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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Love and Life, by Charlotte M. Yonge
+#33 in our series by Charlotte M. Yonge
+
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+Title: Love and Life
+
+Author: Charlotte M. Yonge
+
+Release Date: May, 2004 [EBook #5700]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on August 12, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LOVE AND LIFE ***
+
+
+
+
+This e-text was created by Doug Levy,   _littera scripta manet_.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note: There are numerous examples throughout this text
+of words appearing in alternate spellings: madame/madam, practise/
+practice, Ladyship/ladyship, &c.  We can only wonder what the publisher
+had in mind.  I have left them unchanged.--D.L.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+LOVE AND LIFE
+
+
+An Old Story in Eighteenth Century Costume
+
+By CHARLOTTE M. YONGE
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
+
+
+The first edition of this tale was put forth without explaining the
+old fable on which it was founded--a fable recurring again and again
+in fairy myths, though not traceable in the classic world till a very
+late period, when it appeared among the tales of Apuleius, of the
+province of Africa, sometimes called the earliest novelist.  There
+are, however, fragments of the same story in the popular tales of all
+countries, so that it is probable that Apuleius availed himself of an
+early form of one of these.  They are to be found from India to
+Scandinavia, adapted to the manners and fancy of every country in
+turn, _Beauty and the Beast_ and the _Black Bull of Norroway_ are the
+most familiar forms of the tale, and it seemed to me one of those
+legends of such universal property that it was quite fair to put it
+into 18th century English costume.
+
+Some have seen in it a remnant of the custom of some barbarous tribes,
+that the wife should not behold her husband for a year after marriage,
+and to this the Indian versions lend themselves; but Apuleius himself
+either found it, or adapted it to the idea of the Soul (the Life)
+awakened by Love, grasping too soon and impatiently, then losing it,
+and, unable to rest, struggling on through severe toils and labours
+till her hopes are crowned even at the gates of death.  Psyche, the
+soul or life, whose emblem is the butterfly, thus even in heathen
+philosophy strained towards the higher Love, just glimpsed at for a
+while.
+
+Christians gave a higher meaning to the fable, and saw in it the Soul,
+or the Church, to whom her Bridegroom has been for a while made known,
+striving after Him through many trials, to be made one with Him after
+passing through Death.  The Spanish poet Calderon made it the theme of
+two sacred dramas, in which the lesson of Faith, not Sight, was taught,
+with special reference to the Holy Eucharist.
+
+English poetry has, however, only taken up its simple classical aspect.
+In the early part of the century, Mrs. Tighe wrote a poem in Spenserian
+stanza, called _Psyche_, which was much admired at the time; and Mr.
+Morris has more lately sung the story in his _Earthly Paradise_.  This
+must be my excuse for supposing the outline of the tale to be familiar
+to most readers.
+
+The fable is briefly thus:--
+
+Venus was jealous of the beauty of a maiden named Psyche, the youngest
+of three daughters of a king.  She sent misery on the land and family,
+and caused an oracle to declare that the only remedy was to deck his
+youngest daughter as a bride, and leave her in a lonely place to become
+the prey of a monster.  Cupid was commissioned by his mother to destroy
+her.  He is here represented not as a child, but as a youth, who on
+seeing Psyche's charms, became enamoured of her, and resolved to save
+her from his mother and make her his own.  He therefore caused Zephyr
+to transport her to a palace where everything delightful and valuable
+was at her service, feasts spread, music playing, all her wishes
+fulfilled, but all by invisible hands.  At night in the dark, she was
+conscious of a presence who called himself her husband, showed the
+fondest affection for her, and promised her all sorts of glory and
+bliss, if she would be patient and obedient for a time.
+
+This lasted till yearnings awoke to see her family.  She obtained
+consent with much difficulty and many warnings.  Then the splendour
+in which she lived excited the jealousy of her sisters, and they
+persuaded her that her visitor was really the monster who would
+deceive her and devour her.  They thus induced her to accept a lamp
+with which to gaze on him when asleep.  She obeyed them, then
+beholding the exquisite beauty of the sleeping god of love, she hung
+over him in rapture till a drop of the hot oil fell on his shoulder
+and awoke him.  He sprang up, sorrowfully reproached her with having
+ruined herself and him, and flew away, letting her fall as she clung
+to him.
+
+The palace was broken up, the wrath of Venus pursued her; Ceres and all
+the other deities chased her from their temples; even when she would
+have drowned herself, the river god took her in his arms, and laid her
+on the bank.  Only Pan had pity on her, and counselled her to submit to
+Venus, and do her bidding implicitly as the only hope of regaining her
+lost husband.
+
+Venus spurned her at first, and then made her a slave, setting her
+first to sort a huge heap of every kind of grain in a single day.  The
+ants, secretly commanded by Cupid, did this for her.  Next, she was to
+get a lock of golden wool from a ram feeding in a valley closed in by
+inaccessible rocks; but this was procured for her by an eagle; and
+lastly, Venus, declaring that her own beauty had been impaired by
+attendance on her injured son, commanded Psyche to visit the Infernal
+Regions and obtain from Proserpine a closed box of cosmetic which was
+on no account to be opened.  Psyche thought death alone could bring
+her to these realms, and was about to throw herself from a tower,
+when a voice instructed her how to enter a cavern, and propitiate
+Cerberus with cakes after the approved fashion.
+
+She thus reached Proserpine's throne, and obtained the casket, but
+when she had again reached the earth, she reflected that if Venus's
+beauty were impaired by anxiety, her own must have suffered far more;
+and the prohibition having of course been only intended to stimulate
+her curiosity, she opened the casket, out of which came the baneful
+fumes of Death!  Just, however, as she fell down overpowered, her
+husband, who had been shut up by Venus, came to the rescue, and
+finding himself unable to restore her, cried aloud to Jupiter, who
+heard his prayer, reanimated Psyche, and gave her a place among the
+gods.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTERS.
+
+
+       I.   A SYLLABUB PARTY.
+      II.   THE HOUSE OF DELAVIE.
+     III.   AMONG THE COWSLIPS.
+      IV.   MY LADY'S MISSIVE.
+       V.   THE SUMMONS.
+      VI.   DISAPPOINTED LOVE.
+     VII.   ALL ALONE.
+    VIII.   THE ENCHANTED CASTLE.
+      IX.   THE TRIAD.
+       X.   THE DARK CHAMBER.
+      XI.   A VOICE FROM THE GRAVE.
+     XII.   THE SHAFTS OF PHOEBE.
+    XIII.   THE FLUTTER OF HIS WINGS.
+     XIV.   THE CANON OF WINDSOR.
+      XV.   THE QUEEN OF BEAUTY.
+     XVI.   AUGURIES.
+    XVII.   THE VICTIM DEMANDED.
+   XVIII.   THE PROPOSAL.
+     XIX.   WOOING IN THE DARK.
+      XX.   THE MUFFLED BRIDEGROOM.
+     XXI.   THE SISTER'S MEETING
+    XXII.   A FATAL SPARK.
+   XXIII.   WRATH AND DESOLATION.
+    XXIV.   THE WANDERER.
+     XXV.   VANISHED.
+    XXVI.   THE TRACES.
+   XXVII.   CYTHEREA'S BOWER.
+  XXVIII.   THE ROUT.
+    XXIX.   A BLACK BLONDEL.
+     XXX.   THE FIRST TASK.
+    XXXI.   THE SECOND TASK.
+   XXXII.   LIONS.
+  XXXIII.   THE COSMETIC.
+   XXXIV.   DOWN THE RIVER.
+    XXXV.   THE RETURN.
+   XXXVI.   WAKING.
+  XXXVII.   MAKING THE BEST OF IT.
+
+
+
+
+LOVE AND LIFE.
+
+
+CHAPTER I.  A SYLLABUB PARTY.
+
+
+    Oft had I shadowed such a group
+      Of beauties that were born
+    In teacup times of hood and hoop,
+      And when the patch was worn;
+    And legs and arms with love-knots gay.
+      About me leaped and laughed
+    The modish Cupid of the day,
+      And shrilled his tinselled shaft.--Tennyson.
+
+
+If times differ, human nature and national character vary but little;
+and thus, in looking back on former times, we are by turns startled
+by what is curiously like, and curiously unlike, our own sayings and
+doings.
+
+The feelings of a retired officer of the nineteenth century expecting
+the return of his daughters from the first gaiety of the youngest
+darling, are probably not dissimilar to those of Major Delavie, in
+the earlier half of the seventeen hundreds, as he sat in the deep bay
+window of his bed-room; though he wore a green velvet nightcap; and
+his whole provision of mental food consisted of half a dozen worn
+numbers of the _Tatler_, and a _Gazette_ a fortnight old.  The chair
+on which he sat was elbowed, and made easy with cushions and pillows,
+but that on which his lame foot rested was stiff and angular.  The
+cushion was exquisitely worked in chain-stich, as were the quilt and
+curtains of the great four-post bed, and the only carpeting consisted
+of three or four narrow strips of wool-work.  The walls were plain
+plaster, white-washed, and wholly undecorated, except that the
+mantelpiece was carved with the hideous caryatides of the early
+Stewart days, and over it were suspended a long cavalry sabre, and
+the accompanying spurs and pistols; above them the miniature of an
+exquisitely lovely woman, with a white rose in her hair and a white
+favour on her breast.
+
+The window was a deep one projecting far into the narrow garden below,
+for in truth the place was one of those old manor houses which their
+wealthy owners were fast deserting in favour of new specimens of
+classical architecture as understood by Louis XIV., and the room in
+which the Major sat was one of the few kept in habitable repair.  The
+garden was rich with white pinks, peonies, lilies of the valley, and
+early roses, and there was a flagged path down the centre, between the
+front door and a wicket-gate into a long lane bordered with hawthorn
+hedges, the blossoms beginning to blush with the advance of the season.
+Beyond, rose dimly the spires and towers of a cathedral town, one of
+those county capitals to which the provincial magnates were wont to
+resort during the winter, keeping a mansion there for the purpose, and
+providing entertainment for the gentry of the place and neighbourhood.
+
+Twilight was setting in when the Major began to catch glimpses of the
+laced hats of coachman and footmen over the hedges, a lumbering made
+itself heard, and by and by the vehicle halted at the gate.  Such a
+coach!  It was only the second best, and the glories of its landscape-
+painted sides were somewhat dimmed, the green and silver of the
+fittings a little tarnished to a critical eye; yet it was a splendid
+article, commodious and capacious, though ill-provided with air and
+light.  However, nobody cared for stuffiness, certainly not the three
+young ladies, who, fan in hand, came tripping down the steps that were
+unrolled for them.  The eldest paused to administer a fee to their
+entertainer's servants who had brought them home, and the coach rolled
+on to dispose of the remainder of the freight.
+
+The father waved greetings from one window, a rosy little audacious
+figure in a night-dress peeped out furtively from another, and the
+house-door was opened by a tall old soldier-servant, stiff as a
+ramrod, with hair tightly tied and plastered up into a queue, and
+a blue and brown livery which sat like a uniform.
+
+"Well, young ladies," he said, "I hope you enjoyed yourselves."
+
+"Vastly, thank you, Corporal Palmer.  And how has it been with my
+father in our absence?"
+
+"Purely, Miss Harriet.  He relished the Friar's chicken that Miss
+Delavie left for him, and he amused himself for an hour with Master
+Eugene, after which he did me the honour to play two plays at
+backgammon."
+
+"I hope," said the eldest sister, coming up, "that the little rogue
+whom I saw peeping from the window has not been troublesome."
+
+"He has been as good as gold, madam.  He played in master's room till
+Nannerl called him to his bed, when he went at once, 'true to his
+orders,' says the master.  'A fine soldier he will make,' says I to
+my master."
+
+Therewith the sisters mounted the uncarpeted but well-polished oak
+stair, knocked at the father's door, and entered one by one, each
+dropping her curtsey, and, though the eldest was five-and-twenty,
+neither speaking nor sitting till they were greeted with a hearty,
+"Come, my young maids, sit you down and tell your old father your
+gay doings."
+
+The eldest took the only unoccupied chair, while the other two placed
+themselves on the window-seat, all bolt upright, with both little high
+heels on the floor, in none of the easy attitudes of damsels of later
+date, talking over a party.  All three were complete gentlewomen in
+air and manners, though Betty had high cheek-bones, a large nose,
+rough complexion, and red hair, and her countenance was more loveable
+and trustworthy than symmetrical.  The dainty decorations of youth
+looked grotesque upon her, and she was so well aware of the fact as
+to put on no more than was absolutely essential to a lady of birth
+and breeding.  Harriet (pronounced Hawyot), the next in age, had a
+small well-set head, a pretty neck, and fine dark eyes, but the small-
+pox had made havoc of her bloom, and left its traces on cheek and
+brow.  The wreck of her beauty had given her a discontented, fretful
+expression, which rendered her far less pleasing than honest, homely
+Betty, though she employed all the devices of the toilette to conceal
+the ravages of the malady and enhance her remaining advantages of
+shape and carriage.
+
+There was an air of vexation about her as her father asked, "Well,
+how many conquests has my little Aurelia made?"  She could not but
+recollect how triumphantly she had listened to the same inquiry
+after her own first appearance, scarcely three short years ago.  Yet
+she grudged nothing to Aurelia, her junior by five years, who was for
+the first time arrayed as a full-grown belle, in a pale blue, tight-
+sleeved, long-waisted silk, open and looped up over a primrose skirt,
+embroidered by her own hands with tiny blue butterflies hovering over
+harebells.  There were blue silk shoes, likewise home-made, with silver
+buckles, and the long mittens and deep lace ruffles were of Betty's
+fabrication.  Even the dress itself had been cut by Harriet from old
+wedding hoards of their mother's, and made up after the last mode
+imported by Madam Churchill at the Deanery.
+
+The only part of the equipment not of domestic handiwork was the
+structure on the head.  The Carminster hairdresser had been making his
+rounds since daylight, taking his most distinguished customers last;
+and as the Misses Delavie were not high on the roll, Harriet and
+Aurelia had been under his hands at nine A.M.  From that time till
+three, when the coach called for them, they had sat captive on low
+stools under a tent of table-cloth over tall chair-backs to keep the
+dust out of the frosted edifice constructed out of their rich dark
+hair, of the peculiar tint then called mouse-colour.  Betty had
+refused to submit to this durance.  "What sort of dinner would be
+on my father's table-cloth if I were to sit under one all day?" said
+she in answer to Harriet's representation of the fitness of things.
+"La, my dear, what matters it what an old scarecrow like me puts on?"
+
+Old maidenhood set in much earlier in those days than at present; the
+sisters acquiesced, and Betty had run about as usual all the morning
+in her mob-cap, and chintz gown tucked through her pocket-holes, and
+only at the last submitted her head to the manipulations of Corporal
+Palmer, who daily powdered his master's wig.
+
+Strange and unnatural as was the whitening of the hair, it was
+effective in enhancing the beauty of Aurelia's dark arched brows,
+the soft brilliance of her large velvety brown eyes, and the exquisite
+carnation and white of her colouring.  Her features were delicately
+chiselled, and her face had that peculiar fresh, innocent, soft,
+untouched bloom and undisturbed repose which form the special charm
+and glory of the first dawn of womanhood.  Her little head was well
+poised on a slender neck, just now curving a little to one side with
+the fatigue of the hours during which it had sustained her headgear.
+This consisted of a tiny flat hat, fastened on by long pins, and
+adorned by a cluster of campanulas like those on her dress, with a
+similar blue butterfly on an invisible wire above them, the dainty
+handiwork of Harriet.
+
+The inquiry about conquests was a matter of course after a young
+lady's first party, but Aurelia looked too childish for it, and
+Betty made haste to reply.
+
+"Aurelia was a very good girl.  No one could have curtsied or bridled
+more prettily when we paid our respects to my Lady Herries and Mrs.
+Churchill, and the Dean highly commended her dancing."
+
+"You danced?  Fine doings!  I thought you were merely invited to look
+on at the game at bowls.  Who had the best of the match?"
+
+"The first game was won by Canon Boltby, the second by the Dean,"
+said Betty; "but when they would have played the conqueror, Lady
+Herries interfered and said the gentlemen had kept the field long
+enough, and now it was our turn.  So a cow was driven on the bowling-
+green, with a bell round her neck and pink ribbons on her horns."
+
+"A cow!  What will they have next?"
+
+"They say 'tis all the mode in London," interposed Harriet.
+
+"Pray was the cow to instruct you in dancing?" continued the Major.
+
+"No, sir," said Aurelia, whom he had addressed; "she was to be milked
+into the bowl of syllabub."
+
+This was received with a great "Ho! ho!" and a demand who was to act
+as milker.
+
+"That was the best of it," said Aurelia.  "Soon came Miss Herries in
+a straw hat, and the prettiest green petticoat under a white gown and
+apron, as a dairy-maid, but the cow would not stand still, for all the
+man who led her kept scolding her and saying 'Coop! coop!'  No sooner
+had Miss Herries seated herself on the stool than Moolly swerved away,
+and it was a mercy that the fine china bowl escaped.  Every one was
+laughing, and poor Miss Herries was ready to cry, when forth steps my
+sister, coaxes the cow, bids the man lend his apron, sits down on the
+stool, and has the bowl frothing in a moment."
+
+"I would not have done so for worlds," said Harriet; "I dreaded every
+moment to be asked where Miss Delavie learnt to be a milk-maid."
+
+"You were welcome to reply, in her own yard," said Betty.  "You may
+thank me for your syllabub."
+
+"Which, after all, you forbade poor Aura to taste!"
+
+"Assuredly.  I was not going to have her turn sick on my hands.  She
+may think herself beholden to me for her dance with that fine young
+beau.  Who was he, Aura?"
+
+"How now!" said the Major, in a tone of banter, while Harriet indulged
+in a suppressed giggle.  "You let Aura dance with a stranger!  Where
+was your circumspection, Mrs. Betty?"  Aurelia coloured to the roots
+of her hair and faltered, "It was Lady Herries who presented him."
+
+"Yes, the child is not to blame," said Betty;  "I left her in charge
+of Mrs. Churchill while I went to wash my hands after milking the cow,
+which these fine folk seemed to suppose could be done without soiling
+a finger."
+
+"That's the way with Chloe and Phyllida in Arcadia," said her father.
+
+"But not here," said Betty.  "In the house, I was detained a little
+while, for the housekeeper wanted me to explain my recipe for taking
+out the grease spots."
+
+"A little while, sister?" said Harriet.  "It was through the dancing
+of three minuets, and the country dance had long been begun."
+
+"I was too busy to heed the time," said Betty, "for I obtained the
+recipe for those delicious almond-cakes, and showed Mrs. Waldron the
+Vienna mode of clearing coffee.  When I came back the fiddles were
+playing, and Aurelia going down the middle with a young gentleman in
+a scarlet coat.  Poor little Robert Rowe was too bashful to find a
+partner, though he longed to dance; so I made another couple with
+him, and thus missed further speech, save that as we took our leave,
+both Sir George and the Dean complimented me, and said what there
+is no occasion to repeat just now, sir, when I ought to be fetching
+your supper."
+
+"Ha!  Is it too flattering for little Aura?" asked her father.  "Come,
+never spare.  She will hear worse than that in her day, I'll warrant."
+
+"It was merely," said Betty, reluctantly, "that the Dean called her
+the star of the evening, and declared that her dancing equalled her
+face."
+
+"Well said of his reverence!  And his honour the baronet, what said he?"
+
+"He said, sir, that so comely and debonnaire a couple had not been seen
+in these parts since you came home from Flanders and led off the assize
+ball with Mistress Urania Delavie."
+
+"There, Aura, 'tis my turn to blush!" cried the Major, comically hiding
+his face behind Betty's fan.  "But all this time you have never told me
+who was this young spark."
+
+"That I cannot tell, sir," returned Betty.  "We were sent home in the
+coach with Mistress Duckworth and her daughters, who talked  so
+incessantly that we could not open our lips.  Who was he, Aura?"
+
+"My Lady Herries only presented him as Sir Amyas, sister," replied
+Aurelia.
+
+"Sir Amyas!" cried her auditors, all together.
+
+"Nothing more," said Aurelia.  "Indeed she made as though he and I must
+be acquainted, and I suppose that she took me for Harriet, but I knew
+not how to explain."
+
+"No doubt," said Harriet.  "I was sick of the music and folly, and had
+retired to the summerhouse with Peggy Duckworth, who had brought a
+sweet sonnet of Mr. Ambrose Phillips, 'Defying Cupid.'"
+
+Her father burst into a chuckling laugh, much to her mortification,
+though she would not seem to understand it, and Betty took up the
+moral.
+
+"Sir Amyas!  Are you positive that you caught the name, child?"
+
+"I thought so, sister," said Aurelia, with the insecurity produced
+by such cross-questioning; "but I may have been mistaken, since, of
+course, the true Sir Amyas Belamour would never be here without my
+father's knowledge."
+
+"Nor is there any other of the name," said her father, "except that
+melancholic uncle of his who never leaves his dark chamber."
+
+"Depend upon it," said Harriet, "Lady Herries said Sir Ambrose.  No
+doubt it was Sir Ambrose Watford."
+
+"Nay, Harriet, I demur to that," said her father drolly.  "I flatter
+myself I was a more personable youth than to be likened to Watford
+with his swollen nose.  What like was your cavalier, Aura?"
+
+"Indeed, sir, I cannot describe him.  I was so much terrified lest he
+should speak to me that I had much ado to mind my steps.  I know he
+had white gloves and diamond shoe-buckles, and that his feet moved by
+no means like those of Sir Ambrose."
+
+"Aura is a modest child, and does credit to her breeding," said Betty.
+"Thus much I saw, that the young gentleman was tall and personable
+enough to bear comparison even to you, sir, not more than nineteen or
+twenty years of age, in a laced scarlet uniform, as I think, of the
+Dragoon Guards, and with a little powder, but not enough to disguise
+that his hair was entire gold."
+
+"That all points to his being indeed young Belamour," said her father;
+"age, military appearance, and all--I wonder what this portends!"
+
+"What a disaster!" exclaimed Harriet, "that my sister and I should have
+been out of the way, and only a chit like Aura be there to be presented
+to him."
+
+"If young ladies _will_ defy Cupid," began her father;--but at that
+moment Corporal Palmer knocked at the door, bringing a basin of soup
+for his master, and announcing "Supper is served, young ladies."
+
+Each of the three bent her knee to receive her father's blessing and
+kiss, then curtseying at the door, departed, Betty lingering behind her
+two juniors to see her father taste his soup and to make sure that he
+relished it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.  THE HOUSE OF DELAVIE.
+
+
+    All his Paphian mother fear;
+    Empress! all thy sway revere!
+                            EURIPEDES (Anstice).
+
+
+The parlour where the supper was laid was oak panelled, but painted
+white.  Like a little island in the vast polished slippery floor lay
+a square much-worn carpet, just big enough to accommodate a moderate-
+sized table and the surrounding high-backed chairs.  There was a tent-
+stitch rug before the Dutch-tiled fireplace, and on the walls hung two
+framed prints,--one representing the stately and graceful Duke of
+Marlborough; the other, the small, dark, pinched, but fiery Prince
+Eugene.  On the spotless white cloth was spread a frugal meal of bread,
+butter, cheese, and lettuce; a jug of milk, another of water, and a
+bottle of cowslip wine; for the habits of the family were more than
+usually frugal and abstemious.
+
+Frugality and health alike obliged Major Delavie to observe a careful
+regimen.  He had served in all Marlborough's campaigns, and had
+afterwards entered the Austrian army, and fought in the Turkish war,
+until he had been disabled before Belgrade by a terrible wound, of
+which he still felt the effects.  Returning home with his wife, the
+daughter of a Jacobite exile, he had become a kind of agent in managing
+the family estate for his cousin the heiress, Lady Belamour, who
+allowed him to live rent-free in this ruinous old Manor-house, the
+cradle of the family.
+
+This was all that Harriet and Aurelia knew.  The latter had been born
+at the Manor, and young girls, if not brought extremely forward, were
+treated like children; but Elizabeth, the eldest of the family, who
+could remember Vienna, was so much the companion and confidante of
+her father, that she was more on the level of a mother than a sister
+to her juniors.
+
+"Then you think Aurelia's beau was really Sir Amyas Belamour," said
+Harriet, as they sat down to supper.
+
+"So it appears," said Betty, gravely.
+
+"Do you think he will come hither, sister?  I would give the world to
+see him," continued Harriet.
+
+"He said something of hoping for better acquaintance," softly put in
+Aurelia.
+
+"Oh, did he so?" cried Harriet.  "For demure as you are, Miss Aura, I
+fancy you looked a little above the diamond shoe-buckles!"
+
+"Fie, Harriet!" exclaimed Betty; "I will not have the child tormented.
+He ought to come and pay his respects to my father."
+
+"Have you ever seen my Lady?" asked Aurelia.
+
+"That have I, Miss Aurelia," interposed Corporal Palmer, "and a rare
+piece of beauty she would be, if one could forget the saying 'handsome
+is as handsome does.'"
+
+"I never knew what she has done," said Aurelia.
+
+"'Tis a long story," hastily said Betty, "too long to tell at table.
+I must make haste to prepare the poultice for my father."
+
+She quickly broke up the supper party, and the two younger sisters
+repaired to their chamber, both conscious of having been repressed;
+the one feeling injured, the other rebuked for forwardness and
+curiosity.  The three sisters shared one long low room with a large
+light closet at each end.  One of these was sacred to powder, the
+other was Betty's private property.  Harriet had a little white bed
+to herself, Betty and Aurelia nightly climbed into a lofty and solemn
+structure curtained with ancient figured damask.  Each had her own
+toilette-table and a press for her clothes, where she contrived to
+stow them in a wonderfully small space.
+
+Harriet and Aurelia had divested themselves of their finery before
+Betty came in, and they assisted her operations, Harriet preferring
+a complaint that she never would tell them anything.
+
+"I have no objection to tell you at fitting times," said Betty, "but
+not with Palmer putting in his word.  You should have discretion,
+Harriet."
+
+"The Dean's servants never speak when they are waiting at table," said
+Harriet with a pout.
+
+"But I'll warrant them to hear!" retorted Betty.
+
+"And I had rather have our dear old honest corporal than a dozen of
+those fine lackeys," said Aurelia.  "But you will tell us the story
+like a good sister, while we brush the powder out of our hair."
+
+They put on powdering gowns, after releasing themselves from the armour
+of their stays, and were at last at ease, each seated on a wooden chair
+in the powdering closet, brush in hand, with a cloud of white dust
+flying round, and the true colour of the hair beginning to appear.
+
+"Then it is indeed true that My Lady is one of the greatest beauties
+of Queen Caroline's Court, if not the greatest?" said Harriet.
+
+"Truly she is," said Betty, "and though in full maturity, she preserves
+the splendour of her prime."
+
+"Tell us more particularly," said Aurelia; "can she be more lovely
+than our dear mamma?"
+
+"No, indeed! lovely was never the word for her, to my mind," said
+Betty; "her face always seemed to me more like that of one of the
+marble statues I remember at Vienna; perfect, but clear, cold, and
+hard.  But I am no judge, for I did not love her, and in a child,
+admiration accompanies affection."
+
+"What did Palmer mean by 'handsome is that handsome does'?  Surely
+my father never was ill-treated by Lady Belamour?"
+
+"Let me explain," said the elder sister.  "The ancient custom and
+precedent of our family have always transmitted the estates to the
+male heir.  But when Charles II. granted the patent of nobility to
+the first Baron Delavie, the barony was limited to the heirs male
+of his body, and out grandfather was only his brother.  The last
+Lord had three sons, and one daughter, Urania, who alone survived
+him."
+
+"I know all that from the monument," said Aurelia; "one was drowned
+while bathing, one died of spotted fever, and one was killed at the
+battle of Ramillies.  How dreadful for the poor old father!"
+
+"And there is no Lord Delavie now," said Harriet.  "Why, since my Lady
+could not have the title, did it not come to our papa?"
+
+"Because his father was not in the patent," said Betty.  "However, it
+was thought that if he were married to Mistress Urania, there would be
+a fresh creation in their favour.  So as soon as the last campaign was
+over, our father, who had always been a favourite at the great house,
+was sent for from the army, and given to understand that he was to
+conduct his courtship, with the cousin he had petted as a little child,
+as speedily as was decorous.  However, in winter quarters at Tournai he
+had already pledged his faith to the daughter of a Scottish gentleman
+in the Austrian service.  This engagement was viewed by the old Lord
+as a trifling folly, which might be set aside by the head of the family.
+He hinted that the proposed match was by no means disagreeable to his
+daughter, and scarcely credited his ears when his young kinsman
+declared his honour forbade him to break with Miss Murray."
+
+"Dear father," ejaculated Aurelia, "so he gave up everything for her
+sake?"
+
+"And never repented it!" said Betty.
+
+"Now," said Harriet, "I understand why he entered the army."
+
+"It was all he had to depend on," said Betty, "and he had been
+favourably noticed by Prince Eugene at the siege of Lisle, so that he
+easily obtained a commission.  He believed that though it was in the
+power of the old Lord to dispose of part of his estates by will, yet
+that some of the land was entailed in the male line, so that there
+need not be many years of campaigning or poverty for his bride, even
+if her father never were restored to his Scottish property.  As you
+know, our grandfather, Sir Archibald Murray, died for his loyalty in
+the rising of '15, and two years later our father received at Belgrade
+that terrible wound which closed his military career.  Meantime, Urania
+had married Sir Jovian Belamour, and Lord Delavie seemed to have
+forgotten my father's offence, and gave him the management of the
+estate, with this old house to live in, showing himself glad of the
+neighbourhood of a kinsman whom he could thoroughly trust.  All went
+well till my Lady came to visit her father.  Then all old offences
+were renewed.  Lady Belamour treated my mother as a poor dependant.
+She, daughter to a noble line of pedigree far higher than that of the
+Delavies, might well return her haughty looks, and would not yield
+an inch, nor join in the general adulation.  There were disputes about
+us children.  Poor Archie was a most beautiful boy, and though you
+might not suppose it, I was a very pretty little girl, this nose of
+mine being then much more shapely than the little buttons which grow
+to fair proportions.  On the other hand, the little Belamours were
+puny and sickly; indeed, as you know, this young Sir Amyas, who was
+not then born, is the only one of the whole family who has been reared.
+Then we had been carefully bred, could chatter French, recite poetry,
+make our bow and curtsey, bridle, and said Sir and Madam, while the
+poor little cousins who had been put out to nurse had no more manners
+than the calves and pigs.  People were the more flattering to us
+because they expected soon to see my father in his Lordship's place;
+and on the other hand, officious tongues were not wanting to tell my
+Lady how Mrs. Delavie contrasted the two sets of children.  Very
+bitter offence was taken; nor has my Lady ever truly forgiven, whatever
+our dear good father may believe.  When the old Lord died, a will was
+found, bequeathing all his unentailed estates to his daughter, and this
+was of course strong presumption that he believed in the existence of
+a deed of entail; but none could ever be found, and the precedents
+were not held to establish the right."
+
+"Did he leave my father nothing?" asked Harriet.
+
+"He left him three hundred pounds and made him joint executor with Sir
+Jovian.  There was no mention of this house, which was the original
+house of the family, the first Lord having built the Great House; and
+both my father and Sir Jovian were sure the Lord Delavie believed it
+would come to him; but no proofs were extant, and my Lady would only
+consent to his occupying it, as before, as her agent."
+
+"I always knew we were victims to an injustice," said Harriet, "though
+I never understood the matter exactly."
+
+"You were a mere child, and my father does not love to talk of it.
+He ceased to care much about the loss after our dear Archie died."
+
+"Not for Eugene's sake?"
+
+"Eugene was not born for two years after Archie's death.  My dear
+mother had drooped from the time of the disappointment, blaming
+herself for having ruined my father, and scarce accepting comfort
+when he vowed that all was well lost for her sake.  She reproached
+herself with having been proud and unconciliatory, though I doubt
+whether it made much difference.  Then her spirit was altogether
+crushed by the loss of Archie, she never had another day's health.
+Eugene came to her like Ichabod to Phinehas' wife, and she was soon
+gone from us," said Betty, wiping away a tear.
+
+"Leaving us a dear sister to be a mother to us," said Aurelia, raising
+her sweet face for a kiss.
+
+Harriet pondered a little, and said, "My Lady is not at enmity with
+us, since my father keeps the house and agency."
+
+"We should be reduced to poverty indeed without them," said Betty;
+"and Sir Jovian, an upright honourable man, the only person whom my
+Lady truly respected, insisted on his continuance.  As long as my
+Lady regards his memory we are safe, but no one can trust to her
+caprice."
+
+"She never comes here, nor disturbs my father."
+
+"No, but she makes heavy calls on the estate, and is displeased if he
+refuses to overpress the tenants or hesitates to cut the timber."
+
+"I have heard say," added Harriet, "that her debts in town and her
+losses at play drove her to accept her present husband, Mr. Wayland, a
+hideous old fellow, who had become vastly rich through some discovery
+about cannon."
+
+"He is an honourable and upright man," said Betty.  "I should have
+fewer anxieties if he had not been sent out to Gibraltar and Minorca
+to superintend the fortifications."
+
+"Meantime my Lady makes the money fly, by the help of the gallant
+Colonel Mar," said Harriet lightly.
+
+"Fie! Harriet!" returned the elder sister; "I have allowed you too far.
+My father calls Lady Belamour his commanding officer, and permits no
+scandal to be spoken of her."
+
+"Any more than of Prince Eugene?" said Harriet, laughing.
+
+"But oh! sister!" cried Aurelia, "let us stay a little longer.  I have
+not half braided my hair, and I long to hear who is the gentleman of
+whom my father spoke as living in the dark."
