the +Laird of Craigmaver and some of the visitors—on +Allan’s melancholy face—on Malcolm’s frank happy +countenance and bold careless bearing—on the lady +of the mansion, with her blue cloth riding-habit, her +long hair half veiling her figure, her graceful easy +seat, and lively demeanour. They all smiled and +bowed to the two they left behind as they departed; +and when the train had entirely swept out of sight, +when the last flutter of Cecilia’s feather disappeared +from view, when nothing remained within their +range of vision but the silent hills and the lonely +mountains, and the dark, quiet, mournful fir trees, +the widow turned sadly from the window with a +deep involuntary sigh.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina,” she said, after a pause, “I think I will +go home; so much company and excitement tires +me.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>And the girl forthwith led her silently back to +the cottage. When they arrived there, she spoke +again.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I should like to go to bed, dear; I do not feel +very well.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina did not know why a sort of chill crept to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_227'>227</span>her heart when she heard these words; but a kind +of presentiment of coming evil oppressed her. +There was no doctor nearer than four miles; but as +soon as she had assisted her mother to undress, she +despatched a bare-legged Highland lad, who was +weeding in the garden, to summon him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was hours before the boy returned: he said +they told him the doctor was gone to the races, +and he had followed him there, but could hear no +tidings of him; he had searched high and low, but +was not able to see him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And did you not speak to my uncle? you must +surely have seen him,” exclaimed Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, I saw him; but there was such a gathering +of great folks about the place where he and Mr. +Allan and the young leddy were, I could not get +word wi’ them; however, I met Mr. Thomas, the +new footman, and I bid him tell the laird and look +out for the doctor, and he said he would, Miss, so +I came home.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>After he had stayed an hour watching the horses, +he might have added, but he did not; and it would +have done Mina no good if he had. She stole back +to her mother’s room, listening eagerly for the +footsteps of one who never again came there—in +time.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_228'>228</span>At length, as evening was approaching, a rapid +sound of horses’ hoofs smote on her ear.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It must be he, at last,” she said; “oh! thank +God for it!” and she went out to the hall door to +meet him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>A man was coming down the hill at a furious +pace: it was not he, nor Malcolm, but Allan Frazer.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What is the matter, Mina?” he exclaimed, +springing from the saddle.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I don’t know,” she said. “Where is the doctor, +and where in the world is Malcolm?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He and the rest had set out for Locholen before +that fellow delivered the message to me,” returned +Allan; “I despatched a groom after him, however, +and he will be here immediately; nobody seems to +know anything about the doctor, but I have sent to +the market town for another. What is it, Mina? +tell me, child; what is it?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Death,” she responded in a quivering voice, +hope having died out at the sound of his words, +“death! oh! cousin Allan, come in and tell me if +it is not so; for pity’s sake don’t leave me, I cannot +face it myself.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>He flung the bridle hastily to the gaping lad and +entered the house; something else entered it with +him, flitted by him in the hall, rushed into the sick +<span class='pageno' id='Page_229'>229</span>chamber and close up to the bedside before he could +reach it.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Not before Mina, however, with a wild cry, had +flung herself, into her mother’s outstretched arms.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“God bless you, child,” she cried, in a voice +which rang in Allan’s ears like the sound of a passing +bell: “you have been a good, good child to me. +God bless you for it! be a fond sister to Malcolm.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh! mother, stay,” gasped out the girl; +“mother! I have nobody else on earth.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Ere the sentence was quite concluded, she had +not her on earth either, for the woman, who was +just beginning to feel such affection for her daughter +as might have made life happier to them both, fell +back, with a heavy sob, into the arms of the invisible +spectre, which had made such cruel speed +to receive her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina never knew what occurred between that +moment and another, when she awoke to the knowledge +of passing events and a consciousness of the +great trial which had befallen her. She had a confused +recollection of some fresh arrivals, of hearing +Malcolm’s voice, of seeing Cecilia leading him out +of the room, of a harsh Highland accent she recognized +as the doctor’s, of words of kindness spoken +by Allan Frazer and some strangers, of driving +<span class='pageno' id='Page_230'>230</span>through the stillness of night to Craigmaver, and +being left alone with her dear old uncle there. +She spent two or three days in a sort of miserable +dream, and then she came fully to comprehend it +all: how they were totally orphans, how her mother +was dead and buried, how they had no home, or +shadow of one, left, and how she and her brother +were residing on sufferance in their uncle’s house—beautiful +Craigmaver—under the same roof with +Cecilia Frazer, General Warmond’s lovely daughter.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_231'>231</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER XIII.<br> <span class='c009'>A WOMAN’S WEAPONS.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>“Man is to man the sorest, surest ill.” So said +one who encountered many trials, felt the sting of +poverty, endured the sorrows of life, knew the bitterness +of remorse, and died with his genius only +half-recognised—only half-developed: but if he had +only been treated to a sight of the bad side of that +sex, every member of which, if pretty or accomplished +or amiable or graceful, he idealised into +angels—he would surely have recanted, and declared +that though man can give all sorts of annoyance to +his fellow, beggar him, imprison him, torture and +mutilate his frame, degrade him into something +similar to, if not quite, a beast, all the sorrow and +irritation he is capable of producing fade into total +insignificance, when compared with the agony woman +can inflict on woman.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_232'>232</span>Heaven only knows how they do it, for the adepts +in the art of feminine persecution keep the <i>modus +operandi</i> a profound secret from the lords of the +creation and the uninitiated of their own sex; like +the mysteries of freemasonry, which everybody sees +and hears of, and nobody (save the brethren) understands, +the thing is perpetually being practised, +and yet, unless it comes into the world with people, +they cannot learn the knack. There are some poisons +so subtle and insidious, that their presence can only +be detected by their deadly consequences; and, in +similar manner, the little venomed darts female +tongues are capable of flinging at some innocent +victim, can only be traced by the wounds they inflict. +The result is produced—that is evident to the +most careless and unsensitive; but how? oh! that +is quite another question—entirely beyond me to +explain. Cecilia Warmond could have told had she +liked; but then, being one of the patentees, so to +speak, of the cruel invention, she kept the means in +the background; permitted no eye, save her own, +to see the peculiarly delicate verbal mechanism +which possessed the rare power of clothing deformity +with beauty, concealing a thorn with a rose, +presenting some dreadful potion in the semblance of +a tempting draught, shrouding a sneer as a compliment, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_233'>233</span>sending forth a falsehood under the simple +disguise of truth.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The Pope who infused poison into the blood of +his victim, under pretence of clasping his hand with +cordial friendship, would surely have out-Heroded +Herod in subtlety of deceit and fertility of expedients +had he been a woman instead of a Pope. If +it had pleased fate to change his sex and position, +and transfer him from the Vatican to some French +chateau or gorgeous palace, to give him flowing +locks, a beardless chin, a soft yielding feminine +manner, and a portion of woman’s exhaustless tact +and alarming rapidity of invention—if fate had unhappily +done all this, I say, surely the noble art of +mental scorpion-scourging would, centuries ago, +have been pronounced incapable of further improvements: +ladies must have been content thenceforth +to walk in the old-beaten track, and follow, in +humble admiration, the footsteps of their great +predecessor.</p> + +<p class='c011'>But he was only a Pope; so, finding himself impotent +to wound the minds of his victims, he contented +himself with killing their bodies: he paused, +unwillingly, at a fixed point, beyond which none +but women’s feet have ever passed; it is the unenviable +distinction of Eve’s daughters that some +<span class='pageno' id='Page_234'>234</span>amongst them can effect what it would be worse +than useless for men to attempt. Let us be humbly +thankful, however, there are but few who possess +the gift. What a world it would be if every third or +fourth gentle, graceful being possessed the power +of fluttering, with beautiful out-spread wings, towards +her enemy, and stabbing her to the heart +under cover of a loving flattering caress! What a +world it would be, when no law can punish the +criminal, no friend procure redress for the victim; +when the whole business is conducted more surely, +more quietly, more secretly than the inquisition +trials of old; when no one, save the sufferer, is +even aware what instruments of hidden torture are +thus planted in the “heart’s dark chambers;” when +it is totally impossible for her to tell how they came +there at all, and why she permitted herself to be +mentally racked and thumb-screwed in a country +where, for not much greater offences, inflicted on +the less important part of her nature—the body—her +opponent would assuredly be hanged.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The power of uttering a clever sarcasm, the ability +to be wittily satirical, are dangerous weapons to be +placed, unsheathed, in female hands; but they are +harmless playthings in comparison with the sharp +little invisible stiletto, to which these remarks refer, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_235'>235</span>and from which Mina Frazer received many a private +stab during the course of two weary months she +spent at Craigmaver, after the death and funeral of +her mother.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It would have been hard to tell what gratification +Cecilia derived from the exercise of this power. We +see boys who, before they can well speak, delight in +impaling flies on pins and watching their agony, and +who, carrying the humane propensity up with them +to manhood, take literally a pleasure in witnessing +human suffering, even that most revolting form of +it, a public execution. Perhaps it was on the same +principle Mrs. Frazer revelled in beholding the +mental anguish she was capable of inflicting by a +word, a tone, a look; at all events she did exult to +set Mina writhing,—a task it was, unfortunately, +easy to perform.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Had it been anything open, the girl could have +encountered it; in a smart skirmish of tongues, in +that kind of polite warfare, which the vulgar wage +with clenched hands and undignified blows, Mina +might not have come off the worst; at all events, +she would have had the pleasure of retaliating, for +she could occasionally fling a missile, in the shape of +an angry retort, at the head of an adversary as well +as anybody. In the open field she dreaded no one; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_236'>236</span>if vanquished, people saw how it was done; she +had, at least, the comfort of knowing against what +and whom she was fighting, but in Cecilia’s guerilla +practice, she was a complete novice; it was a style of +thing she had never been accustomed to: she could +not tell from behind what curious intellectual ambush +the shot was fired, in what secure nook the +enemy found refuge, what sort of armour would +suffice to shield her from injury, what species of +weapon might prove serviceable in defence. She +was fairly bewildered and stood stupidly passive, +while the shafts, unseen by other eyes, winged their +unerring course towards her, always lodging, no +matter how swift the aim or unpromising the ground, +right in the spot intended, where they remained +quivering for days after.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was the bitterest ordeal, Mina fancied, she +could ever be called upon to pass through. When +Allan was at home, indeed, things were more endurable; +but then he very rarely was at home, and +Cecilia had so completely gained the old laird’s +affections, that she could almost have persuaded him +white was black, and accordingly she did induce +him to believe there had been a something rather +defective in dear Mina’s training, something which +considerably detracted from her numerous virtues, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_237'>237</span>something which did not make her friends less fond +of her, but only caused them to feel a little anxious +and uneasy concerning her future welfare.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If she had been brought up at Craigmaver, +under your watchful tender care,” insinuated the +lady; and this being an embodiment of Mr. Frazer’s +own idea, he sighed, and Cecilia sighed, and the old +laird wished his “little girl” were more like his +“dear daughter.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“She falls far short of that,” he once said, sadly; +but then added—his old love for the child of his +dead nephew gushing up again in his soul, clear +and bright, notwithstanding all the rubbish Cecilia +had so perseveringly thrown on the top of it—“but +she is a dear, good, quiet little creature, notwithstanding, +and I wish—I wish we could do anything +for her; her fate has been a very unfortunate one, +Cecilia.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>What was “to be done” with her had been, indeed, +a very vexed question in Mrs. Frazer’s mind +for a considerable period; to keep her as a Craigmaver +fixture she was resolved she would not; but +then where could she be transported to, unless Malcolm +grew discontented with his quarters and turned +his attention towards seeking some settled lucrative +employment. Cecilia therefore resolved, contrary +<span class='pageno' id='Page_238'>238</span>to her usual custom—for she was generally as considerate +towards gentlemen as the reverse towards +ladies—to make Craigmaver anything rather than +a pleasant abiding place for him; but, before she +had time to carry her benevolent intention fully into +effect, or had leisure to do more than just surprise +him on one or two occasions, a circumstance occurred +which induced her to consider such a line of +conduct unnecessary, and to believe there were +other means by which Mina might be got rid of.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Cecilia,” said the laird one fine autumnal morning +as they sauntered round the garden together, +“Cecilia, read that letter and give me your opinion: +what ought we to do?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mrs. Frazer took the missive in her slender fingers +and glanced over it in her usual rapid manner. It +was dated from a fashionable Edinburgh hotel; it +was penned on the thickest and best of paper; it +was written in a firm gentlemanlike hand; it contained +plausible words and plenty of them: from +“Dear sir” to “Yours, faithfully.” Cecilia comprehended +every syllable, and, almost before she +had taken in the signature, she exclaimed,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh! let us have him here, by all means.