+
+"Mr. Amyas Belamour! Sir Jovian's brother! Ah! that is a sad story,"
+replied Betty, "though I am not certain that I have it correctly,
+having only heard it discussed between my father and mother when I was
+a growing girl, sitting at my sampler.  I think he was a barrister; I
+know he was a very fine gentleman and a man of parts, who had made the
+Grand Tour; for when he was staying at the Great House, he said my
+mother was the only person he met who could converse with him on the
+Old Masters, or any other subject of _virtu_, and that, being reported
+to my Lady, increased her bitterness all the more because Mr. Belamour
+was a friend of Mr. Addison and Sir Richard Steele, and had contributed
+some papers to the _Spectator_.  He was making a good fortune in his
+profession, and had formed an engagement with a young lady in
+Hertfordshire, of a good old family, but one which had always been
+disliked by Lady Belamour.  It is said, too, that Miss Sedhurst had
+been thought to have attracted one of my Lady's many admirers, and
+that the latter was determined not to see her rival become her sister-
+in-law, and probably with the same title, since Mr. Belamour was on
+the verge of obtaining knighthood.  So, if she be not greatly belied,
+Lady Belamour plied all parties with her confidences, till she
+contrived to breed suspicion and jealousy on all sides, until finally
+Miss Sedhurst's brother, a crack-brained youth, offered such an insult
+to Mr. Belamour, that honour required a challenge.  It was thought that
+as Mr. Belamour was the superior in age and position, the matter might
+have been composed, but the young man was fiery and hot tempered, and
+would neither retract nor apologise; and Mr. Belamour had been stung
+in his tenderest feeling.  They fought with pistols, an innovation
+that, as you know, my father hates, as far more deadly and unskilful
+than the noble practice of fencing; and the result was that Mr.
+Sedhurst was shot dead, and Mr. Belamour received a severe wound in the
+head.  The poor young lady, being always of a delicate constitution,
+fell into fits on hearing the news, an died in a few weeks.  The
+unfortunate Mr. Belamour survives, but whether from injury to the
+brain, or from grief and remorse, he has never been able to endure
+either light or company, but has remained ever since in utter
+darkness and seclusion."
+
+"Utter darkness!  How dreadful!" cried Aurelia, shuddering.
+
+"How long has this been, sister?" inquired Harriet.
+
+"About nine years," said Betty.  "The lamentable affair took place just
+before Sir Jovian's death, and the shock may have hastened it, for he
+had long been in a languishing state.  It was the more unfortunate,
+since he had made Mr. Belamour sole personal guardian to his only
+surviving son, and appointed him, together with my father and another
+gentleman, trustee for the Belamour property; and there has been much
+difficulty in consequence of his being unable to act, or to do more
+than give his signature."
+
+"Ah! sister, I wish you had not told me," said Aurelia.  "I shall dream
+of the unfortunate gentleman all night.  Nine years of utter darkness!"
+
+"We know who is still child enough to hate darkness," said Harriet.
+
+"Take care," said Betty.  "You must make haste, or I shall leave you
+to it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.  AMONG THE COWSLIPS.
+
+
+    The insect youth are on the wing,
+    Eager to taste the honeyed spring,
+        And float amid the liquid noon,
+    Some lightly on the torrent skim,
+    Some show their gaily gilded trim,
+        Quick glancing to the sun.--GRAY
+
+
+Though hours were early, the morning meal was not served till so late
+as really to deserve the title of breakfast.
+
+When the three sisters sat down at nine-o'clock, in mob caps, and the
+two younger in white dresses, all had been up at least two hours.
+Aurelia led forward little Eugene in a tailed red coat, long-breasted
+buff waistcoat, buff tights and knitted stockings, with a deep frilled
+collar under the flowing locks on his shoulders, in curls which
+emulated a wig.  She had been helping him to prepare "his tasks" from
+the well-thumbed but strongly-bound books which had served poor Archie
+before him.  They were deposited on the window-seat to wait till the
+bowls of bread and milk were discussed, since tea and coffee were only
+a special afternoon treat not considered as wholesome for children; so
+that Aurelia had only just been promoted to them, along with powder
+and fan.
+
+Harriet wore her favourite pistachio ribbon round her cap and as a
+breast-knot, and her cheeks bore token of one of the various washes
+with which she was always striving to regain the smoothness of her
+complexion.  Knowing what this betokened, an elder-sisterly instinct
+of caution actuated Betty to remind her juniors of an engagement made
+with Dame Jewel of the upland farm for the exchange of a setting of
+white duck's eggs for one of five-toed fowls, and to request them
+to carry the basket.
+
+Eugene danced on his chair and begged to be of the party; but Harriet
+pouted, and asked why the "odd boy" could not be sent.
+
+"Because, as you very well know, if he did not break, he would addle,
+every egg in the basket.
+
+"There can be no need to go to-day."
+
+"The speckled hen is clocking to brood, and she is the best mother in
+the yard.  Besides, it is time that the cowslip wine were made, and I
+will give you some bread and cheese and gingerbread for noonchin, so
+that you may fill your baskets in the meadows before they are laid up
+for grass.  Mrs. Jewel will give you a drink of milk."
+
+"O let me go, sister!" pleaded Eugene.  "She gives us bread and honey!
+And I want to hear the lapwings in the meadows cry pee-wit."
+
+"We shall have you falling into the river," said Harriet, rather
+fretfully.
+
+"No, indeed!  If you fall in, I will pull you out.  Young maids should
+not run about the country without a gentleman to take care of them.
+Should they, sister?" cried the doughty seven years' old champion.
+
+"Who taught you that, sir?" asked Betty, trying to keep her countenance.
+
+"I heard Mrs. Churchill say so to my papa," returned the boy.  "So now,
+there's a good sister.  Do pray let me go!"
+
+"If you say your tasks well, and will promise to be obedient to Harriet
+and to keep away from the river, and not touch the basket of eggs."
+
+Eugene was ready for any number of promises; and Harriet, seeing there
+was no escape for her, went off with Aurelia to put on their little
+three-cornered muslin handkerchiefs and broad-brimmed straw hats,
+while Eugene repeated his tasks, namely, a fragment of the catechism,
+half a column of spelling from the _Universal Spelling-Book_, and
+(Betty's special pride) his portion of the _Orbis Sensualium Pictus_
+of Johannes Amos Comenius, the wonderful vocabulary, with still more
+wonderful "cuts," that was then the small boys path to Latinity.
+
+The Eagle, _Aquila_, the King of Birds, _Rex Avium_, looketh at the
+Sun, _intuetur Solem_, as indeed he could hardly avoid doing, since
+in the "cut" the sun was within a hairsbreath of his beak, while his
+claws were almost touching a crow (_Corvus_) perched on a dead horse,
+to exemplify how _Aves Raptores_ fed on carrion.
+
+Thanks to Aurelia's private assistance, Eugene knew his lessons well
+enough for his excitement not to make him stumble so often as to
+prevent Betty's pronouncing him a good boy, and dispensing with his
+copy, sum, piece, and reading, until the evening.  These last were
+very tough affairs, the recitation being from Shakespeare, and the
+reading from the _Spectator_.  There were no children's books,
+properly so called, except the ballads, chap-books brought round
+by pedlers, often far from edifying, and the plunge from the horn-
+book into general literature was, to say the least of it, bracing.
+
+The Delavie family was cultivated for the time.  French had been
+brought home as a familiar tongue, though _Telemaque_, Racine, and
+_Le Grand Cyrus_ were the whole library in that language; and there
+was not another within thirty miles.  On two days in the week the
+sisters became Mesdemoiselles Elisabeth, Henriette, and Aurelie, and
+conversed in French over their spinning, seams, lace, or embroidery;
+nor was Aurelia yet emancipated from reciting Racine on alternate
+days with Milton and Shakespeare.
+
+Betty could likewise talk German with the old Austrian maid, Nannerl,
+who had followed the family from Vienna; but the accomplishment was
+not esteemed, and the dialect was barbarous.  From the time of her
+mother's death, Betty had been a strict and careful, though kind, ruler
+to her sisters; and the long walk was a greater holiday to Aurelia than
+to Eugene, releasing her from her book and work, whereas he would soon
+have been trundling his hoop, and haunting the steps of Palmer, who was
+gardener as well as valet, butler, and a good deal besides, and moreover
+drilled his young master.  Thus Eugene carried his head as erect as any
+Grenadier in the service, and was a thorough little gentleman in
+miniature; a perfect little beau, as his sisters loved to call the
+darling of their hearts and hopes.
+
+Even Harriet could not be cross to him, though she made Aurelia carry
+the eggs, and indulged in sundry petulant whisks of the fan which
+she carried by way of parasol.  "Now, why does Betty do this?" she
+exclaimed, as soon as they were out of hearing.  "Is it to secure
+to herself the whole enjoyment of your beau?"
+
+"You forget," said Aurelia.  "You promised to fetch the eggs, when
+we met Mrs. Jewel jogging home from market on her old blind white
+horse last Saturday, because you said no eggs so shaken could ever
+be hatched."
+
+"You demure chit!" exclaimed Harriet; "would you make me believe that
+you have no regrets for so charming a young gentleman, my Lady's son
+and our kinsman."
+
+"If he spoke to me I should not know how to answer.  And then you would
+blame my rudeness.  Besides," she added, with childish sagacity, "he
+can be nothing but a fine London macaroni.  Only think of the cowslips!
+A whole morning to make cowslip balls," she added with a little frisk.
+"I would not give one for all the macaronies in England, with their
+powder and their snuff-boxes.  Faugh!"
+
+"Ah, child, you will sing another note perhaps when it is too late,"
+said her sister, with a sigh between envy and compassion.
+
+It floated past Aurelia unheeded, as she danced up one side of a stile,
+and sprang clear down into a green park, jumped Eugene down after her
+by both hands, and exclaimed, "Harriet is in her vapours; come, let us
+have a race!"
+
+She was instantly careering along like a white butterfly in the
+sunshine, flitting on as the child tried to catch her, among the snowy
+hawthorn bushes, or sinking down for very joy and delight among the
+bank of wild hyacinths.  Life and free motion were joy and delight
+enough for that happy being with her childish heart, and the serious
+business of the day was all delight.  There lay the rich meadows
+basking in the sun, and covered with short grass just beginning its
+summer growth, but with the cowslips standing high above it; hanging
+down their rich clusters of soft, pure, delicately-scented bells, from
+their pinky stems over their pale crinkled leaves, interspersed here
+and there with the deep purple of the fool's orchis, and the pale
+brown quiver-grass shaking out its trembling awns on their invisible
+stems.  No flower is more delightful to gather than the cowslip,
+fragrant as the breath of a cow.  And Aurelia darted about, piling
+the golden heap in her basket with untiring enjoyment; then, producing
+a tape, called on Harriet, who had been working in a more leisurely
+fashion, to join her in making a cowslip ball, and charged Eugene
+not to nip off the heads too short.
+
+The sweet, soft, golden globe was made, and even Harriet felt the
+delicious intoxication.  The young things tossed it aloft, flung
+from one to the other, caught it, caressed it, buried their faces
+in it, and threw it back with shrieks of glee.
+
+Suddenly Harriet checked her sister with a peremptory sign.  She heard
+horse-hoofs in the lane, divided from the field by a hedge of pollard
+willows, so high that she had never thought of being overlooked, till
+the cessation of the trotting sound struck her; and looking round she
+saw that a horseman had halted at the gate, and was gazing at their
+sports.  It was from the distance of a field, but this was enough to
+fill Harriet with dismay.  She drew herself up in a moment, signing
+peremptorily to Aurelia, who was flying about, her hat off, her one
+long curl streaming behind as she darted hither and thither, evading
+Eugene who was pursuing her.
+
+As she paused, and Eugene clutched her dress with a shout of ecstasy,
+Harriet came up, glancing severely toward the gate, and saying, as
+she handed her sister the hat, "This comes of childishness!  That we
+should be seen thus!  What a hoyden he will think you!" as the hoofs
+went on and the red coat vanished.
+
+"He!  Who?  Not the farmer?" said Aurelia.  "This is not laid up for
+hay."
+
+"No indeed.  I believe it is he," said Harriet, mysteriously.
+
+"He?" repeated Aurelia.  "Not Mr. Arden, for he would be in black,"
+and at Harriet's disgusted gesture, "I beg your pardon, but I did
+not know you had a new _he_.  Oh! surely you are not thinking of
+the young baronet?"
+
+"I am sure it was his figure."
+
+"You did not see him yesterday?"
+
+"No, but his air had too much distinction for any one from these parts."
+
+"Could you see what his air was from this distance?  I should never
+have guessed it, but you have more experience, being older.  Come,
+Eugene, another race!"
+
+"No, I will have no more folly.  I was too good-natured to allow it.
+I am vexed beyond measure that he should have seen such rusticity."
+
+"Never mind, dear Harriet.  Most likely it was no such person, for it
+was not well-bred to sit staring at us; and if it were he, you were
+not known to him."
+
+"You were."
+
+"Then he must have eyes as sharp as yours are for an air of distinction.
+Having only seen me in my blue and primrose suit, how should he know me
+in my present trim?  Besides, I believe it was only young Dick Jewel in
+a cast coat of Squire Humphrey's."
+
+The charm of the cowslip gathering was broken.  Eugene found himself
+very hungry, and the noonchin was produced, after which the walk was
+continued to the farm-house, where the young people were made very
+welcome.
+
+Farmers were, as a rule, more rustic than the present labourer, but
+they lived a life of far less care, if of more toil, than their
+successors, having ample means for their simple needs, and enjoying
+jocund plenty.  The clean kitchen, with the stone floor, the beaupot
+of maythorn on the empty hearth, the shining walnut-wood table, the
+spinning-wheel, wooden chairs, and forms, all looked cool and inviting,
+and the visitors were regaled with home-made brown bread, delicious
+butter and honey, and a choice of new milk, mead, and currant wine.
+
+Dame Jewel, in a white frill under a black silken hood, a buff turnover
+kerchief, stout stuff gown and white apron, was delighted to wait on
+them; and Eugene's bliss was complete among the young kittens and
+puppies in baskets on opposite sides of the window, the chickens
+before their coops, the ducklings like yellow balls on the grass,
+and the huge family of little spotted piglings which, to the scandal
+of his sisters, he declared the most delightful of all.
+
+Their hostess knew nothing of the young baronet being in the
+neighbourhood, and was by no means gratified by the intelligence.
+
+"Lack-a-day! Miss Harriet, you don't mean that the family is coming
+down here!  I don't want none of them.  'Tis bad times for the farmer
+when any of that sort is nigh.  They make nothing of galloping their
+horses a hunting right through the crops, ay, and horsewhipping the
+farmer if he do but say a word for the sweat of his brow."
+
+"O Mrs. Jewel!" cried Aurelia, in whose ear lingered the courteous
+accents of her partner, "they would never behave themselves so."
+
+"Bless you, Miss Orreely, I'll tell you what I've seen with my own
+eyes.  My own good man, the master here, with the horsewhip laid about
+his shoulders at that very thornbush, by one of the fine gentlefolks,
+just because he had mended the gap in the hedge they was used to ride
+through, and my Lady sitting by in her laced scarlet habit on her fine
+horse, smiling like a painted picture, and saying, 'Thank you, sir,
+the rascals need to learn not to interfere with our sport,' all in
+that gentle sounding low voice of hers, enough to drive one mad."
+
+"I thought Sir Jovian had been a kind master," said Harriet.
+
+"This was not Sir Jovian.  Poor gentleman, he was not often out a-
+hunting.  This was one of the fine young rakish fellows from Lunnun
+as were always swarming about my Lady, like bees over that maybush.
+Sir Thomas Donne, I think they called him.  They said he got killed
+by a wild boar, hunting in foreign parts, afterwards, and serve him
+right!  But there!  They would all do her bidding, whether for bad
+or good, so maybe it was less his fault than hers.  She is a bitter
+one, is my Lady, for all she looks so sweet.  And this her young
+barrowknight will be his own mother's son, and I don't want none of
+'em down here.  'Tis a good job we have your good papa, the Major,
+to stand between her and us; I only wish he had his own, for a rare
+good landlord he would be."
+
+The Dame's vain wishes were cut short by shrieks from the poultry-yard,
+where Eugene was discovered up to his ankles in the black ooze of the
+horse-pond, waving a little stick in defiance of an angry gander, who
+with white outspread wings, snake-like neck, bent and protruded, and
+frightful screams and hisses, was no bad representation of his namesake
+the dragon, especially to a child not much exceeding him in height.
+
+The monster was put to rout, the champion dragged out of the pond,
+breathlessly explaining that he only wanted to look at the goslings
+when the stupid geese cackled and the gander wanted to fly at his eyes.
+"And I didn't see where I was going, for I had to keep him off, so
+I got into the mud.  Will sister be angry?" he concluded, ruefully
+surveying the dainty little stockings and shoes coated with black mud.
+
+But before the buckled shoon had been scraped, or the hosen washed and
+dried, the cheerful memory of boyhood had convinced itself that the
+enemy had been put to flight by his manful resistance; and he turned a
+deaf ear to Aurelia's suggestion that the affair had been retribution
+for his constant oblivion of Comenius' assertion that _auser gingrit,_
+"the goose gagleth."
+
+They went home more soberly, having been directed by Mrs. Jewel to a
+field bordered by a copse, where grew the most magnificent of Titania's
+pensioners tall, wearing splendid rubies in their coats; and in due
+time the trio presented themselves at home, weary, but glowing with
+the innocent excitement of their adventures.  Harriet was the first
+to proclaim that they had seen a horseman who must be Sir Amyas.
+"Had sister seen him?"
+
+"Only through the window of the kitchen where I was making puff paste."
+
+"He called then!  Did my papa see him?"
+
+"My father was in no condition to see any one, being under the hands
+and razor of Palmer."
+
+"La! what a sad pity.  Did he leave no message?"
+
+"He left his compliments, and hoped his late partner was not fatigued."
+
+"Is he at the Great House?  Will he call again?"
+
+"He is on his way to make a visit in Monmouthshire, together with a
+brother office, who is related to my Lady Herries, and finding that
+their road led them within twenty miles of our town, the decided on
+making a diversion to see her.  It was only from her that Sir Amyas
+understood how close he was to his mother's property, for my Lady is
+extremely jealous of her prerogative."
+
+"How did you hear all this, sister?"
+
+"Sir George Herries rode over this afternoon and sat an hour with my
+father, delighting him by averring that the young gentleman has his
+mother's charms of person, together with his father's solidity of
+principle and character, and that he will do honour to his name."
+
+O, I hope he will come back by this route!" cried Harriet.
+
+"Of that there is small likelihood," said Betty.  "His mother is
+nearly certain to prevent it since she is sure to take umbrage at
+his having visited the Great House without her permission."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.  MY LADY'S MISSIVE.
+
+
+    To the next coffee-house he speeds,
+    Takes up the news, some scraps he reads.--GAY.
+
+
+Though Carminster was a cathedral city, the Special General Post only
+came in once a week, and was liable to delay through storms, snows,
+mire and highwaymen, so that its arrival was as great an event as is
+now the coming in of a mail steamer to a colonial harbour.  The "post"
+was a stout countryman, with a red coat, tall jackboots and a huge hat.
+He rode a strong horse, which carried, _en croupe_, an immense pack,
+covered with oiled canvas, rising high enough to support his back,
+while he blew a long horn to announce his arrival.
+
+Letters were rare and very expensive articles unless franked by a
+Member of Parliament, but gazettes and newsletters formed a large
+portion of his freight.  No private gentleman except the Dean and Sir
+George Herries went to the extravagance of taking in a newspaper on
+his own account, but there was a club who subscribed for the _Daily
+Gazetteer_, the _Tatler_, and one or two other infant forms of
+periodical literature.  These were hastily skimmed on their first
+arrival at the club-room at the White Dragon, lay on the table to be
+more deliberately conned for a week, and finally were divided among
+the members to be handed about among the families and dependants as
+long as they would hold together.
+
+Major Delavie never willingly missed the coming of the mail, for his
+foreign experiences gave him keen interest in the war between France
+and Austria, and he watched the campaigns of his beloved Prince Eugene
+with untiring enthusiasm, being, moreover, in the flattering position
+of general interpreter and guide to his neighbours through the scanty
+articles on foreign intelligence.
+
+It was about ten days after the syllabub party, when he had quite
+recovered his ordinary health, that he mounted his stout pony in his
+military undress, his cocked hat perched on his well-powdered bob-
+wig, with a queue half-way down his dark green gold-laced coat, and
+with his long jack-boots carefully settle by Palmer over the knee
+that would never cease to give him trouble.
+
+Thus he slowly ambled into the town, catching on his way distant
+toots of the postman's horn.  In due time he made his way into the
+High Street, broad and unpaved, with rows of lime or poplar trees
+before the principal houses, the most modern of which were of red
+brick, with heavy sash-windows, large stone quoins, and steps up
+to the doors.
+
+The White Dragon, dating from the times of the Mortimer badge, was
+built of creamy stone, and had an archway conducting the traveller
+into a courtyard worthy of Chaucer, with ranges of galleries running
+round it, the balustrades of dark carved oak suiting with the timbers
+of the latticed window and gables, and with the noble outside stair
+at one angle, by which they communicated with one another.  To these
+beauties the good Major was entirely insensible.  He only sighed at
+the trouble it gave his lame knee to mount the stair to the first
+storey, and desired the execution of the landlord's barbarous design
+of knocking down the street front to replace it with a plain, oblong
+assembly room, red brick outside, and within, blue plaster, adorned
+with wreaths and bullocks' faces in stucco.
+
+Such were the sentiments of most of the burly squires who had ridden
+in on the same errand, and throwing the reins to their grooms, likewise
+climbed the stair to the club-room with its oriel looking over the
+street.  There too were several of the cathedral clergy, the rubicund
+double-chinned face of the Canon in residence set off by a white,
+cauliflower wig under a shovel hat, while the humbler minor canons
+(who served likewise as curates to all the country round) only
+powdered their own hair, and wore gowns and cassocks of quality very
+inferior to that which adorned the portly person of their superior.
+His white bands were of fine cambric, theirs of coarser linen; his
+stockings were of ribbed silk, theirs of black worsted; his buckles
+of silver, theirs of steel; and the line of demarcation was as
+strongly marked as that between the neat, deferential tradesman,
+and the lawyer in his spruce snuff-coloured coat, or the doctor,
+as black in hue as the clergy, though with a secular cut, a smaller
+wig, and a gold-headed cane.  Each had, as in duty bound, ordered
+his pint of port or claret for the good of the house, and it was
+well if these were not in the end greatly exceeded; and some had
+lighted long clay pipes; but these were mostly of the secondary
+rank, who sat at the table farthest from the window, and whose
+drink was a measure of ale.
+
+The letters had not yet been sorted, but the newspaper had been
+brought in, and the Canon Boltby had possessed himself of it, and
+was proclaiming scraps of intelligence about the King, Queen, and
+Sir Robert Walpole, the character of Marshal Berwick, recently slain
+at Philipsburg, an account of Spanish outrages at sea, or mayhap the
+story of a marvelous beast, half-tiger, half-wolf, reported to be
+running wild in France.  The other gentlemen, waiting till the mail-
+bags were opened, listened and commented; while one or two of the
+squires, and a shabby, disreputable-looking minor canon made each
+notable name the occasion of a toast, whether of health to his
+majesty's friends or confusion to his foes.  A squabble, as to
+whether the gallant Berwick should be reckoned as an honest Frenchman
+or as a traitor Englishman, was interrupted by the Major's entrance,
+and the congratulations on his recovery.
+
+One of the squires inquired after his daughters, and pronounced the
+little one with the outlandish name was becoming a belle, and would
+be the toast of the neighbourhood, a hint of which the topers were
+not slow to take advantage, while one of the guests at the recent
+party observed, "Young Belamour seemed to be of that opinion."
+
+"May it be so," said the Canon, "that were a step to the undoing of a
+great wrong."
+
+"Mr. Scrivener will tell you, sir, that there was no justice in the
+eye of the law," said the Major.
+
+"_Summum jus, summa injuria_," quoted, _sotto voce_, Mr. Arden, a minor
+canon who, being well born, scholarly, scientific and gentlemanly,
+occupied a middle place between his colleagues and the grandees.  He
+was not listened to.  Each knot of speakers was becoming louder in
+debate, and Dr. Boltby's voice was hardly heard when he announced that
+a rain of blood had fallen on the Macgillicuddy mountains in Ireland,
+testified to by numerous respectable Protestant witnesses, and
+attributable, either to the late comet, or to the Pretender.
+
+At that moment the letters were brought in by the postman, and each
+recipient had--not without murmurs--to produce his purse and pay
+heavily for them.  There were not many.  The Doctor had two, Mr.
+Arden one, Mr. Scrivener no less than five, but of them two were
+franked, and a franked letter was likewise handed over to Major
+DeLavie, with the word "Aresfield" written in the corner.
+
+"From my Lady," said an unoccupied neighbour.
+
+"Aye, aye," said the Major, putting it into his pocket, being by no
+means inclined to submit the letter to the general gaze.
+
+"A good omen," said Canon Boltby, looking up from his paper.  And
+the Major smiled in return, put a word or two into the discussion
+on affairs, and then, as soon as he thought he could take leave
+without betraying anxiety, he limped down stairs, and called for
+his horse.  Lady Belamour's letters were wont to be calls for money,
+not easily answered, and were never welcome sights, and this hung
+heavy in the laced pocket of his coat.
+
+Palmer met him at the back gate, and took his horse, but judged it
+advisable to put no questions about the news, while his master made
+his way in by the kitchen entrance of the rambling old manor house,
+and entered a stone-paved low room, a sort of office or study, where
+he received, and paid, money for my Lady, and smoked his pipe.  Here
+he sat down in his wooden armchair, spread forth his legs, and took
+out the letter, opening it with careful avoidance of defacing the
+large red seal, covered with many quarterings, and the Delavie
+escutcheon of pretence reigning over all.
+
+It opened, as he expected, with replies to some matters about leases
+and repairs; and then followed:--
+
+"I am informed that you have a large Family, and Daughters growing up
+whom it is desirable to put in the way of making a good Match, or else
+an honourable Livelihood; I am therefore willing, for the Sake of our
+Family Connection, to charge myself with your youngest Girl, whose Name
+I understand to be Aurelia.  I will cause her to be trained in useful
+Works in my Household, expecting her, in Return, to assist in the
+Care and Instruction of my young Children; and if she please me and
+prove herself worthy and attentive, I will bestow her Marriage upon
+some suitable Person.  This is the more proper and convenient for
+you, because your Age and Health are such that I may not long be
+able to retain you in the Charge of my Estate--in which indeed you
+are continued only out of Consideration of an extremely distant
+Relationship, although a younger and more active Man, bred to the
+Profession, would serve me far more profitably."
+
+When Betty came into the room a few minutes later to pull off her
+father's boots she found him sitting like one transfixed.  He held
+out the letter, saying, "Read that, child."
+
+Betty stood by the window and read, only giving one start, and
+muttering between her teeth, "Insolent woman!" but not speaking the
+words aloud, for she knew her father would treat them as treason.  He
+always had a certain tender deference for his cousin Urania, mixed
+with something akin to compunction, as if his loyalty to his betrothed
+had been disloyalty to his family.  Thus, he exceeded the rest of his
+sex in blindness to the defects that had been so evident to his wife
+and daughter; and whatever provocation might make him say of my Lady
+himself, he never permitted a word against her from any one else.  He
+looked wistfully at Betty and said, "My little Aura!  It is a kindly
+thought.  Her son must have writ of the child.  But I had liefer she
+had asked me for the sight of my old eyes."
+
+"The question is," said Betty, in clear, incisive tones, "whether we
+surrender Aurelia or your situation?"
+
+"Nay, nay, Betty, you always do my cousin less than justice.  She means
+well by the child and by us all.  Come, come say what is in your mind,"
+he add testily.
+
+"Am I at liberty to express myself, sir?"
+
+"Of course you are.  I had rather hear the whole discharge of your
+battery than see you looking constrained and satirical."
+
+"Then, sir, my conclusion is this.  The young baronet has shown himself
+smitten with out pretty Aurelia, and has spoken of tarrying on his
+return to make farther acquaintance.  My Lady is afraid of his going
+to greater lengths, and therefore wishes to have her at her disposal."
+
+"She proposes to take her into her own family; that is not taking her
+out of his way."
+
+"I am sure of that."
+
+"You are prejudiced, like your poor dear mother--the best of women, if
+only she could ever have done justice to her Ladyship!  Don't you see,
+child, Aurelia would not be gone before his return, supposing he should
+come this way."
+
+"His visit was to be for six weeks.  Did you not see the postscript?"
+
+"No, the letter was enough for one while."
+
+"Here it is: 'I shall send Dove in the Space of about a Fortnight or
+three Weeks to bring to Town the young Coach Horses you mentioned.
+His Wife is to return with him, as I have Occasion for her in Town,
+and your Daughter must be ready to come up with them.'"
+
+"Bless me!  That is prompt!  But it is thoughtful.  Mrs. Dove is a good
+soul.  It seems to me as if my Lady, though she may not choose to say
+so, wishes to see the child, and if she approve of her, breed her up
+in the accomplishments needed for such an elevation."
+
+"If you hold that opinion, dear sir, it is well."
+
+"If I thought she meant other than kindness toward the dear maid, I had
+rather we all pinched together than risk the little one in her hands.
+I had rather-if it comes to that--live on a crust a day than part with
+my sweet child; but if it were for good, Betty!  It is hard for you all
+three to be cooped up together here, with no means of improving your
+condition; and this may be an opening that I ought not to reject.  What
+say you, Betty?"
+
+"If I were to send her out into the world, I had rather bind her
+apprentice to the Misses Rigby to learn mantua-making."
+
+"Nay, nay, my dear; so long as I live there is no need for my children
+to come to such straits."
+
+"As long as you retain your situation, sir; but you perceive how my
+Lady concludes her letter."
+
+"An old song, Betty, which she sings whenever the coin does not come
+in fast enough to content her.  She does not mean what she says;  I
+know Urania of old.  No; I will write back to her, thanking her for
+her good offices, but telling her my little girl is too young to be
+launched into the world as yet.  Though if it were Harriet, she might
+not be unwilling."
+
+"Harriet would be transported at the idea; but it is not she whom the
+Lady wants.  And indeed I had rather trust little Aurelia to take care
+of herself than poor Harriet."
+
+"We shall see!  We shall see!  Meantime, do not broach the subject to
+your sisters."
+
+Betty assented, and departed with a heavy heart, feeling that, whatever
+her father might believe, the choice would be between the sacrifice of
+Aurelia or of her father's agency, which would involve the loss of home,
+of competence, and of the power of breeding up her darling Eugene
+according to his birth.  She did not even know what her father had
+written, and could only go about her daily occupations like one under
+a weight, listening to her sisters' prattle about their little plans
+with a strange sense that everything was coming to an end, and
+constantly weighing the comparative evils of yielding or refusing
+Aurelia.
+
+No one would have more valiantly faced poverty than Elizabeth Delavie,
+had she alone been concerned.  Cavalier and Jacobite blood was in her
+veins, and her unselfish character had been trained by a staunch and
+self-devoted mother.  But her father's age and Eugene's youth made
+her waver.  She might work her fingers to the bone, and live on
+oatmeal, to give her father the comforts he required; but to have
+Eugene brought down from his natural station was more than she could
+endure.  His welfare must be secured at the cost not only of Aurelia's
+sweet presence, but of her happiness; and Betty durst not ask herself
+what more she dreaded, knowing too that she would probably be quite
+incapable of altering her father's determination whatever it might be,
+and that he was inclined to trust Lady Belamour.  The only chance of
+his refusal was that he should take alarm at the manner of requiring
+his daughter from him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.  THE SUMMONS.
+
+
+    But when the King knew that the thing must be,
+    And that no help there was in this distress,
+    He bade them have all things in readiness
+    To take the maiden out.--MORRIS.
+
+
+The second Sunday of suspense had come.  The  Sundays of good young
+ladies little resembled those of a century later, though they were not
+devoid of a calm peacefulness, worthy of the "sweet day, so cool, so
+calm, so bright."  The inhabited rooms of the old house looked bright
+and festal; there were fresh flowers in the pots, honey as well as
+butter on the breakfast table.  The Major and Palmer were both in full
+uniform, wonderfully preserved.  Eugene, a marvel of prettiness, with
+his curled hair and little velvet coat, contrived by his sisters out
+of some ancestral hoard.  Betty wore thick silk brocade from the same
+store; Harriet a fresh gay chintz over a crimson skirt, and Aurelia
+was in spotless white, with a broad blue sash and blue ribbons in her
+hat, for her father liked to see her still a child; so her hair was
+only tied with blue, while that of her sisters was rolled over a
+cushion, and slightly powdered.
+
+The church was so near that the Major could walk thither, leaning on
+his stout crutch-handled stick, and aided by his daughter's arm, as
+he proceeded down the hawthorn lane, sweet with the breath of May,
+exchanging greetings with whole families of the poor, the fathers in
+smock frocks wrought with curious needlework on the breast and back,
+the mothers in high-crowned hats and stout dark blue woollen gowns,
+the children, either patched or ragged, and generally barefooted, but
+by no means ill-fed.
+
+No Sunday school had been invented.  The dame who hobbled along in
+spectacles, dropping a low curtsey to the "quality," taught the
+hornbook  and the primer to a select few of the progeny of the farmers
+and artisans, and the young ladies would no more have thought of
+assisting her labours than the blacksmith's.  They only clubbed their
+pocket money to clothe and pay the schooling of one little orphan,
+who acknowledged them by a succession of the lowest bobs as she
+trotted past, proud as Margery Twoshoes herself of the distinction
+of being substantially shod.
+
+The church was small, and with few pretensions to architecture at the
+best.  It had been nearly a ruin, when, stirred by the Major, the
+church-wardens had taken it in hand, so that, owing to Richard Stokes
+and John Ball, as they permanently declared in yellow letters on a
+blue ground, the congregation were no longer in danger of the roof
+admitting the rain or coming down on the congregation.  They had
+further beautified the place with a huge board of the royal arms, and
+with Moses and Aaron in white cauliflower wigs presiding over the
+tables of the Commandments.  Four long dark, timber pews and numerous
+benches, ruthlessly constructed out of old carvings, occupied the
+aisle, and the chancel was more than half filled with the lofty
+"closet" of the Great House family.  Hither the Delavie family betook
+themselves, and on her way Betty was startled by the recognition, in
+the seat reserved for the servants, of a broad back and curled wig
+that could belong to no one but Jonah Dove.  She did her utmost to
+keep her mind from dwelling on what this might portend, though she
+followed the universal custom by exchanging nods and curtsies with
+the Duckworth family as she sailed up the aisle at the head of the
+little procession.
+
+There was always a little doubt as to who would serve the church.