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do you mean, ask him to Craigmaver?” demanded +the laird, a little doubtfully.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_239'>239</span>“<i><span lang="fr">Oui, vraiment</span></i>,” she answered; “he will be +enchanted with our Highland scenery: having an +object in view, he cannot be bored with our lonely +situation; then you will be able to judge of him for +yourself. I think it a most frank and straightforward +epistle.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But Mina——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh! when you have invited him, it will be time +enough to tell her. You see it is evident there has +been a coolness, or something of that kind, between +them; it is better not to ask her at all about the +matter, but just let us see what he is like, and, if +you approve of him, permit affairs to take their own +course. After you have answered this letter, I will +break the subject to her: it would be such a desirable +match, such an opening for poor Malcolm, +such a comfortable home for dear Mina, darling +child; how glad I should be for her to be happily +settled—as I am,” she ingenuously added, taking +the old laird’s hand and pressing it. “Do let us +have him here; not exactly as an accepted suitor, +you understand, dear papa (Cecilia always ignored +the grandfather), but as the Londoners—the milliners, +I mean—say about their goods, on approbation; +if he do not suit, we can render his visit agreeable +and send him away again; but if, <i><span lang="fr">au contraire</span></i>——”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_240'>240</span>The lady did not finish the sentence, but looked +so perfectly beautiful and graceful, standing among +the flowers of the garden, that the old laird never +thought of uttering another syllable in the way of +dissent; and Cecilia “kept up the steam” by harping +on about how pleased she was and how she +hoped he was as nice as his letter, and how she had +always thought it would be a “desirable thing” for +Mina long before her uncle’s death, when they used +to be talking of him at Glenfiord, and how she felt, +even then, that the “little silly thing” was suffering +some strange prejudice to blind her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>In short, Cecilia got the all-important letter of +invitation written, for which Mr. Alfred Westwood’s +soul had yearned, which he read and smiled over +and then sneered at, in his usual polite manner, +while sitting in one of the best apartments of the +best Edinburgh hotel.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was a lovely trait in the character of Mr. Westwood, +as it is in the characters of many individuals, +that “the more he could not get a thing, the more +he wished for it;” he hated to be what he, in city +phrase, termed, “done:” and to be rejected by a +woman, to have “No,” said once, twice, thrice, to +him by a little contemptible girl, whom he had seen +grow up under his very eyes,—the thing was not to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_241'>241</span>be borne. He would master her yet, he vowed, +and, as he himself said, he had never yet broken a +vow, save one.</p> + +<p class='c011'>What that one was, he knew, but, though it concerned +the Frazers considerably, they did not, and +he by no means intended to enlighten them. He +wanted to marry Mina Frazer for three reasons: +first, because she disliked him and had seen through +and scorned him; second, because he did feel something +near akin to love for her,—not love, not strong +affection—he was incapable of that—but a little +admiration, a very sufficient fancy; third, because +he should be marrying into a good connexion: with +Mina’s family and his own fortune, they might +have almost any society they chose. He meant to +retire from business in a little while, buy an estate, +become a country gentleman, and talk of his Scottish +relatives who lived at Craigmaver and were +next neighbours to the Earl of Lobenclu.</p> + +<p class='c011'>He had taken ample time to reflect about the +matter; he had made many and secret inquiries, not +merely concerning the Highland establishment, the +members composing it, and the visitors who flocked +to it, but also about the very servants and labourers. +He had got a little information anent Ernest Ivraine +and his prospects. Money, we all know, can open +<span class='pageno' id='Page_242'>242</span>the gate of every home, save heaven, and place the +curious in possession of the secrets of all households; +so, fortified by a vast amount of apparently +unnecessary knowledge, encouraged by the fact of +Mrs. Frazer’s demise, Malcolm’s continued inaction, +and Mina’s peculiar position; satisfied, in brief, that +he was “doing the right thing at the right time,” +Alfred Westwood penned a long and artful letter to +Mr. Frazer, senior, setting forth his earnest affection +for his niece, confessing she had, at one time, +seemed not very much inclined towards him, but +venturing a hope that now she might perhaps view +him in a rather more favourable light. Then he +entered into a detail of pecuniary and other matters; +told all he could do for Mr. Malcolm Frazer; +said that, although disparity of years certainly did +exist, he hoped intensity of affection might melt +that obstacle away; frankly confessed that, in point +of family, he could advance no claim, save that of +respectability; and wound up by requesting to +know if the Laird of Craigmaver would permit +him to renew, with his sanction, his addresses to +his niece.</p> + +<p class='c011'>This was the letter Cecilia read and decided +should be politely answered, as we have seen.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina,” she said to that much enduring young +<span class='pageno' id='Page_243'>243</span>lady the day previous to that on which Mr. Westwood +had said he should arrive, “Mina, an old +friend of yours is to be here to-morrow.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“An old friend of mine!” echoed Mina; “who +may that be?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Why could you not have said, ‘who may <i>he</i> +be?’ at once and saved me the trouble of correcting +your form of speech?” demanded Cecilia in a kinder +and livelier tone than usual, watching to see the +effect her words produced.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He!” ejaculated Mina; “he!”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“How you say it,” laughed the lady, “and how +you blush, and how frightened you look; but he is +not an ogre, darling—this same Mr. Alfred Westwood—rest +assured of that.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Alfred Westwood! Oh! Cecilia, this is your +doing,” cried Mina passionately; “but I tell you +this much, I have borne a great deal from you, I +have kept silence when my heart has been breaking, +I have never said I was unhappy, though often and +often I have wished to be lying beside my dead +mother, out of the way of annoyance and humiliation: +but stay in the house with Mr. Westwood, I +will not.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Take it quietly, <i><span lang="fr">ma mignonne</span></i>,” sneered Cecilia; +“don’t distort your pretty face nor injure your +<span class='pageno' id='Page_244'>244</span>lungs with such excessive loudness of enunciation, I +entreat.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do not madden me, Cecilia,” burst in Mina; +“you have no feeling, you have no heart, you are +not like a woman. Oh! if I had known you once as +I know you now——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, dear, what should you have done?” +demanded her tormentor.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Nothing that I have done,—nothing; but I am +resolved about this, and I shall go at once to my +uncle and tell him that, if Mr. Westwood come +here, I go.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Surely you could never dream of depriving us +of the immense advantage of your society,” said the +other; “but supposing you are so cruel, where +should you go?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“As far as possible from you,” retorted Mina, +with quivering nostrils, feeling her own impotency, +yet unable to restrain the expression of her anger +any longer; “if I only knew a spot on the earth on +which you had ever set your foot, I would avoid it +as I might a pestilence.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You are an ungrateful little virago,” said +Cecilia, laughing as one might at the fury of a +wayward child; “such a storm about nothing.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It may be nothing to you, but it is much to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_245'>245</span>me,” answered Mina; “but I will not talk any +more to you, I will go to my uncle:” and before +Cecilia had fully made up her mind whether to +prevent her executing her purpose, or to spur her +on to accomplish it, Mina settled the question by +darting out of the drawing-room, where the brief +dialogue had taken place, and rushing, <i><span lang="fr">sans ceremonie</span></i>, +into the opposite apartment, where Malcolm, +Allan, and the laird were just about thinking of +leaving the decanters of prime old wine, and sauntering +in to join “the ladies:”—there she went.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I have come, uncle,” she began, “to tell you +that, if it be true Mr. Westwood is coming here to-morrow, +I should like to leave Craigmaver to-night. +I know perfectly well what brings him; I understand +it all. I cannot stay to meet him again: I +will not do it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He is only coming here as a visitor—as an invited +guest, Mina,” commenced the laird, but his +niece interrupted him with,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He is coming here to strive to make me +marry him, and I won’t. He offered, in the first +shock of our beggary, to wring an annuity for +mamma and a commission for Malcolm out of Mrs. +Merapie, if I only would be his wife, and I said +‘no’ then: is it likely, when <i>she</i> is dead, I would +<span class='pageno' id='Page_246'>246</span>say ‘yes’ now? I told him always I would not—always; +and the last time we parted we had a sort +of quarrel, and——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>A perfect storm of reproaches here burst forth on +Mina’s head,—almost invectives from her brother, +remonstrances from the laird, wondering expressions +from Cecilia: she had, so they affirmed, blighted +her brother’s prospects; sacrificed her mother to +her own extraordinary prejudices; maintained a +secresy and reserve reprehensible in the highest +degree; treated a high-minded man with a contempt +and unkindness for which no words of condemnation +were sufficiently strong: she had exhibited +a degree of perverseness, of which they had +believed her incapable, and permitted herself to give +way to a fit of passion that was really alarming: in +fact, there was no sin in the catalogue she had not +committed. And truly, standing amongst them—her +face flushed, her frame trembling, her manner excited—she +did look like one who, though she knew +herself to be in the wrong, was determined to persevere +therein, urged forward by a bold defiant +obstinate spirit.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Cecilia Warmond was one who would have sown +doubt and distrust between the nearest of friends, the +most unsuspicious of relatives: she had contrived to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_247'>247</span>loosen the tie which bound the old laird to his +niece; she had managed to lessen whatever love +Malcolm ever possessed for his sister; she was a +worm in the heart of that heaven-born blossom—domestic +affection—gnawing and gnawing away for +ever, eating the good and beauty out of the flower +by imperceptible degrees: how she enjoyed that +scene she knew—how she kept heaping fuel on the +fire Mina felt. But at length the crisis of the affair +was produced by Malcolm vehemently exclaiming,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Why did you never hint before that an accommodation +with Mrs. Merapie was possible; that Mr. +Westwood had offered to be mediator in the matter; +that there was any hope held out for me; that there +was a possibility of procuring a handsome competence +for our mother? Mina, I could not have believed +you capable of such deceit—such secresy—such——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You all want to be rid of me,” sobbed Mina, +bursting into a passion of tears; “there is not one +in the world who cares for me—not one. Oh! +father,” she cried, lifting her hands with a wild +despairing gesture, “if I only could have gone with +you <i>then</i>!”</p> + +<p class='c011'>She ran hurriedly out of the apartment and up the +stairs, seeking some quiet place to weep in solitude.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_248'>248</span>“Mina, child, come and tell me all about it,” +said Mr. Allan Frazer—who had left the dining-room +at the commencement of the argument with a black +cloud on his brow, stopping her in her rapid career—“what +is it my little cousin? speak to me, Mina.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, no, Allan Frazer, I do not want to speak to +you again ever,” she cried, breaking away from him; +and turning down the stairs, again she quitted the +house, and went wandering through the gardens—wandering +and weeping—till the old laird, who +loved her, as he said, in spite of her faults, sought +and found his little girl, and talked to her, as he +might have done years and years ago at Glenfiord.</p> + +<p class='c011'>But Mina was a child no longer, and he had +ceased to be the uncle of former days; it was not +that the truth and honesty and sincerity of his heart +had been impaired—that they were ever likely to +be impaired—that his sterling goodness and the +straightforwardness of his guileless purpose were +capable of variation; no—but Cecilia had stepped +between them. He believed her immaculate; a paragon +amongst females; a being who was free from +any sin, save that original taint transmitted to her +by Mother Eve; and Mina could not accuse her to +him; she could not tell him what she thought of +his grandson’s wife; she could not clear herself by +<span class='pageno' id='Page_249'>249</span>blaming that faultless creature; she could not say, +“Uncle, you are deceived; you are nursing a scorpion, +which has stung me, which may sting you.” +Cecilia was perpetually between them,—dogged their +footsteps, checked the impulses of their hearts, made +them reserved, distant, uncommunicative; and, accordingly, +the interview terminated—as such interviews +frequently do—in dissatisfaction to both. +Mina listened to him—that was all; not in the +frank, confiding, trustful spirit of former days, but +as to one whom an enemy was prompting on to +torment her; and she answered, so he thought, waywardly +and unreasonably and selfishly; and, though +Mina became calm, and he kind, yet there was a +gloom on the countenances of both, a shadow on +the hearts of uncle and niece, when, after a long, +painful, useless interview, they re-entered the house +together.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The next day Allan Frazer went to Edinburgh, +and Mr. Alfred Westwood arrived at Craigmaver +from it; and, though there was a cold, sullen, +settled aversion visible in Mina’s manner towards +him, he felt, on the whole, perfectly satisfied with +his reception. It had been very easy for Mina to +say she would go; but as she had no place to go to, +no one to go with, she was forced to remain—to be +<span class='pageno' id='Page_250'>250</span>looked on as a person in disgrace by the household +generally, to note how Mr. Westwood ingratiated +himself more and more each day with her uncle, +how fascinating Cecilia made herself to him, how +captivated he seemed by her. She noted all in +silence; she never spoke when it was possible to +avoid doing so; but she thought, till her brain +whirled and her head ached and her heart sickened—of +what she was to do—of where she was to go, for +she saw Craigmaver was never destined to be a +happy home for her, and she knew there was no +other open but one that she could not accept—from +the very mention of which she desired to flee. Mr. +Westwood progressed not at all in his wooing; and +Malcolm speedily found himself, as he expressed it, +“thrust to the wall” by bright beautiful Cecilia, +who, under pretence of rendering Alfred Westwood’s +visit “agreeable” to him, contrived to make +herself eminently so.</p> + +<p class='c011'>But he saw through her: for about the first time +in her life the general’s daughter encountered an +individual, who, in depth of character, in power of +dissimulation, in cleverness, heartlessness, and hypocrisy, +was more than a match for her; who could +walk in and out of her magic circle unharmed; who +could flutter near the flame and not be scorched; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_251'>251</span>who could admire, and still despise—flatter, and +secretly sneer; who acknowledged her to be the +most beautiful and captivating amongst women, even +whilst he laughed inwardly at her for being only a +woman—a very vain, very unamiable, very treacherous, +dangerous woman. He did not hate, or +dread, or avoid her: he amused himself with complimenting +her; with making her imagine he, like +all the rest of the world, considered her a sort of +divinity,—by watching every turn and twist and +wind of her deceitful nature: he listened quietly +when she delicately implied—scarcely hinted—one +day, when conversing about Mina’s perverseness, +“that she was not quite worthy of him;” he pretended +to believe her when she said she “loved +her cousin like a sister;” he declared no mortal +woman ever sung as she sung; he admired her and +everything she did, and administered small doses of +flattery so judiciously, that his words sounded more +like solemn truths than specious falsehoods; he completely +blinded her and the laird; and, at first, +almost succeeded in bringing round Malcolm, but +did away with the effect of that by “taking the +patron on him too soon,” and also by covertly assisting +Cecilia to sneer at the brother, to the end +that he—finding in what a position poverty placed +<span class='pageno' id='Page_252'>252</span>them both—might urge on Mina to accept her +suitor; for Mrs. Frazer wanted the girl to marry +Mr. Westwood, and she wanted Mr. Westwood to +admire her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She desired to be rid of Mina, to have a bone of +silent contention removed from betwixt her husband +and self; to have no female to divide the palace +of Craigmaver with her; to have done with an insignificant +little intruder whom Allan would not let +her make a slave of: and, as she could not perceive +any other “eligible opening,” she wished to send +her off under charge of Mr. Westwood, and to send +Mr. Westwood off, firmly believing there never was, +on the face of this round earth, so completely fascinating, +accomplished, beautiful a creature as Mrs. +Allan Frazer, who had witched away his heart from +him, and left not even an atom thereof to be ever +after possessed by Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It is difficult to describe such a character; almost +impossible to tell by what means she tried to effect +her object. It sounds paradoxical to say she coquetted +with a man for whom she did not care one +straw; whom she could not have married, even if +she had; whom she would not have wedded had she +been single: it is hard to convey in words an exact +idea of the results, a mixture of inconsistency, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_253'>253</span>vanity, heartlessness, frivolity, and cleverness may +produce. Perhaps, reader, you have happened to +meet with such an one in your pilgrimage through +life,—a woman, and yet not a woman; an angel in +outward form, a syren, an enchantress, who spent +her life in trying to make other people unhappy, +who cared for little save admiration, who strove to +win hearts for the purpose of breaking them, and +who was, to sum up all into one brief sentence, as +Malcolm Frazer once stated, “the most confounded +flirt that ever existed.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>If you have not, no description could make you +deem Cecilia’s character otherwise than a fictitious +one; if you have, then you can understand how it +came to pass that Alfred Westwood, seeing down +into her—reading the trumpery matter enclosed in +such magnificent binding,—tracing every thought, +feeling, wish—preserved his heart perfectly uninjured, +spite of the blaze of attractions to which it +was perpetually exposed; and found himself growing +each day a little fonder of the girl who would +not care for him, and who, let her have what other +faults she might—let her be, in other respects, black +as Erebus—was innocent as a lamb of having ever, +even once in her life, thought of what Allan +Frazer stigmatized, and justly, as a horrid word—flirting. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_254'>254</span>But all would not do: Mina was quiet, +but she was also determined; and when matters +became unendurable at Craigmaver, she left it by +means and in manner following.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_255'>255</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER XIV.<br> <span class='c009'>MINA TRIUMPHANT.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>There never existed under the canopy of heaven +so careless, unsatisfactory, incomprehensible a being +as Malcolm Frazer; such an indolent, pleasure-seeking, +easily ruffled, easily appeased, vain, self-sufficient, +good-natured, hard to be angry with, +creature as Mina’s brother, who, having been cut +out by nature for a useless, dandified “man about +town,” took it exceedingly hard to be kicked by +fate from post to pillar; to be told he ought to exert +himself; to have, in one brief word, to do any single +thing but what he liked himself; to hear any solitary +remark that was not precisely such as suited +his taste. He combined the faults of a man with +the absurdities of a child; he would catch at a +straw to-day, and then turn round and be angry +with the person who had flung it in his way, to-morrow. +Misfortune had taught him nothing but +<span class='pageno' id='Page_256'>256</span>irritability; the necessity for firmness only made +him vacillating; he had no fixed principle of action, +no aim nor object in life; he never seemed to have +properly developed, he never seemed likely to develope; +he had, owing to some peculiarity in his +mental construction, grown older in years, but not +in sense; bodily, he was not, perhaps, quite so +young as formerly, but in mind he never aged; he +remained a boy, and he looked a man: his resentment +was not worth dreading, his friendship not +worth having; any one who could give him what +he liked, flatter his vanity, humour his weaknesses, +was the best creature in the world at the time; whosoever +annoyed him, crossed his whim, or told him +an unpalatable truth, was his enemy for the time: he +had become perfectly good for nothing since his +uncle’s death; the unrestrained liberty, the wild +free existence, the unlimited command of money +he had enjoyed during his mother’s lifetime, had +utterly ruined him for any settled regular employment; +he possessed talents which were never used, +energies he never exerted, feelings that never were +aroused: it depended on future events whether he +should remain for ever the same useless and desperately +simple—ready to believe and hope anything, +willing to be turned from or to any purpose, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_257'>257</span>anxious to be benefited by any one—sort of youth +he actually was,—when one day Mina, forgetful of +her former vows never to try to influence or meddle +with him, dragged him off to a quiet summer-house, +and made him sit down and hearken to her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Malcolm,” she began, “you spoke very harshly, +very unkindly, very unjustly to me one evening +since we came here; you joined one, who is no +friend to either of us, in her exclamations against +me; you implied that you desired I should marry +a man in adversity, whom you insisted I ought not +to speak civilly to in prosperity; you declared I +had injured your prospects by not blasting my own +happiness; though you knew our mother lacked no +comfort money could procure for her, you affirmed, +I might have made her life more peaceful by marrying, +or, at least, temporizing, with a man I despised; +you accused me of deceit, for not speaking on a +painful subject; you said my secresy had ruined +you, when I merely kept silent because I was perfectly +well aware Alfred Westwood never would do +anything for you, unless I married him, and very +possibly not then. I believe he could, perhaps, +have wrung a fortune out of Mrs. Merapie by some +means, had I wedded him, but it would have been +a fortune, not for you, but for me, his wife. I do +<span class='pageno' id='Page_258'>258</span>not profess to thoroughly understand Mr. Westwood, +but he cannot blind me for all that, and +though I am poor, I never intend to be his wife; +do you hear that, Malcolm?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, I do, and I’m not sure that I ever wanted +you, only Cecilia said——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I know she did,” interposed Mina; “she has +said a great many things you ought never to have +believed, Malcolm; but I do not want to talk about +her or the bitter words you spoke that night. I +wish to tell you, first, what was the last sentence +our mother ever spoke; I never have told you yet, +because I never had an opportunity, and there has +been a sort of coolness between us for a long time: +I know why there has been and who has caused it, +and therefore I have never felt angry with you, +only hurt and grieved. Just before she died, she +gasped out, ‘Be a fond sister to Malcolm.’ She +was always far fonder of you than of me; you were +her first thought, her pride, her darling; the place +I held in her heart was nothing in comparison to +that you occupied; I never heard her speak to me +as she used to speak to you, as papa used to speak +to me, till the very day she died; but still we were +both her children: and do not you think, Malcolm, +that if you had been there too, and life had lingered +<span class='pageno' id='Page_259'>259</span>for a minute longer, she might have added, ‘Be a +fond brother to Mina?’”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The young man did not answer for a minute; he +looked away towards the mountains, though he was +unconscious of seeing them. Then taking his sister’s +hand, he replied, with a sort of huskiness in his +voice which betrayed more than he would have +thought it dignified to confess,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And so I will, little one, so I will, though she +did not say it; I will be a fond brother, for her sake, +and yours, and my own.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“There are only the two of us in the world, Malcolm,” +she continued, “only the two, strongly tied +to one another. We have relatives and friends and +acquaintances; but none so near, but that a day +might alienate them; none so dear, but that they +might feel themselves at perfect liberty to hate us +bitterly: the bond between us is so strong, nothing +ought ever to have power to snap it; there ought to be +no coldness, no disguise in our conduct,—we must try +to work with and for each other, to have no concealments, +to be true to ourselves, and to join together +against all external enemies; not to be influenced by +the breath of slander or the words of strangers, who +care for neither of us and only desire to sow sorrow +in the hearts of both. Do you agree with me?”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_260'>260</span>“Yes.” He said it half stupidly, as if he did not +understand what she was driving at. Though he +comprehended the little hint directed against Cecilia, +he felt Mina’s speech implied a vast deal more, and +he waited for further explanation: it was speedily +given.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If we are truly brother and sister,” recommenced +Mina, “the secret of one ought to be the +secret of both. I was once so wounded with you +that I almost vowed I never would meddle in any +affair of yours, never try to influence you, never tell +you any plan of my own; but then I reflected that +was not a right way for us to get on,—that where +there is little confidence there can never be much +fondness; and when I saw that Cecilia was beginning +to sneer at you, as she sneered at me, to make +you feel our painful position, to let you taste a drop +of the cup she has long been making me swallow, +my resolution was fairly overturned, and I thought +I would neither bear longer myself, nor let you be +humiliated by her and Alfred Westwood; and, in +place of deciding to leave this alone, I determined +to strive and get you to go with me.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That’s all very well, Mina, and I have thought +about it myself; but I really don’t see where you +can go, unless——”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_261'>261</span>“I marry Mr. Westwood; well, just listen to me, +once for all, Malcolm, and remember I am not speaking +now rashly and unthinkingly, but in calm sober +earnest: before I would do that—before I would +become wife to a man I hate and despise and scorn, +and still dread, I would walk quietly down to that +lake, and shroud myself from care and want and +sorrow for ever in its deep waters. I know I should +be committing a sin; but I should not care for +that, because the other would be, to my mind, one +nearly equally great. I should—if I saw no means +of escape open but by death—choose death, and +never think twice about the matter: you know I +would do what I say, so you may settle your mind +positively on one point, namely, that ever leave +Craigmaver his wife—<i>I will not</i>.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>She had risen as she spoke. From the spot they +occupied the lake below was clearly visible, lying +calm, dark, and silent a hundred feet beneath; and, +when she pointed with one hand down towards the +grave she said she should never hesitate to select, +and raised the other with a half-passionate, half-despairing +gesture above her head, Malcolm—looking +into her flushed face, gazing at the black sullen +shadow lying across her eyes, hearkening to her +thoroughly serious words—felt it was in her to do +<span class='pageno' id='Page_262'>262</span>what she threatened—felt there was an obstinacy +and force of will about her which entered not into +the composition of his nature. He could not admire +the wild stubbornness of her character: there was +a something rather repelling, violent, unfeminine, +to his thinking, in the composition of his sister; she +was unlike him,—no weathercock blown about by +the changeful breath of the world’s opinion—no +reed shaken by the withering wind of circumstances—no +pliable creature, eager to do what seemed best +at the moment, to accept help from any quarter, to +like and dislike according to the amount of shillings +she possessed, and the number of guineas her friends +could give her; she was unlike him, and Malcolm +felt the consciousness of their dissimilarity strike +home and annoy him, even whilst he knew he was +capable of being somewhat influenced by a disposition +so completely opposite to that which he had +always considered the acme of perfection—his +own.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But, Mina,” he commenced, after a pause, “I +really do not see what you are to do.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Tell me, Malcolm,” she said, “do you see what +<i>you</i> are to do? Put me out of the question—suppose +you were situated just as you are at present, only +without a sister, what would you do?”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_263'>263</span>Malcolm moved uneasily on his seat: he would +willingly have shirked the question, but Mina’s eyes +were fastened on his face, and an answer of some +kind became absolutely necessary; he could not +conceal, even from himself, the fact that he was +lounging away the best part of his life as a dependant: +still the query, though a direct one, was +only supposititious; an answer, therefore, bound him +to nothing; he might talk grandly and still remain +inactive, and the instant this idea struck him, he +replied,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Why, supposing an impossibility—supposing +you never had existed, and that I were standing here +all alone, I would gather together any money that +was left out of the wreck, start for London, and +take my chance of finding employment there.