+One of the Canons was the incumbent, and the curate was Mr. Arden,
+the scientific minor canon, but when his services were required at
+the cathedral, one of his colleagues would supply his place, usually
+in a sadly perfunctory manner.  However, he was there in person, as
+his voice, a clear and pleasant one, showed the denizens of the
+"closet," for they could not see out of it, except where Eugene had
+furtively enlarged a moth-eaten hole in the curtain, through which,
+when standing on the seat, he could enjoy an oblique view of the back
+of an iron-moulded surplice and a very ill-powdered wig.  This was a
+comfort to him.  It would have been more satisfactory to have been
+able to make out whence came the stentorian A-men, that responded to
+the parson, totally unaccompanied save by the good Major, who always
+read his part almost as loud as the clerk, from a great octavo prayer-
+book, bearing on the lid the Delavie arms with coronet, supporters,
+and motto, "_Ma Vie et ma Mie_."  It would have been thought unladylike,
+if not unscriptural, to open the lips in church; yet, for all her
+silence, good Betty was striving to be devout and attentive, praying
+earnestly for her little sister's safety, and hailing as a kind of
+hopeful augury this verse from the singers--
+
+
+                 "At home, abroad, in peace, in war
+                    Thy God shall thee defend,
+                  Conduct thee through life's pilgrimage
+                    Safe to the journey's end."
+
+
+Much cannot be said for the five voices that sang, nor for the two
+fiddles that accompanied them.  Eugene had scarcely outgrown his
+terror at the strains, and still required Aurelia to hold his hand,
+under pretext of helping him to follow the words, not an easy thing,
+since the last lines were always repeated three or four times.
+
+Somehow the repetition brought them the more home to Betty's heart,
+and they rang consolingly in her ears, all through the sermon, of
+which she took in so little that she never found out that it was an
+elaborate exposition of the Newtonian philosophy, including Mr.
+Arden's views of the miracle at the battle Beth-horon, in the Lesson
+for the day.
+
+The red face and Belamour livery looked doubly ominous when she came
+out of church, but she had to give her arm to her father till they
+were overtaken by Mr. Arden, who always shared the Sunday roast beef
+and plum pudding.  Betty feared it was the best meal he had in the
+week, for he lived in lodgings, and his landlady was not too careful
+of his comforts, while he was wrapped up in his books and experiments.
+There was a hole singed in the corner of his black gown, which Eugene
+pointed out with great awe to Aurelia as they walked behind him.
+
+"See there, Aura.  Don't you think he has been raising spirits, like
+Friar Bacon?"
+
+"What do you know about Friar Bacon?" asked Harriet.
+
+"He is in a little book that I bought of the pedlar.  He had a brazen
+head that said--
+
+                        'Time is,
+                         Time was,
+                         Time will be.'
+
+I wonder if Mr. Arden would show me one like it."
+
+"You ridiculous little fellow to believe such trash!" said Harriet.
+
+"But, Hatty, he can really light a candle without a tinder-box," said
+Eugene.  "His landlady told Palmer so; and Palmer says the Devil flew
+away with Friar Bacon; but my book says he burnt all his books and
+gave himself to the study of divinity, and dug his grave with his
+own nails."
+
+"Little boys should not talk of such things on Sundays," said Harriet,
+severely.
+
+"One does talk of the Devil on Sunday, for he is in the catechism,"
+returned Eugene.  "If he carries Mr. Arden off, do you think there
+will be a great smoke, and that folk will see it?"
+
+Aurelia's silvery peal of laughter fell sadly upon Betty's ears in
+front, and her father and Mr. Arden turned to ask what made them so
+merry.  Aurelia blushed in embarrassment, but Harriet was ready.
+
+"You will think us very rude, Sir, but my little brother has been
+reading the life of Friar Bacon, and he thinks you an equally great
+philosopher."
+
+"Indeed, my little master, you do me too much honour.  You will soon
+be a philosopher yourself.  I did not expect so much attention in so
+young an auditor," said mr. Arden, thinking this the effect of his
+sermon on the solar system.
+
+Whereupon Eugene begged to inspect the grave he was digging with his
+own nails.
+
+They were at home by this time, and Betty was aware that they had been
+followed at a respectful distance by Palmer and the coachman.  Anxious
+as she was, she could not bear that her father's dinner should be
+spoilt, or that he, in his open-hearted way, should broach the matter
+with Mr. Arden; so she repaired to the garden gate, and on being told
+that Mr. Dove had a packet from my Lady for the Major, she politely
+invited him to dinner with the servants, and promised that her father
+should see him afterwards.
+
+This gave a long respite, since the servants had the reversion of the
+beef, so the Mr. Arden had taken leave, and gone to see a bedridden
+pauper, and the Major had time for his forty winks, while Betty,
+though her heart throbbed hard beneath her tightly-laced boddice,
+composed herself to hear Eugene's catechism, and the two sisters,
+each with a good book, slipped out to the honeysuckle arbour in the
+garden behind the house.  Harriet had _Sherlock in Death_, her
+regular Sunday study, though she never got any further than the
+apparition of Mrs. Veal, over which she gloated in a dreamy state;
+Aurelia's study was a dark-covered, pale-lettered copy of the _Ikon
+Basilike_, with the strange attraction that youth has to pain and
+sorrow, and sat musing over the resigned outpourings of the perplexed
+and persecuted king, with her bright eyes fixed on the deep blue sky,
+and the honeysuckle blossoms gently waving against it, now and then
+visited by bee or butterfly, while through the silence came the
+throbbing notes of the nightingale, followed by its jubilant burst
+of glee, and the sweet distant chime of the cathedral bells rose and
+fell upon the wind.  What peace and repose there was in all the air,
+even in the gentle breeze, and the floating motions of the swallows
+skimming past.
+
+The stillness was first broken by the jangle of their own little church
+bell, for Mr. Arden was a more than usually diligent minister, and
+always gave two services when he was not in course at the cathedral.
+The young ladies always attended both, but as Harriet and Aurelia
+crossed the lawn, their brother ran to meet them, saying, "We are
+not to wait for sister."
+
+"I hope my papa is well," said Aurelia.
+
+"Oh yes," said Eugene, "but the man in the gold-laced hat has been
+speaking with him.  Palmer says it is Mrs. Dove's husband, and he is
+going to take Lively Tom and Brown Bet and the two other colts to
+London.  He asked if I should like to ride a-cockhorse there with
+him.  'Dearly,' I said, and then he laughed and said it was not my
+turn, but he should take Miss Aurelia instead."
+
+Aurelia laughed, and Harriet said, "Extremely impudent."
+
+Little she guessed what Betty was at that moment reading.
+
+"I am astonished," wrote Lady Belamour to her cousin, "that you
+should decline so highly advantageous an Offer for your Daughter.
+I can only understand it as a Token that you desire no further
+Connection with, nor Favour from me; and I shall therefore require
+of you to give up the Accounts, and vacate the House by Michaelmas
+next ensuing.  However, as I am willing to allow some excuse for the
+Weakness of parental Affection, if you change your Mind within the
+next Week and send up your Daughter with Dove and his Wife, I will
+overlook your first hasty and foolish Refusal, ungrateful as it was,
+and will receive your Daughter and give her all the Advantages I
+promised.  Otherwise your Employment is at an end, and you had
+better prepare your Accounts for Hargrave's Inspection."
+
+"There is no help for it then," said Betty.
+
+"And if it be for the child's advantage, we need not make our moan,"
+said her father.  "'Tis like losing the daylight out of our house,
+but we must not stand in the way of her good."
+
+"If I were only sure it is for her good!"
+
+"Why, child, there's scarce a wench in the county who would not go
+down on her knees for such a chance.  See what Madam Duckworth would
+say to it for Miss Peggy!"
+
+Betty said no more.  The result of her cogitations had been that since
+Aurelia must be yielded for the sake of her father and Eugene, it was
+better not to disturb him with fears, which would only anger him at
+the moment and disquiet him afterwards.  She was likewise reassured
+by Mrs. Dove's going with her, since that good woman had been nurse
+to the little Belamour cousins now deceased, and was well known as
+an excellent and trustworthy person, so that, if she were going to
+act in the same capacity to my Lady's second family, Aurelia would
+have a friend at hand.  So the Major cheated his grief by greeting
+the church-goers with the hilarious announcement--
+
+"Here's great news!  What says my little Aura to going London to my
+Lady's house."
+
+"O Sir! are you about to take us."
+
+"Not I!  My Lady wants pretty young maidens, not battered old soldiers."
+
+"Nor my sisters?  O then, if you please, Sir, I would rather not go!"
+
+"Silly children cannot choose!  No, no, Aura, you must go out and see
+the world, and come back to us such a belle that your poor old father
+will scarce know you."
+
+"I do not wish to be a belle," said the girl.  "O Sir, let me stay
+with you and sister."
+
+"Do not be so foolish, Aura," put in Harriet.  "It will be the making
+of you.  I wish I had the offer."
+
+"O Harriet, could not you go instead?"
+
+"No, Aurelia," said Betty.  "There is no choice, and you must be a
+good girl and not vex my father."
+
+The gravity of her eldest sister convinced Aurelia that entreaties
+would be vain, and there was soon a general outburst of assurances
+that she would see all that was delightful in London, the lions in
+the Tower, the new St. Paul's, the monuments, Ranelagh, the court
+ladies, may be, the King and Queen themselves; until she began to
+feel exhilarated and pleased at the prospect and the distinction.
+
+Then came Monday and the bustle of preparing her wardrobe.  The main
+body of it was to be sent in the carrier's waggon, for she was to
+ride on a pillion behind Mr. Dove, and could only take a valise upon
+a groom's horse.  There was no small excitement in the arrangement,
+and in the farewells to the neighbours, who all agreed with Harriet
+in congratulating the girl on her promotion.  Betty did her part with
+all her might, washed lace, and trimmed sleeves, and made tuckers,
+giving little toilette counsels, while her heart ached sorely all
+the time.
+
+When she could speak to Mrs. Dove alone, she earnestly besought that
+old friend to look after the child, her health, her dress, and above
+all to supply here lack of experience and give her kind counsel and
+advice.
+
+"I will indeed, ma'am, as though she were my own," promised Mrs. Dove.
+
+"O nurse, I give my sweet jewel to your care; you know what a great
+house in London is better than I do.  You will warn her of any danger."
+
+"I will do my endeavour, ma'am.  We servants see and hear much, and
+if any harm should come nigh the sweet young miss, I'll do my best
+for her."
+
+"Thank you, nurse, I shall never, never see her more in her free
+artless childishness," said Betty, sobbing as if her heart would
+break; "but oh, nurse, I can bear the thought better since I have
+known that you would be near her."
+
+And at night, when her darling nestled for the last time in her arms,
+the elder sister whispered her warnings.  Her knowledge of the great
+world was limited, but she believed it to be a very wicked place, and
+she profoundly distrusted her brilliant kinswoman; yet her warnings
+took no shape more definite than--"My dearest sister will never
+forget her prayers nor her Bible."  There was a soft response and
+fresh embrace at each pause.  "Nor play cards of a Sunday, nor ever
+play high.  And my Aura must be deaf to rakish young beaux and their
+compliments.  They never mean well by poor pretty maids.  If you
+believe them, they will only mock, flout, and jeer you in the end.
+And if the young baronet should seek converse with you, promise me,
+oh, promise me, Aurelia, to grant him no favour, no, not so much as
+to hand him a flower, or stand chatting with him unknown to his
+mother.  Promise me again, child, for naught save evil can come of
+any trifling between you.  And, Aurelia, go to Nurse Dove in all
+your difficulties.  She can advise you where your poor sister cannot.
+It will ease my heart if I know that my child will attend to her.
+You will not let yourself be puffed up with flattery, nor be offended
+if she be open and round with you.  Think that your poor sister Betty
+speaks in her.  Pray our old prayers, go to church, and read your
+Psalms and Lessons daily, and oh! never, never cheat your conscience.
+O may God, in His mercy, keep my darling!"
+
+So Aurelia cried herself to sleep, while Betty lay awake till the early
+hour in the morning when all had to be prepared for the start.  There
+was to be a ride of an hour and a half before breakfast so as to give
+the horses a rest.  It was a terrible separation, in many respects more
+complete than if Aurelia had been going, in these days, to America;
+for communication by letter was almost as slow, and infinitely more
+expensive.
+
+No doubt the full import of what he had done had dawned even on Major
+Delavie during the watches of that last sorrowful night, for he came
+out a pale, haggard man, looking as if his age had doubled since he
+went to bed, wrapped in his dressing gown, his head covered with his
+night-cap, and leaning heavily on his staff.  He came charged with one
+of the long solemn discourses which parents were wont to bestow on
+their children as valedictions, but when Aurelia, in her camlet riding
+cloak and hood, brought her tear-stained face to crave his blessing, he
+could only utter broken fragments.  "Bless thee my child!  Take heed
+to yourself and your ways.  It is a bad world, beset with temptations.
+Oh! heaven forgive me for sending my innocent lamb out into it.  Oh!
+what would your blessed mother say?"
+
+"Dear sir," said Betty, who had wept out her tears, and was steadily
+composed now, "this is no time to think of that.  We must only cheer
+up our darling, and give her good counsel.  If she keep to what her
+Bible, her catechism and her conscience tell her, she will be a good
+girl, and God will protect her."
+
+"True, true, your sister is right; Aura, my little sweetheart, I had
+much to say to you, but it is all driven out of my poor old head."
+
+"Aura! Aura! the horses are coming!  Ten of them!" shouted Eugene.
+"Come along!  Oh! if I were but going!  How silly of you to cry;
+_I_ don't."
+
+"There! there!  Go my child, and God in His mercy protect you!"
+
+Aurelia in speechless grief passed from the arms of one sister to the
+embrace of the other, hugged Eugene, was kissed by Nannerl, who forced
+a great piece of cake into her little bag, and finally was lifted to
+her pillion cushion by Palmer, who stole a kiss of her hand before
+Dove put his horse in motion, while Betty was still commending her
+sister to his wife's care, and receiving reiterated promises of care.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.  DISAPPOINTED LOVE.
+
+
+    I know thee well, thy songs and sighs,
+       A wicked god thou art;
+    And yet, most pleasing to the eyes,
+       And witching to the heart.
+                             W. MACKWORTH PRAED.
+
+
+The house was dull when Aurelia was gone.  Her father was ill at ease
+and therefore testy, Betty too sore at heart to endure as cheerfully
+as usual his unwonted ill-humour.  Harriet was petulant, and Eugene
+troublesome, and the two were constantly jarring against one another,
+since the one missed her companion, the other his playmate; and they
+were all more sensible than ever how precious and charming an element
+was lost to the family circle.
+
+On the next ensuing Sunday, Eugene had made himself extremely obnoxious
+to Harriet, by persisting in kicking up the dust, and Betty, who had
+gone on before with her father, was availing herself of the shelter
+of the great pew to brush with a sharp hand the dust from the little
+legs, when, even in the depths of their seclusion, the whole party were
+conscious of a sort of breathless sound of surprise and admiration, a
+sweep of bows and curtsies, and the measured tread of boots and clank
+of sword and spurs coming nearer--yes, to the very chancel.  Their
+very door was opened by the old clerk with the most obsequious of
+reverences, and there entered a gorgeous vision of scarlet and gold,
+bowing gracefully with a wave of a cocked and plumed hat!
+
+The Major started, and was moving out of his corner--the seat of honour
+--but the stranger forbade this by another gesture, and took his place,
+after standing for a moment with his face hidden in his hat.  Then he
+took an anxious survey, not without an almost imperceptible elevation
+of eyebrow and shoulder, as if disappointed, and accepted the Prayer-
+book, which the Major offered him.
+
+Betty kept her eyes glued to her book, and when that was not in
+use, upon the mittened hands crossed before her, resolute against
+distraction, and every prayer turning into a petition for her sister's
+welfare; but Eugene gazed, open-eyed and open-mouthed, oblivious of
+his beloved hole, and Harriet, though keeping her lids down, and
+her book open, contrived to make a full inspection of the splendid
+apparition.
+
+It was tall and slight, youthfully undeveloped, yet with the grace
+of personal symmetry, high breeding, and military training, upright
+without stiffness, with a command and dexterity of movement which
+prevented the sword and spurs from being the annoyance to his pew-
+mates that country awkwardness usually made these appendages.  The
+spurs were on cavalry boots, guarding the knee, and met by white
+buckskins, both so little dusty that there could have been no journey
+that morning.  The bright gold-laced scarlet coat of the Household
+troops entirely effaced the Major's old Austrian uniform; and over
+it, the hair, of a light golden brown, was brushed back, tied with
+black ribbon, and hung down far behind in a queue, only leaving
+little gold rings curling on the brow and temples.  The face was
+modelled like a cameo, faultless in the outlines, with a round
+peach-like fresh contour and bloom on the fair cheek, which had
+much of the child, though with a firmness in the lip, and strength
+in the brow, that promised manliness.  Indeed there was a wonderful
+blending of the beauty of manhood and childhood about the youth;
+and his demeanour was perfectly decorous and reverent, no small
+merit in a young officer and London beau.  Indeed Betty could
+almost have forgotten his presence, if gleams from his glittering
+equipments had not kept glancing before her eyes, turn them where
+she would, and if Mr. Arden's sermon had not been of Solomon's
+extent of natural philosophy, and so full of Hebrew, Greek, and
+Latin that she could not follow it at all.
+
+After the blessing, the young gentleman, with a bow, the pink of
+courtesy, offered a hand to lead her out, nor could she refuse, though,
+to use her own expression, she hated the absurdity of mincing down the
+aisle with a fine young spark looking like her grandson; while her poor
+father had to put up with Harriet's arm.  Outside came the greetings,
+the flourish of the hat, the "I may venture to introduce myself, and to
+beg of you, sir, and of my fair cousins to excuse my sudden intrusion."
+
+"No apology can be needed for your appearance in your own pew, Sir
+Amyas," said the Major with outstretched hand; "it did my heart good
+to see you there!"
+
+"I would not have taken you thus by surprise," continued the youth,
+"but one of my horses lost a shoe yesterday, and we were constrained
+to halt at Portkiln for the night, and ride on this morning.  Herries
+went on to the Deanery, and I hoped to have seen you before church,
+but found you had already entered."
+
+Portkiln was so near, that this Sabbath day's journey did not scandalise
+Betty, and her father eagerly welcomed his kinsman, and insisted that
+he should go no farther.  Sir Amyas accepted the invitation, nothing
+loth, only asking, with a little courtly diffidence, if it might not
+be convenient for him to sleep at the Great House, and begging the
+ladies to excuse his riding dress.
+
+His eyes wandered anxiously as though in search of something in the
+midst of all his civility, and while the Major was sending Eugene
+to bring Mr. Arden--who was hanging back at the churchyard gate,
+unwilling to thrust himself forward--the faltering question was put,
+while the cheeks coloured like a girl's, "I hope my fair partner,
+my youngest cousin, Miss Aurelia Delavie, is in good health?"
+
+"We hope so, sir, thank you," returned Betty; "but she left us six
+days ago."
+
+"Left you!" he repeated, in consternation that overpowered his
+courtliness.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Harriet, "my Lady, your mother, has been good enough
+to send for her to London."
+
+"My Lady!" he murmured to himself; "I never thought of that!  How and
+when did she go?"
+
+The answer was interrupted by the Major coming up  "Sir Amyas Belamour,
+permit me to present to you the Reverend Richard Arden, the admirable
+divine to whom we are beholden for the excellent and learned discourse
+of this morning.  You'll not find such another scholar in all
+Carminster."
+
+"I am highly honoured," returned the baronet, with a bow in return for
+Mr. Arden's best obeisance, such as it was; and Harriet, seeing Peggy
+Duckworth in the distance, plumed herself on her probable envy.
+
+Before dinner was served Sir Amyas had obtained the information as to
+Aurelia's departure, and even as to the road she had taken, and he had
+confessed that, "Of course he had write to his mother that he had danced
+with the most exquisitely beautiful creature he had ever seen, and that
+he longed to know his cousins better."  No doubt his mother, having
+been thus reminded of her connections, had taken the opportunity of
+summoning Aurelia to London to give her the advantages of living in
+her household and acquiring accomplishments.  The lad was so much
+delighted at the prospect of enjoying her society that he was almost
+consoled for not finding her at the Manor House; and his elaborate
+courtesy became every moment less artificial and more affectionate,
+as the friendly atmosphere revealed that the frankness and simplicity
+of the boy had not been lost, captain in the dragoon guards as he was,
+thanks to interest, though he had scarcely yet joined his troop.  He
+had been with a tutor in the country, until two years ago, when his
+stepfather, Mr. Wayland, had taken him, still with his tutor, on the
+expedition to the Mediterranean.  He had come home from Gibraltar, and
+joined his regiment only a few weeks before setting out with his friend
+Captain Herries, to visit Battlefield, Lady Aresfield's estate in
+Monmouthshire.  He was quartered in the Whitehall barracks, but could
+spend as much time as he pleased at his mother's house in Hanover
+Square.
+
+Betty's mind misgave her as she saw the brightening eye with which he
+said it; but she could not but like the youth himself, he was so bright,
+unspoilt, and engaging that she could not think him capable of doing
+wilful wrong to her darling.  Yet how soon would the young soldier,
+plunged into the midst of fashionable society, learn to look on the
+fair girl with the dissipated eyes of his associates?  There was some
+comfort in finding that Mr. Wayland was expected to return in less
+than a year, and that his stepson seemed to regard him with unbounded
+respect, as a good, just, and wise man, capable of everything!  Indeed
+Sir Amyas enlightened Mr. Arden on the scientific construction of some
+of Mr. Wayland's inventions so as to convince both the clergyman and
+the soldier that the lad himself was no fool, and had profited by his
+opportunities.
+
+Major Delavie produced his choice Tokay, a present from an old Hungarian
+brother-officer, and looked happier than since Aurelia's departure.  He
+was no match-maker, and speculated on no improbable contingencies for
+his daughter, but he beheld good hopes for the Delavie property and
+tenants in an heir such as this, and made over his simple loyal heart
+to the young man.  Presently he inquired whether the unfortunate Mr.
+Belamour still maintained his seclusion.
+
+"Yes, sir," was the reply.  "He still lives in two dark rooms with
+shutters and curtains excluding every ray of light.  He keeps his bed
+for the greater part of the day, but sometimes, on a very dark night,
+will take a turn on the terrace."
+
+"Poor gentleman!" said Betty.  "Has he no employment or occupation?"
+
+"Mr. Wayland contrived a raised chess and draught board, and persuaded
+him to try a few games before we went abroad, but I do not know whether
+he has since continued it."
+
+"Does he admit any visits?"
+
+"Oh no.  He has been entirely shut up, except from the lawyer,
+Hargrave, on business.  Mr. Wayland, indeed, strove to rouse him from
+his despondency, but without success, except that latterly he became
+willing to receive him."
+
+"Have you ever conversed with him?"
+
+There was an ingenuous blush as the young man replied.  "I fear I must
+confess myself remiss.  Mr. Wayland has sometimes carried me with him
+to see my uncle, but not with my good will, and my mother objected lest
+it should break my spirits.  However, when I left Gibraltar, my good
+father charged me to endeavour from time to time to enliven my uncle's
+solitude, but there were impediments to my going to him, and I take
+shame to myself for not having striven to overcome them."
+
+"Rightly spoken, my young kinsman," cried the Major.  "There are no
+such impediments as a man's own distaste."
+
+"And pity will remove that," said Betty.
+
+Soon after the removal of the cloth the ladies withdrew, and Eugene
+was called to his catechism, but he was soon released, for the Tokay
+had made her father sleepy, while it seemed to have emboldened Mr.
+Arden, since he came forth with direct intent to engross Harriet; and
+Sir Amyas wandered towards Betty, apologising for the interruption.
+
+"It is a rare occasion," said she as her pupil scampered away.
+
+"Happy child, to be taught by so good a sister," said the young
+baronet, regretfully.
+
+"Your young half-brothers and sisters must be of about the same age,"
+said Betty.
+
+"My little brother, Archer, is somewhat younger.  He is with my mother
+in London, the darling of the ladies, who think him a perfect beauty,
+and laugh at all his mischievous pranks.  As to my little sisters, you
+will be surprised to hear that I have only seen them once, when I rode
+with their father to see them at the farm houses at which they are
+nursed."
+
+"No doubt they are to be fetched home, since Mrs. Dove is gone to wait
+on them, and my Lady said something of intending my sister to be with
+her young children."
+
+"Nay, she must have no such troublesome charge.  My mother cannot
+intend anything of the kind.  I shall see that she is treated as---"
+
+Betty, beginning to perceive that he knew as little of his own mother
+as did the rest of his sex, here interrupted him.  "Excuse me, sir, I
+doubt not of your kind intentions, but let me speak, for Aurelia is a
+very precious child to me, and I am afraid that any such attempt on
+your part might do her harm rather than good.  She must be content
+with the lot of a poor dependant."
+
+"Never!" he exclaimed.  "She is a Delavie; and besides, no other ever
+shall be my wife."
+
+"Hush, hush!"  Betty had been saying before the words were out of his
+"You are but a silly boy, begging your Honour's pardon, though you
+speak, I know, with all your heart.  What would your Lady mother say
+or do to my poor little sister if she heard you?"
+
+"She could but send her home, and then flood and fire could not hold
+me from her."
+
+"I wish that were the worst she could do.  No, Sir Amyas Belamour, if
+you have any kindness for the poor helpless girl under your mother's
+roof, you will make no advance to excite alarm or anger against her.
+Remember it is she who will be the sufferer and not yourself.  The
+woman, however guiltless, is sure to fall under suspicion and bear
+the whole penalty.  And oh! what would become of her, defenceless,
+simple, unprotected as she is?"
+
+"Yet you sent her!" said he.
+
+"Yes," said Betty, sadly, "because there was no other choice between
+breaking with my Lady altogether."
+
+He made an ejaculation under his breath, half sad, half violent, and
+exclaimed, "Would that I were of age, or my father were returned."
+
+"But now you know all, you will leave my child in peace," said Betty.
+
+"What, you would give me no hope!"
+
+"Only such as you yourself have held out," said Betty.  "When you are
+your own master, if you keep in the same mind till then, and remain
+truly worthy, I cannot tell what my father would answer."
+
+"I am going to speak to him this very day.  I came with that intent."
+
+"Do no such thing, I entreat," cried Betty.  "He would immediately
+think it his duty to inform my Lady.  Then no protestation would
+persuade her that we had not entrapped your youth and innocence.
+His grey head would be driven out without shelter, and what
+might not be the consequence to my sister?  You could not help us,
+and could only make it worse.  No, do nothing rash, incautious, or
+above all, disobedient.  It would be self-love, not true love that
+would risk bringing her into peril and trouble when she is far out
+of reach of all protection."
+
+"Trust me, trust me, Cousin Betty," cried the youth. "Only let me hope,
+and I'll be caution itself; but oh! what an endless eternity is two
+years to wait without a sign!"
+
+But here appeared the Major, accompanied by Captain Herries and Dean
+Churchill, who had ordered out his coach, Sunday though it were, to
+pay his respects to my Lady's son, and carry him and his hosts back
+to sup at the Deanery.  It was an age of adulation, but Betty was
+thankful that perilous conversations were staved off.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.  ALL ALONE.
+
+
+    By the simplicity of Venus' doves.
+                                 _Merchant of Venice_.
+
+
+That Sunday was spent by Aurelia at the Bear Inn, at Reading.  Her
+journey had been made by very short stages, one before breakfast,
+another lasting till noon, when there was a long halt for dinner
+and rest for horse and rider, and then another ride, never even in
+these longest summer days prolonged beyond six or seven o'clock at
+latest, such was the danger of highwaymen being attracted by the
+valuable horses, although the grooms in charge were so well armed
+that they might almost as well have been troopers.
+
+The roads, at that time of year, were at their best, and Aurelia
+and Mrs. Dove were mounted on steady old nags, accustomed to pillions.
+Aurelia could have ridden single, but this would not have been thought
+fitting on a journey with no escort of her own rank, and when she
+mounted she was far too miserable to care for anything but hiding
+her tearful face behind Mr. Dove's broad shoulders.  Mrs. Dove was
+perched behind a wiry, light-weighted old groom, whom she kept in
+great order, much to his disgust.
+
+After the first wretchedness, Aurelia's youthful spirits had begun to
+revive, and the novel scenes to awaken interest.  The Glastonbury thorn
+was the first thing she really looked at.  The Abbey was to her only
+an old Gothic melancholy ruin, not worthy of a glance, but the breezy
+air of the Cheddar Hills, the lovely cliffs, and the charm of the open
+country, with its strange islands of hills dotted about, raised her
+spirits, as she rode through the meadows where hay was being tossed,
+and the scent came fragrant on the breeze.  Mr. Dove would tell her
+over his shoulder the names of places and their owners when they came
+to parks bordering the road, and castles "bosomed high in the tufted
+trees."  Or he would regale her with legends of robberies and point
+to the frightful gibbets, one so near to the road that she shut her
+eyes and crouched low behind him to avoid seeing the terrible burthen.
+She had noted the White Horse, and shuddered at the monument at Devizes
+commemorating the judgment on the lying woman, and a night had been
+spent at Marlborough that "Miss" might see a strolling company of
+actors perform in a barn; but as the piece was the _Yorksire Tragedy_,
+the ghastly performance overcame her so completely that Mrs. Dove had
+to take her away, declaring that no inducement should ever take her to
+a theatre again.
+
+Mr. Dove was too experienced a traveller not to choose well his
+quarters for the night, and Aurelia slept in the guest chambers
+shining with cleanliness and scented with lavender, Mrs. Dove always
+sharing her room.  "Miss" was treated with no small regard, as a lady
+of the good old blood, and though the coachman and his wife talked
+freely with her, they paid her all observance, never ate at the same
+table, and provided assiduously for her comfort and pleasure.  Once
+they halted a whole day because even Mr. Dove was not proof against
+the allurements of a bull-baiting, though he carefully explained
+that he only made a concession to the grooms to prevent them from
+getting discontented, and went himself to the spectacle to hinder
+them from getting drunk, in which, be it observed, he did not succeed.
+
+So much time was spent on thus creeping from stage to stage that
+Aurelia had begun to feel as if the journey had been going on for ages,
+and as if worlds divided her from her home, when on Sunday she timidly
+preceded Mrs. Dove into Reading Abbey Church, and afterwards was shown
+where rolled Father Thames.  The travellers took early morning with
+them for Maidenhead Thicket, and breakfasted on broiled trout at the
+King's Arms at Maidenhead Bridge, while Aurelia felt her eye filled
+with the beauty of the broad glassy river, and the wooded banks, and
+then rose onwards, looking with loyal awe at majestic Windsor, where
+the flag was flying.  They slept at a poor little inn a Longford,
+rather than cross Hounslow Heath in the evening, and there heard all
+the last achievements of the thieves, so that Aurelia, in crossing the
+next day, looked to see a masked highwayman start out of every bush;
+but they came safely to the broad archway of the inn at Knightsbridge,
+their last stage.  Mrs. Dove took her charge up stairs at once to
+refresh her toilette, before entering London and being presented to
+my Lady.
+
+But a clattering and stamping were heard in the yard, and Aurelia,
+looking from the window, called Mrs. Dove to see four horses being
+harnessed to a coach that was standing there.
+
+"Lawk-a-day?" cried the good woman, "if it be not our own old coach,
+as was the best in poor Sir Jovian's time!  Ay, there be our colours,
+you see, blue and gold, and my Lady's quartering.  Why, 'twas atop of
+that very blue hammercloth that I first set eyes on my Dove!  So my
+Lady has sent to meet you, Missie.  Well, I do take it kind of her.
+Now you will not come in your riding hood, all frowsed and dusty, but
+can put on your pretty striped sacque and blue hood that you wore on
+Sunday, and look the sweet pretty lady you are."
+
+Mrs. Dove's intentions were frustrated, for the maid of the inn knocked
+at the door with a message that the coach had orders not to wait, but
+that Miss was to come down immediately.
+
+"Dear, dear!" sighed Mrs. DOve.  "Tell the jackanapes not to be so
+hasty.  He must give the young lady time to change her dress, and eat
+a mouthful."
+
+This brought Dove up to the door.  "Never mind dressing and fallals,"
+he said; "this is a strange fellow that says he is hired for the job,
+and his orders are precise.  Miss must take a bit of cake in her hand.
+Come, dame, you have not lived so long in my Lady's service as to
+forget what it is to cross her will, or keep her waiting."
+
+Therewith he hurried Aurelia down stairs, his wife being in such a
+state of _deshabille_ that she could not follow.  He handed the young
+lady into the carriage, gave her a parcel of slices of bread and meat,
+with a piece of cake, shut the door, and said, "Be of good heart,
+Missie, we'll catch you up by the time you are in the square.  All
+right!"
+
+Off went Aurelia in solitude, within a large carriage, once gaily
+fitted though now somewhat faded and tarnished.  She was sorry to be
+parted from the Doves, whom she wanted to give her courage for the
+introduction to my Lady, and to explain to her the wonders of the
+streets of London, which she did not _quite_ expect to see paved
+with gold!  She ate her extemporised meal, gazing from the window,
+and expecting to see houses and churches thicken on her, and hurrying
+to brush away her crumbs, and put on her gloves lest she should arrive
+unawares, for she had counted half-a-dozen houses close together.
+No! here was another field!  More fields and houses.  The signs of
+habitation were, so far from increasing, growing more scanty, and
+looked strangely like what she had before passed.  Could this be the
+right road!  How foolish to doubt, when this was my Lady's own coach.
+But oh, that it had waited for Mrs. Dove!  She would beg her to get
+in when the riders overtook her.  When would they?  No sign of them
+could be seen from the windows, and here were more houses.  Surely
+this was Turnham Green again, or there must be another village green
+exactly like it in the heart of London.  How many times did not poor
+Aurelia go through all these impressions in the course of the drive.
+She was absolutely certain that she was taken through Brentford again,
+this time without a halt; but after this the country became unknown
+to her, and the road much worse.  It was in fact for the most part
+a mere ditch or cart track, so rough that the four horses came to a
+walk.  Aurelia had read no novels but _Telemaque_ and _Le Grand Cyrus_,
+so her imagination was not terrified by tales of abduction, but alarm
+began to grow upon her.  She much longed to ask the coachman whither
+he was taking her, but the check string had been either worn out or
+removed; she could not open the door from within, nor make him hear,
+and indeed she was a little afraid of him.
+
+Twilight began to come on; it was much later than Mr. Dove had ever
+ventured to be out, but here at last there was a pause, and the swing
+of a gate, the road was smoother and she seemed to be in a wood,
+probably private ground.  On and on, for an apparently interminable
+time, went the coach with the wearied and affrighted girl, through
+the dark thicket, until at last she emerged, into a park, where she
+could again see the pale after-glow of the sunset, and presently she
+found herself before a tall house, perfectly dark, with strange
+fantastic gables and chimneys, ascending far above against the sky.