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That is what you would do if no Mina Frazer +walked on this earth,” she said: “well, Malcolm, +that is just what I want you to do; you will go to +London to work out your plans, I to work out mine. +If you were not here I should leave Craigmaver +to-morrow. As it appears we have both one common +destination, shall we make up our minds at +once to travel in company, and that speedily?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Here was a “fix.” Malcolm stared in blank +amazement at his sister, who had uttered this +<span class='pageno' id='Page_264'>264</span>audacious proposal with a perfectly unmoved face; +and he echoed the words.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“To London, and that speedily?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Tell me,” she said, in a sort of imperious tone—for +she had made up her mind to go, whether he +did or not, and, strong of purpose, she was resolute +of speech—“tell me, when we came here, did you +intend to stay all your life at Craigmaver?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, merely to recruit our mother’s health; but, +then, you see, Mina, a great change has taken place +lately.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I know that; a mother has died—a sorrow has +been endured: but, Malcolm, there is less now than +ever to keep us here. For her sake we might have +dreaded encountering the world with small means; +but she can never feel earthly privation more: we +have not a tie here of any kind; we ought to be +gone; you must go to London and commence work +of some kind.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Once again Malcolm tried to find refuge behind +the old excuse.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I really do not see, Mina,” he said, “what is to +become of you?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Will you oblige me, Malcolm, by thinking, not +what is to become of me, but of yourself. I am +going, whether you remain here or not. Miss Caldera’s +<span class='pageno' id='Page_265'>265</span>cousin is dead; she has written to offer me a +share of her home: I mean to return, and try +whether I cannot make money either by translations +or by original tales. I never told you before I had +attempted writing, but I have; and now all that +remains to be decided is, whether you will come and +try to support yourself, as I mean to go and support +myself. Will you choose?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But I say, Mina, have you any chance as a—whatever +you call it—author, eh?” he eagerly +demanded.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That remains to be tried,” she answered, with a +smile; “I am a tolerable linguist at all events, and +if I cannot do one thing, I will another—there, +that’s the secret I want you to keep: now will you +go or stay?—stay here to be sneered at, and remain +doing nothing, attempting nothing, hoping for +nothing, or go to make a fortune, and obtain enough +to buy a fine estate and become a man of consideration +and substance: you can be that if you like; choose, +brother.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Make a fortune! what a captivating phrase it is; +how easily the words are spoken; what a “making” +it generally proves; how seldom, when obtained, it +seems worth the wear and tear and fret and trouble +it required to gain it. But the idea is a fascinating +<span class='pageno' id='Page_266'>266</span>one, especially when with the sound no thought, is +conveyed to the sense of weary days and sleepless +nights and toiling years, and obstacles to be surmounted +and sorrows endured; when it is grasped +by the fancy as readily as if produced at the touch +of an enchanter; when all the brightness is revealed—all +the darkness concealed. It costs but a breath +to utter the phrase, it costs but a thought to realise +it; the breath expires and the thought dies in time, +but out of their ruins the fortune does not arise; +the fabric, built of air—made tangible to imagination—crumbles +into its original nothingness, and +disappointment broods on the foundations, and anger +and irritability dwell among the wrecks. Fortunes +have to be made of sterner stuff than imagination: +it is easy to talk of them—hard to win them; yet +still the phrase is a captivating one uttered by hopeful +lips, listened to by self-sufficient ears.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And Mina was hopeful, and her brother prone to +believe fortune would come to him somehow; that +he, by raising his finger, could command anything; +so he was ruled by her, and Mina had incurred the +heavy responsibility of leading him off after a +chimera. She felt glad about it then, but her soul +shrunk in after times from the weight of that responsibility—she +could have led him by a thread +<span class='pageno' id='Page_267'>267</span>after a few minutes more of earnest vehement discourse: +how she often wished afterwards he had +been difficult to move as a log of wood, which might +have resisted all her efforts to drag it from that +place; not but what it was well for Malcolm to +follow, though it was ill for her to lead; not but +that the responsibility was a holy one, only it was +rather too great for her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It fettered and oppressed her in after times; but +what else could she do then but go herself, and try +to take him with her? what could she do? It was +a choice presented between the known and the +unknown—the felt and the unfelt; it was right for +them to leave Craigmaver, but not as they did leave +it—perfect children in sense and experience and +folly, running off, without a thought of failure, in +quest of the crock of gold, to be found at the end of +the rainbow arch,—in search of what they never +found for years; never found at all, unassisted, for +themselves.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was quite a stormy scene when Mina, who +undertook to “break the news,” declared they were +going, that nothing but force should prevent her +doing so. It was, indeed, rather an alarming declaration +to “weak nerves,” as Cecilia insinuated hers +were; it was painful intelligence to be conveyed to +<span class='pageno' id='Page_268'>268</span>a loving heart such as the laird’s actually was: all +his old anxiety about the girl’s welfare returned +with tenfold intensity; his interest in—his love for—her +came back to their old quarters; he implored, +he pleaded, he commanded. Mr. Westwood, getting +an inkling of the true state of the case, insisted he +was the person to depart, a proposition the laird, +instigated by Cecilia, refused to listen to, more particularly +as Mina declared, if there were no such +person in the world, she would go all the same, +though she declined giving her reasons for taking +such a step.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The torrent of opposition had well nigh swept +Malcolm along with it; but Mina, sitting still amidst +the uproar, said so fixedly,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Malcolm may stay or go, just as he pleases, but +I am determined; his resolution cannot influence +mine,” that the laird at length remarked, if she +went, he should insist on Malcolm going also to +take care of her, which observation settled Mr. Malcolm +and made him decide to become her “grand +protector.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina, child,” said Mr. Frazer, holding the girl +to his heart and literally shedding tears over the +wilful one, “Mina, child, do not go; for pity’s sake +stay here among those who love and wish you well! +<span class='pageno' id='Page_269'>269</span>Oh! my dear little niece, how time and the world +have changed you since those days at Glenfiord, +when a word from your old uncle would have made +you do anything; but you do not care for me now, +Mina.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>As in those “old days,” he had pushed back the +long glossy curls from her face, so she now laid a +gentle hand on his forehead and removed some +straggling locks of silver white that strayed over it. +She listened to him for a minute in perfect calmness; +but all at once the sorrow of her soul burst +forth.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Don’t call me changed,” she cried; “anything +but that: better than ever I did, I love you now: +it’s not for the world I pine, but for peace; I am +forced to leave you, but it is not that <i>I</i> am changed: +oh! no indeed, indeed I am not!”</p> + +<p class='c011'>She hardly knew what she was saying, but she +put her arms round his neck and kissed him half +wildly, and cried and sobbed as if her heart would +break. Standing in the cold damp air of a winter +morning, on the threshold of “beautiful Craigmaver,” +the stern old mountains contemplating that +burst of passionate human feeling from afar, the +pine trees looking on grim and motionless, the lake +sleeping far below, she hung about him murmuring +<span class='pageno' id='Page_270'>270</span>she was not changed, and begging and praying him +to believe her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Dear papa,” exclaimed Cecilia, “how can you +dream of standing there without your hat? Mina, +I wonder you had not more consideration than to +allow him; but then you never think about any +person excepting——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Myself, Cecilia, you were going to say,” returned +Mina, raising her tearful face and gazing +almost fiercely at the evil genius of that Highland +home. “God witness between us which loves that +good man best,—you or I,—which would sacrifice +the most for him; but, dear uncle,” she added, the +flush of anger half fading from her cheek as she +turned towards him, “do go in; it is far too cold +for you here, only first bid me good-bye again, and +say you don’t think me changed,—say you don’t.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Her face was touching his once more as she +spoke, and she whispered the few last words so tenderly +and entreatingly, that the old man had no +choice left but to answer,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I hope you are not; I will try to hope.” He +strained her to his heart: and, as Mina felt a tear +fall on her face, she cried almost wildly,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Oh! let me go; I shall die! let me go! Good-bye, +good-bye, dear, dear uncle.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_271'>271</span>She was almost choking with emotion; she saw +nothing, heeded no one but him; and, tearing herself +away, she sprang into the carriage without even +looking at Cecilia, and, burying her face in her +hands, shut out Craigmaver and every external +object from her sight. She never raised her head +again for miles; and when she did, all visible traces +of the mental storm, save death-like paleness, had +passed away.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina,” said her brother, “should you like to go +back again?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No,” she obstinately answered, and for hours +she spoke not a single word.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do come in, papa,” Cecilia said as the vehicle +drove off; “you will be sure to catch cold, and, as +she was so willing to go, you need not grieve so +much about her: she will be very happy in London, +I dare say, much happier in the midst of its gaiety +than shut up in our quiet hermitage here: she went +off without bidding me good-bye; what a strange +wayward creature she is. But do come in, dear +papa,” and the lady laid a persuasive hand on his +sleeve when she concluded.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The old man withdrew his eyes from the southern +road and turned to re-enter the house, sighing +deeply. For about the first time in his life, he felt +<span class='pageno' id='Page_272'>272</span>Cecilia’s words jar on his feelings: he did not know +why, but his heart seemed like a loosened string, +which, having been thoughtlessly touched by a rude +finger, the sound it returned to his soul was harsh +and discordant.</p> + +<p class='c011'>For, oh! how he once loved the child of his dead +nephew, she who was now gone forth so lonely and +friendless,—he knew; how he loved her still, spite of +all her faults, he felt, but cared not to confess. It +was about the first note Cecilia had ever unintentionally +struck out of tune; perhaps, indeed, it was +not so much out of tune as time: it had not been +judiciously pressed down just at the right moment, +and it consequently grated, with the force of a discord, +on the ear of the listener. And so the old +laird, without answering a word, walked mournfully +into the house.</p> + +<p class='c011'>His granddaughter felt piqued to see the effect +Mina’s departure had produced, and angrily accompanied +him; she shut the hall door with a sort of +bang, which sound once again smote on Mr. Frazer’s +heart; for, when the nerves are loosened, even a +breath causes them to vibrate and tremble. He +crossed the hall with a heavy step, and moodily +entered his library without asking Cecilia to follow +him.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_273'>273</span>She who noticed everything, noticed this, and she +consequently turned towards the drawing-room with +a disdainful shrug; but her displeasure did not prevent +her hearing that the old man was coughing, as +had very frequently been the case for some time +past, painfully.</p> + +<p class='c011'>About three weeks afterwards, a letter directed +to Allan Frazer, Esq., senior, and marked “Private,” +with two emphatic strokes underneath the word, +arrived by the southern post at Craigmaver. Allan +Frazer, junior, who had ten days previously +been hastily summoned from Edinburgh, in consequence +of his father’s illness, after gazing intently +at it for a minute, laid the missive unopened in his +desk, and turned the key upon his cousin’s dispatch.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I will keep it for him,” the young man murmured, +“till he is better.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Days passed away, but the looked-for improvement +never came. Feverishly Mina had written +that letter; eagerly she awaited a reply: she wondered, +day by day, whether it had offended him—if +he were from home—if Cecilia had intercepted it—or +whether he had shown it to her and she was adroitly +satirizing it; she felt as if it must have produced an +effect of some kind, good, bad, or indifferent; she +thought for weeks of nothing but that letter, never +<span class='pageno' id='Page_274'>274</span>dreaming how it was lying unthought of, unopened, +totally forgotten,—whilst sorrow shadowed the house, +a corpse tenanted one of the formerly pleasant +chambers, a funeral train wound solemnly down the +avenue.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The old laird was dead. His eyes had closed on +earth’s sorrows for ever without reading the record +of trial, the assurances of love, the story of foolish +hopes, the half explanation that missive contained; +his hand never touched the sheet; he had no opportunity +of learning to understand her better, no +leisure to grow to love her more: yet, almost the +last words he uttered ere passing to that land where +deceit and hypocrisy find no entrance, ere casting +earthly blindness from him and walking into the full +glory of celestial light, were,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And Mina, Allan, our Mina, be kind to her; if +she need help, as she will some day, be to her like a +brother. I hope, I believe she is <i>not</i> changed.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>If he had seen down into her soul, if he had read +even the partial disclosures of what was passing +there contained in her epistle, blotted occasionally +by a tear, and the text made clearer—paradoxical as +it may sound—by that unintentional marginal note, +he would have been quite sure that, if she were +changed, it was only for the better.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_275'>275</span>Allan Frazer knew perfectly well that he ought +to return the letter to Mina rather than open it +himself, but he adopted the latter course one day +after the interment was over; and then, with a sort +of pang, he sat down to answer it and tell her the +news of his grandfather’s death.</p> + +<p class='c011'>He told her of the charge he had received from +the deceased, to “be kind to our Mina.” He said +he would always be a friend, a cousin, a brother to +her and Malcolm; he touched slightly on the sudden +departure from Craigmaver, and implied he +understood the cause more clearly than she had +cared to explain it; he alluded to what she had +told her uncle of her intention to support herself by +“pen work,” and added, that he would help her +with money, influence, suggestions, time,—anything +she required, he would do; in any way she could +think of, he would help her, his poor dear little +Mina, who had been so lately a child and who was +still his sister.