+
+All was still as death, except the murmuring caws of the rooks in
+their nests, and the chattering shriek of a startled blackbird.  The
+servant from behind ran up the steps and thundered at the door; it
+was opened, a broad line of light shone out, some figures appeared,
+and a man in livery came forward to open the carriage door, but to
+Aurelia's inexpressible horror, his face was perfectly black, with
+negro features, rolling eyes, and great white teeth!
+
+She hardly knew what she did, the dark carriage was formidable on one
+side, the apparition on the other!  The only ray of comfort was in
+the face of a stout, comely, rosy maid-servant, who was holding the
+candle on the threshold, and with one bound the poor traveller
+dashed past the black hand held out to help her, and rushing up to
+the girl, caught hold of her, and gasped out, "Oh!  What is that?
+Where am I?  Where have they taken me?"
+
+"Lawk, ma'am," said the girl, with a broad grin, "that 'ere bees only
+Mr. Jumbo.  A' won't hurt'ee.  See, here's Mistress Aylward."
+
+A tall, white-capped, black-gowned elderly woman turned on the new-
+comer a pale, grave, unsmiling face, saying, "Your servant--Miss
+Aurelia Delavie, as I understand."
+
+Bending her head, and scarcely able to steady herself, for she was
+shaking from head to foot, Aurelia managed to utter the query,
+
+"Where am I?"
+
+"At Bowstead Park, madam, by order of my Lady."
+
+Much relieved, and knowing this was the Belamour estate, Aurelia said,
+"Please let me wait till Mrs. Dove comes before I am presented to my
+Lady."
+
+"My Lady is not here, madam," said Mrs. Aylward.  "Allow me--" and
+she led the way across a great empty hall, that seemed the vaster
+for its obscurity, then along a matted passage, and down some steps
+into a room surrounded with presses and cupboards, evidently belonging
+to the to the housekeeper.  She set a chair for the trembling girl,
+saying, "You will excuse the having supper here to-night, madam; the
+south parlour will be ready for you to-morrow."
+
+"Is not Mrs. Dove coming?" faintly asked Aurelia.
+
+"Mrs. Dove is gone to London to attend on little Master Wayland.  You
+are to be here with the young ladies, ma'am."
+
+"What young ladies?" asked the bewildered maiden.
+
+"My Lady's little daughters--the Misses Wayland.  I thought she had
+sent you her instructions; but I see you are over wearied and daunted,"
+she added, more kindly; "you will be better when you have taken some
+food.  Molly, I say, you sluggard of a wench, bring the lady's supper,
+and don't stand gaping there."
+
+Mrs. Aylward hurried away to hasten operations, and Aurelia began
+somewhat to recover her senses, though she was still so much dismayed
+that she dreaded to look up lest she should see something frightful,
+and started at the first approach of steps.
+
+A dainty little supper was placed before her, but she was too faint
+and sick at heart for appetite, and would have excused herself.
+However, Mrs. Aylward severely said she would have no such folly,
+filled a glass of wine, and sternly administered it; then setting
+her down in a large chair, helped her to a delicate cutlet.  She
+ate for very fright, but her cheeks and eyes were brightened, the
+mists of terror and exhaustion began to clear away, and when she
+accepted a second help, she had felt herself reassured that she had
+not fallen into unkindly hands.  If she could only have met a smile
+she would have been easier, but Mrs. Aylward was a woman of sedate
+countenance and few words, and the straight set line of lips
+encouraged no questioning, so she merely uttered thanks for each
+act of hospitality.
+
+"There!  You will take no more roll?  You are better, now, but you
+will not be sorry to go to your bed," said Mrs. Aylward, taking up
+a candle, and guiding her along the passage up a long stair to a
+pretty room wainscoted and curtained with fresh white dimity, and
+the window showing the young moon pale in the light of the western
+sky.
+
+Bedrooms were little furnished, and this was more luxurious than the
+dear old chamber at home, but the girl had never before slept alone,
+and she felt unspeakably lonely in the dreariness, longing more than
+ever for Betty's kiss--even for Betty's blame--or for a whine from
+Harriet; and she positively hungered for a hug from Eugene, as she
+gazed timidly at the corners beyond the influence of her candle; and
+instead of unpacking the little riding mail she kissed it, and laid
+her cheek on it as the only thing that came from home, and burst into
+a flood of despairing tears.
+
+In the midst, there fell on her ears a low strain of melancholy music
+rising and falling like the wailing of mournful spirits.  She sprang
+to her feet and stood listening with dilated eyes; then, as a louder
+note reached her, in terror uncontrollable, she caught up her candle,
+rushed down the stairs like a wild bird, and stood panting before Mrs.
+Aylward, who had a big Bible open on the table before her.
+
+"Oh, ma'am," she cried, between her panting sobs, "I can't stay there!
+I shall die!"
+
+"What means this, madam?" said Mrs. Aylward, stiffly, making the word
+sound much like "foolish child."
+
+"The--the music!" she managed faintly to utter, falling again into the
+friendly chair.
+
+"The music?" said Mrs. Aylward, considering; then with a shade of
+polite contempt, "O! Jumbo's fiddle!  I did not know it could be
+heard in your room, but no doubt the windows below are open."
+
+"Is Jumbo that black man?" asked Aurelia, shuddering; for negro
+servants, though the fashion in town, had not penetrated into
+the west.
+
+"Mr. Belamour's blackamoor.  He often plays to him half the night."
+
+"Oh!" with another quivering sound of alarm; "is Mr. Belamour the
+gentleman in the dark?"
+
+"Even so, madam, but you need have no fears.  He keeps his room and
+admits no one, though he sometimes walks out by night.  You will only
+have to keep the children from a noise making near his apartments.
+Good night, madam."
+
+"Oh, pray, if I do not disturb you, would you be pleased to let me stay
+till you have finished your chapter; I might not be so frightened then."
+
+In common humanity Mrs. Aylward could not refuse, and Aurelia sat
+silently grasping the arms of her chair, and trying to derive all
+the comfort she could from the presence of a Bible and a good woman.
+Her nerves were, in fact, calmed by the interval, and when Mrs.
+Aylward took off her spectacles and shut up her book, it had become
+possible to endure the terrors of the lonely chamber.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.  THE ENCHANTED CASTLE.
+
+
+    A little she began to lose her fear.--MORRIS.
+
+
+Aurelia slept till she was wakened by a bounce at the door, and the
+rattling of the lock, but it was a little child's voice that was
+crying, "I will! I will! I will go in and seem by cousin!"
+
+Then came Mrs. Aylward's severe voice: "No, miss, you are not to waken
+your cousin.  Come away.  Where is that slut, Jenny?"
+
+Then there was a scuffle and a howl, as if the child were being
+forcibly carried away.  Aurelia sprang out of bed, for sunshine was
+flooding the room, and she felt accountable for tardiness.  She had
+made some progress in dressing, when again little hands were on the
+lock, little feet kicking the door, and little voices calling, "Let
+me in."
+
+She opened the door, and white nightgowns, all tumbled back one over
+the other.
+
+"My little cousins," she said, "come and kiss me."
+
+One came forward and lifted up a sweet little pale face, but the other
+two stood, each with a finger in the mouth, right across the threshold,
+in a manner highly inconvenient to Aurelia, who was only in her stiff
+stays and dimity petticoat, with a mass of hair hanging down below her
+waist.  She turned to them with arms out-stretched, but this put them
+instantly to the rout, and they ran off as fast as their bare pink
+feet could carry them, till one stumbled, and lay with her face down
+and her plump legs kicking in the air.  Aurelia caught her up, but
+the capture produced a powerful yell, and out, all at once hurried
+into the corridor, Mrs. Aylward, a tidy maid servant, a stout, buxom
+countrywoman, and a rough girl, scarcely out of bed, but awake enough
+to snatch the child out of the young lady's arms, and carry her off.
+The housekeeper began scolding vigorously all round, and Aurelia
+escaped into her room, where she completed her toilette, looking out
+into a garden below, laid out in the formal Dutch fashion, with walks
+and beds centring in a fountain, the grass plats as sharply defined
+as possible, and stiff yews and cypresses dotted at regular intervals
+or forming straight alleys.  She felt strange and shy, but the sunshine,
+the cheerfulness, and the sight of the children, had reassured her, and
+when she had said her morning prayer, she had lost the last night's
+sense of hopeless dreariness and unprotectedness.  When another knock
+came, she opened the door cheerfully, but there was a chill in meeting
+Mrs. Aylward's grave, cold face, and stiff salutation.  "If you are
+ready, madam," she said, "I will show you to the south parlour, where
+the children will eat with you."
+
+Aurelia ventured to ask about her baggage, and was told that it would
+be forwarded from Brentford.  Mrs. Aylward then led the way to a wide
+stone staircase, with handsome carved balusters, leading down into the
+great hall, with doors opening from all sides.  All was perfectly
+empty, and so still, that the sweep of the dresses, and the tap of the
+heels made an echo; and the sunshine, streaming in at the large window,
+marked out every one upon the floor, in light and shadow, and exactly
+repeated the brown-shaded, yellow-framed medallions of painted glass
+upon the pavement.  There was something awful and oppressive in the
+entire absence of all tokens of habitation, among those many closed
+doors.
+
+One, however, at the foot of the stairs was opened by Mrs. Aylward.
+It led to a sort of narrow lobby, with a sashed window above a low
+door, opening on stone steps down to the terrace and garden.  To
+the right was an open door, giving admittance to a room hung with
+tapestry, with a small carpet in the centre of the floor, and a table
+prepared for the morning meal.  There was a certain cheerfulness about
+it, though it was bare of furniture; but there was an easy chair, a
+settee, a long couch, a spinnet, and an embroidery frame, so that
+altogether it had capabilities of being lived in.
+
+"Here you will sit, madam, with the young ladies," said Mrs. Aylward.
+"They have a maid-servant who will wait on you, and if you require
+anything, you will be pleased to speak to me.  My Lady wishes you to
+take charge of them, and likewise to execute the piece of embroidery
+you will find in that frame, with the materials.  This will be your
+apartment, and you can take the young ladies into the garden and
+park, wherever you please, except that they must not make a noise
+before the windows of the other wing, which you will see closed with
+shutters, for those are Mr. Belamour's rooms."
+
+With these words Mrs. Aylward curtsied as if about to retire, Aurelia
+held out her hand in entreaty.  "Oh, cannot you stay with me?"
+
+"No, madam, my office is the housekeeper's," was the stiff response.
+"Molly will call me if you require my services.  I think you said you
+preferred bread and milk for breakfast.  Dinner will be served at one."
+
+Mrs. Aylward retreated, leaving a chill on the heart of the lonely girl.
+
+She was a clergyman's widow, though with no pretensions to gentility,
+and was a plain, conscientious, godly woman, but with the narrow self-
+concentrated piety of the time, which seemed to ignore all the active
+part of the duty to our neighbour.  She had lived many years as a
+faithful retainer to the Belamour family, and avoided perplexity by
+minding no one's business but her own, and that thoroughly.  Naturally
+reserved, and disapproving much that she saw around her, she had never
+held it to be needful to do more than preserve her own integrity, and
+the interests of her employers, and she made it a principle to be in
+no wise concerned in family affairs, and to hold aloof from perilous
+confidences.
+
+Thus Aurelia was left to herself, till three bowls of milk were borne
+in by Molly, who was by no means loth to speak.
+
+"The little misses will be down directly, ma'am," she said, "that is,
+two on 'em.  The little one, she won't leave Jenny Bowles, but Dame
+Wheatfield, she'll bring down the other two.  You see, ma'am, they be
+only just taken home from being out at nurse, and don't know one
+another, nor the place, and a pretty handful we shall have of 'em."
+
+Here came a call for Molly, and the girl with a petulant exclamation,
+sped away, leaving Aurelia to the society of the tapestry.  It was of
+that set of Gobelin work which represents the four elements personified
+by their goddesses, and Aurelia's mythology, founded on Fenelon, was
+just sufficient to enable her to recognise the forge of Vulcan and the
+car [chariot--D.L.] of Venus.  Then she looked at the work prepared
+for her, a creamy piece of white satin, and a most elaborate pattern
+of knots of roses, lilacs, hyacinths, and laburnums, at which her heart
+sank within her.  However, at that moment the stout woman she had seen
+in the morning appeared at the open door with a little girl in each
+hand, both in little round muslin caps, long white frocks, and blue
+sashes.
+
+One went up readily to Aurelia and allowed herself to be kissed, and
+lifted to a chair; the other clung to Dame Wheatfield, in spite of
+coaxing entreaties.  "Speak pretty, my dear; speak to the pretty lady.
+Don't ye see how good your sister is?  It won't do, miss," to Aurelia;
+"she's daunted, is  my pretty lamb.  If I might just give her her
+breakwist--for it is the last time I shall do it--then she might get
+used to you before my good man comes for me."
+
+Aurelia was only too glad to instal Dame Wheatfield in a chair with
+her charge in her lap.  The other child was feeding herself very
+tidily and independently, and Aurelia asked her if she were the eldest.
+
+"Yes," she said.
+
+"And what shall I call you, my dear?"
+
+"I'm Missy."
+
+"No, Missy, me--me eldest," cried the other.
+
+"Bless the poor children!" exclaimed Mrs. Wheatfield, laughing, "they
+be both of 'em eldest, as one may say."
+
+"They are twins, then?" said Aurelia.
+
+"More than that--all three of them came together!  I've heard tell of
+such a thing once or twice, but never of all living and thriving.  Folk
+said it was a judgment on my Lady that she spoke sharp and hard to a
+poor beggar woman with a child on each arm.  It was not a week out
+before my Lady herself was down, quite unexpected, as I may say, for
+she was staying here for a week, with a lot of company, when these
+three was born.  They do say she was nigh beside herself that the like
+of that should have happened to her.  Mr. Wayland, he was not so ill
+pleased, but the poor little things had to be got out of the house any
+way, for she could not abear to hear of them.  Mrs. Rolfe, as was an
+old servant of the family, took that one, and I was right glad to have
+you, my pretty one, for I had just lost my babe at a fortnight old,
+and the third was sent to Goody Bowles, for want of a better.  They
+says as how my Lady means to bring them out one by one, and to make
+as this here is bigger, and the other up stairs is lesser, and never
+let on that they are all of an age."
+
+The good gossip must have presumed greatly on the children's want of
+comprehension if she did not suppose that they understood her at least
+as well as the young lady to whom her dialect was strange.
+
+"And has she not seen them?"
+
+"Never till last Monday, if you'll believe me miss, when she drove
+down in her coach, and the children were all brought home.  I thought
+she might have said something handsome, considering the poor little
+babe as my Missy here was when I had her--not so long as my hand--and
+scarce able to cry enough to show she was alive.  The work I and my
+good man had with her!  He would walk up and down half the night with
+her.  Not as we grudged it.  He is as fond of the child as myself;
+and Mr. Wayland, he knew it.  'She has a good nurse, dame,' says he
+to me, with the water in his eyes, before he went to foreign parts.
+But my Lady!  When the little one as had been with Goody Bowles--an
+ignorant woman, you see--cried and clung to her, and kicked, 'Little
+savages all,' says my Lady.  There was thanks to them that had had
+more work to rear her children than ever with one of her own!  'Perfect
+little rustics!' she said, even when you made your curtsey as pretty
+as could be, didn't you, my little lammie?"
+
+"Mammy Rolfe taught me to make my curtsey like a London lady," said
+the other child, the most advanced in manners.
+
+"Aha! little pitchers have long ears; but, bless you, they don't know
+what it means," said Dame Wheatfield, too glad to talk to check herself
+on any account; "Not so much as a kiss for them, poor little darlings!
+Folks say she does not let even Master Wayland kiss aught but her hands
+for fear of her fine colours.  A plague on such colours, I say."
+
+"Poor little things!" whispered Aurelia.
+
+"You'll be good to them, won't you miss?"
+
+"Indeed I hope so!  I am only just come from home, and they will be
+all I have to care for here."
+
+"Ay, you must be lonesome in this big place; but I'm right glad to
+have seen you, miss; I can part with the little dear with a better
+heart, for Mrs. Aylward don't care for children, and Jenny Bowles
+is a rough wench, wrapped up in her own child, and won't be no good
+to the others.  Go to the lady, my precious," she added, trying to
+put the little girl into her cousin's lap, but this was met with
+struggles, and vehement cries of--
+
+"No; stay with mammy!"
+
+The little sister, who had not brought her nurse, was, however, well
+contented to be lifted to Aurelia's knee, and returned her caresses.
+
+"And have you not a name, my dear?  We can't call you all missie."
+
+"Fay," the child lisped; "Fayfiddly Wayland."
+
+"Lawk-a-daisy!"  and Mrs. Wheatfield fell back laughing.  "I'll tell
+you how it was, ma'am.  When no one thought they would live an hour,
+Squire Wayland he sent for parson and had 'em half baptised Faith,
+Hope, and Charity.  They says his own mother's was called Faith, and
+the other two came natural after it, and would do as well to be buried
+by as aught.  So that's what she means by Fay, and this here is Miss
+Charity."
+
+"She said something besides Faith."
+
+"Well, when my lady got about again, they say if she was mad at their
+coming all on a heap, she was madder still at their name.  Bible
+wasn't grand enough for her!  I did hear tell that she throwed her
+slipper at her husband's head, and was like to go into fits.  So to
+content her he came down, and took each one to Church, and had a fine
+London name of my Lady's choosing tacked on in parson's register for
+them to go by; but to my mind it ain't like their christened name.
+Mine here got called for her share Amoretta."
+
+"A little Love," cried Aurelia.  "Oh, that is pretty.  And what can
+your name be, my dear little Fay?  Will you tell me again?"
+
+When repeated, it was plainly Fidelia, and it appeared that Hope had
+been also called Letitia.  As to age, Mrs. Wheatfield knew it was five
+years last Michaelmas since the child had been brought to her from
+whom she was so loth to part that she knew not how to go when her
+husband came for her in his cart.  He was a farmer, comfortably off,
+though very homely, and there were plenty of children at home, so that
+she had been ill spared to remain at the Park till Aurelia's arrival.
+Thus she took the opportunity of going away while the little one was
+asleep.
+
+Aurelia asked where she lived now.  At Sedhurst, in the next parish,
+she was told; but she would not accept a promise that her charge
+should soon be brought to visit her.  "Better not, ma'am, thank you
+all the same, not till she's broke in.  She'll pine the less if she
+don't see nor hear nothing about the old place, nor Daddy and Sally
+and Davie.  If you bring her soon, you'll never get her away again.
+That's the worst of a nurse-child.  I was warned.  It just breaks
+your heart!"
+
+So away went the good foster-mother sobbing; and Aurelia's charge
+began.  Fay claimed her instantly to explore the garden and house.
+The child had been sent home alone on the sudden illness of her
+nurse, and had been very forlorn, so that her cousin's attention
+was a great boon to her.  Hope was incited to come out; but Jenny
+Bowles kept a jealous watch over her, and treated every one else
+as an enemy; and before Aurelia's hat was on, came the terrible
+woe of Amoret's awakening.  Her sobs and wailings for her mammy
+were entirely beyond the reach of Aurelia's soothings and caresses,
+and were only silenced by Molly's asseveration that the black man
+was at the door ready to take her into the dark room.  That this
+was no phantom was known to the poor child, and was a lurking
+horror to Aurelia herself.  No wonder that the little thing clung
+to her convulsively, and would not let her hand go for the rest of
+the day, every now and then moaning out entreaties to go home to
+mammy.
+
+With the sad little being hanging to her hand, Aurelia was led by Fay
+round their new abiding place.  The house was of brick, shaped like
+the letter H, Dutch, and with a tall wing, at each end of the main
+body, projecting, and finishing in fantastic gables edged with stone.
+One of these square wings was appropriated to Aurelia and her charges,
+the other to the recluse Mr. Belamour.  The space that lay between
+the two wings, on the garden front, was roofed over, and paved with
+stone, descending in several broad shallow steps at the centre and
+ends, guarded at each angle by huge carved eagles, the crest of the
+builder, of the most regular patchwork, and kept, in spite of the
+owner's non-residence, in perfect order.  The strange thing was that
+this fair and stately place, basking in the sunshine of early June,
+should be left in complete solitude save for the hermit in the
+opposite wing, the three children, and the girl, who felt as though
+in a kind of prison.
+
+The sun was too hot for Aurelia to go out of doors till late in the
+day, when the shadow of the house came over the steps.  She was
+sitting on one, with Amoret nestled in her lap, and was crooning an
+old German lullaby of Nannerl's, which seemed to have a wonderful
+effect in calming the child, who at last fell into a doze.  Aurelia
+had let her voice die away, and had begun to think over her strange
+situation, when she was startled by a laugh behind her, and looking
+round, hardly repressed a start or scream, at the sight of Fay
+enjoying a game at bo-peep, with--yes--it actually was--the negro--
+over the low-sashed door.
+
+"I beg pardon, ma'am," said Jumbo, twitching his somewhat grizzled
+wool; "I heard singing, and little missy--"
+
+Unfortunately Amoret here awoke, and with a shriek of horror cowered
+in her arms.
+
+"I am so sorry," said Aurelia, anxious not to hurt his feelings.
+"She knows no better."
+
+Jumbo grinned, bowed, and withdrew, Fay running after him, for she
+had made friends with him during her days of solitude, being a
+fearless child, and not having been taught to make a bugbear of
+him.  "The soot won't come off," she said.
+
+Aurelia had not a moment to herself till Fay had said the Lord's
+prayer at her knee, and Amoret, with much persuasion, had been
+induced to lisp out--
+
+                  "Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
+                   Bless the bed I sleep upon;
+                   Four corners to by bed,
+                   Four angles round my head,
+                   One to read and one to write,
+                   And two to guard my soul at night."
+
+Another agony for mammy ensued, nor could Aurelia leave the child till
+sleep had hushed the wailings.  Then only could she take her little
+writing-case to begin her letter to Betty.  It would be an expensive
+luxury to her family, but she knew how it would be longed for; and
+though she cried a good deal over her writing, she felt as if she
+ought to make the best of her position, for had not Betty said it
+was for her father's sake?  No, her tears must not blot the paper,
+to distress those loving hearts.  Yet how the drops _would_ come,
+gathering fast and blinding her!  Presently, through the window,
+came the sweet mysterious strains of the violin, not terrifying her
+as before, but filling her with an inexpressible sense of peace and
+calmness.  She sat listening almost as one in a dream, with her pen
+suspended, and when the spell was broken by Molly's entrance with
+her supper, she went on in a much more cheerful strain than she had
+begun.  It was dull, and it was a pity that her grand wardrobe, to
+say nothing of Betty's good advice, should be wasted, but her sister
+would rejoice in her seclusion from the grand, fashionable world,
+and her heart went out to the poor little neglected children, whose
+mother could not bear the sight of them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.  THE TRIAD.
+
+
+    "I know sisters, sisters three."
+
+
+Ere many days had passed Aurelia had drifted into what would now
+be regarded as the duties of a nursery governess to her little
+companions.
+
+Fay and Amoret were always with her, and depended on her for everything.
+Jenny Bowles, with a sort of animal jealousy, tried to monopolise her
+charge, Letitia.  The child was attracted by the sounds of her sister's
+sports, and there was no keeping her from them, or from their cousin.
+Then the rude untaught Jenny became cross, moped, showed spite to the
+other children, and insolence to the young lady, and was fortunately
+overheard by Mrs. Aylward, and dismissed.  Letty did not seem to mind
+the loss as Amoret had felt that of her foster-mother, for indeed
+Jenny had been almost as disagreeable to her as to the others during
+these days of jealousy.
+
+The triad were not much alike: Amoret was the largest of the three,
+plump, blue-eyed, golden-haired, rosy-cheeked, a picture of the
+cherub-type of child; Letitia had the delicate Delavie features and
+complexion; and Fidelia, the least pretty, was pale, and rather sallow,
+with deep blue eyes set under a broad forehead and dark brows, with
+hair also dark.  Though the smallest, she was the most advanced, and
+showed signs of good training.  She had some notion of good manners,
+and knew as much of her hornbook [a child's primer consisting of a
+sheet of parchment or paper protected by a sheet of transparent horn
+--D.L.] and catechism as little girls of five were wont to know.  The
+other two were perfectly ignorant, but Mrs. Aylward procured hornbooks,
+primers, and slates, and Aurelia began their education in a small way.
+
+It was a curious life.  There was the great empty house, through whose
+long corridors and vacant rooms the children might wander at will,
+peeping at the swathed curtains of velvet pile, the rolls of carpet,
+and the tapestry pictures on the walls, running and shouting in the
+empty passages, or sometimes, in a fit of nameless fright, taking
+refuge in Aurelia's arms.  Or they might play in the stately garden,
+provided they trod on no borders, and meddled with neither flower
+nor fruit.  The old gardener began by viewing them as his natural
+enemies, but soon relaxed in amusement at their pretty sportive ways,
+gave them many precious spoils, and forgave more than one naughty
+little inroad, which greatly alarmed their guardian.
+
+Or if the little party felt enterprising, there lay beyond, the park,
+its slopes covered with wild strawberries, and with woods where they
+could gather flowers unchecked.  Further, there was no going, except
+on alternate Sundays, when there was service in the tumble-down Church
+at the park gate.  It was in far worse condition than the Church at
+home, and was served by a poor forlorn-looking curate, who lived at
+Brentford, and divided his services between four parishes, each of
+which was content to put up with a fortnightly alternate morning and
+evening service.  The Belamour seat was a square one, without the
+comfortable appliances of the Delavie closet, and thus permitting
+a much fuller view, but there was nothing to be seen except a row
+of extremely gaudy Belamour hatchments, displaying to the full, the
+saltir-wise sheafs of arrows on the shields or lozenges, supported
+by grinning skulls.  The men's shields preserved their eagle crest,
+the women had only lozenges, and the family motto, _Amo et Amabo_,
+was exchanged for the more pious "_Resurgam_."
+
+Aurelia found that the family seat, whither she was marshalled by Mrs.
+Aylward, was already occupied by two ladies, who rose up, and made her
+stately curtsies with a decidedly disgusted air, although there was
+ample space for her and Fidelia, the only one of her charges whom
+she had ventured to take with her.  They wore the black hoods, laced
+boddices, long rolls of towering curl and open upper skirts, of Queen
+Anne's day, and in the eyes of thirty years' later, looked so
+ridiculous that Fay could not but stare at them the whole time, and
+whenever Aurelia turned her glances from her book to see whether her
+little companion was behaving herself, the big blue considering eyes
+were always levelled full upon the two forms before her.
+
+The ladies were in keeping with their dress, thin, stiff and angular,
+with worn and lined faces, highly rouged, and enormous long-handled
+fans, and Aurelia was almost as much astonished as the child.
+
+There was a low curtseying again, and much ceremony before it was
+possible to get out of the pew, and the two ladies mounted at the
+door on lofty pattens which added considerably to their height, and,
+attended by a loutish-looking man in livery, who carried their books,
+stalked of into the village.
+
+Aurelia found from the communicative Molly that they were Mistress
+Phoebe and Mistress Delia Treforth, kinswomen of the Belamour family,
+who had in consequence a life residence rent-free in a tall thin red
+square house near the churchyard, where a very gay parrot was always
+to be seen in the windows.  They no doubt regarded Miss Delavie and
+the little Waylands as interlopers at Bowstead, and their withering
+glances made Church-going a trying affair--indeed the first time
+that Aurelia took little Amoret, they actually drove the sensitive
+child into a sobbing fit, so that she had to be carried out, begging
+to know why those ladies looked so cross at her.
+
+The life, on the whole, was not unhappy, except for fits of homesickness
+and longing for letters.  The arrival of the boxes from the carrier was
+the first comfort, and then at last came a thick letter from home,
+franked by Sir George Herries, and containing letters from everybody--
+even a few roundhand lines from Eugene.
+
+Her father wrote at length all the excellent moral and religious essay
+which had stuck in his throat at the parting; neither was Betty's
+letter deficient in good advice, though she let it appear that the
+family were much amused at Lady Belamour's affliction in her triad
+of daughters, the secret having been hitherto so carefully kept that
+they supposed her to have only one.
+
+"It will be your Charge," wrote Betty, "so far as in you lies, to
+render them not merely the Graces, as my Father terms them, but the
+true and faithful Guardian to these Infant Spirits.  Though their
+Mother has shown no Care or heed in entrusting them to you, yet
+remember that it is truly the good Providence of their Heavenly
+Father that has put these little Children of His in your Charge, to
+receive from you the first Principles of Religion and Morals which
+may mould their whole Lives; and I trust that you will do the Work
+faithfully and successfully.  It may be dull and tedious at Bowstead,
+but I had much rather hear of you thus than exposed to the Glare of
+My Lady's Saloon in London.  No doubt Harriet has write to you of
+the Visit of young Sir Amyas, the Sunday after your departure.  We
+have since heard that his expedition to Monmouthshire was with a View
+to his marriage to Lady Aresfield's Daughter, and this may well be,
+so that if he fall in your way, you will be warned against putting
+any misconstruction on any Civil Attentions he may pay to you.  Ever
+since your Departure Mr. Arden has redoubled his Assiduities in a
+certain Quarter, and as it is thought the Dean and Chapter are not
+unlikely to present him to a good Vicarage in Buckinghamshire, it
+is not unlikely that ere long you may hear of a Wedding in the
+Family, although Harriet would be extremely angry with me for daring
+to give such a Hint."
+
+Certainly Aurelia would not have gathered the hint from Harriet's
+letter, which was very sentimental about her own loneliness and lack
+of opportunity, in contrast with Aurelia, who was seeing the world.
+That elegant beau, Sir Amyas, had just given a sample to tantalise
+their rusticity, and then had vanished; and here was that oddity,
+Mr. Arden, more wearisome and pertinacious than ever.  So tiresome!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.  THE DARK CHAMBER.
+
+
+    Or singst thou rather under force
+       Of some Divine command,
+    Commissioned to presage a course
+       Of happier days at hand?
+                              COWPER.
+
+
+Aurelia was coming down stairs in the twilight after singing her
+charges to sleep about three weeks after her arrival, when she saw
+Jumbo waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
+
+She had long ceased to be afraid of him.  Indeed he had quite amazed
+her by his good-nature in helping to lift down naughty little Letitia,
+who was clambering up to the window of his master's chamber to look
+through the crevices of the shutters.  He had given the children a
+gaily dressed rag doll, and was as delighted as they were when he
+played his fiddle to them and set them dancing.
+
+Still, the whites of his eyes, his shining teeth, and the gold lace of
+his livery had a startling effect in the darkness, and Aurelia wished
+he would move away; but he was evidently waiting for her, and when she
+came near he addressed her thus, "Mis'r Belamour present compliment,
+and would Miss Delavie be good enough to honour him with her company
+for a short visit?"
+
+The girl started, dismayed, alarmed, yet unwilling to be unkind to the
+poor recluse, while she hoped that decorum and propriety would put the
+visit out of the question.  She replied that she would ask Mrs. Aylward
+whether she might, and Jumbo followed her to the still-room, saying on
+the way, "Mas'r heard Miss Delavie sing.  He always has the window
+opened to hear her.  It makes him hum the air--be merry.  He has not
+asked to speak with lady since he heard the bad news--long, long, ago."
+
+Then Aurelia felt that nothing short of absolute impropriety ought to
+make her gratify her shrinking reluctance.  Mrs. Aylward seemed to
+think her doubts uncalled for, and attributed her hesitation to fear
+of the dark room.
+
+"Oh, no I am not so childish," said the young lady with nervous dignity;
+"but would it be proper?"
+
+"Bless me, madam, he is as old as your father, and as civil a gentleman
+as lives.  I would come in with you but that I am expecting Mr. Potts
+with the tallies.  You need have no scruples."
+
+There was no excuse nor escape, and Aurelia followed the negro in
+trepidation.  Crossing the hall, he opened for her the door of the
+lobby corresponding to her own, and saying, "Allow me, ma'am,"
+passed before her, and she heard another door unclosed, and a
+curtain withdrawn.  Beyond she only saw a gulf of darkness, but
+out of it came a deep manly voice, subdued and melancholy, but
+gentlemanlike and deferential.
+
+"The young lady is so kind as to come and cheer the old hermit.  A
+thousand thanks, madam.  Permit me."
+
+Aurelia's hand was taken by one soft for want of use, and she was led
+forward on a deep piled carpet, and carefully placed on a chair in the
+midst of the intense black darkness.  There was a little movement and
+then the voice said, "I am most sensible of your goodness, madam."
+
+"I--I am glad.  You are very good, sir," murmured Aurelia, oppressed
+by the gloom and the peculiar atmosphere, cool--for the windows were
+open behind the shutters--but strangely fragrant.
+
+"How does my excellent friend, Major Delavie?"
+
+"I thank you, sir, he is well, though his wound troubles him from time
+to time."
+
+"Commend me to him when you write, if you are good enough to remember
+it."
+
+"I thank you, sir.  He will be rejoiced to hear of you."
+
+"He does me too much honour."
+
+These conventionalities being exhausted, a formidable pause ensued,
+first broken by Mr. Belamour, "May I ask how my fair visitor likes
+Bowstead?"
+
+"It is a fine place, sir."
+
+"But somewhat lonely for so youthful a lady?"
+
+"I have the children, sir."
+
+"I often hear their cheerful voices."
+
+"I hope we do not disturb you, sir, I strive to restrain them, but I
+fear we are all thoughtless."
+
+"Nay, the innocent sounds of mirth ring sweetly on my ears, like the
+notes of birds.  And when I have heard a charming voice singing to the
+little ones, I have listened with delight.  Would it be too presumptuous
+to beg the air songstress to repeat her song for the old recluse?"
+
+"O, sir, I have only nursery ditties, caught from our old German maid,"
+cried Aurelia, in dismay.
+
+"That might not diminish the charm to me," he said.  "In especial
+there was one song whose notes Jumbo caught as you accompanied
+yourself on the spinnet."
+
+And Jumbo, who seemed able to see in the dark, played a bar on his
+violin, while Aurelia trembled with shyness.
+
+"The Nightingale Song," she said.  "My dear mother learnt the tune
+abroad.  And I believe that she herself made the English words, when
+she was asked what the nightingales say."