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The girl scanned the contents of that long, most +truly affectionate letter through blinding tears; he +never once asked her to come back to Craigmaver; +but the burden of the whole was, “let me help +you.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>It might not be; Mina scarcely knew why, but +<span class='pageno' id='Page_276'>276</span>she felt the fact: it was not but that they were, in +some sort, like brother and sister; since childhood, +the laird had seemed to her to come only after her +father, Allan scarcely after Malcolm, in her heart’s +affections: it was not that she felt estranged from +him, that she was proud, or angry, or morbid; no, +but she could take nothing from him: she might +have subdued her spirit, tamed her nature sufficiently +to have gone and begged a boon from Alfred +Westwood, but she never would, so long as she +lived, accept the commonest favour from the hands +of Cecilia’s husband. She cared not to ask herself +why, because so many painful reproaches, so many +sharp stinging words, returned to memory as she +analyzed, or rather attempted to analyze, her feelings; +but she was resolved, and so she quietly +wrote and told him.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was a brief letter, almost touching in its simple +expressions of gratitude, almost mournful in its +earnest, absurd, self-reliance; there was not a word +in it intended to convey an intimation of her real +reasons for refusing assistance from him; but all +was clear to Allan as the noonday sun,—he read her +heart through her actions; he saw her wish that +intercourse of all sort should cease; he knew she +meant that for a final adieu to Scotland—her early +<span class='pageno' id='Page_277'>277</span>home, his present abode,—himself, Cecilia, everything; +and, watching the expression of his wife’s +face, when she accidentally caught sight of the envelope, +he acknowledged, in bitterness of heart, that +the girl was right,—that friend, cousin, sister, she +could never be to him more; that, inferior in beauty +and talents and accomplishments though she might +be to the graceful mistress of Craigmaver, she was +still sufficient to be jealous of, to have some feminine +venom poured out upon. Yes, it was better +there should be no correspondence between him and +his cousins, even on business.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Still he felt he must do something for them, so he +sent a large sum of money to Mina, to fulfil the +desire of his grandfather that he should help her; +but Mina returned the money, and the note, thanking +him for his offer, was the last that for years +passed between them,—the last, save one, and that +one came not then.</p> + +<p class='c011'>So the Highlands faded from Mina’s eyes: thus +the friends and the relatives of early days dropped +off one by one; thus the vision of her childhood—“perfect +happiness”—melted away as she and Malcolm +started in life, all alone.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_278'>278</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER XV.<br> <span class='c009'>STONY-HEARTED LONDON.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>Still time went on,—oh! with such a steady +unwavering march over the city streets, and the +tramp of his measured footsteps wore a sort of +channel in Mina’s heart, to be filled up with all +kinds of griefs, anxiety, self-reproach; for Malcolm +could get no “government situation,” Mina no employment; +their money dwindled down to “<i>nil</i>,” +or, at all events, the bottom of their hoard was rendered +clearly perceptible by the limited number of +sovereigns scattered over it. She grew restless, +pale, ill, careworn; he impatient, repining, hard to +be satisfied, occasionally snappish, always discontented. +“Life in London” now, was a very different +affair from what it had once been.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Malcolm detested moping in the house, still he +professed himself unable to face the sight of his +fellows in a shabby hat and threadbare coat; he +<span class='pageno' id='Page_279'>279</span>would have been glad enough to purchase a commission +or anything then, and had come to believe +it might be possible for him to exist on his pay, but +the money which could once have procured it was +gone, and there were no means by which he could +get more; for once again—although he did not +know that—Mina had cast fortune from him, by +declining assistance from Allan Frazer: and, though +he candidly confessed he would have accepted +help from the “arch fiend,” had that personage +only been so obliging as to offer it, he could not go +begging to any one; and, as Allan never wrote to +him, he never wrote to Allan.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And was there nobody else? Well, yes; he +might have asked Mr. Ivraine, but he did not like; +his pride, his feelings of delicacy, alike forbade that; +for, he argued, it would show “there was a split +between us and the Craigmaver people; and, besides, +it would look as if, because I once picked +him up in the street, I fancied I had a sort of claim. +No, hang it! that would be mean; I can’t do that.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Which was the more praiseworthy in him, as the +first time Mr. Ivraine called, after their return from +Scotland, he asked very pointedly if there were any +way he could forward Malcolm’s views. To be sure +he did not know the youth had then no definite +<span class='pageno' id='Page_280'>280</span>ones, but he evidently thought he ought to have; +and, on Malcolm answering in the negative, he +turned away, as Mina’s brother thought, disappointed: +so that, on the whole, that part of his +conduct was meritorious; it was about the only part +at that period, however.</p> + +<p class='c011'>How Mina toiled, Miss Caldera could almost have +wept to see, for she knew nothing but disappointment +could ever be in store for her, and yet still +no word she said was able to turn the girl from her +purpose; the more she talked, the more obstinate +Mina became; she wanted to support herself, she +said, and truly there was need she should be able to +work out her object, as she seemed very little inclined +to let any other person provide that support +for her—not even Ernest Ivraine, as Miss Caldera +had once quietly suggested.</p> + +<p class='c011'>But she was met on that solitary occasion with +such a burst of proud, angry, resentful expressions—such +a torrent of denunciatory remarks concerning +matrimony, and match-making, and wedding for +money, and marrying for homes, as fairly astounded +her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The “anti-Westwood fever was nothing to that,” +the governess asserted, and so for months Mr. +Ivraine’s name was never mentioned between them; +<span class='pageno' id='Page_281'>281</span>but as the financial difficulty increased, her friend +seriously began to wish Mina would come to her +senses some way or other, and marry any sensible +person who would take care of her, and put Malcolm +in the way of earning an “honest livelihood”—a +favourite phrase of the lady, which she used on +all occasions, to the ineffable disgust both of the +young gentleman to whom it referred, and of that +young gentleman’s sister. They “could not come +down to their circumstances,” so Miss Caldera told +them frequently, and it was true; Mina had not yet +learned patience, nor Malcolm sense.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Miss Caldera felt a weighty charge had devolved +on her; she was not actually supporting them yet, +but it would soon come to that, she clearly foresaw: +and, if she had imagined her small means could +prove sufficient, she would never have repined, +only she thought Malcolm ought to exert himself, +and she knew Mina was breaking her heart in hunting +a will-o’-the-wisp, a shadow without a substance, +a hope without a foundation.</p> + +<p class='c011'>One day the girl came in, looking angry, vexed, +and flushed. Wearily, and yet still pettishly, she +flung down a parcel on the table, and dropping into +the nearest chair, remained silently gazing at the +windows of number 24, just opposite, where a young +<span class='pageno' id='Page_282'>282</span>stock-broker lodged—it was not of him she was +thinking though—till Miss Caldera broke the stillness +by the brief query,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well, Mina?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well,” repeated that young lady, speaking +rapidly—as was her wont when much annoyed—“why +only what I might have expected. When I +tried original English tales, they wanted French +translations; when I took them French translations, +they thought, perhaps, Italian would suit the public +taste better; when I had finished the Italian, they +said the rage for that kind of literature was past, +and suggested German; and now, when I have +nearly lost my eyesight poring over those unchristian +hieroglyphics, and half-choked myself learning +their horrid gutturals, I find they are overstocked +with German translations, and think I had better +try the French again.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And you——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Said I should try no more.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And so——” once again suggested Miss Caldera.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And so, here is my manuscript, and there is an +end of it,” finished Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I told you when you first began this wild goose +chase, that no woman could effect anything, and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_283'>283</span>that you had better marry Mr. Westwood, Mina,” +remarked her friend.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And I told you one woman would effect much, +and that I would not marry Mr. Westwood,” said +the girl; “and I mean to prove my words true yet, +in spite of fate.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Indeed! I thought you said but just now you +would try no more——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Translations,” explained Mina; “there are too +many clever women, ay, and for that matter, too +many clever men, at the business for me to have any +chance; no, no, I mean to return to my own work, +and stick to it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Certain that in original literature you will meet +with no rivals,” her friend said, with a smile.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina bit her lip, but made no reply; whilst Miss +Caldera proceeded.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You think me most unsympathising and ill-natured +and narrow-minded, I know; but, believe +me, I only speak thus to save you from certain +misery, positive anxiety, that hope deferred which +maketh the heart sick, and, most certainly, ultimate +failure and disappointment.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Pleasant prospect,” remarked Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Anything but it,” returned the lady; “you are +wasting your youth and your strength and your +<span class='pageno' id='Page_284'>284</span>energies in endeavours which cannot prove otherwise +than useless. Where one manuscript is accepted, +fifty are rejected—for one author who succeeds, +twenty fail; it is the most unsatisfactory, +unremunerative, thankless profession in which man +ever engaged; and, as for woman! even if she rise +to anything beyond a mere scribbler of love tales for +some tenth-rate magazine, literary reputation never +brings any real satisfaction with it to her. You have +not—I must say plainly what I think, what I know, +Mina—either the talent or the patience necessary to +ensure anything at all like a third or fourth class +standing, or, in fact, any standing at all; and, +further, I believe you have not sufficient humility +to be satisfied except with a place on the daïs.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It is agreeable to be complimented,” said Mina, +with a very feeble attempt at unconcern.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It is not agreeable to hear the truth, I admit, +but hereafter you will thank me for speaking it; +you have, in spite of all your foibles, enough good +sense left to bear with me, though I will not compliment: +the real fault in your training is to be +found in the fact that you have been too much +flattered——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“By you,” suggested Mina tartly.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No, but by every one else; if I have understood +<span class='pageno' id='Page_285'>285</span>you rightly,—by your father and cousin; to my +own knowledge, by mother, brother, Mr. Merapie, +Mr. Westwood: it is better for me to tell you these +things than a stranger. Your friends imagined you +were cleverer than most girls who had the same +opportunities, and they were wrong; I admit you +have abilities, but I deny you are a genius, and +I implore you not to delude yourself into that belief; +you can do literally nothing, as I told you +long ago; in fact, to repeat what I have said fifty +times before, there is, in a general way, nothing +a woman can do except——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Marry,” supplied Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Except marry,” acquiesced Miss Caldera.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Refuge for the destitute,” remarked Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“And not altogether a bad one,” retorted her +friend.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But one of which I do not intend to avail myself +just at present,” said Mina. “I wonder, when +you have such an opinion of it, you do not set me +the example.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>She was sorry the next moment she had uttered +the thoughtless speech, for the blood came mantling +up into Miss Caldera’s face as she replied,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“The heart knoweth its own bitterness, Mina +dear; but,” she proceeded, after a pause, “I know +<span class='pageno' id='Page_286'>286</span>the annoyance these perpetual rejections are giving +you, and I really see no use in your persisting in +making griefs for yourself and needlessly inflicting +pain on others; I never see you take a grammar in +your hand, or sit down to write, or put on your +bonnet to go out, but a sort of dread comes over +me: I do wish, from the very bottom of my heart, +dear child, you would give up this wild idea; believe +me, you will never make it a reality.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I would give it up to-morrow,” returned Mina, +“if you could suggest anything in its place.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The governess remained silent, and Mina continued.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You see, dear old friend, affairs are getting +desperate with us; by some means I <i>must</i> make +money: point out to me any other way by which +I can earn the amount necessary, and, if that way +should turn out to be sweeping a crossing, I will +thankfully go and do it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Time was when Miss Caldera would have laughed +at this declaration, but she did not do so now; she +received it as a matter of sober earnest, a thing the +girl would actually perform, “for affairs were,” as +she said, “getting desperate,” and Mina, though +not humbled, was being so; wherefore her friend +replied,</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_287'>287</span>“I tell you, Mina, there is no way for you; suppose +you had the ‘gift,’ which I say you have not; +suppose you had genius, imagination, tact, and the +thousand and one <i>et ceteras</i> needful to make a successful +author; suppose, again, you had a friend to +assist, you might think yourself especially fortunate +if, for several years, you could make sufficient to +cover the expenses of pens, ink, and foolscap. You +see what teaching is; you are unfit for any profession, +trade, employment; but such is not the +case with Malcolm,—no man who will work need +starve: but you encourage him in all his absurd +ideas, and talk about this thing and that situation not +being genteel, as if he were now in a position to +consider gentility, that monstrous bugbear which +has only power to influence weak-minded women +and foolish men.