+
+"May I hear it?  Nightingales can sing in the dark."  Refusal was
+impossible, and Jumbo's violin was a far more effective accompaniment
+than her own very moderate performance on the spinnet; so in a sweet,
+soft, pure, untrained and trembling voice, she sang--
+
+
+"O Life and Light are sweet, my dear,
+   O life and Light are sweet;
+ But sweeter still the hope and cheer
+   When Love and Life shall meet.
+ Oh! then it is most sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet.
+
+"But Love puts on the yoke, my dear,
+   But Love puts on the yoke;
+ The dart of Love calls forth the tear,
+   As though the heart were broke.
+ The very heart were broke, broke, broke, broke, broke, broke.
+
+"And Love can quench Life's Light, my dear,
+   Drear, dark, and melancholy;
+ Seek Light and Life and jocund cheer,
+   And mirth and pleasing folly.
+ Be thine, light-hearted folly, folly, folly, folly, folly, folly.
+
+"'Nay, nay,' she sang. 'yoke, pain, and tear,
+   For Love I gladly greet;
+ Light, Life, and Mirth are nothing here,
+   Without Love's bitter sweet.
+ Give me Love's bitter sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet.'"
+
+
+"Accept my fervent thanks, kind songstress.  So that is the
+nightingale's song, and your honoured mother's?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  My father often makes us sing it because it reminds him
+of her."
+
+"Philomel could not have found a better interpreter," said the
+grave voice, sounding so sad that Aurelia wished she could have
+sung something less affecting to his spirits.
+
+"I gather from what you said that you are no longer blessed with the
+presence of the excellent lady, your mother," presently added Mr.
+Belamour.
+
+"No, sir.  We lost her seven years ago."
+
+"And her husband mourns her still.  Well he may.  She was a rare
+creature.  So she is gone!  I have been so long in seclusion that
+no doubt time has made no small havoc, and my friends have had
+many griefs to bewail."
+
+Aurelia knew not what answer to make, and was relieved when he
+collected himself and said:--
+
+"I will trespass no longer on my fair visitor's complaisance, but if
+she have not found the gloom of this apartment insupportable, it would
+be a charitable action to brighten it once more with her presence."
+
+"O sir, I will come whenever you are pleased to send for me," she
+exclaimed, all her doubts, fears, and scruples vanishing at his tone
+of entreaty.  "My father would be so glad.  I will practise my best
+song to sing to you to-morrow."
+
+"My best thanks are yours," and her hand was taken, she was carefully
+conducted to the door and dismissed with a gentle pressure of her
+fingers, and a courteous: "Goodnight, madam; _Au revoir_, if I may
+venture to say so."
+
+By contrast, the hall looked almost light, and Aurelia could see the
+skip of joy with which Jumbo hurried to fetch a candle.  As he gave
+it to her, he made his teeth flash from ear to ear, as he exclaimed:
+"Pretty missy bring new life to mas'r!"
+
+Thus did a new element come into Aurelia's life.  She carefully
+prepared Harriet's favourite song, a French _romance_, but Mr.
+Belamour did not like it equally well with the Nightingale, which
+he made her repeat, rewarding her by telling her of the charming
+looks and manners of her mother, so that she positively enjoyed
+her visit.  The next night he made inquiries into her walks at
+Bowstead, asking after the favourite nooks of his childhood, and
+directing her to the glades where grew the largest dewberries and
+sweetest blackberries.  This led to her recital of a portion of
+_Midsummer Night's Dream_, for he drew her on with thanks at every
+pause: "I have enjoyed no such treat for many years," he said.
+
+"There are other pieces that I can recite another time," said
+Aurelia timidly.
+
+"You will confer a great favour on me," he answered.
+
+So she refreshed her memory by a mental review of _Paradise Lost_ over
+her embroidery frame, and was ready with Adam's morning hymn, which
+was much relished.  Compliments on her elocution soon were turned by
+her into the praise of "sister," and as she became more at ease, the
+strange man in the dark listened with evident delight to her pretty
+fresh prattle about sister and brother, and father and home.  Thus
+it had become a daily custom that she should spend the time between
+half past seven and nine in the company of the prisoner of darkness,
+and she was beginning to look forward to it as the event of the day.
+She scarcely expected to be sent for on Sunday evening, but Jumbo
+came as usual with the invitation, and she was far from sorry to
+quit a worm-eaten Baxter's _Saints' Rest_ which she had dutifully
+borrowed from Mrs. Aylward.
+
+"Well, my fair visitor," said the voice which had acquired a tone of
+pleased anticipation, "what mental repast has your goodness provided?"
+
+"It is Sunday, sir."
+
+"Ah!" as if it had not occurred to him, and with some disappointment.
+
+"I could say the Psalms by heart, sir, if you would like it, for it
+is the 20th day of the month."
+
+"Thank you.  Your voice can make anything sweet."
+
+Aurelia was shocked, and knew that Betty would be more so, but she
+was too shy to do anything except to begin: "Praise thou the Lord,
+O my soul."
+
+It was a fortunate thing that it was a Psalm of such evident beauty,
+for it fell less familiarly on his ear than her passages from the
+poets.  At the end he said: "Yes, that is true poetry.  Praise fits
+well with happy young lips.  You have been to church?"
+
+"No, sir, Mr. Greaves does not come to-day."
+
+"Then how did the gentle saint perform her orisons?"
+
+"Please do not so call me, sir!  I tried to read the service, but I
+could not get the children to be still, so I had to tell them about
+Joseph, and I found a beautiful Bible full of pictures, like our
+Dutch one at home."
+
+"You found the old Bible?  My mother used to show it to my brother
+and me--my poor mother!"
+
+He mentioned one or two of the engravings, which he had never
+forgotten, but the evening was less of a success than usual, and
+Aurelia doubted whether we would wish for her that day se'nnight.
+All her dread of him was gone; she knew she had brought a ray of
+brightness into his solitary broken life, and her mind was much
+occupied with the means of affording him pleasure.  Indeed she
+might have wearied of the lack of all companionship save that of
+the young children; and converse with a clever highly cultivated
+mind was stimulating and expanding all her faculties.  When the
+stores or her memory were becoming exhausted, Jumbo was bidden
+to open a case of books which had lain untouched since they were
+sent sown from Mr. Belamour's chambers at the Temple, and they were
+placed at her disposal.  Here was Mr. Alexander Pope's translation
+of the _Iliad_ of Homer, which had appeared shortly before the fatal
+duel, and Aurelia eagerly learnt whole pages of it by heart for
+the evening's amusement, enjoying extremely the elucidations and
+criticisms of her auditor, who would dwell on a passage all day,
+beg to have it repeated a second time in the evening, and then
+tell her what his memory or his reflection had suggested about it.
+Moreover, having heard some inexplicable report, through Jumbo, of
+the Porteous mob, Mr. Belamour became curious to learn the truth,
+and this led to his causing the newspapers to be sent weekly to be
+read and reported to him by Aurelia.  It seemed incredible that a
+man of much ability should have been content to spend all these
+years in the negro's sole society, but no doubt the injury done
+to the brain had been aggravated by grief and remorse, so that he
+had long lain, with suspended faculties, in a species of living
+death; whence he had only gradually, and as it were unconsciously,
+advanced to his present condition.  Perhaps Mr. Wayland's endeavours
+to rouse him had come too soon, or in a less simple and attractive
+form, for they had been reluctantly received and had proved entirely
+unsuccessful; while the child-like efforts of the girl, following
+his lead instead of leading him, were certainly awakening him, and
+renewing his spirits and interest in the world at large in an
+unlooked-for manner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.  A VOICE FROM THE GRAVE.
+
+
+    He hath a word for thee to speak.
+                                  KEBLE.
+
+
+No difference was made to Aurelia's visits to Mr. Belamour on Sunday
+evenings, but he respected her scruples against indulgence in profane
+literature, and encouraged her to repeat passages of Scripture,
+beginning to taste the beauty of the grand cadences falling from her
+soft measured voice.  Thus had she come to the Sermon on the Mount,
+and found herself repeating the expansion of the Sixth Commandment
+ending with, "And thou be cast into prison.  Verily I say unto thee,
+thou shalt not come out thence until thou hast paid the uttermost
+farthing."
+
+A groan startled her.  Then came the passage and the unhappy man's
+history with a sudden stab.  A horror of the darkness fell on her.
+She felt as if he were in the prison and she reproaching him, and
+cried out--"O sir, forgive me.  I forgot; I did not say it on purpose."
+
+"No, my child, it was Mary speaking by your voice.  No, Mary, I shall
+never come out.  It will never be paid."
+
+She shook with fright as Jumbo touched her, saying, "Missee, go; mas'r
+bear no more;" but, as she rose to go away, a sweet impulse made her
+pause and say, "It is paid, _He_ paid.  You know Who did--in his own
+Blood."
+
+Jumbo drew her away almost by force, and when outside, exclaimed,
+"Missee never speak of blood or kill to mas'r--he not bear it.  Head
+turn again--see shapes as bad as ever."
+
+The poor child cried bitterly, calling herself cruel, thoughtless,
+presumptuous; and for the next few days Jumbo's eyes glared at her
+as he reported his master to be very ill; but, on the third day, he
+came for her as usual.  She thought Mr. Belamour's tones unwontedly
+low and depressed, but no reference was made to the Sunday, and she
+was glad enough to plunge into the council of Olympus.
+
+A day or two later, Dame Wheatfield sent her husband with an urgent
+invitation to Miss Amoret with her sisters and cousin to be present
+at her harvest home.  Mrs. Aylward, with a certain tone of contempt,
+gave her sanction to their going with Molly, by the help of the
+little pony cart used about the gardens.  Aurelia, in high glee,
+told Mr. Belamour, who encouraged her to describe all her small
+adventures, and was her oracle in all the difficult questions that
+Fidelia's childish wisdom was wont to start.
+
+"To Wheatfield's farm, did you say?  That is in Sedhurst.  There are
+but three fields between it and the church."
+
+Presently he added: "I am tempted to ask a great kindness, though I
+know not whether it will be possible to you."
+
+"Indeed, sir, I will do my utmost."
+
+"There are two graves in Sedhurst Church, I have never dared to
+inquire about them.  Would it be asking too much from my gentle
+friend to beg of her to visit them, and let me hear of them."
+
+"I will, I will, sir, with all my heart."
+
+By eight o'clock the next evening she was again with him, apologizing
+for being late.
+
+"I scarcely expected this pleasure to-night.  These rural festivities
+are often protracted."
+
+"O sir, I was heartily glad to escape and to get the children away.
+The people were becoming so rude and riotous that I was frightened.
+I never would have gone, had I known what it would be like, but at
+home the people are fond of asking us to their harvest feasts, and
+they always behave well whilst we are there."
+
+"No doubt they hold your father in respect."
+
+"Yes," said Aurelia, unwilling to tell him how much alarmed and
+offended she had been, though quite unintentionally.  Dame Wheatfield
+only intended hospitality; but in her eyes "Miss" was merely a poor
+governess, and that to the little Waylands--mere interlopers in the
+eyes of the Belamour tenantry.  So the good woman had no idea that
+the rough gallantry of the young farmer guests was inappropriate,
+viewing it as the natural tribute to her guest's beauty, and mistaking
+genuine offence for mere coyness, until, finding it was real earnest,
+considerable affront was taken at "young madam's fine airs, and she
+only a poor kinswoman of my Lady's!"  Quite as ill was it received
+that the young lady had remonstrated against the indigestible cakes
+and strange beverages administered to all her charges, and above all
+to Amoret.  She had made her escape on the plea of early hours for
+the children, leaving Molly behind her, just as the boisterous song
+was beginning in which Jack kisses Bet, Joe kisses Sue, Tom kisses
+Nan, &c. down to poor Dorothy Draggletail, who is left in the lurch.
+The farewell had been huffy.  "A good evening to you, madam; I am
+sorry our entertainment was not more to your taste."  She had felt
+guilty and miserable at the accusation of pride, and she could not
+imagine how Mrs. Aylward could have let her go without a warning;
+the truth being that Mrs. Aylward despised her taste, but thought
+she knew what a harvest supper was like.
+
+All this was passed over in silence by Aurelia's pride and delicacy.
+She only described the scene when the last waggon came in with its
+load, the horses decked with flowers and ribbons, and the farmer's
+youngest girl enthroned on the top of the shocks, upholding the
+harvest doll.  This was a little sheaf, curiously constructed and
+bound with straw plaits and ribbons.  The farmer, on the arrival in
+the yard, stood on the horse-block, and held it high over the heads
+of all the harvesters, and the chorus was raised:
+
+                 "A knack, a knack, a knack,
+                    Well cut, well bound,
+                    Well shocked, well saved from the ground,
+                  Whoop! whoop! whoop!"
+
+After which the harvest doll displaced her last year's predecessor
+over the hearth, where she was to hang till next year.
+
+All this Aurelia described, comparing the customs with those of her
+own county, her heart beating all the time under the doubt how to
+venture on describing the fulfilment of her commission.  At last Mr.
+Belamour said,
+
+"In such a scene of gaiety, no doubt the recollection of sorrow had
+no place."
+
+"O sir, you could not think I should forget."
+
+"I thought I might have asked more than was possible to you."
+
+"It was the only part of the day that I enjoyed.  I took little Fay
+with me, for no one seemed to care for her, while Amy was queening
+it with all the Wheatfields, and Letty was equally happy with her
+foster mother.  I could see the church spire, so I needed not to ask
+the way, and we crossed the stubble fields, while the sun sent a
+beautiful slanting light through the tall elm trees that closed in
+the churchyard, but let one window glitter between them like a great
+diamond.  It looked so peaceful after all the noise we left behind,
+even little Fay felt it, and said she loved the quiet walk along the
+green baulks [An unplowed strip of land--D.L.].  The churchyard has
+a wooden rail with steps to cross it on either side, and close under
+the church wall is a tomb, a great square simple block, surmounted
+by an urn."
+
+"Yes, let me hear," said the voice, eager, though stifled.
+
+"I thought it might be what you wished me to see and went up to read
+the names."
+
+"Do not spare.  Never fear.  Let me hear the very words."
+
+"On one face of the block there was a name--
+
+
+                   'WILLIAM SEDHURST,
+                        _AGED_ 27,
+                    DIED MAY 13, 1729.'
+
+
+On the other side was this inscription:--
+
+
+                        'MARY,
+        ONLY DAUGHTER OF GEORGE SEDHURST, ESQUIRE,
+                       _AGED_ 19,
+                 DIED AUGUST 1st, 1729.
+
+                _Love is strong as Death.
+         Sorrow not as others that have no Hope_.'
+
+
+In smaller letters down below, 'This epitaph is at her own special
+request.'
+
+"Sir," continued Aurelia, "it was very curious.  I should not have
+observed those words if it had not been that a large beautiful
+butterfly, with rainbow eyes on its wings, sat sunning itself on
+the white marble, and Fay called me to look at it."
+
+"Her message!  May I ask you to repeat it again?"
+
+"The texts?  'Love is strong as death.  Sorrow not as others that
+have no hope.'"
+
+"Did you call them Scripture texts?"
+
+"Yes, sir; I know the last is in one of the Epistles, and I will look
+for the other."
+
+"It matters not.  She intended them for a message to me who lay in
+utter darkness and imbecility well befitting her destroyer."
+
+"Nay, they have come to you at last," said Aurelia gently.  "You
+really never knew of them before?"
+
+"No, I durst not ask, nor did any one dare to speak to me.  My brother,
+who alone would have done so, died, I scarcely know when; but ere the
+very consciousness of my own wretched existence had come back to me.
+Once again repeat the words, gentle messenger of mercy."
+
+She obeyed, but this time he mournfully murmured, "Hope!  What hope
+for their destroyer?"
+
+"They are God's words, as well as hers," the girl answered, with
+diffident earnestness, but in reply she only heard tightened breaths,
+which made her say, "You cannot bear more, sir.  Let me call Jumbo,
+and bid you good night."
+
+Jumbo came at the mention of his name.  Somehow he was so unlike other
+human beings, and so wholly devoted to his master, that it never seemed
+to be a greater shock to find that he had been present than if he had
+been a faithful dog.
+
+A few days later he told Aurelia that Mas'r was not well enough to
+see her.  He had set forth as soon as the moon had set, and walked
+with his trusty servant to Sedhurst, where he had traced with his
+finger the whole inscription, lingering so long that the sun was
+above the horizon before he could get home; and he was still lying
+on the bed where he had thrown himself on first coming in, having
+neither spoken nor eaten since.  Jumbo could not but grumble out
+that Mas'r was better left to himself.
+
+Yet when Aurelia on the third evening was recalled, there was a
+ring of refreshment in the voice.  It was still melancholy, but
+the dejection was lessened, and though it was only of Achilles and
+Patroclus that they talked, she was convinced that the pressure of
+the heavy burthen of grief and remorse was in some degree lightened.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.  THE SHAFTS OF PHOEBE.
+
+
+                  Her golden bow she bends,
+    Her deadly arrows sending forth.
+                         _Greek Hymn_ (KEIGHTLEY).
+
+
+On coming in from a walk, Aurelia was surprised by the tidings that
+Mistress Phoebe Treforth had come to call on her, and had left a
+billet.  The said billet was secured with floss silk sealed down in
+the antiquated fashion, and was written on full-sized quarto paper.
+These were the contents:--
+
+
+"Madam,
+
+   "My Sister and Myself are desirous of the Honour of your
+    Acquaintance, and shall be happy if you will do use the
+    Pleasure of coming to partake of Dinner at Three o'Clock
+    on Tuesday, the 13th instant.
+
+                         "I remain,
+                              "Yours to command,
+                                  "DELIA TREFORTH."
+
+
+Aurelia carried the invitation to her oracle.
+
+"My cousins are willing to make your acquaintance?" said he.  "That
+is well.  Jumbo shall escort you home in the evening."
+
+"Thank you, sir, but must I accept the invitation?"
+
+"It could not be declined without incivility.  Moreover, the
+Mistresses Treforth are highly respected, and your father and
+sister will certainly think it well for you to have female friends."
+
+"Do you think those ladies could ever be my friends, sir?" she asked,
+with an intonation that made him reply, with a sound of amusement.
+
+"I am no judge in such matters, but they are ladies connected and
+esteemed, who might befriend and counsel you in case of need, and
+at any rate, it is much more suitable that you should be on terms
+of friendly intercourse with them.  I am heartily glad they have
+shown you this attention."
+
+"I do not mean to be ungrateful, sir."
+
+"And I think you have disproved that
+
+                      Crabbed age and youth
+                        Cannot live together."
+
+"If they were only like you, sir!"
+
+"What would they say to that?" he said with the slight laugh that
+had begun to enliven his voice.  "I suppose your charges are not
+included in the invitation?"
+
+"No; but Molly can take care of them, if my Lady will not object to
+my leaving them."
+
+"She cannot reasonably do so."
+
+"And, sir, shall I be permitted to come home in time for you to
+receive me?"
+
+"I fear I must forego that pleasure.  The ladies will insist on cards
+and supper.  Jumbo shall come for you at nine o'clock."
+
+Aurelia submitted, and tripped down arrayed in the dress that recalled
+the fete at Carminster, except that only a little powder was sprinkled
+on her temples.  the little girls jumped round her in admiring ecstasy,
+and, under Molly's charge, escorted her to the garden gate, and hovered
+outside to see her admitted, while she knocked timidly at the door, in
+the bashful alarm of making her first independent visit.
+
+The loutish man ushered her into a small close room, containing a
+cat, a little spaniel, a green parrot, a spinning-wheel, and an
+embroidery frame.  There were also the two old ladies, dressed with
+old-fashioned richness, a little faded, and a third, in a crimson,
+gold-laced joseph [A long riding coat with a small cape, worn by
+women in the 18th century.--D.L.], stout, rubicund, and hearty, to
+whom Aurelia was introduced thus--
+
+"Mrs. Hunter, allow me to present to you Miss Delavie, a relative of
+my Lady Belamour.  Miss Delavie, Mrs. Hunter of Brentford."
+
+"I am most happy to make your acquaintance, Miss," said the lady, in a
+jovial voice, and Aurelia made her curtsey, but at that moment the man
+announced that dinner was served, whereupon Mrs. Delia handed Mrs.
+Hunter in, and Mrs. Phoebe took the younger guest.
+
+The ladies' faces both bore token of their recent attention to the
+preparation of the meal, and the curious dishes would have been highly
+interesting to Betty, but there was no large quantity of any, and a
+single chicken was the _piece de resistance_, whence very tiny helps
+were dealt out, and there was much unnecessary pressing to take a
+little more, both of that and of the brace of partridges which
+succeeded it.  As to conversation, there was room for none, except
+hospitable invitations from the hostesses to take the morsels that
+they cut for their guests, praises of the viands from Mrs. Hunter,
+and endeavours to fish at the recipes, which the owners guarded
+jealously as precious secrets.  Aurelia sat perfectly silent, as
+was then reckoned as proper in a young lady of her age, except
+when addressed.  A good deal of time was also expended in directing
+John Stiggins, the ladies' own man, and George Brown, who had ridden
+with Mrs. Hunter from Brentford, in the disposal of the dishes, and
+the handing of the plates.  George Brown was the more skilled waiter,
+and as the man who was at home did not brook interference, their
+disputes were rude and audible, and kept the ladies in agonies lest
+they should result in ruin to the best china.
+
+At last, however, the cloth was removed, walnuts, apples, pears, and
+biscuits were placed on the table, a glass of wine poured out for each
+lady, and the quartette, with the cat and dog, drew near the sunny
+window, where there was a little warmth.  It was a chilly day, but
+no one ever lighted a fire before the 5th of November, Old Style.
+
+Then began one of those catechisms which fortunately are less
+unpleasant to youth and simplicity than they are to persons of an
+age to resent inquiry, and who have more resources of conversation.
+In truth, Aurelia was in the eyes of the Treforth sisters, descendants
+of a former Sir Jovian, only my Lady's poor kinswoman sent down to
+act _gouvernante_ to the Wayland brats, who had been impertinently
+quartered in the Belamour household.  She would have received no
+further notice, had it not been reported through the servants that
+"young Miss" spent the evenings with their own cousin, from whom
+they had been excluded ever since his illness.
+
+The subject was approached through interrogations on Miss Delavie's
+home and breeding, how she had travelled, and what were her
+accomplishments, also whether she were quite sure that none of the
+triad was either imbecile nor deformed.  Mrs. Hunter seemed to have
+heard wonderful rumours about the poor children.
+
+"Has their lady mother seen them?"
+
+"Yes, madam.  She had been there with them shortly before my arrival."
+
+"Only once in their lives!"  There was a groan of censure such as
+would have fired the loyal Major in defence.
+
+"No wonder, Sister Phoebe, my Lady Belamour does not lead the life
+of a tender mother."
+
+"She has the little boy, Archer, with her in London," Aurelia ventured
+to say.
+
+"And a perfect puppet she makes of the poor child," said Mrs. Hunter.
+"My sister Chetwynd saw him with his mother at a masquerade, my Lady
+Belamour flaunting as Venus, and he, when he ought to have been in
+his bed, dressed in rose-colour and silver, with a bow and arrows,
+and gauze wings on his shoulders!"
+
+"What will that child come to?"
+
+"Remember, Sister Delia, he is no kin of ours.  He is only a Wayland!"
+returned Mrs. Phoebe, in an accent as if the Waylands were the most
+contemptible of vermin.
+
+"I hope," added Mrs. Delia, "that these children are never permitted
+to incommode our unfortunate cousin, Mr. Belamour."
+
+"I trust not, madam," said Aurelia.  "Their rooms are at a distance
+from his; they are good children, and he says he likes to hear young
+voices in the gardens."
+
+"You have, then, seen Mr. Belamour?"
+
+"I cannot say that I have seen him," said Aurelia, modestly; "but I
+have conversed with him."
+
+"Indeed!  Alone with him?"
+
+"Jumbo was there."
+
+The two old ladies drew themselves up, while Mrs. Hunter chuckled
+and giggled.  "Indeed!" said Mrs. Phoebe; "we should never see a
+gentleman in private without each other's company, or that of some
+female companion."
+
+"I consulted Mrs. Aylward," returned Aurelia, "and she said he was
+old enough to be my father."
+
+"Mrs. Aylward may be a respectable housekeeper, though far too lavish
+of butcher's meat, but I should never have recourse to her on a matter
+of decorum," said Mrs. Phoebe.
+
+Aurelia's cheeks burnt, but she still defended herself.  "I have heard
+from my father and my sister," she said, "and they make no objection."
+
+"Hoity-toity!  What means this heat, miss?" exclaimed Mrs. Phoebe;
+"I am only telling you, as a kindness, what we should have thought
+becoming with regard even to a blood relation of our own."
+
+"Thank you, ma'am," said Aurelia; "but, you see, you are so much nearer
+his age, that the cases are not alike."
+
+She said it in all simplicity, and did not perceive, at first, why the
+two sisters drew themselves up in so much offence, or why Mrs. Hunter
+cried, "Oh, fie, for shame, you saucy chit!  Bless me!" she continued,
+more good-naturedly, "Cousin Phoebe, times are changed since we were
+young, and poor Sir Jovian and his brother were the county beaux.
+The child is right enough when one comes to think of it; and for my
+part, I should be glad that poor Mr. Amyas had some one young and
+cheerful about him.  It is only a pity his nephew, the young baronet,
+never comes down to see him."
+
+"Like mother like son," said Mrs. Phoebe; "I grieve to think what
+the old place will come to."
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Hunter, "I do not hear the young gentleman ill
+spoken of; though, more's the pity, he is in a bad school with
+Colonel Mar for his commanding officer, the fine gallant who is
+making his mother the talk of the town!"
+
+The gossip and scandal then waxed fast and furious on the authority
+of Mrs. Hunter's sister, but no one paid any more attention to
+Aurelia, except that when there was an adjournment to the next room,
+she was treated with such double stiffness and ceremony as to make
+her feel that she had given great offence, and was highly disapproved
+of by all but Mrs. Hunter.  And Aurelia could not like her, for her
+gossip had been far broader and coarser than that of the Mistresses
+Treforth, who, though more bitter were more of gentlewomen.  Happily
+much of what passed was perfectly unintelligible to Betty's carefully
+shielded pupil, who sat all the time with the cat on her lap, listening
+to its purring music, but feeling much more inclined to believe nothing
+against my Lady, after her father's example, than to agree with those
+who were so evidently prejudiced.  Tea was brought in delicate
+porcelain cups, then followed cards, which made the time pass less
+drearily till supper.  This consisted of dishes still tinier than
+those at dinner, and it was scarcely ended when it was announced
+that Jumbo had come for Miss Delavie.
+
+Gladly she departed, after an exchange of curtsies, happily not
+hearing the words behind her:--
+
+"An artful young minx."
+
+"And imagine the impudence of securing Jumbo's attendance, forsooth!"
+
+"Nay," said Mrs. Hunter, "she seemed to me a pretty modest young
+gentlewoman enough."
+
+"Pretty!  Yes, she comes of my Lady's own stock, and will be just
+such another."
+
+"Yes; it is quite plain that it is true that my Lady sent her here
+because she had been spreading the white apron for the young baronet."
+
+"And now she is trying her arts on poor cousin Amyas Belamour.  You
+heard how she would take no advice, and replied with impertinence."
+
+"Shall you give my Lady a hint?"
+
+"Not I.  I have been treated with too much insolence by Lady Belamour
+to interfere with her again," said Mrs. Phoebe, drawing herself up;
+"I shall let things take their course unless I can remonstrate with
+my own kinsman."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.  THE FLUTTER OF HIS WINGS.
+
+
+    Then is Love's hour to stray!
+    Oh, how he flies away!--T. MOORE.
+
+
+Meanwhile Aurelia, mounted on a pair of pattens brought by the negro
+to keep her above the dew, was crossing the park by the light of a
+fine hunter's moon, Jumbo marching at a respectful distance in the
+rear.  He kept on chuckling to himself with glee, and when she looked
+round at him, he informed her with great exultation that "Mas'r had
+not been alone.  His honour had been to see him.  Mas'r so glad."
+
+"Sir Amyas!" exclaimed Aurelia: "Is he there still?"
+
+"No, missie.  He went away before supper."
+
+"Did he see the young ladies?"
+
+"Oh, yes, missie.  He came before mas'r up, quite promiskius," said
+Jumbo, who loved a long word.  "I tell him, wait till mas'r be dress,
+and took him to summer parlour.  He see little missies out in garden;
+ask what chil'ren it was.  His Hounour's sisters, Miss Fay, Missie
+Letty, Missie Amy, I say!  His Honour wonder.  'My sisters,' he say,
+'my sisters here,' and out he goes like a flash of lightning and was
+in among them."
+
+Aurelia's first thought was "Oh, I hope they were clean and neat, and
+that they behaved themselves.  I wish I had been at home."  Wherewith
+followed the recollection that Sir Amyas had been called her beau,
+and her cheeks burnt; but the recent disagreeable lecture on etiquette
+showed her that it would only have led to embarrassment and vexation
+to have had any question of an interview with a young gentleman by so
+little her elder.  Nor would she have known what to say to him.  Old
+Mr. Belamour in the dark was a very different matter, and she had
+probably had an escape from much awkwardness.
+
+Molly received her with her favourite exclamation: "Lawk, miss, and
+who do you think have been here?"
+
+"Jumbo told me, Molly."
+
+"Ain't he a perfect pictur of a man?  And such a gentleman!  He gave
+me a whole goolden guinea for my good care of his little sisters, and
+says he: 'Their father shall hear of them, and what little ladies
+they be.'"
+
+"I am glad they behaved themselves prettily."
+
+"Yes, that they did, ma'am.  It was good luck that they had not been
+grubbing in their gardens as you lets 'em do, ma'am, but they was all
+as clean as a whistle, a picking up horse-chestnuts under the big tree
+at the corner of the bowling green, when out on the steps we sees him,
+looking more like an angel than a man, in his red coat, and the goold
+things on his shoulders, and out he comes!  Miss Amy, she was afeard
+at first: 'Be the soldiers a coming?' says she, and runs to me; but
+Miss Letty, she holds out her arms, and says "It's my papa,' and Miss
+Fay, she stood looking without a word.  Then when his Honour was in
+among them: "My little sisters, my dear little sisters,' says he,
+'don't you know me?' and down he goes on one knee in the grass, never
+heeding his beautiful white small-clothes, if you'll believe me, miss,
+and holds out his arms, and gets Miss Fay into one arm, and Miss
+Letty into t'other, and then Miss Amy runs up, and he kisses them
+all.  Then miss Letty says again 'Are you my papa from foreign parts?'
+and he laughs and says: 'No, little one, I'm your brother.  Did you
+never hear of your brother Amyas?' and Miss Fay stood off a little
+and clapped her little hands, and says: 'O brother Amyas, how beautiful
+you are!'"
+
+Aurelia could not help longing to know whether she had been mentioned,
+but she did not like to inquire, and she was obliged to rest satisfied
+with the assurance that her little girls had comported themselves like
+jewels, like lambs, like darling lumps of sugar, or whatever metaphors
+were suggested by the imagination of Molly, who had, apparently, usurped
+the entire credit of their good manners.  It was impossible to help
+feeling a little aggrieved, or, maugre [in spite of--D.L.] all
+inconvenient properties to avoid wishing to have been under the horse-
+chestnut tree, even though she might have shown herself just such a
+bashful little speechless fool as she had been when Sir Amyas had
+danced with her at Carminster.
+
+She was destined to hear a good deal more of the visitor the next day.
+The children met her with the cry of "Cousin Aura, our brother"--"our
+big beautiful brother--Brother Amyas."--They were with difficulty
+calmed into saying their prayers, and Amoret startled the little
+congregation by adding to "bless by father, my mother, my brothers
+and sisters," "and pray bless big brother Amyas best of all, for I
+love him very much indeed!"
+
+All day little facts about "brother Amyas" kept breaking out.  Brother
+Amyas had beautiful gold lace, brother Amyas had a red and white
+feather; brother Amyas had given Fay and Letty each a ride on his
+shoulder, but Amy was afraid; brother Amyas said their papa would
+love them very much.  He had given them each a new silver shilling,
+and Amoret had in return presented him with her doll's beautiful
+pink back-string that Cousin Aura had made for her.  This wonderful
+brother had asked who had taught them to be such pretty little
+gentlewomen, and at this Aurelia's heart beat a little, but
+provoking Fidelia replied: "I told him my Mammy Rolfe taught me
+to be genteel," and Letty added: "And he said Fay was a conceited
+little pussy cat."
+
+A strange indefinable feeling between self-respect and shyness made
+Aurelia shrink from the point-blank question whether the ungrateful
+little things had acknowledged their obligations to her.  She was
+always hoping they would say something of their own accord, and
+always disappointed.
+
+Evening came, and she eagerly repaired to the dark room, wondering,
+yet half dreading to enter on the subject, and beginning by an
+apology for having by no means perfected herself in Priam's visit
+to Achilles.
+
+"If you have been making visits," said Mr. Belamour: "I too have had
+a visitor."
+
+"The children told me so," she answered.
+
+"He was greatly delighted with them," said Mr. Belamour.
+
+"While they, poor little things, never were more happy in their lives.
+He must have been very kind to them, yet he did not know that they
+were here."
+
+"His mother is not communicative respecting them.  Ladies who love
+power seek to preserve it by making little mysteries."
+
+"It was to see you, sir, that he came."
+
+"Yes.  He ingenuously avowed that he had always been urged to do so
+by his stepfather, but his mother has always put obstacles in the
+way, and assured him that he would not gain admission.  I have
+certainly refused to see her, but this is a very different matter--
+my brother's only child, my godson, and my ward!"
+
+"I am very glad he has come to see you, sir, and I am sure it has
+given you pleasure."
+
+"Pleasure in seeing that he is a lad of parts, and of an ingenuous,
+affectionate, honest nature, but regret in perceiving how I failed
+in the confidence that his father reposed in me."
+
+"But, sir, you could not help it!"
+
+"Once I could not.  It was, I know not how long, before I knew that
+my brother was no more; and thinking myself dead to the world and
+the world to me, I took no heed to what, it now seems to me, I was
+told of guardianship to the boy.  I was incapable of fulfilling any
+such charge, and I shunned the pain of hearing of it," he continued,
+rather as if talking to himself than to his auditor.  "When I could,
+I gave them my name and they asked no more.  Yet what did they tell
+me of a sealed letter from my brother, addressed to me?  True, I
+heard of it more than once, but I could ask no one to read it to
+me, and I closed my ears.  In Wayland's hands I knew the youth was
+well cared for, and only now do I feel that I have ill requited my
+brother's confidence."