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“What would you have him do?” impatiently +demanded Mina.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Work,” was the rejoinder; “abandon this chimerical +government situation notion, and put his +shoulder to the wheel wherever he sees a vacancy, +low down or high up: I have no patience with him, +I confess, or sympathy in his aristocratic laziness, +nor can I endure to hear you aiding and abetting +every distaste and whim and vagary he has: if he +<span class='pageno' id='Page_288'>288</span>cannot be a clerk, let him turn labourer, cabman, +porter, anything rather than what he is at present,—a +listless, dissatisfied, useless being, who smokes +half his time, and sleeps—when he is not grumbling—the +remainder.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I could not ask him to <i>work</i>,” said Mina, laying +a painful emphasis on the word, and flushing as she +spoke it; “I could not ask him to do that: I brought +him here:—because of me—yes, I may as well speak +plainly when I am at it—because of me he can +hope for no assistance from Craigmaver. He came +to London on my suggestion: I meant to make +money for us both; if he were not able to get a +government appointment, I intended to buy him +a commission, and—and I cannot say now—‘disgrace +our family and connexions and yourself by accepting +some menial situation’—I cannot do it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Disgrace, nonsense,” retorted Miss Caldera, for +the conclusion of the above speech trenched on +hostile ground, and she rose in arms on the moment; +“I declare, Mina Frazer, you would provoke +a saint with your anti-business prejudices and +your Highland pride and your stuff about family +connections who would not care if you died in a +workhouse to-morrow. You seem to imagine the +sun was made to shine for you; my mother once +<span class='pageno' id='Page_289'>289</span>entertained a similar idea with regard to me, +but——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But what?” demanded her auditor.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“She found she was mistaken, or, at least, I did +for her,” was the response.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“By which remark you mean to imply,” said +Mina, “that Malcolm and I will make a similar discovery; +do you not think trial enough has fallen to +our lot to convince us the sun can go down as well +as rise and shine?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“No,” replied Miss Caldera; “you are not half +tamed, nor is Malcolm; but you will both, or I am +greatly mistaken, get a ‘settler,’ yet: however, as +you are so very fastidious, as you seem so very +anxious to make your brother’s path smooth, why +do you not marry and ask your husband to help +him?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Husbands are not to be picked up on every +door step, Miss Caldera,” retorted Mina; “they are +a rare commodity.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“All the more valuable for that,” remarked her +friend, “as I told you before about Mr. Westwood.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Yes, but Mr. Westwood is to me dead and +buried; I would not take him when I could get +him, and now, when I know the worth of the prize +<span class='pageno' id='Page_290'>290</span>I rejected, I cannot go and ask him to marry me, +can I, dear friend?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You will get a settler, yet,” repeated the +governess; “but,” she added, not perceiving that +the girl’s levity of manner was merely assumed, to +cover a smarting wound, “but I was not then +thinking of Mr. Westwood; I was alluding to Mr. +Ivraine.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Well,” said Mina, remembering Mr. Westwood’s +taunt, and choking back all signs of emotion +with a desperate effort, “shall I ask <i>him</i>?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina Frazer,” returned Miss Caldera, “I could +shake you.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Miss Caldera,” replied Mina, “will you be so +kind as to abandon the theme matrimonial? I do +not like it. With what kind of feeling do you suppose +I could meet Mr. Ivraine, after you have +suggested to me the propriety of trying to ‘catch +him.’ I loathe and detest the very mention of +match-making or marrying from prudential motives.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You will repent your conduct some day, Mina,” +her friend began; but Mina, whose pride and vanity +and sensitiveness were all alike touched by the +<i>finale</i> she knew was approaching, here vehemently +interposed in a tone of much pique, the reason of +her great annoyance finding vent at last.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_291'>291</span>“If I were rich you would not say such things to +me; it is because you know I have no money or the +capability of making any, that you speak thus. If +I were rich——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It would not make the slightest difference in +my opinion,” interposed her friend; “if you would +only listen to reason for one moment, and consider +the value and the rarity of a true disinterested attachment——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“A true disinterested folly,” broke out Mina, the +blood rushing up into her cheeks and the tears into +her eyes at a precisely similar ratio of speed; but, +almost immediately recovering her self-possession, +she added in a less abrupt manner, “I believe it is +all nonsense, indeed I do; but supposing every +word you utter to be the perfection of wisdom, supposing +me to be tractable and willing to follow your +advice and—and—settle down into a country +squire’s country wife, don’t you think—now don’t +you, wisest of friends, think that it might, on the +whole, be advisable for me to wait till the aforesaid +country squire asketh me, Mina Frazer, to become +the aforesaid country wife?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Miss Caldera could endure with patience any +vehement outburst of temper; she very rarely lost +her own: she was as fond of a game at argument as +<span class='pageno' id='Page_292'>292</span>some good folks are of a game at chess; and so, +whenever her adversary threw a king, or, in other +words, an opinion, into a precarious position by over +haste or an absence of sufficient reflection, she bore +down upon her antagonist in first-rate style, drawing, +in the forms of cogent and rapid reasons, +bishops, knights, and castles around the stronghold +of her unhappy opponent, check-mated and put him +<i><span lang="fr">hors de combat</span></i> in a moment.</p> + +<p class='c011'>And thus it chanced that, whenever Mina grew +extremely angry on any point, Miss Caldera became +proportionably cool and drily provoking; but occasionally—once, +perhaps, in a year or so—Mina had +a way of turning the tables quietly round and +settling herself in a sort of defiant position, from +whence she calmly flung missiles at the head of her +tormentor. Then Miss Caldera fairly lost all patience; +she felt her place had been usurped, that +Mina was getting the best of it, that nothing but +anger was capable of dislodging her from the post she +occupied; and accordingly, on the present occasion, +she commenced a vehement denunciation, which was +only cut short by Malcolm opening the door and +demanding, in the sort of slang Mina always regretted +to hear him use, “what was the row.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Only the finish of a little altercation Mina and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_293'>293</span>I have had, which originally commenced about her +literary efforts.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I wish to heavens,” said Malcolm pettishly, +coining a word, for his own especial convenience, +“I wish to heavens she had never ‘efforted’ anything +about them; and that when women are living +together they could agree. If she had not deceived +me about what she could do, and had kept from +quarrelling with Cecilia, we might have been at +Craigmaver; still or, at least, she might, for Allan, +I’m sure, would have done something for me instead +of leaving me here stranded like a shipwrecked +waif: men get on together well enough; +why the deuce ladies wrangle so tremendously I +cannot understand.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Mina bent her head over her breast, but said +never a word, while Miss Caldera answered,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It is because men are never thrown with men +as we are with each other; believe me, you would +not stand the ordeal one single bit better if you +were subjected to a similar test: but, although your +cousin and you are not on very intimate terms at +present, is there nothing you can think of which +might prove the means of procuring a livelihood for +yourself?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If it were not for Mina,” he said impatiently, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_294'>294</span>“I’d ship myself off to the colonies to-morrow, or +enter as able-bodied seaman on board some man-of-war, +or enlist: hang it! I’m so sick of the whole +business of life, perhaps I might drown myself; at +all events, I would do something, but I cannot leave +her.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was the old excuse again; but it passed current +this time, for Miss Caldera was so eager to get +her own ideas into circulation, that she had scarcely +leisure to notice the counterfeit coin he handed to +her in exchange.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I want Mina to marry,” she began.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I wish to goodness she was settled some way or +other,” he exclaimed; “I’m sure, as you say, it is +the only thing a woman can do, and I know she +ought to have married long ago.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You told me yourself, Malcolm, you never +would give your consent to anything of the kind,” +said Mina, raising her face, and speaking hurriedly +with parched lips, “you know you did, when you +came back from India—when——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Things were different then,” he interrupted, +“and I did not know so much about the world, and +about you, and I thought Westwood beneath us—and +so he is; but still he would have been a vast +deal better than beggary, as you may find yet, Mina.”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_295'>295</span>“Well, but she detested Mr. Westwood,” remarked +Miss Caldera; “and, besides, we cannot go +and ask him if he be still desirous to marry her: +but there are others in the world who are fond of +your sister,—Mr. Ernest Ivraine, for instance.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Ay, Mina, what do you think of him?” demanded +Malcolm, for it was a subject he and Miss +Caldera had once before discussed, and he was not +sorry to have an opportunity of reverting to it; +“what do you think of him?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I think little of him,” said Mina, rising from +her seat and talking very slowly, with clenched +hands, and a sort of nervous fierceness, “excepting +that he is a strange, reserved, silent individual; but +I think of you, Malcolm, that if you had a spark of +manly feeling about you, a particle of brotherly consideration, +a single idea such as your father’s son +ought to have, a regard for yourself and the name +you bear, you would not be going over a catalogue +of ‘desirable’ husbands in order to select one +to fasten me upon: I will be no party to such a +conversation; I would leave the house before I +would endure further persecution of this kind; +I——”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mr. Ivraine is in the drawing-room, sir,” said +a servant, opening the door at this moment; which +<span class='pageno' id='Page_296'>296</span>announcement curtailed Mina’s speech of its fair +proportions, and sent Malcolm upstairs to the old +favourite jigging time denominated six-eight.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_297'>297</span> + <h2 class='c004'>CHAPTER XVI.<br> <span class='c009'>MINA RUSHES ON HER FATE.</span></h2> +</div> + +<p class='c010'>It might have been imagined that Ernest Ivraine +would hardly have been the man voluntarily to +make a fresh care and anxiety for himself, nor had +he voluntarily, in the first instance, sown the seeds +of a troublesome crop, promising, if fostered, to +bring forth trials abundantly; no—that inexplicable +something which moulds our life’s experiences into +a definite shape—fate, chance, accident, call it by +what name you will—cast the germ into the ground, +and he—half-unconsciously, perhaps—instead of nipping +and crushing it in the bud, nursed and tended +the plant, so that, at length, after it had grown, +when he came to see the evil of it—when he discovered +the sorrow it was likely to prove, he found +its roots had twined themselves so around his heart +that he could only eradicate the one by tearing out +the other.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_298'>298</span>The soil of his rugged nature was one in which +it was difficult to get any tender emotion to flourish; +but that obstacle once surmounted, the rest was +easy. It stayed there, spite of himself, spite of circumstances, +spite of prudence, through life; and so, +since her uncle’s death, since he came to understand +how poor Mina actually was, since he had found +that, like himself, she was penniless, he had never +listened to the voice of prudence at all. He felt, +so long as Mina was likely to be an heiress, that to +her he was—must always be—nothing; but now, +though he might not marry, he could care for her, +and he would have done anything in the world to +make her care for him: but Mina would not; she +had been annoyed, not by, but through him; her +pride was wounded, her vanity offended; her +womanly feelings were insulted; they never seemed +destined to “get on” together. Mina went back +with him to what she had been with others as a +child: but that made no difference to him; he was +fond of her, though he never exactly knew why he +was so; though he could not have given a single +reason for his apparently extraordinary choice, there +could not be a single doubt of the matter: he, +Ernest Ivraine, a prudent, practical, silent, uncommunicative +man, was, nevertheless, so totally deficient +<span class='pageno' id='Page_299'>299</span>in worldly sense and worldly caution as to +form a very sincere affection for a girl without a +shilling, of whose real nature he had not the faintest +idea, many years younger than himself, not handsome—merely +pretty, with a strange wayward mood, +and a not especially placid temper. In one word, +he had made one cold plunge into the stream of his +fate, and found himself—sometimes to his pleasure, +oftener to his sorrow—decidedly in love.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Sir Ernest, shrewdly suspecting this, wrote a confidential +missive to Messrs. Smeek and Scott, inquiring +about John Merapie and his family; but the +solicitors, not being detective officers, merely informed +him, by return of post, that they understood +Mr. Merapie was dead, and his widowed sister +removed from London: wherefore the baronet was +once more thrown off the scent, and he did not find +it again till too late to benefit by it.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Colin Saunders, who had now been for a considerable +period “useful man” about Paradise, indeed +heard occasionally from his daughter—who +lived near Miss Caldera, and had established a sort +of patronizing intimacy with that lady’s servant—how +Mr. Ivraine was great friends with Mr. Malcolm +Frazer, and spent half his time with him when +in London; but Colin never guessed the truth—never +<span class='pageno' id='Page_300'>300</span>thought so “dark-browed a young gentleman” +would dream of marrying any one but some +great heiress; and, even if he had known all, and +the baronet had stretched him on the rack, he would +have divulged nothing. He was a worthy descendant +of the stiff old Covenanters, who worshipped +on the bare hill sides, and skulked in caves, +and braved death and persecution and torture for +conscience sake. “The man was a mass of sterling +steady principle,” so Ernest once said, and he was +right.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“When the heart gives the will, the devil gives +the way,” is one of those aphorisms people never +care to speak, because it can lay no claim to beauty +of thought and elegance of expression; but still, one +which nobody can deny, because it generally proves +so strictly true. Far be it from me to say that his +Satanic majesty had any share in sending Ernest +Ivraine so often to London, but surely it was an +evil genius which drove him so perpetually across +Mina’s path: excuses were never wanting to render +a visit to the metropolis needful, for Henry was +married now—married to an heiress, rich in goodness, +beauty, friends, and ancestors. The young +officer inundated his brother with lists of commissions +he desired executed,—every third or fourth +<span class='pageno' id='Page_301'>301</span>Indian mail brought with it the necessity for a +journey to town; and the sum Ernest had accumulated +on Henry’s behalf, but which Henry had +exultingly returned to him, enabled the miser’s +elder son to protract his visits a little longer than +it would otherwise have been possible for him to +do: so he was always coming to see Malcolm, perpetually +being announced as “in the drawing-room, +sir,” by the maid-of-all-work, after the fashion recorded +towards the conclusion of the preceding +chapter, before this explanation of his feelings was +commenced.</p> + +<p class='c011'>On the day in question, however, he did not see +Mina; she had a bad headache, went to her own +room, and, moreover, to put it out of Malcolm’s +power to torment her further, went determinedly +off to bed.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Perhaps her brother really thought she was ill; +perhaps he regretted annoying the pale-faced girl, +his only near relative; perhaps he felt there was +much blameable in his own conduct; perhaps some +words Ernest Ivraine had spoken, during the course +of their interview, might have induced him to look +more affectionately at her—less angrily on the world; +perhaps it was only the usual reaction, which generally +occurred after he had been particularly pettish +<span class='pageno' id='Page_302'>302</span>towards her; perhaps her concluding sentence had +touched his heart and aroused his pride; at all +events one thing was certain, that he was so kind +to her the following morning, so different from +usual, so much like the wild good-natured youth +of other times, that Mina forgot her vexation, and +felt for the moment happy to see him so; and that +afternoon, when the baronet’s son walked in with +her brother, she did not go to bed again, but remained +in the room, not talking herself, but listening +to them doing so,—for, at last, Malcolm had +appealed to Mr. Ivraine for advice, and Mr. Ivraine, +for the first time since Mina had known him, spoke +long, earnestly, energetically; he grew absolutely +eloquent whilst looking at the young man’s position, +and exhorting him to do what he had not +been brave enough to do himself. The difference +between them was, however, that he was waiting +and longing for something, and Malcolm was not,—unless, +indeed, for absolute beggary, which he +had unintentionally confessed was stalking towards +them. Ernest at length comprehended how they +were situated, and he first advised strenuously, and +then proffered assistance.</p> + +<p class='c011'>It was a painful conversation throughout; Mina +felt it to be so, as, step by step, word by word, it +<span class='pageno' id='Page_303'>303</span>approached the end; but there was a fascination +about it for her: even had a sufficient pretext arisen +for her to leave the apartment, she could not have +done it, so strongly were her interest excited, her +feelings aroused: there was a fate in it, as there is +in all things in earth below, in heaven above.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I will tell you,” said Mr. Ivraine, by way of +conclusion to the many arguments he had advanced, +in order to induce Malcolm to go forth and battle +manfully,—for he felt a sort of sympathy for and +interest in him, and desired to warn the youth, ere +it was too late, to avoid the quicksand on which he +was stranded,—“I will tell you,” he repeated, rising +and leaning against the corner of the mantel-piece, +his face turned towards both his auditors, “what +course a friend of mine adopted, whose case was +not, apparently, nearly so hopeless as yours. Would +to God I had followed his example a dozen years +since, my lot would have been a happier one; but +let that pass. He was not qualified for a business +man; he had not received an education fitting him +to be a professional one; his father would not push +him forward in any way: he had friends, it is true, +possessed of some influence; but they thought, and +naturally, it was his parent’s duty to provide for +him; and, even had such not been the case, he was +<span class='pageno' id='Page_304'>304</span>too proud and self-reliant to seek their assistance. +He disliked home for many sufficient reasons; but +still, recollect he had a home—and—so long as he +remained there, a species of support, which you +have not. That fact makes all the difference between +your cases. He was not absolutely compelled +to work; you ought to have been doing so long +ago.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He thought for a time, and then he acted. Starting +from his father’s house one gloomy morning in +November, with a money capital of a few shillings, +and none other, save an energetic determined spirit, +which will accomplish more for a man than any +moderate amount of money, high birth, or connexion.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“People said he was mad, for his father was rich, +an old man, likely to die soon; they affirmed, if he +had only waited a little longer he would have found +wealth ready made to his hand, whereas, by his +rashness, he had flung the chance of fortune—save +by his own exertions—from him for ever; but he +replied, he had rather make a fortune than wait for +one, that he desired the death of no man, and that +he would not waste the best years of his life lounging +about home, and putting himself in the way of +being tempted to commit a great sin, viz. that of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_305'>305</span>wishing for his father’s death: he said, that those +who stayed might gain; that, for his part, he would +either win a happy home for himself on the earth, or +else seek it in the grave; that, if he earned a name, +his father should hear of him again,—if not, he +would never return to the land of his birth more.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The speaker paused for a moment, but neither +Malcolm nor Mina interposed a word. Unconsciously, +whilst recalling the events of that night, he +had grown desperately in earnest, and that earnestness +flung such a stamp of reality upon the narrative, +that the listeners felt, in hearkening to it, +almost as though the hopeful, ardent, brave adventurer +were standing there before them, recounting +with his own lips the story of his trials, resolves, +struggles. Mina’s gaze became rivetted on the +miser’s eldest born; she wanted to hear what one +so situated had done: to learn, for a certainty, what +her brother might do. Ernest Ivraine met that +anxious, eager glance, and felt it pain, even while +it calmed, him. With a half sigh, turning his eyes +on Malcolm and striving to forget the straining look +he knew was fastened on his face, he resumed:</p> + +<p class='c011'>“He went as I have said, enlisted in the army as +a common soldier in a regiment just about embarking +for India, never informed his father of the step +<span class='pageno' id='Page_306'>306</span>he had taken, never repented him of it,—but sailed,—a +gentleman in the uniform of the ranks.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Years rolled away, and in England there was +only one who knew accurately what had become of +him; and when that friend was at length enabled to +send him out a sum sufficient to purchase a commission, +it was returned with the proud boast that +he had bought one with his blood; that he had +fought his way up to the point where he stood, and +could show for every step some severe wound, some +long deep scar. Note the result of his rash folly, as +people termed it. His father is still living: he +might have grown grey-haired waiting for the +wealth which could only be his through the death +of a parent, and was then contingent on the old +man’s will; he might have moped and dawdled and +murmured away the best years of his existence, of +no use to mortal being, a burden to himself, and +have, finally, died first or gained nothing after all. +He made a better and a manlier choice, has won +name, position, honour, some money, much love. +If you, Malcolm Frazer, will go and do likewise, I +think I can promise to give you the first step, +which he had to hew out for himself: make up your +mind to go out to India; I will obtain an ensigncy +or something for you there: after that, all depends +<span class='pageno' id='Page_307'>307</span>on yourself: only resolve to be great, and you may +become so,—only determine to rise, and that determination +will give you wings to soar almost to any +height you please.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Will you at once take courage and example +from a true story of life? cease waiting and watching +and vaguely hoping, and finally act. I do not +proffer assistance through officiousness, but solely +because I imagine you require, and perhaps might +not object to accept it. If you do not like the plan, +say so frankly; if you decide to follow it, only +speak the word and I will aid you by every means +in my power. Will you go or stay?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Who, with poverty on the one side and the realization +of his boyish hopes on the other, would have +hesitated to choose? Not Mina’s brother, for, without +an instant’s reflection, he cried,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Go, with a hundred thousand thanks.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You have spoken wisely and well,” remarked +Ernest.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina, what say you?” demanded her brother +in a kind eager tone, and with sparkling eyes; “I +have been little of a comfort, little save a trouble +for a long time; still you will miss me: what say +you?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“That you must go,” she answered, speaking +<span class='pageno' id='Page_308'>308</span>firmly, even though she could not prevent tears +springing to her eyes at the prospect of this last +break.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You are right, Miss Frazer,” said Mr. Ivraine; +“your brother ought not to waste his life either +here or in Scotland,—he must go to India: and +you,” he added, after a pause, “you will return to +Craigmaver, I presume.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The blood came rushing up into Mina’s face, and +a sort of agonized remembrance of what that place +had once been, of what it had lately become, sweeping +unbidden through her soul, checked her utterance; +but Malcolm, who liked not the appearance +of aught being amiss betwixt himself and the +wealthy head of their clan, answered promptly, +“Of course.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>Ernest Ivraine looked at her for a moment almost +despairingly; he thought of her desolate position, +of his wretched home, of a choice between none and +that, of whether his father would receive her and +what difference it might make in his future prospects, +of being separated from her for ever, of having +her beside him always, of which would be the +worst for her,—to be a wife amongst his friends or a +dependant amidst her own—with one in the world to +love her tenderly, or all perhaps looking coldly upon +<span class='pageno' id='Page_309'>309</span>her. He could not leave her—he feared to take +her. He saw there was a something which prevented +<i>her</i> thinking of a return to Scotland as of a +happy event. Was it that her proud spirit brooked +not the idea of being a pauper in the house of her +rich cousins? or was it—could it be—that she cared +for him?</p> + +<p class='c011'>If so, she would not value the smiles or the +frowns of relatives; she would endure privation, +grief, annoyance, for a brief space, for his sake. All +swept through his mind with the velocity of light: +the old barriers of prudence, consideration for her +happiness, dread of the result, were broken down +instantaneously as he gazed upon her troubled face, +and then came rapidly forth the words,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I know little, it is true, of your affairs; but +believe there is no other home open for her, unless—she +will marry me.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>He spoke to Malcolm, but he looked towards +Mina; he could read nothing from her face; he saw +she tried to speak, but could not; he felt he cared +for her more than ever, whilst his destiny thus hung +quivering in the hands of fate.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The second which ensued after his abrupt question +without his receiving an answer, seemed such +an eternity of torture that, to shorten its duration, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_310'>310</span>he said to Malcolm, in a tone tremulous with suppressed +emotion,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Do you think she would?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I answer yes for her,” returned Malcolm boldly, +though he felt half conscious he was tampering with +her fate, solely that he might win his own game; +“if you wish to hear it from her lips, she will say +so too: Mina, speak.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>One quick despairing glance into the past, an +equally rapid and hopeless one towards the two +futures now presented for her choice, a thought of +the selfishness of clouding Malcolm’s prospects +again—of flinging him once more friendless and +helpless on the barren shore where he had till that +morning been lying,—a dream of all he might rise +to, if she would just do that which she had for so +long been told she ought, a reckless sensation concerning +her own destiny, a feeling of gratitude +towards the man who offered so much to both—who +must have a regard for her,—and then Mina, +at the command of her brother, pronounced the +monosyllable she had long vowed she would not +speak, but which now, as it was pronounced, she +would have died ere recanting, unless he—Ernest +Ivraine—wished it. And oh! how many a time did +she pray that he might desire it.</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_311'>311</span>But he did not: once or twice he thought of +telling her frankly and fairly what a life lay before +her; but then the dread that she might repent, and +the conviction that her position as his wife would be +better than any other which presented itself added +to the hope that hereafter he could give her all he +might only wish for her now, kept him silent. He +entered the house that day resolved not to drag her +into misery, vowing never to utter a single syllable +till he was independent—Sir Ernest Ivraine, his +own master—a fortune-hunter no longer; and he +left it with the little word of assent ringing in his +ears, alternately with the sound of a blessing and +the power of a curse.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina is finally settled, Miss Caldera,” said +Malcolm to that lady, with a light laugh, which, +however, only partially concealed his troubled feelings; +“kiss the child,” he added, “for being good +at last.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>But Mina angrily pushed him away, and escaping +from them both, fled to the solitude of her own +chamber, where she could think and weep in peace.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She felt bewildered, terrified, overwhelmed; she +thought of his unknown relatives, of his uncomprehended +self; she reflected alternately concerning +his silence, his kindness, and his reserve; she tried +<span class='pageno' id='Page_312'>312</span>to see where she was going, and with whom; wondered +if he felt he were condescending to her, and +whether he would not be sorry hereafter, and how +he ever came to care for and to think of marrying +her; she remembered Miss Caldera’s advice, and +Alfred Westwood’s words, and Malcolm’s speculations, +and, bowing her flushed face in her hands, +shed scalding tears of mortified pride to reflect that +some people might say she had striven to catch a +baronet’s son—that he himself might fancy so sometime.