+
+"Indeed, sir, I cannot see how you could have done otherwise," said
+Aurelia, who could not bear to hear his tone of self-reproach.
+
+"My amiable visitor!" he exclaimed, as though recalled to a sense of
+her presence.  "Excuse the absence of mind which has inflicted on you
+the selfish murmurs of the old recluse.  Tell me how you prospered
+with my cousins, whom I remember as sprightly maidens.  Phoebe had
+somewhat of the prude, Delia of the coquette."
+
+"I could imagine what you say of Mistress Phoebe, sir, better than of
+Mistress Delia."
+
+"Had they any guests to meet you?"
+
+"A Mrs. Hunter, sir, from Brentford, a doctor's wife I suppose."
+
+"You are right.  She was a cousin of theirs on the other side of the
+house, a loud-voiced buxom lass, who was thought to have married
+beneath here when she took Dr. Hunter; but apparently they have
+forgiven her."
+
+Mr. Belamour was evidently much interested and amused by Aurelia's
+small experiences and observations, such as they were.  In spite of
+the sense of past omission which had been aroused by his nephew's
+visit, it had evidently raised his spirits, for he laughed when
+Aurelia spiced her descriptions with a little playful archness, and
+his voice became more cheery.
+
+So, too, it was on the ensuing evening when Aurelia, to compensate
+for the last day's neglect, came primed with three or four pages of
+the conversation between Priam and Achilles, which she rehearsed with
+great feeling, thinking, like Pelides himself, of her own father and
+home.  It was requited with a murmured "Bravo," and Mr. Belamour
+then begged of her, if she were not weary, to favour him with the
+Nightingale Song, Jumbo as usual accompanying her with his violin.
+At the close there was again a "Bravo!  Truly exquisite!" in a tone
+as if the hermit were really finding youth and life again.  Once
+more at his request, she sang, and was applauded with even more
+fervour, with a certain tremulous eagerness in the voice.  Yet
+there was probably a dread of the excitement being too much, for
+this was followed by "Thank you, kind songstress, I could listen for
+ever, but it is becoming late, and I must not detain you longer."
+
+She found herself handed out of the room, with somewhat curtailed good
+nights, although nine o'clock, her usual signal, had not yet struck.
+When she came into the lamplit hall, Jumbo was grinning and nodding
+like a maniac, and when she asked what was the matter, he only rolled
+his eyes, and said, "Missie good!  Mas'r like music!"
+
+The repressed excitability she had detected made her vaguely nervous
+(not that she would have so called herself), and as the next day was
+the blank Sunday, she appeased and worked off her restlessness by
+walking with the children to Sedhurst church.  It was the sixteenth
+Sunday after Trinity, and the preacher, who had caught somewhat of
+the fire of Wesley and Whitfield, preached a sermon which arrested her
+attention, and filled her with new thoughts.  Taking the Epistle and
+Gospel in connection, he showed the death-in-life of indifference, and
+the quickening touch of the Divine Love, awakening the dead spirit into
+true life.  On that life, with its glow of love, hope, and joy, the
+preacher dwelt with enthusiasm such as Aurelia had never heard, and
+which carried her quite out of herself.  Tears of emotion trembled
+in her eyes, and she felt a longing desire to walk on in that path
+of love to her Maker, whom she seemed to have never known before.
+
+She talked with a new fervour to the children of the birds and flowers,
+and all the fair things they loved, as the gifts of their Father in
+Heaven; and when she gathered them round the large pictured Bible, it
+was to the Gospel that she turned as she strove to draw their souls
+to the appreciation of the Redeeming Love there shown.  She saw in
+Fay's deep eyes and thoughtful brow that the child was taking it in,
+though differently from Amy, who wanted to kiss the picture, while
+Letty asked those babyish material questions about Heaven that puzzle
+wiser heads than Aurelia's to answer.
+
+So full was she of the thought, that she forgot her sense of something
+strange and unaccountable in Mr. Belamour's manner before the evening,
+nor was there anything to remind her of it afresh, for he was as calmly
+grave and kindly courteous as ever; and he soon led her to pour forth
+all her impressions of the day.  Indeed she repeated to him great part
+of the sermon, with a voice quivering with earnestness and emotion.
+He was not stirred in the same way as she had been, saying in his
+pensive meditative way, "The preacher is right.  Love is life.  The
+misfortune is when we stake our all on one love alone, and that melts
+from us.  Then indeed there is death--living death!"
+
+"But there is never-failing love, and new life that never dies!"
+cried Aurelia, almost transported out of herself.
+
+"May you ever keep hold of both unobscured, my sweet child," he
+returned, with a sadness that repressed and drove her back into
+herself again, feeling far too childish and unworthy to help him
+to that new life and love; though her young heart yearned over
+him in his desolation, and her soul was full of supplication for
+him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.  THE CANON OF WINDSOR.
+
+
+    Turn, gentle hermit of the dale.--GOLDSMITH.
+
+
+"My child, will you do me a favour?" said Mr. Belamour the next
+evening, in a tone no longer formal, but paternal.  "Take this
+packet" (he put one into the girl's hand) "to the light and inform
+me what is the superscription."
+
+It was a thick letter, with a large red wax seal, bearing the well
+known arms of Belamour and Delavie, and the address was
+
+
+                To AMYAS BELAMOUR, ESQ., K.C.,
+
+                OF THE INNER TEMPLE, LONDON.
+To be opened after my death.]
+
+                                 JOVIAN BELAMOUR.
+                                 Dec. 14th, 1727.
+
+
+"I thought so," said Mr. Belamour, when she returned to him with
+intelligence.  "Little did my poor brother guess how long it would
+be unopened!  Will my gentle friend confer another obligation on
+me?"
+
+Aurelia made her ready assent, hoping to be asked to read the letter,
+when he continued, "I cannot read this myself.  Even could I bear the
+light, the attempt to fix my eyes sends darts shooting through my
+brain, which would take away my very power of comprehension.  But,"
+he continued, "there are only two men living to whom I could entrust
+my brother's last words to me.  One, your own good father, is out of
+reach; the other has frequently proffered his good offices and has
+been rejected.  Would you add to your kindness that of writing to
+entreat my old friend, Dr. Godfrey, to favour with a visit one who
+has too often and ungratefully refused him admission."
+
+Feminine curiosity felt balked, but Aurelia was ashamed of the
+sensation, and undertook the task.  Instructions were given her
+that she was to write--
+
+
+ "If Amyas Belamour's old Schoolfellow and Friend can overlook and
+  pardon the undeserved Rebuffs to His Constancy and Solicitude for
+  a lonely and sullen Wretch, and will once more come and spend a
+  Night at Bowstead, he will confer an inestimable Favour upon one
+  who is more sensible of his Goodness than when it has been
+  previously offered."
+
+
+This letter, written in Aurelia's best Italian hand, on a large sheet
+of paper, she brought with her the next evening.  She was bidden to
+fold down the exact place for the signature, which Mr. Belamour
+proceeded to affix, and she was then to carry it to the candles in
+the lobby, and there fold, seal, and address it to the Reverend
+Edward Godfrey, D.D., Canon of Windsor, Windsor.  She found the A.
+Belamour very fairly written except that it was not horizontal, and
+she performed the rest of the task with ladylike dexterity, sealing
+it with a ring that had been supplied for the purpose.  It did not,
+as she expected, bear the Belamour sheaf of arrows, but was a gem,
+representing a sleeping Cupid with folded wings, so beautiful that
+she asked leave to take another impression for Harriet, who collected
+seals, after the fashion of the day.
+
+"You are welcome," Mr. Belamour replied.  "I doubt its great antiquity,
+since the story of Cupid and Psyche cannot be traced beyond Apuleius.
+I used it because Dr. Godfrey will remember it.  He was with me at
+Rome when I purchased it."
+
+The ring was of the size for a lady's finger, and Aurelia durst ask
+no more.
+
+How the letter was sent she knew not, but Mrs. Aylward was summoned
+to Mr. Belamour's room, and desired to have a room ready at any time
+for his friend.
+
+Three days later, towards sunset, a substantial-looking clergyman,
+attended by two servants, rode up to the door; and was immediately
+appropriated by Jumbo, disappearing into the mysterious apartments;
+Aurelia expected no summons that night, but at the usual hour, the
+negro brought a special request for the honour of her society; and
+as she entered the dark room, Mr. Belamour said, "My fair and
+charitable visitor will permit me to present to her my old and
+valued friend, Dr. Godfrey."  He laid the hand he had taken on one
+that returned a little gentlemanly acknowledgment, while a kind
+fatherly voice said, "The lady must pardon me if I do not venture
+to hand her to her chair."
+
+"Thank you, sir, I am close to my seat."
+
+"Your visitors acquire blind eyes, Belamour," said Dr. Godfrey,
+cheerfully.
+
+"More truly they become eyes to the blind," was the answer.  "I feel
+myself a man of the world again, since this amiable young lady has
+conned the papers on my behalf, and given herself the trouble of
+learning the choicest passages of the poets to repeat to me."
+
+"You are very good, sir," returned Aurelia; "it is my great pleasure."
+
+"That I can well believe," said Dr. Godfrey.  "Have these agreeable
+recitations made you acquainted with the new poem on the _Seasons_
+by Mr. James Thomson?"
+
+"No," replied Mr. Belamour, "my acquaintance with the _belles letters_
+ceased nine years ago."
+
+"The descriptions have been thought extremely effective.  Those of
+autumn were recalled to my mind on my way."
+
+Dr. Godfrey proceeded to recite some twenty lines of blank verse, for
+in those days people had more patience and fewer books, and exercised
+their memories much more than their descendants do.  Listening was far
+from being thought tedious.
+
+
+            "'But see the fading many-coloured roads,
+              Shade deepening over shade, the country round
+              Imbrown; a crowded umbrage, dusk and dim,
+              Of every hue, from wan, declining green,
+              To sooty dark.'"
+
+
+The lines had a strange charm to one who had lived in darkness through
+so many revolving years.  Mr. Belamour eagerly thanked his friend, and
+on the offer to lend him the book, begged that it might be ordered for
+him, and that any other new and interesting work might be sent to him
+that was suitable to the fair lips on which he was dependent.
+
+"You are secure with Mr. Thomson," said the Doctor.  "Hear the
+conclusion of his final hymn."
+
+
+            "'When even at last the solemn hour shall come,
+              And wing my mystic flight to future worlds,
+              I cheerful will obey; there with new powers
+              Will rising wonders sing.  I cannot go
+              Where Universal Love not smiles around,
+              Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their suns,
+              From seeming evil still educing good,
+              And better thence again, and better still,
+              In infinite progression.  But I lose
+              Myself in Him, in Light ineffable;
+              Come then expressive Silence, mine the praise.'"
+
+
+"'Universal Love!'" repeated Mr. Belamour; "the poet sings as you
+do, my amiable friend!  I can conceive the idea better than I could
+a few months ago."
+
+            "'From seeming evil, still educing good,'"
+
+quoted Dr. Godfrey earnestly, as if feeling his way.
+
+"More of this another time," said Mr. Belamour hastily.  "What say
+the critics respecting this new aspirant?"
+
+The ensuing conversation much interested Aurelia, as it was on the
+men of letters whose names had long been familiar  to her, and whom
+the two gentlemen had personally known.  She heard of Pope, still
+living at Twickenham, and of his bickerings with Lady Mary Wortley
+Montagu; of young Horace Walpole, who would never rival his father
+as a politician, but who was beginning his course as a _dilettante_,
+and actually pretending to prefer the barbarous Gothic to the classic
+Italian.  However, his taste might be improved, since he was going to
+make the grand tour in company with Mr. Gray, a rising young poet, in
+whom Dr. Godfrey took interest, as an Etonian and a Cantab.
+
+At nine o'clock Mr. Belamour requested Miss Delavie to let him depute
+to her the doing the honours of the supper table to his friend, who
+would return to him when she retired for the night.
+
+Then it was that she first saw the guest, a fine, dignified clergyman,
+in a large grey wig, with a benignant countenance, reminding her of the
+Dean of Carminster.  When she was little, the Dean had bestowed on her
+comfits and kisses; but since she had outgrown these attentions, he was
+wont to notice her only by a condescending nod, and she would no more
+have thought of conversing with him at table than in his stall in the
+cathedral.  Thus it was surprising to find herself talked to, as Betty
+might have been, by this reverend personage, who kindly satisfied her
+curiosity about the King, Queen, and Princesses, but with a discretion
+which did not diminish that blind loyalty which saw no defects in "our
+good king," though he was George II.  She likewise answered a few
+questions about Mr. Belamour's tastes and habits, put in a very
+different manner from those of the Mistress Treforth, and as soon
+as supper was over she rose and retired.
+
+She did not see Dr. Godfrey again until he was ready for a late
+breakfast, having been up nearly the whole night with his friend.
+His horses were ordered immediately after the meal, as he had an
+appointment in London, and he presently looked up, and said,
+
+"Madam, you must excuse me, I was silent from thinking how I can
+adequately express my respect and gratitude for you."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir," exclaimed Aurelia, thinking her ears
+mistaken.
+
+"My gratitude," he repeated, "for the inestimable blessing you have
+been to my dear and much valued friend, in rousing him from that
+wretched state of despondency in which no one could approach him."
+
+"You are too good, sir," returned Aurelia.  "It was he who sent for
+me."
+
+"I know you did it in all simplicity, my dear child--forgive the
+epithet, I have daughters of my own, and thankful should I be if
+one of them could have produced such effects.  I tell you, madam,
+my dear friend, one of the most estimable and brilliant men of his
+day, was an utter wreck, both in mind and body, through the cruel
+machinations of an unprincipled woman.  How much was to the
+actual injury from his wound, how much to grief and remorse, Heaven
+only knows, but the death of his brother, who alone had authority
+with him, left him thus to cut himself off entirely in this utter
+darkness and despair.  I called at first monthly, then yearly, after
+the melancholy catastrophe, and held many consultations with good
+Mr. Wayland, but all in vain.  It was reserved for your sweet notes
+to awaken and recall him to what I trust is indeed new life."
+
+Tears filled Aurelia's eyes, and she could only murmur something
+about being very glad.
+
+"Yes," pursued Dr. Godfrey, "it is as if I saw him rising from his
+living tomb in all senses of the word.  I find that your artless
+Sunday evening conversations have even penetrated the inner hopeless
+gloom, still more grievous than the outer darkness in which he lived."
+
+"Indeed, sir, I never meant to be presumptuous."
+
+"God's blessing on such presumption, my good child!  If you had been
+fully aware of his state of mind, you might never have ventured nor
+have touched the sealed heart, as you have done, as I perceive, in
+your ignorance, out of your obedient reverence to the Lord's day.
+Am I not right?"
+
+"Yes, sir, I thought one _could_ not repeat plays and poems on Sunday,
+and I was frightened when I found those other things were strange to
+him; but he bade me go on."
+
+"For the sake of the music of your voice, as he tells me, at first;
+but afterwards because you became the messenger of hope to one who
+had long lain in the shadow of death, thinking pardon and mercy too
+much out of reach to be sought for.  You have awakened prayer within
+him once more."
+
+She could not speak, and Dr. Godfrey continued, "You will be glad to
+hear that I am to see the curate on my way through Brentford, and
+arrange with him at times to read prayers in the outer room.  What
+is it?" he added; "you look somewhat doubtful."
+
+"Only, sir, perhaps I ought not to say so, but I cannot think Mr.
+Belamour well ever care for poor Mr. Greaves.  If he could only hear
+that gentleman who comes to Sedhurst!  I never knew how much fire
+could be put into the service itself, and yet I have often been at
+Carminster Cathedral."
+
+"True, my dear young lady.  These enthusiasts seem to be kindling
+a new fire in the Church, but I am not yet so convinced of their
+orthodoxy and wisdom as to trust them unreservedly; and zeal pushed
+too far might offend our poor recluse, and alienate him more than
+ever.  He is likely to profit more by the direct words of the Church
+herself, read without personal meaning, than by the individual
+exhortations of some devout stranger."
+
+"Yes, sir.  Thank you, I never meant to question your judgment.
+Indeed I did not."
+
+The horses were here announced, and Dr. Godfrey said,
+
+"Then I leave him to you with a grateful heart.  I am beginning to
+hope that there is much hypochondriacism in his condition, and that
+this may pass away with his despondency.  I hope before many weeks
+are over to come and visit him again, before I go to my parish in
+Dorsetshire."
+
+Then, with a fatherly blesssing, the Canon took his leave.
+
+He was scarcely gone before there was a great rustling in the hall,
+and Mrs. Phoebe and Mrs. Delia Treforth were announced.  Aurelia was
+surprised, for she had been decidedly sensible of their disapproval
+when she made her visit of ceremony after her entertainment by them.
+She, however, had underrated the force of the magnet of curiosity.
+They had come to inquire about the visitor, who had actually spent
+a night at the Park.  They knew who he was, for "Ned Godfrey" had
+been a frequent guest at Bowstead in the youth of all parties, and
+they were annoyed that he had not paid his respects to them.
+
+"It would have been only fitting to have sent for us, as relations
+of the family, to assist in entertaining him," said Mrs. Phoebe.
+"Pray, miss, did my eccentric cousin place you in the position of
+hostess?"
+
+"It fell to me, madam," said Aurelia.
+
+"You could have asked for _our_ support," said Mrs. Phoebe, severely.
+"It would have become you better, above all then Sir Amyas Belamour
+himself was here."
+
+"He has only been here while I was with you, madam, and was gone
+before my return."
+
+"_That_ is true,: but Mrs. Phoebe looked at the girl so inquisitively
+that her colour rose in anger, and exclaimed, "Madam, I know not what
+you mean!"
+
+"There, sister," said Mrs. Delia, more kindly.  "She is but a child,
+and Bet Batley is a gossip.  She would not know his Honour in the
+dark from the blackamoor going down to visit his sweetheart."
+
+Very glad was Aurelia when the ladies curtsied themselves out of her
+summer parlour, declaring they wished to speak to Mrs. Aylward, who
+she knew could assure them of the absurdity of these implied suspicions.
+
+And Mrs. Aylward, who detested the two ladies, and repelled their
+meddling, stiffly assured them both of Miss Delavie's discretion
+and her own vigilance, which placed visits from the young baronet
+beyond the bounds of possibility.  Supposing his Honour should
+again visit his uncle, she should take care to be present at any
+interview with the young lady.  She trusted that she knew her duty,
+and so did Miss Delavie.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.  THE QUEEN OF BEAUTY.
+
+
+    O bright _regina_, who made thee so faire,
+    Who made thy colour vermeilie and white?
+    Now marveile I nothing that ye do hight
+    The quene of love.--CHAUCER.
+
+
+Only a week had elapsed before the quiet of Bowstead was again
+disturbed by the arrival of two grooms, with orders that everything
+should be made ready the next day for the arrival of my Lady, who
+was on her way to Carminster for a few weeks, and afterwards to Bath.
+Forthwith Mrs. Aylward and her subordinates fell into a frenzy of
+opening shutters, lighting fires, laying down carpets and uncovering
+furniture.  Scrubbing was the daily task for the maids, and there was
+nothing extra possible in that line, but there was hurry enough to
+exacerbate the temper, and when Aurelia offered her services she was
+tartly told that she could solely be useful by keeping the children
+out of the way; for in spite of all rebuffs, they persisted in
+haunting the footsteps of the housekeeper and maids, Fay gazing with
+delight at the splendours that were revealed, Amy proffering undesired
+aid, Letty dancing in the most inconvenient places, romancing about
+her mamma and little brother, and making sure that her big beautiful
+brother was also coming.
+
+The were very unwilling to let Aurelia call them away to practise
+them in bridling, curtseying, and saying "Yes, madam," according to
+the laws of good breeding so carefully inculcated by sister at home.
+So anxious was she that she tried them over and over again till
+they were wearied out, and became so cross and naughty that nothing
+restored good-homour except gathering blackberries to feast brother
+Archer.
+
+The intelligence produced less apparent excitement in the dark chamber.
+When Aurelia, in an eager, awe-stricken voice began, "O sir, have you
+heard that my Lady is coming?" he calmly replied,
+
+"The sounds in the house have amply heralded her, to say nothing of
+Jumbo."
+
+"I wonder what she will do!"
+
+"You will not long have known her, my fair friend, without discovering
+that she is one of the most inscrutable of her sex.  The mere endeavour
+to guess at her plans only produces harassing surmises and alarms."
+
+"Do you think, sir, she can mean to take me away?"
+
+"I suppose that would be emancipation to you, my poor child."
+
+"I should dance to find myself going home," said Aurelia, "yet how
+could I bear to leave my little girls, or you, sir.  Oh! if you could
+only live at the Great House, at home, I should be quite happy."
+
+"Then you would not willingly abandon the recluse?"
+
+"Indeed," she said with a quivering in her voice, "I cannot endure the
+notion.  You have been so kind and good to me, sir, and I do so enjoy
+coming to you.  And you would be all alone again with Jumbo!  Oh sir,
+could you not drive down if all the coach windows were close shut up?
+You would have my papa to talk to!"
+
+"And what would your papa say to having a miserable old hermit
+inflicted on him?"
+
+"He would be only too glad."
+
+No, no, my gentle friend, there are other reasons.  I could not make
+my abode in Lady Belamour's house, while in that of my nephew, my
+natural home, I have a right to drag out what remains of the existence
+of mine.  Nay, are you weeping, my sweet child?  That must not be;
+your young life must take no darkness from mine.  Even should Lady
+Belamour's arbitrary caprice bear you off without another meeting,
+remember that you have given me many more happy hours than I ever
+supposed to be in store for me, and have opened doors which shall
+not be closed again."
+
+"You will get some one to recite to you?" entreated Aurelia, her voice
+most unsteady.
+
+"Godfrey shall seek out some poor scholar or exhausted poetaster,
+with a proviso that he never inflicts his own pieces on me," said Mr.
+Belamour, in a tone more as if he wished to console her than as it
+were a pleasing prospect.  "Never fear, gentle monitress, I will
+not sink into the stagnation from which your voice awoke me.
+Neither Godfrey nor my nephew would allow it.  Come, let us put it
+from our minds.  It has always been my experience, that whatever I
+expected from my much admired sister-in-law, that was the exact
+reverse of what she actually did.  Therefore let us attend to
+topics, though I wager that you have no fresh acquisitions for
+me to-day."
+
+"I am ashamed, sir, but I could not fix my mind even to a most
+frightful description of wolves in Mr. Thomson's 'Winter.'"
+
+"That were scarcely a soothing subject; but we might find calm in
+something less agitating and more familiar.  Perhaps you can recall
+something too firmly imprinted on your memory to be disturbed by
+these emotions."
+
+Aurelia bethought herself that she must not disappoint her friend on
+what might prove their last evening; she began very unsteadily:--
+
+
+                 "' Hence, loathed Melancholy.'"
+
+
+However by the time "Jonson's learned sock" was on, her mechanical
+repetition had become animated, and she had restored herself to
+equanimity.  When the clock struck nine, her auditor added his thanks,
+"In case we should not meet again thus, let me beg of my kind visitor
+to wear this ring in memory of one to whom she has brought a breath
+indeed from L'Allegro itself.  It will not be too large.  It was made
+for a lady."
+
+And amid her tearful thanks she felt a light kiss on her fingers,
+revealing to her that the hermit must possess a beard, a fact, which
+in the close-shaven Hanoverian days, conveyed a sense of squalor and
+neglect almost amounting to horror.
+
+In her own room she dropped many a tear over the ring, which was of
+course the Cupid intaglio, and she spent the night in strange mixed
+dreams and yearnings, divided between her father, Betty, and Eugene
+on the one hand, and Mr. Belamour and the children on the other.
+Home-sick as she sometimes felt, dull as Bowstead was, she should
+be sadly grieved to leave those to whom she felt herself almost
+necessary, though her choice must needs be for her home.
+
+Early the next day arrived an old roomy berlin loaded heavily with
+luggage, and so stuffed with men and maids that four stout horses
+had much ado to bring it up to the door.  The servants, grumbling
+heartily, declared that my Lady was only going to lie here for a
+single night, and that Sir Amyas was not with her.
+
+Late in the afternoon, a couple of outriders appeared to say that the
+great lady was close at hand, and Aurelia, in her best blue sacque,
+and India muslin cap, edged with Flanders lace, had her three little
+charges, all in white with red shoes, red sashes, and red ribbons in
+their caps, drawn up in the hall to welcome their mother.
+
+Up swept the coach with six horses, Mr. Dove behind--runners in fact,
+who at times rested themselves by an upright swing on the foot-board.
+
+The door of the gorgeous machine was thrown open, and forth sprang
+a pretty little boy.  Next descended the friendly form of Mrs. Dove,
+then a smart person, who was my Lady's own woman, and finally
+something dazzlingly grand and beautiful in feathers, light blue,
+and silver.
+
+Aurelia made her reverence, and so did the little triad; the great
+lady bent her head, and gave a light kiss to the brow of each child,
+and the boy sprang forward, crying: "You are my sisters.  You must
+play with me, and do whatever I choose."  Amoret and he began kissing
+on the spot, but Fidelia, regarding _must_ as a forbidden word, looked
+up at Aurelia with an inquiring protest in her eyes; but it was not
+heeded, in the doubt whether to follow Lady Belamour, who, with a
+stately greeting to Mrs. Aylward, had sailed into the withdrawing-
+room.  The question was decided by Mrs. Aylward standing back to
+make room, and motioning her forward, so she entered, Letty
+preceding her and Fay clinging to her.
+
+By the hearth stood the magnificent figure, holding out a long,
+beautiful, beringed hand, which Aurelia shyly kissed, bending as
+before a queen, while her forehead received the same slight salute
+as had been given to the little girls.  "My cousin Delavie's own
+daughter," said the lady: "You have the family likeness."
+
+"So I have been told, madam."
+
+"Your father is well, I hope."
+
+"He was pretty well, I thank you Ladyship, when I heard from my sister
+ten days ago."
+
+"I shall see him in a week's time, and shall report well of his little
+daughter," said Lady Belamour kindly.  "I am under obligations to you,
+my dear.  You seem to have tamed my little savages."
+
+Aurelia was amazed, for the universal awe of my Lady had made her
+expect a harsh and sever Semiramis style of woman, whereas she
+certainly saw a majestic beauty, but with none of the terrors that
+she had anticipated.  The voice was musical and perfectly modulated,
+the manner more caressing than imperious towards herself, and
+studiously polite to the house keeper.  While orders were being
+given as to arrangements, Aurelia took in the full details of the
+person of whom she had heard so much.  It seemed incredible that Lady
+Belamour could have been mother to contemporaries of Betty, for she
+looked younger than Betty herself.  Her symmetry and carriage were
+admirable, and well shown by the light blue habit laced richly and
+embroidered with silver.  A small round hat with a cluster of white
+ostrich feathers was placed among the slightly frizzed and powdered
+masses of mouse-coloured hair, surmounting a long ivory neck, whose
+graceful turn, the theme of many a sonnet, was not concealed by the
+masculine collar of the habit.  The exquisite oval contour of the
+cheek, the delicate ear, and Grecian profile were as perfect in
+moulding as when she had been Sir Jovian's bride, and so were the
+porcelain blue of the eyes, the pencilled arches of eyebrow, and
+the curve of the lips, while even her complexion retained its
+smooth texture, and tints of the lily and rose.  Often as Aurelia
+had heard of her beauty, its splendour dazzled and astonished her,
+even in this travelling dress.
+
+Archer, who was about a year older than his sisters, was more like
+Amoret than the other two, with azure eyes, golden curls, and a plump
+rosy face, full of fun and mischief.  Tired of the confinement of the
+coach, he was rushing round the house with Amoret, opening the doors
+and looking into the rooms.  The other little sisters remained beside
+Aurelia till their mother said, pointing to Fay: "That child seems to
+mean to eat me with her eyes.  Let all the children be with Nurse Dove,
+Mrs. Aylward.  Miss Delavie will do me the pleasure of supping with me
+at seven.  Present my compliments to Mr. Belamour, and let him know
+that I will be with him at eight o'clock on particular business."
+Then turning to the two children, she asked their names, and was
+answered by each distinctly, with the orthodox "madam" at the end.
+
+"You are improved, little ones," she said: "Did Cousin Aurelia teach
+you?"
+
+"And Mammy Rolfe," said constant Fay.
+
+"She must teach you next not to stare," said Lady Belamour.  "I intend
+to take one to be a companion to my boy, in the country.  When I saw
+them before, they were rustic little monsters; but they are less
+unpresentable now.  Call your sister, children."  And, as the two left
+the room, she continued: "Which do you recommend, cousin?"
+
+"Fidelia is the most reasonable, madam," said Aurelia.
+
+"But not the prettiest, I trust.  She is too like her father, with
+those dark brows, and her eyes have a look deep enough to frighten
+one.  They will frighten away the men, if she do not grow out of it."
+
+Here the door burst open, and, without any preliminary bow, Master
+Archer flew in, crying out "Mamma, mamma, we _must_ stay here.  The
+galleries are so long, and it is such a place for whoop-hide!"
+
+His sisters were following his bad example, and rushing in with equal
+want of ceremony, but though their mother held the boy unchecked on
+her knee, Aurelia saw how she could frown.  "You forget yourselves,"
+she said.
+
+Amoret looked ready to cry, but at a sign from their young instructress,
+they backed and curtsied, and their mother reviewed them; Letitia was
+the most like the Delavies, but also the smallest, while Amoret was on
+the largest scale and would pair best with her brother, who besides
+loudly proclaimed his preference for her, and she was therefore elected
+to the honour of being taken home.  Aurelia was requested as a favour
+to bid the children's woman have the child's clothes ready repaired to
+her own room.
+
+The little wardrobe could only be prepared by much assistance from
+Aurelia herself, and she could attend to nothing else; while the
+children were all devoted to Archer, and she only heard their voices
+in the distance, till--as she was dressing for her _tete-a-tete_
+supper--Fay came to her crying, "Archer is a naughty boy--he said
+wicked words--he called her ugly, and had cuffed and pinched her!"
+
+Poor child! she was tired out, and disappointed, and Aurelia could
+only comfort her by hearing her little prayers, undressing her, and
+giving her the highly-esteemed treat of sleeping in Cousin Aura's
+bed; while the others were staying up as long as it pleased Master
+Archer.  This actually was the cause of my Lady being kept waiting,
+and an apology was needful.  "Fidelia was tired out, and was crying."
+
+"A peevish child!  I am glad I did not choose her."
+
+"She is usually very good, madam," said Aurelia, eagerly.
+
+"Is she your favourite?"
+
+"I try not to make favourites, madam."
+
+"Ah! there spoke the true Manor House tone," said her Ladyship, rather
+mockingly.  "Maybe she will be a wit, for she will never be a beauty,
+but the other little one will come on in due time after Amoret."
+
+"Your Ladyship will find Amoret a dear, good, affectionate child," said
+Aurelia.  "Only---"
+
+"Reserve that for nurse, so please you, my good girl.  It is enough
+for me to see the brats on their good manners now and then.  You have
+had other recreations--shall I call them, or cares?  I never supposed,
+when I sent you here to attend on the children, that the hermit of
+Bowstead would summon you!  I assure you it is an extraordinary honour."
+
+"I so esteem it, madam," said Aurelia, blushing.
+
+"More honour than pleasure, eh?"
+
+"A great pleasure, madam."
+
+"Say you so?" and the glittering blue eyes were keenly scanning the
+modest face.  "I should have thought a young maid like you would have
+had the dismals at the mere notion of going near his dark chamber.
+I promise you it gives me the megrim [migraine--D.L.] to look forward
+to it."
+
+"I was affrighted at first, madam," said Aurelia; "but Mr. Belamour
+is so good and kind to me that I exceedingly enjoy the hours I spend
+with him."
+
+"La, child, you speak with warmth!  We shall have you enamoured of a
+voice like the youth they make sonnets about--what's his name?"
+
+"Narcissus, madam," said Aurelia, put out of countenance by the banter.
+
+"Oh, you are learned.  Is Mr. Belamour your tutor, pray?  And--oh fie!
+I have seen that ring before!"
+
+"He gave it to me yesterday," faltered Aurelia, "in case you should
+intend to take me away, and I should not see him again.  I hope I was
+not wrong in accepting it, madam."
+
+"Wrong, little fool, assuredly not," said my Lady, laughing.  "It is
+an ensign of victory.  Why, child, you have made a conquest worthy
+of--let me see.  You, or the wits, could tell me who it was that
+stormed the very den of Cocytus and bore off the spoil!"
+
+Aurelia liked the tone too little to supply the names; yet she felt
+flattered; but she said quietly, "I am happy to have been the means
+of cheering him."
+
+The grave artlessness of the manner acted as a kind of check, and Lady
+Belamour said in a different tone, "Seriously, child, the family are
+truly obliged for your share in rousing the poor creature from his
+melancholy.  My good man made the attempt, but all in vain.  What do
+you to divert him?"
+
+In inquires of this kind the supper hour passed, and Lady Belamour was
+then to keep her appointment with her brother-in-law.  She showed so
+much alarm and dread that Aurelia could not but utter assurances and
+encouragements, which again awoke that arch manner, partly bantering,
+partly flattering, which exercised a sort of pleasant perplexing
+fascination on the simple girl.
+
+After being dismissed, Aurelia went in search of Mrs. Dove, whom she
+found with Molly, taking stock of Amoret's little wardrobe.  The good
+woman rose joyfully.  "Oh, my dear missie!  I am right thankful to
+see you looking so purely.  I don't know how I could have held up my
+head to Miss Delavie if I had not seen you!"
+
+"Ah! you will see my sister and all of them," cried Aurelia, a sudden
+rush of home-sickness bringing tears to her eyes, in oblivion alike
+of her recluse and her pupils.  "Oh! if I were but going with you!
+But what folly am I talking?  You must not let them think I am not
+happy, for indeed I am.  Will you kindly come to my room, dear nurse,
+and I will give you a packet for them?"
+
+Mrs. Dove willingly availed herself of the opportunity of explaining
+how guiltless she had been of the sudden separation at Knightsbridge
+four months back.  She had been in such haste to ride after and
+overtake the coach, that she had even made Dove swear at her for
+wanting to give the horses no time to rest, and she had ridden off
+on her own particular pillion long before the rest.  She had been
+surprised that she never succeeded in catching up the carriage, but
+never suspected the truth till she had dismounted in Hanover Square
+and asked whether "Miss" were with my Lady.  Nobody knew anything
+about Miss Delavie, nor expected her; and the good woman's alarm was
+great until she had had an interview with her Ladyship, when she was
+told not to concern herself about the young lady, who was safely
+bestowed in the country with the Miss Wayland.  "But that it was
+here, if you'll believe me, missie, I was as innocent as the babe
+unborn, and so was his Honour, Sir Amyas.  Indeed, my Lady gave
+him to understand that she had put you to boarding-school with
+his little sisters."
+
+"Oh! nurse, that is impossible!"
+
+"Lawk-a-day, missie, there's nothing my Lady wouldn't say to put him
+off the scent.  Bless you, 'tis not for us servants to talk, or I
+could tell you tales!  But there, mum's the word, as my Dove says,
+or he wouldn't ha' sat on his box these twenty year!"
+
+"My Lady is very kind to me," said Aurelia, with a little assumption
+of her father's repressive manner.
+
+"I'm right glad to hear it, Miss Aureely.  A sweet lady she can be
+when she is in the mood, though nothing like so sweet as his Honour.
+'Tis ingrain with him down to the bone, as I may say--and I should
+know, having had him from the day he was weaned.  To see him come
+up to the nussery, and toss about his little brother, would do your
+very heart good; and then he sits him down, without a bit of pride,
+and will have me tell him all about our journey up to Lunnon, and
+the fair, and the play and all; and the same with Dove in the
+stables.  He would have the whole story, and how we was parted at
+Knightsbridge, I never so much as guessing where you was--you that
+your sister had given into my care!  At last, one day when I was
+sitting a darning of stockings in the window at the back, where I
+can see out over to the green fields, up his Honour comes, and says
+he, with his finger to his lips, 'Set your heart at rest, nurse,
+I've found her!'  Then he told me how he went down to see his old
+uncle.  Mr. Wayland had been urging him on one side that 'twas no
+more than his duty; and her Ladyship, on the other, would have it
+that Mr. Belamour was right down melancholy mad, and would go into
+a raving fit if his nevvy did but go near the place."
+
+"She did not say that!"
+
+"Oh yes, she did, miss, I'll take my oath of it, for I was in the
+coach with Master Wayland on my knee, when she was telling a lady
+how hard it was they could have no use of Bowstead, because of Sir
+Jovian's brother being there, who had got the black melancholics,
+and could not be removed.  The lady says how good she was to suffer
+it, and she answers, that there was no being harsh with poor Sir
+Jovian's brother, though he had a strange spleen at her and her son,
+and always grew worse when they did but go near the house; but that
+some measures must be taken when her son came of age or was married."
+
+"But he came at last!"
+
+"He said he wanted to see for himself, and thought he could at least
+find out from the servants whether his uncle was in the state they
+reported.  And there he found his three little sisters, and that you
+was their tutoress, and they couldn't say enough about you, nor the
+poor gentleman neither.  'I didn't see her, nurse,' says he, 'but
+there's a bit of her own sweet fingers' work.'  And sure enough, I
+knew it, for it was a knot of the very ribbon you had in your hair
+the day I came to talk to your sister about the journey."
+
+"That was what Amy told me she gave him."
+
+"Nothing loth would he be to take it, miss!  Though says he, 'Don't
+you let my mother know I have tracked her, nurse,' says he.  'It is
+plain enough why she gives out that I am not to go near my uncle,
+and if she guessed where I had been, she would have some of her
+fancies.'  'Now your Honour, my dear,' says I, 'you'll excuse your
+old nurse, but her sister put her in my charge, and though I bless
+Heaven that you are no young rake, yet you will be bringing trouble
+untold on her and hers if you go down there a courting of her
+unbeknownst.'  'No danger of that, nurse,' says he; 'why there's
+a she-dragon down there (meaning Mrs. Aylward) that was ready to
+drive me out of my own house when I did but speak of waiting to
+see her.'"
+
+"No, I am glad he will not come again.  Yet it makes his uncle happy
+to see him.  I will keep out of the way if he does."
+
+"Right too, miss.  A young lady never loses by discretion."
+
+"Oh, do not speak in--in that way," said Aurelia, blushing at the
+implication.  "Besides, he is going home with my Lady to dear
+Carminster."
+
+"No, no, he remains with his regiment in town, unless he rides down
+later when he can have his leave of absence, and my Lady is at the
+Bath.  He will not if he can help it, for he is dead set against
+the young lady they want to marry him to, and she is to be there.
+What! you have not heard?  It is my Lady Arabella, sister to that
+there Colonel as is more about our house than I could wish.  She is
+not by the same mother as him and my Lord Aresfield.  Her father
+married a great heiress for his second wife, whose father had made a
+great fortune by victualling the army in the war time.  Not that this
+Dowager Countess, as they call her, is a bit like the real quality,
+so that it is a marvel how my Lady can put up with her; only money-
+bags will make anything go down, more's the pity, and my Lady is
+pressed, you see, with her losses at play.  It was about this match
+that Sir Amyas was sent down to Battlefield, the Countess's place
+in Monmouthshire, when he came to Carminster last summer, and his
+body servant, Mr. Grey, that has been about him from a child, told
+me all about it.  This Lady Belle, as they call her, is only about
+fourteen, and such a spoilt little vixen, that they say nobody has
+been able to teach her so much as to read, for her mother, the
+Dowager, never would have her crossed in anything, and now she has
+got too headstrong for any of 'em.  Mr. Grey said dressing for
+supper, they heard the most horrid screams, and thought some one
+must be killed at least.  Sir Amyas was for running out, but at the
+door they met a wench who only said, 'Bless you! that's nought.  It's
+only my young lady in her tantrums!'  So in the servants' hall, Grey
+heard it was all because her mamma wouldn't let her put on two suits
+of pearls and di'monds both together.  She lies on her back, and
+rolls and kicks till she gets her own way; and by what the servants
+say, the Dowager heerself ain't much better to her servants.  Her
+woman had got a black eye she had given her with her fan.  She has
+never had no breeding, you see, and there are uglier stories about
+her than I like to tell you, Miss Aureely; and as to the young lady,
+Sir Amyas saw her with his own eyes slap the lackey's face for
+bringing her brown sugar instead of white.  She is a little dwarfish
+thing that puts her finger in her mouth and sulks when she is not
+flying out into a rage; but Colonel Mar is going to have her up to
+a boarding-school to mend her manners, and he and my lady are as
+much bent on marrying his Honour to her as if she was a perfect
+angel."
+
+"They never can!"
+
+"Well, miss, they do most things they have a mind to; and they mean
+to do this before my Lady's husband comes home."
+
+"But Mr. Belamour is his nephew's guardian."
+
+"That's what my Lady is come down here for.  Either she will get his
+consent out of him, or she will make the poor gentleman out to be
+_non compos_, and do without him."
+
+"Oh, nurse, he is the wisest, cleverest gentleman I ever saw, except
+my papa."
+
+"Do you say do, miss?  But you are young, you see.  A gentleman to
+shut himself up in the dark like that must needs be astray in his
+wits."
+
+"That is because of his eyes, and his wound.  Nobody could talk to
+him and doubt his reason."
+
+"Well, missie, I hope you are in the right; but what my Lady's
+interest is, that she is apt to carry out, one way or t'other!
+Bless me, if that be not Master Archer screaming.  I thought he
+was fast off to sleep.  There never was a child for hating the
+dark.  Yes, yes, I'm coming, my dearie!  Lack a daisy, if his
+mamma heard!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.  AUGURIES.
+
+
+    Venus, thy eternal sway
+    All the race of man obey.
+                      EURIPIDES (Anstice).
+
+
+Aurelia sat up late to finish her despatches to the beloved ones at
+home, and pack the little works she had been able to do for each,
+though my Lady's embroidery took up most of her sedentary hours.
+Mrs. Dove undertook the care of the guinea's worth of presents
+to the little sisters from Sir Amyas, which the prudent nurse advised
+her to withhold till after Master Archer was gone, as he would certainly
+break everything to pieces.  He was up betimes, careering about the
+garden with all his sisters after him, imperiously ordering them about,
+but nevertheless bewitching them all, so that Amoretta was in ecstasies
+at her own preferment, scarcely realising that it would divide her from
+the others; while Letty made sure that she should soon follow, and
+Fidelia gravely said, "I shall always know you are loving me still,
+Amy, as Nurse Rolfe does."
+
+Lady Belamour breakfasted in her own room at about ten o'clock.  Her
+woman, Mrs. Loveday, a small trim active person, with the worn and
+sharpened remains of considerable prettiness of the miniature brunette
+style, was sent to summon Miss Delavie to her apartment and inspect the
+embroidery she had been desired to execute for my Lady.  Three or four
+bouquets had been finished, and the maid went into such raptures over
+them as somewhat to disgust their worker, who knew that they were not
+half so well done as they would have been under Betty's direction.
+However, Mrs. Loveday bore the frame to her Ladyship's room, following
+Aurelia, who was there received with the same stately caressing manner
+as before.
+
+"Good morning, child.  Your roses bloom well in the forenoon!  Pity they
+should be wasted in darkness.  Not but that you are duly appreciated
+there.  Ah! I can deepen them by what our unhappy recluse said of you.
+I shall make glad hearts at Carminster by his good opinion, and who
+knows what preferment may come of it--eh?  What is that, Loveday?"
+
+"It is work your Ladyship wished me to execute," said Aurelia.
+
+"Handsome--yes; but is that all?  I thought the notable Mistress Betty
+brought you up after her own sort?"
+
+"I am sorry, madam, but I could not do it quickly at first without my
+sister's advice, and I have not very much time between my care of the
+children and preparing repetitions for Mr. Belamour."
+
+"Ha! ha! I understand.  There are greater attractions!  Go on, child.
+Mayhap it may be your own wedding gown you are working at, if you
+finish it in time!  Heavens! what great wondering eyes the child has!
+All in good time, my dear.  I must talk to your father."
+
+It was so much the custom to talk to young maidens about their marriage
+that this did not greatly startle Aurelia, and Lady Belamour continued:
+"There, child, you have done your duty well by those little plagues of
+mine, and it is Mr. Wayland's desire to make you a recompense.  You may
+need it in any change of circumstances."
+
+So saying, she placed in Aurelia's hand five guineas, the largest sum
+that the girl had ever owned; and as visions arose of Christmas gifts
+to be bestowed, the thanks were so warm, the curtsey so expressively
+graceful, the smile so bright, the soft eyes so sparkling, that the
+great lady was touched at the sight of such simple-hearted joy, and
+said, "There, there, child, that will do.  I could envy one whom a
+little makes so happy.  Now you will be able to make yourself fine
+when my son brings home his bride; or--who knows?--you may be a
+bride yourself first!"
+
+That sounds, thought Aurelia, as if Mr. Belamour had made her relinquish
+the plan of that cruel marriage, for I am sure I have not yet seen the
+man I am to marry.
+
+And with a lighter heart the young tutoress stood between Fay and Letty
+on the steps to see the departure, her cheeks still feeling Amoret's
+last fond kisses, and a swelling in her throat bringing tears to her
+eyes at the thought how soon that carriage would be at Carminster.
+Yet there were sweet chains in the little hands that held her gown,
+and in the thought of the lonely old man who depended on her for
+enlivenment.
+
+The day was long, for Amoret was missed; and the two children were
+unusually fretful and quarrelsome without her, disputing over the
+new toys which Brother Amyas's guinea had furnished in demoralising
+profusion.  It was strange too see the difference made by the loss
+of the child who would give up anything rather than meet a look of
+vexation, and would coax the others into immediate good humour.
+There was reaction, too, after the excitement, for which the
+inexperienced Aurelia did not allow.  At the twentieth bickering
+as to which doll should ride on the spotted hobby-horse, the face
+of Letty's painted wooden baby received a scar, and Fay's lost a
+leg, whereupon Aurelia's endurance entirely gave way, and she
+pronounced them both naughty children, and sent them to bed before
+supper.
+
+Then her heart smote her for unkindness, and she sat in the firelight
+listless and sad, though she hardly knew why, longing to go up and
+pet and comfort her charges, but withheld by the remembrance of
+Betty's assurances that leniency, in a like case, would be the ruin
+of Eugene.
+
+At last Jumbo came to summon her, and hastily recalling a cheerful air,
+she entered the room with "Good evening, sir; you see I am still here
+to trouble you."
+
+"I continue to profit by my gentle friend's banishment.  Tell me, was
+my Lady in a gracious mood?"
+
+"O sir, how beautiful she is, and how kind!  I know now why my father
+was so devoted to her, and no one can ever gainsay her!"
+
+"The enchantress knows how to cast her spells.  She was then friendly?"
+
+"She gave me five guineas!" said Aurelia exultingly.  "She said Mr.
+Wayland wished to recompense me."
+
+"Did he so?  If it came from him I should have expected a more liberal
+sum."
+
+"But, oh!" in a tone of infinite surprise and content, "this is more
+than I ever thought of.  Indeed I never dreamt of her giving me
+anything.  Sir, may I write to your bookseller, Mr. Tonson, and
+order a book of Mr. James Thomson's _Seasons_ to give to my sister
+Harriet, who is delighted with the extracts I have copied for her?"
+
+"Will not that consume a large proportion of the five guineas, my
+generous friend?"
+
+"I have enough left.  There is a new gown which I never have worn,
+which will serve for the new clothes my Lady spoke of to receive
+her son's bride."
+
+"She entered on that subject then?"
+
+"Only for a moment as she took leave.  Oh, sir, is it possible that
+she can know all about this young lady?"
+
+"What have you heard of her?"
+
+"Sir, they say she is a dreadful little vixen."
+
+"Who say?  Is she known at Carminster?"
+
+"No, sir," said Aurelia, disconcerted.  "It was from Nurse Dove that
+I heard what Sir Amyas's man said when he came back from Battlefield.
+I know my sister would chide me for listening to servants."
+
+"Nevertheless I should be glad to hear.  Was the servant old Grey?
+Then he is to be depended on.  What did he say?"
+
+Aurelia needed little persuasion to tell all that she had heard from
+Mrs. Dove, and he answered, "Thank you, my child, it tallies precisely
+with what the poor boy himself told me."
+
+"Then he has told his mother?  Will she not believe him?"
+
+"It does not suit her to do so, and it is easy to say the girl will
+be altered by going to a good school.  In fact, there are many reasons
+more powerful with her than the virtue and happiness of her son," he
+added bitterly.  "There's the connection, forsooth.  As if Lady
+Aresfield were fit to bring up an honest man's wife; and there's the
+fortune to fill up the void she has made in the Delavie estates."
+
+"Can no one hinder it, sir?  Cannot you?"
+
+"As a last resource the poor youth came hither to see whether the
+guardian whose wardship has hitherto been a dead letter, were indeed
+so utterly obdurate and helpless as had been represented."
+
+"And you have the power?"
+
+"So far as his father's will and the injunctions of his final letter
+to me can give it, I have full power.  My consent is necessary to his
+marriage while still a minor, and I have told my Lady I will never
+give it to his wedding a Mar."
+
+"I was sure of it; and it is not true that they will be able to do
+without it?
+
+"Without it!  Have you heard any more?  You pause.  I see--she wishes
+to declare me of unsound mind.  Is that what you mean?"
+
+"So Nurse Dove said, sir," faltered Aurelia; "but it seemed too wicked,
+too monstrous, to be possible."
+
+"I understand," he said.  "I thought there was an implied threat in
+my sweet sister-in-law's soft voice when she spoke of my determined
+misanthropy.  Well, I think we can guard against that expedient.  After
+all, it is only till my nephew comes of age, or till his stepfather
+returns, that we must keep the enchantress at bay.  Then the poor lad
+will be safe, providing always that she and her Colonel have not made
+a rake of him by that time.  Alas, what a wretch am I not to be able
+to do more for him!  Child, you have seen him?"
+
+"I danced with him, sir, but I was too much terrified to look in his
+face.  And I saw his cocked hat over the thorn hedge."
+
+"Fancy free," muttered Mr. Belamour.  "Fair exile for a cocked hat
+and diamond shoe-buckles!  You would not recognise him again, nor
+his voice?"
+
+"No, sir.  He scarcely spoke, and I was attending to my steps."
+
+Mr. Belamour laughed, and then asked Aurelia for the passage in the
+_Iliad_ where Venus carries off Paris in a cloud.  He thanked her
+somewhat absently, and then said,
+
+"Dr. Godfrey said something of coming hither before he goes to his
+living in Dorsetshire.  May I ask of you the favour of writing and
+begging him to fix a day not far off, mentioning likewise that my
+sister-in-law has been here."
+
+To this invitation Dr. Godfrey replied that he would deviate from the
+slow progress of his family coach, and ride to Bowstead, spending two
+nights there the next week; and to Aurelia's greater amazement, she
+was next requested to write a billet to the Mistresses Treforth in
+Mr. Belamour's name, asking them to bestow their company on him for
+the second evening of Dr. Godfrey's visit.
+
+"You, my kind friend, will do the honours," he said, "and we will ask
+Mrs. Aylward to provide the entertainment."
+
+"They will be quite propitiated by being asked to meet Dr. Godfrey,"
+said Aurelia.  "Shall you admit them, sir?"
+
+"Certainly.  You do not seem to find them very engaging company, but
+they can scarce be worse than I should find in such an asylum as my
+charming sister-in-law seems to have in preparation for me."
+
+"Oh! I wish I had said nothing about that.  It is too shocking!"
+
+"Forewarned, forearmed, as the proverb says.  Do you not see, my
+amiable friend, that we are providing a body of witnesses to the
+sanity of the recluse, even though he may 'in dark Cimmerian desert
+ever dwell'?"
+
+The visit took place; Dr. Godfrey greeted Miss Delavie as an old
+friend, and the next day pronounced Mr. Belamour to be so wonderfully
+invigorated and animated, that he thought my Lady's malignant plan
+was really likely to prove the best possible stimulus and cure.
+
+Then the Canon gratified the two old ladies by a morning call, dined
+with Aurelia and her pupils, who behaved very well, and with whom he
+afterwards played for a whole hour so kindly that they placed him
+second in esteem to their big and beautiful brother.  Mrs. Phoebe
+and Mrs. Delia came dressed in the faded splendours of the Louis XIV.
+period, just at twilight, and were regaled with coffee and pound cake.
+They were a good deal subdued, though as Aurelia listened to the
+conversation, it was plain enough what Mr. Belamour meant when he
+said that his cousin Delia was something of the coquette.
+
+Still they asked with evident awe if it were true that their unfortunate
+cousin really intended to admit them, and they evidently became more
+and more nervous while waiting for Jumbo's summons.  Dr. Godfrey gave
+his arm to Mrs. Phoebe, and Mrs. Delia gripped hold of Aurelia's,
+trembling all over, declaring she felt ready to swoon, and marvelling
+how Miss Delavie could ever have ventured, all alone too!
+
+After all, things had been made much less formidable than at Aurelia's
+first introduction.  The sitting-room was arranged as it was when Mr.
+Greaves read prayers, with a very faint light from a shrouded lamp
+behind the window curtain.  To new comers it seemed pitchy darkness,
+but to Aurelia and Dr. Godfrey it was a welcome change, allowing them
+at least to perceive the forms of one another, and of the furniture.
+From a blacker gulf, being the doorway to the inner room, came Mr.
+Belamour's courteous voice of greeting to his kinswomen, who were led
+up by their respective guides to take his hand; after which he begged
+them to excuse the darkness, since the least light was painful to him
+still.  If they would be seated he would remain where he was, and
+enjoy the society he was again beginning to be able to appreciate.
+He was, in fact, sitting within his own room, with eyes covered from
+even the feeble glimmer in the outer room.
+
+It was some minutes before they recovered their self-possession, but
+Dr. Godfrey and Mr. Belamour began the conversation, and they gradually
+joined in.  It was chiefly full of reminiscences of the lively days
+when Dr. Godfrey had been a young Cantab visiting his two friends at
+Bowstead, and Phoebe and Delia were the belles of the village.  Aurelia
+scarcely opened her lips, but she was astonished to find how different
+the two sisters could be from the censorious, contemptuous beings they
+had seemed to her.  The conversation lasted till supper-time, and Mr.
+Belamour, as they took their leave, made them promise to come and see
+him again.  Then they were conducted back to the supper-room, Mrs.
+Phoebe mysteriously asking "Is he always like this?"
+
+The experiment had been a great success, and Aurelia completed it by
+asking Mrs. Phoebe to take the head of the supper-table.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.  THE VICTIM DEMANDED.
+
+
+    And if thou sparest now to do this thing,
+    I will destroy thee and thy land also.--MORRIS.
+
+
+"Well, sir, have you seen my Lady?"
+
+"Not a year older than when I saw her last," returned Major Delavie,
+who had just dismounted from his trusty pony at his garden gate, and
+accepted Betty's arm; "and what think you?" he added, pausing that
+Corporal Palmer might hear his news.  "She has been at Bowstead, and
+brings fresh tidings of our Aura.  The darling is as fair and sprightly
+as a May morning, and beloved by all who come near her--bless her!"
+
+Palmer echoed a fervent "Amen!" and Betty asked, "Is this my Lady's
+report?"
+
+"Suspicious Betty!  You will soon be satisfied," said the Major in
+high glee.  "Did not Dove meet me at the front door, and Mrs. Dove
+waylay me in the hall to tell me that the child looked blooming and
+joyous, and in favour with all, gentle and simple?  Come her, Eugene,
+ay, and Harriet and Arden too.  Let us hear what my little maid says
+for herself.  For look here!" and he held aloft Aurelia's packet, at
+sight of which Eugene capered high, and all followed into the parlour.
+
+Mr. Arden was constantly about the house.  There was no doubt that he
+would soon be preferred to a Chapter living in Buckinghamshire, and
+he had thus been emboldened to speak out his wishes.  It would have
+been quite beneath the dignity of a young lady of Miss Harriet's
+sensibility to have consented, and she was in the full swing of her
+game at coyness and reluctance, daily vowing that nothing should
+induce her to resign her liberty, and that she should be frightened
+out of her life by Mr. Arden's experiments; while her father had
+cordially received the minor Canon's proposals, and already treated
+him as one of the family.  Simpering had been such a fattening
+process that Harriet was beginning to resume more of her good looks
+than had ever been brought back by Maydew.
+
+"Open the letter, Betty.  Thanks, Arden," as the minor Canon began to
+pull off his boots, "only take care of my knee.  My Lady has brought
+down her little boy, and one of Aurelia's pupils; I declare they are
+a perfect pair of Loves.  What are you fumbling at, Betty?"
+
+"The seal, sir, it is a pity to break it," said Betty, producing her
+scissors from one of her capacious pockets.  "It is an antique, is it
+not, Mr. Arden?"
+
+"A very beautiful gem, a sleeping Cupid," he answered.
+
+"How could the child have obtained it?" said Harriet.
+
+"I can tell you," said the Major.  "From old Belamour.  My Lady was
+laughing about it.  The little puss has revived the embers of gallantry
+in our poor recluse.  Says she, 'He has actually presented her with a
+ring, nay, a ring bearing Love himself.'"
+
+Somehow the speech, even at second hand, jarred upon Betty, but her
+father was delighted with my Lady's description of his favourite, and
+the letters were full of contentment.  When the two sisters, arrayed
+in their stiffest silks, went up to pay their respects to my Lady
+the next afternoon, their reception was equally warm.  My Lady was
+more caressing to her old acquaintance, Betty, than that discreet
+personage quite liked, while she complimented and congratulated
+Harriet on her lover, laughing at her bashful disclaimers in such a
+charmingly teasing fashion as quite to win the damsel's heart, and
+convince her that all censure of Lady Belamour was vile slander.  The
+children were sent for, and Amoret was called on to show how Cousin
+Aurelia had taught her to dance, sing and recite.  The tiny minuet
+performed by her and Archer was an exceedingly pretty exhibition as
+far as it went, but the boy had no patience to conclude, and jumped
+off into an extemporary _pas seul_, which was still prettier, and as
+Amoret was sole exhibitor of the repetition of Hay's "Hare and many
+friends," he became turbulent after the first four lines, and put a
+stop to the whole.
+
+Then came in a tall, large, handsome, dashing-looking man, with the
+air of a "_beau sabreur_," whom Lady Belamour presented to her cousins
+as "Colonel Mar, my son's commandant, you know who has been kind enough
+to take Carminster on his way, so as to escort me to the Bath.  I am
+such a sad coward about highwaymen.  And we are to meet dear Lady
+Aresfield there to talk over a little matter of business."
+
+Colonel Mar made a magnificent bow, carelessly, not to say
+impertinently, scanned the two ladies, and having evidently decided
+they had neither beauty nor fashion to attract him, caught up little
+Amy in his arms, and began to play a half teasing, half caressing
+game with the children.  Betty thought it high time to be gone, and
+as she took leave, was requested to send up her little brother to
+play with his cousins.  This did not prove a success, for Eugene
+constituted himself champion to Amoret, of whom Archer was very
+jealous, though she was his devoted and submissive slave.  Master
+Delavie's rustic ways were in consequence pronounced to be too rude
+and rough for the dainty little town-bred boy, the fine ladies' pet.
+
+The Major dined at the Great House, but came home so much dismayed
+and disgusted that he could hardly mention even to Betty what he had
+seen and heard.  He only groaned out at intervals, "This is what the
+service is coming to!  That fop to be that poor lad's commanding
+officer!  That rake to be always hovering about my cousin!"
+
+Others spoke out more plainly.  Stories were afloat or orgies ending
+in the gallant Colonel being under the supper table, a thing only too
+common, but not in the house of a solitary lady who had only lately
+quitted the carousers.  Half the dependants on the estate were
+complaining of the guest's swaggering overbearing treatment of
+themselves, or of his insolence to their wives or daughters; and
+Betty lived in a dreadful unnamed terror lest he should offer some
+impertinence to her father which the veteran's honour might not brook.
+However, there was something in the old soldier's dignity and long
+service that kept the arrogance of the younger man in check, and
+repressed all bluster towards him.
+
+Demands for money were, as usual, made, but the settlement of accounts
+was deferred till the arrival of Hargrave, the family man of business,
+who came by coach to Bath, and then rode across to Carminster.  The
+Major dined that day at the Great House, and came home early, with
+something so strange and startled about his looks that Betty feared
+that her worst misgivings were realised.  It was a relief to hear him
+say, "Come hither, Betty, I want a word with you."  At least it was
+no duel!
+
+"What is it, dear sir?" she asked, as she shut his study door.  "Is
+it come at last?  Must we quit this place?"
+
+"No, I could bear that better, but what do you think she asks of me
+now?--to give my little Aurelia, my beautiful darling, to that madman
+in the dark!"
+
+"Oh!" exclaimed Betty, in a strange tone of discovery.  "May I inquire
+what you said?"
+
+"I said--I scarce know what I said.  I declared it monstrous, and not
+to be thought of for a moment; and then she went on in her fashion that
+would wile a bird off a bush, declaring that no doubt the proposal was
+a shock, but if I would turn the matter over, I should see it was for
+the dear child's advantage.  Belamour dotes on her, and after being an
+old man's darling for a few years, she may be free in her prime, with
+an honourable name and fortune."
+
+"I dare say.  As if one could not see through the entire design.  My
+Lady would call her sister-in-law to prevent her being daughter-in-law!"
+
+"That fancy has had no aliment, and must long ago have died out."
+
+"Listen to Nurse Dove on that matter."
+
+"Women love to foster notions of that sort."
+
+"Nay, sir, you believe, as I do, that the poor child was conveyed to
+Bowstead in order that the youth might lose sight of her, and since he
+proves refractory to the match intended for him, this further device
+is found for destroying any possible hope on his part."
+
+"I cannot say what may actuate my Lady, but if Amyas Belamour be the
+man I knew, and as the child's own letters paint him, he is not like
+to lend himself to any such arrangement."
+
+"Comes the offer from him, or is it only a scheme of my Lady's?"
+
+"He never writes more than a signature, but Hargrave is empowered to
+make proposals to me, very handsome proposals too, were not the bare
+idea intolerable."
+
+"Aurelia is not aware of it, I am sure," said Betty, to whom Hargrave
+had brought another packet of cheerful innocent despatches, of which,
+as usual, the unseen friend in the dark was the hero.
+
+"Certainly not, and I hope she never may be.  I declared the notion
+was not to be entertained for a moment; but Urania never, in her
+life, would take no for an answer, and she talked me nearly out of
+my senses, then bade me go home, think it over, and discuss it with
+my excellent and prudent daughter; as if all the thinking and talking
+in the world could make it anything but more intolerable."
+
+His prudent daughter understood in the adjective applied to her a
+hint which the wily lady would not have dared to make direct to
+the high-spirited old soldier, namely, that the continuance of his
+livelihood might depend on his consent.  Betty knew likewise enough
+of the terrible world of the early eighteenth century to be aware
+that even such wedlock as this was not the worst to which a woman
+like Lady Belamour might compel the poor girl, who was entirely in
+her power, and out of reach of all protection; unless--  An idea
+broke in on her--"If we could but go to Bowstead, sir," she said,
+"then we could judge whether the notion be as repugnant to Aurelia
+as it is to us, and whether Mr. Belamour be truly rational and fit
+to be trusted with her."
+
+"I tell you, Betty, it is a mere absurdity to think of it.  I believe
+the child is fond of, and grateful to, the poor man, but if she
+supposed she loved him, it would be mere playing on her ignorance."
+
+"Then we could take her safely home and bear the consequences together,
+without leaving her alone exposed to any fresh machination of my Lady."
+
+"You are right, Betty.  You have all your sainted mother's good sense.
+I will tell my cousin that this is not a matter to be done blindly,
+and that I withhold my reply till I have seen and spoken with her and
+this most preposterous of suitors."
+
+"Yes, it is the only way," said Betty.  "We can then judge whether it
+be a cruel sacrifice, or whether the child have affection and confidence
+enough in him to be reasonably happy with him.  What is his age, father?"
+
+"Let me see.  Poor Sir Jovian was much older than Urania, but he died
+at forty years old.  His brother was some three years his junior.  He
+cannot be above forty-six or seven.  That is not the objection, but
+the moody melancholy--Think of our gay sprightly child!"
+
+"We will see, sir."
+
+"We! Mistress Betty?  The cost will be severe without you!"
+
+"Nay, sir, I cannot rest without going too; you might be taken ill."
+
+"You cannot trust a couple of old campaigners like Palmer and me?
+What did we do without you?"
+
+"Got lamed for life," said Betty, saucily.  "No, I go on a pillion
+behind Palmer, and my grandfather's diamond ring shall pay expenses."
+
+"Sir Archibald's ring that he put on two baby fingers of yours when
+he went off to Scotland."
+
+"Better part with that then resign my Aurelia in the dark, uncertain
+whether it be for her good."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.  THE PROPOSAL.
+
+
+    Love sweetest lies concealed in night.--T. MOORE.
+
+
+The Major rode up to the Great House to announce that he would only
+give his answer after having conferred with both his daughter and
+the suitor.
+
+With tears in her beautiful blue eyes, Lady Belamour demanded why her
+dear cousin Harry could not trust the Urania he had known all her life
+to decide what was for the happiness of the sweet child whom she loved
+like her own.
+
+She made him actually feel as if it were a cruel and unmerited
+suspicion, but she did not over come him.  "Madam," he said, "it
+would be against my orders, as father of a family, to give my child
+away without doing my poor best for her."
+
+There, in spite of all obstacles suggested and all displeasure
+manifested, he stuck fast, until, without choosing to wait till a
+shower of sleet and rain was over.  Vexation and perplexity always
+overset his health, and the chill, added to them, rendered him so
+ill the next morning that Betty knew there was no chance of his
+leaving his room for the next month or six weeks; and she therefore
+sent a polite and formal note to the Great House explaining that he
+could not attend to business.
+
+This brought upon her the honour of a visit from the great lady
+herself.  Down came the coach-and-four, and forth from it came Lady
+Belamour in a magnificent hoop, the first seen in those parts,
+managing it with a grace that made her an overwhelming spectacle,
+in contrast with Betty, in her close-fitting dark-grey homespun,
+plain white muslin apron, cap, kerchief, and ruggles, scrupulously
+neat and fresh, but unadorned.  The visit was graciously designed for
+"good cousin Harry," but his daughter was obliged, not unwillingly,
+though quite truly, to declare him far too suffering with pain
+and fever.
+
+"La, you there, then," said the lady, "that comes of the dear man's
+heat of temper.  I would have kept him till the storm was over but
+he was far too much displeased with his poor cousin to listen to me.
+Come, cousin Betty, I know you are in all his counsels.  You will
+bring him to hear reason."
+
+"The whole affair must wait, madam, till he is able to move."
+
+"And if this illness be the consequence of one wet ride, how can he
+be in a condition to take the journey?"
+
+"You best know, madam whether a father can be expected to bestow his
+daughter in so strange a manner without direct communication either
+with her or with the other party."
+
+"I grant you the idea is at first sight startling, but surely he might
+trust to me; and he knows Amyas Belamour, poor man, to be the very soul
+of honour; yes, and with all his eccentricity to have made no small
+impression on our fair Aurelia.  Depend upon it, my dear Betty, romance
+carried the day; and the damsel is more enamoured of the mysterious
+voice in the dark, than she would be of any lusty swain in the ordinary
+light of day."
+
+"All that may be, madam, but she is scarce yet sixteen, and it is
+our duty to be assured of her inclinations and of the gentleman's
+condition."
+
+"You will not trust me, who have watched them both," said Lady
+Belamour, with her most engaging manner.  "Now look here, my dear,
+since we are two women together, safe out of the hearing of the men,
+I will be round with you.  I freely own myself imprudent in sending
+your sister to Bowstead to take charge of my poor little girls, but
+if you had seen the little savages they were, you would not wonder
+that I could not take them home at once, nor that I should wish to
+see them acquire the good manners that I remembered in the children
+of this house; I never dreamt of Mr. Belamour heeding the little
+nursery.  He has always been an obstinate melancholic lunatic,
+confined to his chamber by day, and wandering like a ghost by night,
+refusing all admission.  Moreover my good Aylward had appeared
+hitherto a paragon of a duenna for discretion, only over starched
+in her precision.  Little did I expect to find my young lady spending
+all her evenings alone with him, and the solitary hermit transformed
+into a gay and gallant bachelor like the Friar of Orders Gray in the
+song.  And since matters have gone to such a length, I, as a woman
+who has seen more of the world than you have, my dear good Betty,
+think it expedient that the Friar and his charmer should be made
+one without loss of time.  _We_ know her to be innocence itself,
+and him for a very Sidney for honour, but the world--"
+
+"It is your doing, madam," exclaimed Betty, passionately, completely
+overset by the insinuation; "you bid us trust you, and then confess
+that you have exposed my sweet sister to be vilely slandered!  Oh
+my Aurelia, why did I let you out of my sight?" she cried, while hot
+tears stood in her eyes.