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The idea haunted her so that she could not +endure for long to hear his name uttered by either +her friend or her brother; she shrunk from the mention +of the subject as if she had been a party to some +guilty transaction; she did not comprehend how poor +and unhappy he was, and consequently attributed all +sorts of proud haughty feelings to him, of which he +was completely innocent; she was always glad when +he was there, because then they could not talk +about the proposed match, and what a good one it +was; her soul sickened at the idea of marrying for +a position—for money, of being a mere mercenary +calculating creature.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I am not that,” she cried aloud, communing in +solitude with the feelings of her heart, “I am not +<span class='pageno' id='Page_313'>313</span>that, and I have not deceived him, or ever tried to +make him care for me; and, if I am doing wrong, I +cannot help it. I strove to do right, and they would +not let me, and I cannot see what is right—only—only—I +wish he were poor like myself;” and then +she grew utterly wretched, reflecting how foolishly +he would feel he had acted when he found out more +about what she actually was, and how estranged +they were from all rich connexions, and what a +lonely desolate little wanderer he had taken home.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Home! where was it? what sort would it prove? +Had he sisters who would sneer at her like Cecilia, +brothers who would frown darkly on her, parents +who would be angry at his choice? and, as she +thought of these chances, and knew how she had +said “yes,” and remembered she might be of use to +Malcolm, that her husband would be sure to help +her brother, she nerved herself up to a kind of +hardened determination, steeled and fortified her +soul for the event, tried to reconcile herself even to +the idea of coldness, pride, neglect, haughty relatives, +a comfortless home, superciliousness and contempt. +“It will be a home at any rate,” she said, +“and if I marry I have a right to it.” She never +told others all the wild fears she entertained, all the +sorrow she endured, but she sat for hours by herself—pondering +<span class='pageno' id='Page_314'>314</span>and struggling and pining—and +sometimes she grew quite calm externally, and, in +fact, looked listlessly at the whole affair from beginning +to end. The end, ah! she could not see that. +It lay far away among those fens, whither she was +to journey with him. He once told her the country +there was very flat, ugly, and uninteresting; but +that was all she knew about it, and she did not care +to hear more: she fancied she should be in possession +of all quite soon enough.</p> + +<p class='c011'>He had asked her, not to love, but to marry him; +and she said “yes,” because Malcolm had first spoken +it for her, and then ordered her to repeat the word +after him,—because she was sick of striving, tired of +being perpetually told she ought to marry, weary of +seeing her brother inactive, murmuring, discontented. +She had no home—no definite expectation, +present or future, of providing a happy one for herself: +she imagined it was best for her to listen, at +least, to advice; she sometimes argued that as she +had never previously followed counsel, when it +clashed with her own wishes or ideas, she must now +be acting prudently in yielding to the persuasions of +friends, whilst every feeling of her heart said “no” +to the step they proposed.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Many trials, successive disappointments, and actual +<span class='pageno' id='Page_315'>315</span>ill health had finally reduced her to that state +of utter hopelessness in which many persons fly to +convents, and place the irrevocable barrier of a vow +betwixt them, the world, and its cares for ever; and +just, in like manner, she was rushing into matrimony, +as she one day told Miss Caldera, with something +between a sneer and a sob, “to have done +with it.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“To have done with what, my dear?” mildly +inquired that lady.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“The theme matrimonial,” returned Mina; “after +I take this man for better for worse, you can never, +thank goodness, ask me to marry again. When +once I am Mrs. Ivraine, I shall at last be ‘settled,’ +shall I not?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Heaven send!” devoutly murmured Miss Caldera, +who sincerely entertained doubts whether the +girl would ever be at rest—even in her coffin. +“Heaven send!”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Amen,” said Mina, bitterly.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You have never been settled or at peace since I +knew you,” remarked Miss Caldera.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“You have never let me be at peace since I +knew you,” retorted Mina; “but now, at length, +I hope you and Malcolm are satisfied. I have accepted +a man for whom I do not care a straw; am +<span class='pageno' id='Page_316'>316</span>about to enter a family of which I know nothing; +am marrying from purely prudential motives: what +girl could do more, even if brought up by a worldly +managing mother? I have proved an apt pupil in +the noble art of match-making, and yet you give me +no credit for my proficiency in the science.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I think, Mina,” returned Miss Caldera severely, +“that you are, without exception, the strangest, most +unreasonable, most dissatisfied person I ever met +with. Here you, a portionless girl, without any +extraordinarily rich or high relatives, are on the eve +of espousing a handsome, agreeable, elegant-looking, +country gentleman, son to a baronet, rich, amiable, +apparently qualified to make any woman happy; +in fact, it is in every way a much better match than +you could possibly, even during your uncle’s lifetime, +have expected.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“But good gracious!” here broke in her auditor, +“I never expected, I never wanted to make a grand +or a good, or any kind of a match at all; I only +wanted to be let alone, and, as I always said: and as +you have just now confessed, had I been rich, you +never would have so tormented me; and—and,” +she added hastily, “I wish I were dead.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Solely, I believe, because you cannot die just at +present,” responded her friend; “if you could, you +<span class='pageno' id='Page_317'>317</span>would not wish it, and if you could not marry, I +daresay you would think a home of your own a +very haven of happiness. Mina, you are a perfect +enigma to me: why, most girls would think themselves +fortunate if, in your position, they could +settle one half so well, and yet you talk, or rather +rave—for I do not think you mean one half what +you say—incessantly, as if you were a sort of +martyr; in fact, I half suspect you feel as if you +were one, don’t you, dear?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I feel as if my heart were breaking,” returned +Mina, as she left the room, in a tone so cold and +steadfast, that somehow it carried more conviction to +the mind of Miss Caldera than had ever entered +there before.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Things have gone very cross with her lately, +poor darling, and she can see no happiness in anything +just at present,” she soliloquized, for in her +heart she loved the girl better than any one else on +earth; even whilst she scolded and lectured and +worried her life out, she felt a near and tender +interest in the child of a wayward temper and a +wayward destiny. She did it all for her ultimate +good; she sincerely and rationally enough believed +that to marry Mr. Ivraine was the very best thing +the orphan could do, both for herself and her +<span class='pageno' id='Page_318'>318</span>brother; and, accordingly, she left no stone unturned +to induce her to become, as Mina had once +pettishly said, “a country squire’s country wife.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>But still there was a something so fixed, so unchangeable +in Mina’s mood, that the lady at length +began to marvel if the marriage really would turn +out as happy an affair as she had at one time anticipated +it might.</p> + +<p class='c011'>She once wondered “if it were prudent;” and +then again she said, “of course,” because, if the girl +did not wed him, what else was she to do? Work +she could not, beg she might not, teach she would +not—to make money as she desired, by writing, was a +farce; and her brother,—no, no, there was nothing +for it but a golden wedding ring: she was securing a +home for herself,—employment, promotion, perhaps +a brilliant destiny, for Malcolm. “It would be all +right in time, quite right;” so Miss Caldera hoped, +so she tried to believe, yet the doubt which had +crossed her mind, made her feel vaguely, strangely +uncomfortable.</p> + +<p class='c011'>The interval which elapsed from the time of +Ernest’s sudden proposal was truly a miserable one +for all; in after days, not one of the trio ever liked +to look back upon it. When, in answer to a question +regarding the period for the marriage, Mina +<span class='pageno' id='Page_319'>319</span>responded, she did not care—the sooner the better, +adding her customary “then it will be done with,” +her friend felt strongly inclined to read her a +lecture concerning the sin of ingratitude generally, +and hers particularly; but a look at the face of one +whom she had known as a child and watched +through all the struggles and sorrows of her later +life,—whose story, vague, unsatisfactory, and foolish +though it might have been, she had pondered on +and sighed over, drove back the words as she would +have uttered them, and she refrained.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Yes, they were growing very patient with, and +fond of, and lenient towards her now, when patience +and fondness and leniency availed not; Mina +felt that, and sometimes it softened and sometimes +it chafed her: she was seldom ten minutes in the +same temper, though she never varied on one point,—regret +that, against her will, she had been forced, +as she said, into an unequal union.</p> + +<p class='c011'>One night, after a brief conversation in the usual +style, to which Malcolm, sitting more thoughtful than +was his wont by the fire, listened in silence, Miss +Caldera said, as they arose to separate for the night,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If you are so very averse to him, Mina, would +it not be better for you to pause—to break off the +marriage?”</p> + +<p class='c011'><span class='pageno' id='Page_320'>320</span>“Yes, it’s all very well to ask me that <i>now</i>,” +returned the girl almost fiercely; “as I have gone +so far, I will go still further,—settle my destiny and +myself for ever. It is too late to draw back; and, +even if I could, it would be of no use: it must +come to this, or something very like this, some time +sooner or later, and perhaps the sooner the better.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>She uttered the sentence in one rapid breath as +she stopped for a moment on the staircase; and +when she concluded, without waiting for answer +of any kind, she ran hastily towards her own room +and locked and bolted the door behind her.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I wonder if it be a right thing,” murmured +Miss Caldera, half aloud, “I wonder how it will +‘turn out.’”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“If evil come of it,” said Malcolm sternly, in +answer, “will either of us be free from blame in +the matter?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>The lady coloured deeply at the unexpected +remark; she seemed as if about to reply, but the +words died away on her lips, and the young man, +with a gloomy look in his usually thoughtless eyes, +left her to her own reflections—pleasant or the reverse—as +successive ideas, fears, and visions floated +through her brain.</p> + +<p class='c011'>Malcolm paused, ere proceeding to his own apartment, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_321'>321</span>by the door of his sister’s room, and listened +for a moment. He heard no sob, no sigh—nothing +but the sound of her light tread, and the rustle of +her mourning dress, as she moved restlessly backwards +and forwards, measuring with hurried footsteps +the length and breadth of the small chamber; +scarcely knowing what she was doing, but walking +on a sort of mental treadmill, to which she had bound +herself, as she fancied, for life.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Mina,” cried her brother softly, “Mina, dear, +speak to me one word.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>She unfastened the door and asked him what he +wanted.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“It is not for me, Mina,” he said, in a sort of +choking way, “not for me you are doing this.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Doing what?” she demanded.</p> + +<p class='c011'>“Marrying Mr. Ivraine; I have not forced you +into this, have I?”</p> + +<p class='c011'>There was a self-reproach, a sorrow in his words +that brought back the girl’s love and affection for +him, recalled her to a remembrance of their actual +position, revived her dreams of a bright future for +him, made her almost forget herself, brought their +childhood vividly to mind. The light fell full on +his pale troubled face; she saw he was willing, at +that instant to give his consent to the match being +<span class='pageno' id='Page_322'>322</span>broken off, to renounce his darling hopes rather +than incur the responsibility of pushing on the marriage; +she perceived he had repented of his share in +the business, that he longed for her to say it was +not he who was forcing her to take a step she +dreaded. A strong revulsion of feeling chased all +angry emotions from her soul: she would have done +anything in the world for him then; so, putting her +arms about his neck, she said in a low hushed voice,</p> + +<p class='c011'>“I am marrying for a home, Malcolm; do not +distress yourself: I am not very unhappy, and you +shall never hear me complain more; we have both +of us much reason to be thankful.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>He kissed her when she concluded with a tenderness +and reality of affection one could scarcely have +imagined him capable of feeling: one depth of his +heart had at last been sounded; and thenceforth he +seemed changed, improved, subdued. And Mina,—she +had effected a sort of victory over herself, and +became quite calm: whatever she felt or thought, +she never said. At last she was granted perfect +peace on the subject,—“left,” as she had often +wished to be, “alone.”</p> + +<p class='c011'>If they had always done that, she might have +been made to care for him long before; but she was +not conscious of that fact—only humbly thankful +<span class='pageno' id='Page_323'>323</span>for the silence Malcolm and Miss Caldera now generally +maintained.</p> + +<p class='c011'>I wonder, however, what silence could keep an +impending marriage a secret from a London maid-of-all-work. +Not that, at all events, which was preserved +in Miss Caldera’s abode, for the young +damsel who officiated in that capacity in the governess’ +domicile, took occasion to have a confidential +chat with Mrs. Frith concerning the whole +affair, and Mrs. Frith wrote down an account of the +same to her father, Colin Saunders, who would, the +worthy Scotchwoman fancied, be overwhelmed with +joy to hear Miss Mina was to be wedded to his +master’s son: but the news did not seem altogether +to rejoice the old man; he moped about the place +for some time after receipt of that letter without +speaking to anybody, during which period Mina +never suspected an humble friend was grieving +deeply, though silently, for her.</p> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><span class='small'>END OF VOLUME II.</span></div> + <div class='c002'><span class='xsmall'>LONDON:</span></div> + <div><span class='xsmall'>Printed by <span class='sc'>Smith, Elder, & Co.</span>, 15, Old Bailey.</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c003'> +</div> +<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'> + +<div class='chapter ph2'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c008'> + <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + + <ul class='ul_1 c002'> + <li>Fixed typos; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + </li> + </ul> + +</div> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 78846 ***</div> +</body> +<!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57i (with regex) on 2026-05-20 22:59:13 GMT --> +</html> diff --git a/78846-h/images/cover.jpg b/78846-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a14f77a --- /dev/null +++ b/78846-h/images/cover.jpg |