+
+"I know your warmth, my dear," said Lady Belamour with perfect command
+of temper; "I tell you I blame myself for not having recollected that
+a lovely maiden can tame even a savage brute, or that even in the sweet
+rural country walls have ears and trees have tongues.  Not that any
+harm is done so far, nor ever will be; above all if your good father
+do not carry his romantic sentiments so far as to be his ruin a second
+time.  Credit me, Betty, they will not serve in any world save the
+imaginary one that crazed Don Quixote.  What advantage can the pretty
+creature gain?  She is only sixteen, quite untouched by true passion.
+She will obtain a name and fortune, and become an old man's idol for
+a few years, after which she will probably be at liberty by the time
+she is of an age to enjoy life."
+
+"He is but five-and-forty!" said Betty.
+
+"Well, if she arouse him to a second spring, there will be few women
+who will not envy her."
+
+"You may colour it over, madam," said Betty, drawing herself up, "but
+nothing can conceal the fact that you confess yourself to have exposed
+my innocent helpless sister to malignant slander; and that you assure
+me that the only course left is to marry the poor child to a wretched
+melancholic who has never so much as seen her face."
+
+"You are outspoken, Miss Delavie," said Lady Belamour, softly, but
+with a dangerous glitter in her blue eyes.  "I pardon your heat for
+your father's sake, and because I ascribe it to the exalted fantastic
+notions in which you have been bred; but remember that there are
+bounds to my forbearance, and that an agent in his state of health,
+and with his stubborn ideas, only remains on sufferance."
+
+"My father has made up his mind to sacrifice anything rather than his
+child," cried Betty.
+
+"My dear girl, I will hear you no more.  You are doing him no service,"
+said Lady Belamour kindly.  "You had better be convinced that it is a
+sacrifice, or an unwilling one, before you treat me to any more heroics."
+
+Betty successfully avoided a parting kiss, and remained pacing up and
+down the room to work off her indignation before returning to her
+father.  She was quite as angry with herself, as with my Lady, for
+having lost her temper, and so given her enemy an advantage, more
+especially as when her distress became less agitating, her natural
+shrewdness began to guess that the hint about scandal was the pure
+fruit of Lady Belamour's invention, as an expedient for obtaining
+her consent.  Yet the mere breath of such a possibility of evil
+speaking was horror to her, and she even revolved the question of
+going herself to Bowstead to rescue her sister.  But even if the
+journey had been more possible, her father was in no condition to
+be left to Harriet's care, and there was nothing to be done except
+to wait till he could again attend to the matter, calm herself as
+best she could, so as not to alarm him, and intercept all dangerous
+messages.
+
+Several days had passed, and though the Major had not left his bed,
+he had asked whether more had been heard from my Lady, and discussed
+the subject with his daughter, when a letter arrived in due course of
+post.  It was written in a large bold hand, and the signature, across
+a crease in the paper, was in the irregular characters that the Major
+recognised as those of Mr. Belamour.
+
+
+"DEAR AND HONOURED SIR,
+
+  "Proposals have been made to you on my Behalf for the Hand of your
+fair and amiable Daughter, Miss Aurelia Delavie.  I am well aware how
+preposterous and even shocking they may well appear to you; yet, let
+me assure you, on the Faith of a Man of Honour that if you will entrust
+her to me, wretched Recluse though I be, and will permit her to bear my
+Name, I will answer for her Happiness and Welfare.  Situated as I am,
+I cannot enter into further explanations; but we are old Acquaintance,
+though we have not met for many Years, and therefore I venture to beg
+of you to believe me when I say that if you will repose Confidence in
+me, and exercise Patience, I can promise your admirable Daughter such
+Preferment as she is far from expecting.  She has been the Blessing of
+my darkened Life, but I would never have presumed to ask further were
+it not that I have no other Means of protecting her, nor of shielding
+her from Evils that may threaten her, and that might prove far worse
+than bearing the Name of
+
+                   "Your obedient Servant to command,
+                            "AMYAS BELAMOUR.
+
+"Bowstead Park, Dec. 3rd, 1737."
+
+
+"Enigmatical!" said Betty.
+
+"It could hardly be otherwise if he had to employ a secretary" said
+her father.  "Who can have written for him?"
+
+"His friend, Dr. Godfrey, most probably," said Betty.  "It is well
+spelt as well as indited, and has not the air of being drawn up by
+a lawyer."
+
+"No, it is not Hargrave's hand.  It is strange that he says nothing
+of the settlements."
+
+"Here is a postscript, adding, 'Should you consent, Hargrave will
+give you ample satisfaction as to the property which I can settle
+on your daughter.'"
+
+"Of that I have no doubt," said the Major.  "Well, Betty, on
+reflection, if I were only secure that no force was put on the
+child's will, and if I could exchange a few words face to face
+with Amyas Belamour, I should not be so utterly averse as I was
+at first sight.  She is a good child, and if she like him, and
+find it not hard to do her duty by him, she might be as happy
+as another.  And since she is out of our reach it might save
+her from worse.  What say you, child?"
+
+"That last is the strongest plea with me," said Betty, with set lips.
+
+They took another evening for deliberation, but there was something
+in the tone of the letter that wrought on them, and it ended in a
+cautious consent being given, on the condition of the father being
+fully satisfied of his daughter's free and voluntary acquiescence.
+
+"After all," he said to Betty, "I shall be able to go up to Bowstead
+for the wedding, and if I find that her inclinations have been forced,
+I can take her away at all risks."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.  WOOING IN THE DARK.
+
+
+    You may put out my eyes with a ballad-maker's pen, and hang me
+  up for the sign of blind Cupid.--_Much Ado About Nothing_.
+
+
+Aurelia had been walking in the park with her two remaining charges,
+when a bespattered messenger was seen riding up to the door, and
+Letitia dropped her hoop in her curiosity and excitement.
+
+Lady Belamour, on obtaining the Major's partial acquiescence, had felt
+herself no longer obliged to vegetate at Carminster, but had started
+for Bath, while the roads were still practicable; and had at the same
+time sent off a courier with letters to Bowstead.  Kind Mrs. Dove had
+sent a little packet to each of the children, but they found Cousin
+Aura's sympathy grievously and unwontedly lacking, and she at last
+replied to their repeated calls to here to share their delight, that
+they must run away, and display their treasures to Molly and Jumbo.
+She must read her letters alone.
+
+The first she had opened was Betty's, telling her of her father's
+illness, which was attributed in great part to the distress and
+perplexity caused by Lady Belamour's proposal.  Had it not been for
+this indisposition, both father and sister would have come to judge
+for themselves before entertaining it for a moment; but since the
+journey was impossible, he could only desire Betty to assure her
+sister that no constraint should be put on her, and that if she felt
+the least repugnance to the match, she need not consider her obliged
+to submit.  More followed about the religious duty of full
+consideration and prayer before deciding on what would fix her
+destiny for life, but all was so confusing to the girl, entirely
+unprepared as she was, that after hastily glancing on in search
+of an explanation which she failed to find, she laid it aside, and
+opened the other letter.  It began imperially
+
+
+  "MY COUSIN,
+
+     "No doubt you are already informed of the Honour that has been
+done you by the Proposal that Mr. Amyas Belamour has made to your
+Father for your Hand.  It is no slight Compliment to a young Maid
+like you, from one of the most noted Wits about Town in the last
+Reign; and you will no doubt shew the Good Sense to esteem yourself
+fortunate beyond all reasonable Expectations or Deserts of your own,
+as well as to act for the Advantage of your Family.  Be assured that
+I shall permit no foolish Flightiness nor Reluctance to interfere
+with you true Welfare.  I say this, because, as you well know, your
+Father's Affection is strong and blind, and you might easily draw
+him into a Resistance which could but damage both his Health and
+his Prospects.  On receiving the tidings of your Marriage, I promise
+to settle on him the Manor House with an Annuity of Three hundred
+Pounds; but if he should support you in any foolish Refusal, I shall
+be obliged to inform him that I can dispense with his Services;
+therefore you will do wisely to abstain from any childish expressions
+of Distaste.
+
+"On you Marriage, you will of course have the Enjoyment of the Pin
+Money with which Mr. Belamour will liberally endow you, and be
+treated in all Respects as a Married Lady.  My Daughters shall be
+sent to School, unless you wish to make them your Companions
+a little longer.  Expecting to hear from you that you are
+fully sensible to the good Fortune and the Obligations you
+are under to me,
+     "I remain
+           "Yours &c.
+                "URANIA BELAMOUR."
+
+
+It was with a gasp of relief that Aurelia discovered what was required
+of her.  "Marry Mr. Belamour?  Is that all?  Then why should they all
+think I should so much dislike it, my Lady, and my papa, and sister and
+all?  Nobody ever was so good to me, and maybe I could make him a little
+happier, though it is not what I expected of him, to forget his Mary!
+Oh, no, I am not afraid; I might have been afraid six months ago, but
+now it is a different thing.  I am not so foolish!  And my dear papa
+will have the Manor House for ever!  And Eugene will be able to go to
+a good school and have a pair of colours in good time!  A fortunate
+girl!  Yes, of course I am!  Then Mrs. Phoebe and Mrs. Delia will not
+flout me any more, even if young Sir Amyas should come here!  Ah! here
+are the little girls returning!  Keep them here?  Of course I will.
+What toys and books I will get for them!"
+
+Yet, when the time for her summons drew nigh, a great dread and shyness
+overcame her, lest Mr. Belamour should begin on the subject; and she
+only nerved herself by recollecting that he could have had no one to
+read to him her father's letter of reply, and that he was scarcely
+likely to speak without knowing the contents.  Still, it was only
+shyness and embarrassment that made her advance timidly, but in one
+moment a new sensation, a strange tremor came over her, as instead
+of merely her finger-tips, her whole hand was grasped and fervently
+pressed, and in the silence that ensued the throbbing of her heart
+and the panting of her breath seemed to find an echo.  However, the
+well-known voice began, "My fair visitor is very good in honouring
+me to-night."
+
+Was it coming?  Her heart gave such a throb that she could only murmur
+something inarticulate, while there was a hasty repressed movement
+near her.
+
+"You have heard from your father?" said Mr. Belamour.
+
+"My father is ill, sir," she faltered.
+
+"Ah, yes, so I was sorry to understand.  Has he not sent a message to
+you through your sister?"
+
+"He has, sir," Aurelia continued, with difficulty, to utter.
+
+There was another silence, another space of tightened breath and
+beating heart, absolutely audible, and again a hushed, restless
+movement heralded Mr. Belamour's next words, "Did I no tell you
+truly that my Lady devises most unexpected expedients?"
+
+"Then would you not have it so, sir?" asked Aurelia, in a bewildered
+voice of perplexity.  "Oh!" as again one of those echoes startled her,
+"tell me what it all means."
+
+"Hush! listen to me," said Mr. Belamour, in a voice that added to her
+undefined alarm by what seemed to her imperious displeasure as uncalled
+for as it was unusual; but the usual fatherly gentleness immediately
+prevailed, "My child, I should never have entertained the thought for
+a moment but for--but for Lady Belamour.  This sounds like no
+compliment," he added, catching himself up, and manifesting a certain
+embarrassment and confusion very unlike his usual calm dignity of
+demeanour, and thus adding to the strange fright that was growing
+upon Aurelia.  "But you must understand that I would not--even in
+semblance--have dreamt of your being apparently linked to age, sorrow,
+and infirmity, save that--strange as it may seem--Lady Belamour has
+herself put into my hands the best means of protecting you, and
+finally, as I trust, securing your happiness."
+
+"You are very good, sir," she continued to breathe out, amid the
+flutterings of her heart, and the reply produced a wonderful outburst
+of ardour in a low but fervent voice.  "You will!  You will!  You
+sweetest of angels, you will be mine!"
+
+There was something so irresistibly winning in the sound, that it
+drew forth an answer from the maiden's very heart.  "Oh! yes, indeed--"
+and before she could utter another word she was snatched into a sudden,
+warm, vehement embrace, from which she was only partly released,
+as--near, but still not so near as she would have expected--this
+extraordinary suitor seemed to remonstrate with his ardent self, saying,
+"Now! now! that will do!  So be it then, my child," he continued.
+"Great will be the need of faith, patience, trust, ay, and of self-
+restraint, but let these be practised for a little space, and all will
+be well."
+
+She scarcely heard the latter words.  The sense of something irrevocable
+and unfathomable was overpowering her.  The mystery of these sudden
+alterations of voice, now near, now far off, was intolerable.  Here
+were hands claiming her, fervent, eager breathings close upon her,
+and that serious, pensive voice going on all that time.  The darkness
+grew dreadful to her, dizziness came over her; she dashed aside the
+hands, started up with a scream, and amid the strange noises and
+flashes of a swoon, knew no more till she heard Mrs. Aylward's voice
+over her, found the horrid smell of burnt feathers under her nose,
+and water trickling down her face, dim candlelight was round her,
+and she perceived that she was on a low settee in the lobby.
+
+"There, she is coming round.  You may tell your master, Jumbo, 'twas
+nothing but the mince pies."
+
+"Oh, no--" began Aurelia, but her own voice seemed to come from
+somewhere else, and being inexperienced in fainting, she was
+frightened.
+
+"That is right, you are better.  Now, a drop of strong waters."
+
+Aurelia choked, and put them aside, but was made to swallow the
+draught, and revived enough to ask, "How came I here?"
+
+"Jumbo must have carried you out, ma'am, and laid you here before
+ever he called any one," said Mrs. Aylward.  "Dear, dear, to think
+of your being taken like that.  But the tins of those mince-pies
+are over large!  You must halve one next time."
+
+Aurelia was sensible enough to the reproof of greediness to begin to
+protest against the mince-pie theory, but she recollected that she
+could not account for her swoon, and thereupon became as red as she
+had been pale, thus confirming the housekeeper's opinion.  A sound
+of footsteps made her start up and cry, "What's that?" in nervous
+fright; but Mrs. Aylward declared it was fancy, and as she was by
+this time able to walk, she was conducted to her own room.  There
+she was examined on her recent diet, and was compelled to allow the
+housekeeper to ascribe her illness to neglect of autumnal blood-
+letting and medicine; and she only stave off the send for the barber
+and his lancet the next morning by promising to swallow a dose
+compounded of all that was horrible.
+
+She was altogether much shaken, she dreamed strange dreams by night,
+was capable of little by day, was declared by the children to be
+cross, and was much inclined to plead indisposition as an excuse for
+not visiting that alarming room in the evening.  Indeed for the
+greater part of the day she felt as if she must avail herself of
+the pretext, and as if she neither could nor would encounter that
+strange double creature in the dark; but somehow she had been as
+much fascinated as terrified, and, in spite of her resolve, she
+found herself mechanically following Jumbo, shuddering all over
+and as cold as ice.
+
+The dark chambers were warmed by German stoves, so that the atmosphere
+was always equable, and it seemed to revive her, while a kind, warm
+hand led her as usual to her seat, and it was the usual gentle,
+courteous, paternal tone that addressed her, "How chill and trembling
+you are!  My poor child, you were sadly alarmed last night."
+
+Aurelia murmured some excuse about being very foolish.
+
+"It was not you who was foolish," was the reply; and though her
+hand was retained it was evidently for the sake of warming it,
+and comforting her, not of caressing it in the startling mode of
+yesterday.  There was a pause, during which her composure began
+to be restored, and some inquiries whether she were quite recovered;
+to which she replied with eager affirmatives, feeling indeed quite
+herself again, now that all was in its familiar state around her.
+Then this strange suitor spoke again.  "It is a hard and cruel fate
+that my Lady has sought to impose on you."
+
+"Oh, do not say so, sir I---"
+
+"No," he interrupted somewhat hastily, "do not try to deny it, my
+child; I know better than you can what it would amount to.  Believe
+me, I only lend myself to her arrangement because I know no better
+means of guarding you and preserving you for better days."
+
+"I know how kind you are, sir."
+
+"And you trust me?"
+
+"Indeed I do."
+
+"That is all I ask.  I shall never be a husband to you more than in
+name, Aurelia, nor ask of you more than you give me now, namely, your
+sweet presence for a few hours in the evening, without seeing me.
+Can you bear thus to devote your young life, for a time at least?"
+
+"You know, sir, how glad I always am to be with you," said Aurelia,
+relieved yet half regretting that strange fervour.  "I will do my
+very best to please you."
+
+"Ah! sweet child," he began, with a thrill of deep feeling in his
+voice; but checking himself he continued, "All I ask is patience
+and trust for a time--for a time--you promise it!"
+
+"With all my heart," said Aurelia.
+
+"I will use my best endeavours to requite that trust, my child," he
+said.  "Is not the Christian watchword faith, not sight?  It must be
+yours likewise."
+
+"I hope so," she said, scarcely understanding.
+
+He then interrogated her somewhat closely as to the letters which had
+prepared her for the proposal; and as Aurelia was far too simple to
+conceal anything under cross-examination, Mr. Belamour soon found
+out what her Ladyship's threats and promises had been.
+
+"The Manor House?" he said.  "That is the original nucleus of the
+property which had hitherto gone to the heir male?"
+
+"So my sister told me," said Aurelia.
+
+"That letter, which Dr. Godfrey read to me, spoke of my poor brother's
+discomfort in holding it.  It is well if thus tardily she refund it,
+though not as your price, my poor child.  It should have been as
+matter of justice, if not by her husband's dying wish.  So this is
+the alternative set before you!  Has it been set before your father
+likewise?"
+
+"Almost certainly she will have threatened to dismiss him if he do
+not consent.  It was that which made my sister decide on sending me
+here, or what would become of him and Eugene?  But I should think
+my Lady knew my father better than to seem to offer any kind of
+price, as you call it, for me."
+
+"Precisely.  You have heard from this maternal sister of yours?  Does
+he then give his consent?"
+
+"They say they will not have my inclinations forced, and that they
+had rather undergo anything than that I should be driven to--to--"
+
+"To be as much a sacrifice as Iphigenia," he concluded the sentence.
+
+"Indeed, sir," said Aurelia, quite restored, "I cannot see why they
+should imagine me to have such objections, or want me to be so
+cautious and considerate.  I shall write to my papa that it is not
+at all repugnant to me, for that you are very, very good to me; and
+if I can make your time pass ever so little more pleasantly, it is
+a delight to me.  I am sure I shall like you better than if---"
+
+"Stay, stay, child," he said, half laughing; "remember, it is as a
+father that I ask you to love and trust the old recluse."
+
+She thought she had been forward, crimsoned in the dark, and retired
+into her shell for the rest of the evening.  She was glad when with
+his usual tact, Mr. Belamour begged for the recitation he knew she
+could make with the least effort of memory.
+
+At the end, however, she ventured to ask--"Sir, shall I be permitted
+ever to see my father and sister?"
+
+"Certainly, my child.  In due time I hope you will enjoy full liberty,
+though you may have to wait for it."
+
+Aurelia durst not ask what was in her mind, whether they would not
+come to the wedding, but that one great hope began to outweigh all
+the strange future.  She began to say something about being too young,
+ignorant, and foolish for him, but this was kindly set aside, she
+hardly knew how.  Mr. Belamour himself suggested the formula in which
+she might send her consent to Lady Belamour, begging at the same time
+to retain the company of the little Misses Wayland.  To her father
+she wrote such a letter as might satisfy all doubts as to the absence
+of all repugnance to the match, and though the Major had sacrificed
+all to love and honour himself, _mariages de convenance_ were still so
+much the rule, and wives, bestowed in all passiveness with unawakened
+hearts, so often proved loving and happy matrons, that it would have
+been held unreasonable to demand more than absence of dislike on the
+part of the bride.
+
+Therewith things returned to their usual course, and she was beginning
+to feel as if all had been a dream, when one evening, about a week
+later, her suitor appeared to have one of those embarrassing fits of
+youthful ardour; her hand was passionately seized, caressed, toyed
+with by a warm strong hand, and kissed by lips that left a burning
+impression and that were no longer hairy.  Surely he had been shaving!
+Was the time for which he bade her wait, his full recovery, and the
+resumption of the youthfulness that seemed to come on him in fits
+and starts, and then to ebb away, and leave him the grave courteous
+old man she had first known?  And why was it always in a whisper that
+he spoke forth all those endearments which thrilled her with such
+strange emotions?
+
+When she came into the light, she found her fourth finger encircled
+with an exquisite emerald ring, which seemed to bind her to her fate,
+and make her situation tangible.  Another time she was entreated to
+give a lock of her hair, and she of course did so, though it was
+strange that it should confer any pleasure on her suitor in the dark.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.  THE MUFFLED BRIDEGROOM.
+
+
+    This old fantastical Duke of dark corners.--
+                                       _Measure for Measure._
+
+
+There was some coming and going of Mr. Hargrave in the ensuing weeks;
+and it began to be known that Miss Delavie was to become the wife of
+the recluse.  Mrs. Aylward evidently knew it, but said nothing; Molly
+preferred a petition to be her waiting maid; Jumbo grinned as if over-
+powered with inward mirth; the old ladies in the pew looked more sour
+and haughty than ever to discourage "the artful minx," and the little
+girls asked all manner of absurd and puzzling questions.
+
+My Lady was still at Bath, and Aurelia supposed that the marriage would
+take place on her return; and that the Major and Betty would perhaps
+accompany her.  The former was quite in his usual health again, and
+had himself written to give her his blessing as a good dutiful maiden,
+and declare that he hoped to be with her for her wedding, and to give
+himself to his honoured friend.
+
+She was the more amazed and startled when, one Sunday evening in spring,
+Mr. Hargrave came to her as she sat in her own parlour, saying, "Madam,
+you will be amazed, but under the circumstances, the parson and myself
+being both here, Mr. Belamour trusts you will not object to the
+immediate performance of the ceremony."
+
+Aurelia took some moments to realise what the ceremony was; and then
+she cried, "Oh! but my father meant to have been here."
+
+"Mr. Belamour thinks it better not to trouble Major Delavie to come
+up," said Mr. Hargrave; and as Aurelia stood in great distress and
+disappointment at this disregard of her wishes, he added, "I think
+Miss Delavie cannot fail to understand Mr. Belamour's wishes to
+anticipate my Lady's arrival, so that he may be as little harassed
+as possible with display and publicity.  You may rely both on his
+honour and my vigilance that all is done securely and legally."
+
+"Oh! I know that," said Aurelia, blushing; "but it is so sudden!
+And I was thinking of my father---"
+
+"Your honoured father has given full consent in writing," said the
+steward.  "Your doubts and scruples are most natural, my dear madam,
+but under the circumstances they must give way, for it would be
+impossible to Mr. Belamour to go through a public wedding."
+
+That Aurelia well knew, though she had expected nothing so sudden or
+so private; but she began to feel that she must allow all to be as
+he chose; and she remembered that she had never pressed on him her
+longing for her father's presence, having taken it as a matter of
+course, and besides, having been far too shy to enter on the subject
+of her wedding.  So she rose up as in a dream, saying, "Shall I go
+as I am?"
+
+"I fear a fuller toilet would be lost upon the bridegroom," said
+the lawyer with some commiseration, as he looked at the beautiful
+young creature about to be bound to the heart-broken old hermit.
+"You will have to do me the honour of accepting my services in the
+part of father."
+
+He was a man much attached to the family, and especially to Mr.
+Belamour, his first patron, and was ready to do anything at his
+bidding or for his pleasure.  Such private weddings were by no
+uncommon up to the middle of the last century.  The State Law was
+so easy as to render Gretna Green unnecessary, when the presence
+of any clergyman anywhere, while the parties plighted their troth
+before witnesses, was sufficient to legalise the union; nor did
+any shame or sense of wrong necessarily attach to such marriages.
+Indeed they were often the resource of persons too bashful or too
+refined to endure the display and boisterous merriment by which a
+public wedding was sure to be attended.  Every one knew of excellent
+and respectable couples who had not been known to be married till
+the knot had been tied for several days or weeks--so that there was
+nothing in this to shock the bride.  And as usual she did as she was
+told, and let Mr. Hargrave lead her by her finger-tips towards Mr.
+Belamour's apartments.  Mrs. Aylward was waiting in the lobby, with
+a fixed impassive countenance, intended to imply that though obedient
+to the summons to serve as a witness, it was no concern of hers.  On
+the stairs behind her the maids were leaning over the balusters,
+stuffing their aprons into their mouths lest their tittering should
+betray them.
+
+The sitting-room was nearly, but not quite, dark, for a lamp, closely
+shaded, cast a dim light on a Prayer-book, placed on a small table,
+behind which stood poor Mr. Greaves--a black spectre, whose white
+bands were just discernible below a face whose nervous, disturbed
+expression was lost in the general gloom.  He carefully avoided
+looking at the bride, fearing perhaps some appeal on her part such
+as would make his situation perplexing.  Contempt and poverty had
+brought his stamp of clergymen very low, and rendered them abject.
+He had been taken by surprise, and though assured that this was
+according to my Lady's will, and with the consent of the maiden's
+father, he was in an agony of fright, shifting awkwardly from leg
+to leg, and ruffling the leaves of the book, as a door opened and
+the bridegroom appeared, followed by Jumbo.
+
+Aurelia looked up with bashful eagerness, and saw in the imperfect
+light a tall figure entirely covered by a long dark dressing-gown,
+a grey, tight curled lawyer's wig on the head, and the upper part
+of the face sheltered from the scanty rays of the lamp by a large
+green shade.
+
+Taking his place opposite to her as Mr. Hargrave arranged them, he
+bowed in silence to the clergyman, who, in a trembling voice, began
+the rite which was to unite Amyas Belamour to Aurelia Delavie.  He
+intended to shorten the service, but his nervous terror and the
+obscurity of the room made him stumble in finding the essential
+passages, and blunder in dictating the vows, thus increasing the
+confusion and bewilderment of poor little Aurelia.  Somehow her
+one comfort was in the touch of the hand that either clasped hers,
+or held the ring on her finger--a strong, warm, tender, trustworthy
+hand, neither as white nor as soft as she would have expected, but
+giving her a comfortable sense both of present support and affection,
+and of identity with that eager one which had sought to fondle and
+caress her.  There was a certain tremor about both, but hers was
+from bashful fright, his, from scarcely suppressed eagerness.
+
+The steward had a form of certificate ready for signature.  When it
+was presented to the bridegroom he put up his hand for a moment as
+if to push back the shade, but, in dread of admitting even a feeble
+ray of light, gave up the attempt, took the pen and wrote Amyas
+Belamour where the clergyman pointed.  Aurelia could hardly see what
+she was doing, and knew she had written very badly.  The lawyer and
+housekeeper followed as witnesses; and the bridegroom, laying a fee
+of ten guineas on the desk, took his bride by the hand and led her
+within the door whence he had issued.  It was instantly closed, and
+at the same moment she was enfolded in a pair of rapturous arms,
+and held to a breast whose throbs wakened response in her own, while
+passionate kisses rained on her face, mingled with ecstatic whispers
+and murmurs of "Mine! mine! my own!"
+
+On a knock at the door she was hastily released, and Mr. Hargrave
+said, "Here are the certificates, sir."--Mr. Belamour put one into
+her hand, saying "Keep it always about you; never part with it.
+And now, my child, after all the excitement you have gone through,
+you shall be subjected to no more to-night.  Fare you well, and
+blessings attend your dreams."
+
+Strange that while he was uttering this almost peremptory dismissal,
+she should feel herself in a clinging grasp, most unwilling to let
+her go!  What did it all mean?  Could she indeed be a wife, when
+here she was alone treading the long dark stair, in looks, in habits,
+in externals, still only the little governess of my Lady's children!
+However, she had hardly reached her room, before there was a knock
+at the door, and the giggling, blushing entrance of Molly with "Please,
+ma'am, Madam Belamour, I wishes you joy with all my heart.  Please
+can't I do nothing for you?  Shall I help you undress, or brush your
+hair?"
+
+Perhaps she expected a largesse in honour of the occasion, but Aurelia
+had spent all her money on Christmas gifts, and had nothing to bestow.
+However, she found on the breakfast-table a parcel addressed to Madam
+Belamour, containing a purse with a startling amount of golden guineas
+in it.  She was rather surprised at the title, which was one generally
+conferred on dignified matrons whose husbands were below the rank of
+knighthood, such as the wives of country squires and of the higher
+clergy.  The calling her mother Madam Delavie had been treated as an
+offence by Lady Belamour; and when the day had gone by, with nothing
+else to mark it from others, Aurelia, finding her recluse in what she
+mentally called his quiet rational mood, ventured, after thanking him,
+modestly to inquire whether that was what she was to be called.
+
+"It is better thus," hes said.  "You have every right to the title."
+
+She recollected that he was a baronet's younger son, a distinction in
+those days; and that she had been told that his patent of knighthood
+had been made out, though he had never been able to appear at court
+to receive the accolade, and had never assumed the title; so she only
+said "Very well, sir, I merely thought whether my Lady would think
+it presuming."
+
+He laughed a little.  "My Lady will soon understand it," he said.
+"Her husband will be at home in a few weeks.  And now, my dear Madam
+Belamour," he add playfully, "tell me whether there is any wish that
+I can gratify."
+
+"You are very kind, sir---"
+
+"What does that pause mean, my fair friend?"
+
+"I fear it is too much to ask, sir, but since you inquire what would
+please me most, it would be if you could spare me to go to my sister
+Harriet's wedding?"
+
+"My child," he said, with evident regret, "I fear that cannot be.  It
+will not be prudent to make any move until Mr. Wayland's return; but
+after that I can assure you of more liberty.  Meantime, let us consider
+what wedding present you would like to send her."
+
+Aurelia had felt her request so audacious that she subsided easily;
+and modestly suggested a tea-service.  She thought of porcelain,
+but Mr. Belamour's views were of silver, and it ended in the lady
+giving the cups and saucers, and the gentleman the urn and the tea
+and coffee pots and other plate; but it was a drawback to the
+pleasure of this munificence that the execution of the order had
+to be entrusted to Mr. Hargrave.  The daring hope Aurelia had
+entertained of shopping for a day, with Mrs. Aylward as an escort,
+and choosing the last fashions to send to her sisters was quashed
+by the grave reply that it was better not for the present.  What
+was the meaning of all this mystery, and when was it to end?  She
+felt that it would be ungrateful to murmur, for Mr. Belamour
+evidently was full of sorrow whenever he was obliged to disappoint
+her, and much was done for her pleasure.  A charming little saddle-
+horse, two riding-habits, with a groom, and a horse for him, were
+sent down from London for her benefit; gifts showered upon her; and
+whenever she found her husband in one of those perplexing accesses
+of tenderness she was sure to carry away some wonderful present, a
+beautiful jewelled watch, an _etui_ case, a fan, a scent-bottle, or
+patch-box with a charming enamel of a butterfly.  The little girls
+were always looking for something pretty that she would show them
+in the morning, and thought it must be a fine thing to have a husband
+who gave such charming things.  Those caressing evenings, however,
+always frightened Aurelia, and sent her away vaguely uneasy, often
+to lie awake full of a vague yearning and alarm; and several days
+of restlessness would pass before she could return to her ordinary
+enjoyment of her days with the children and her evenings with Mr.
+Belamour.  Yet when there was any long intermission of those fits
+of tender affection, she missed them sorely, and began to fear
+she had given offence, especially as this strangely capricious man
+seemed sometimes to repel those modest, timid advances which at
+other times would fill him with ill-suppressed transport.  Then
+came longings to see and satisfy herself as to what was indeed
+the aspect of him whom she was learning to love.
+
+No wonder there was something unsettled and distressed about her,
+overthrowing much of that gentle duteous ness which she had brought
+from home.  She wrote but briefly and scantily to her sister, not
+feeling as if she could give full confidence; she drifted away from
+some of the good habits enjoined on her, feeling that, as a married
+woman, she was less under authority.  She was less thorough in her
+religious ways, less scrupulous in attending to the children's
+lessons; and the general fret of her uncertainties told upon her
+temper with them.  They loved her heartily still, and she returned
+their affection, but she was not so uniformly patient and good-
+humoured.  Indeed since Amoret's departure some element of harmony
+was missing, and it could not now be said that a whine, a quarrel,
+or a cry was a rare event.  Even the giving up my lady's wearisome
+piece of embroidery had scarcely a happy effect, for Aurelia missed
+the bracing of the task-work and the attention it required, and
+the unoccupied time was spent in idle fretting.  A little self-
+consequence too began to set in, longing for further recognition
+of the dignities of Madam Belamour.
+
+The marriage had been notified to Lady Belamour and to Major Delavie,
+and letters had been received from each.  My Lady travelled to London
+early in April in company with Lady Aresfield, and, to the relief of
+the inmates of Bowstead, made no deviation thither.  No one else was
+officially told that the wedding had taken place, but all the village
+knew it; and Mrs. Phoebe  and Mrs. Delia so resented it that they
+abandoned the state pew to Madam Belamour and the children, made
+their curtsies more perpendicularly than ever, and, when formally
+invited to supper, sent a pointed and ceremonious refusal, so that
+Aurelia felt hurt and angered.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.  THE SISTERS' MEETING.
+
+
+    By all hope thou hast to see again
+    Our aged father and to soothe his pain,
+    I charge thee, tell me, hast thou seen the thing
+    Thou callst thine husband?--MORRIS.
+
+
+After numerous delays Mr. Arden had at length been presented to the
+living of Rundell Canonicorum, and in one of the last days of April
+Harriet Delavie had become his wife.  After a fortnight of festivities
+amongst their old Carminster friends, the happy couple were to ride,
+pillion-wise, to take possession of tier new home, passing through
+London, and there spending time enough with some relations of the
+bridegroom to show Harriet the wonders of the City.
+
+Thence Mrs. Arden sent an urgent invitation from her hospitable
+hostess to Mrs. Belamour, to come and spend some days in Gracechurch
+Street and share with her sister the pleasures of the first sight of
+London.
+
+"I assure you," wrote Harriet, "that though they be Woolstaplers, it
+is all in the Wholesale Line; and they are very genteel, and well-
+bred Persons, who have everything handsome about them.  Indeed it is
+upon the Cards that the Alderman may, ere many years be passed, be my
+Lord Mayor; but yet he and his good Wife have a proper Appreciation
+of Family, and know how to esteem me as one of the Delavies.  They
+would hold themselves infinitely honoured by your Visit; and if you
+were here, we might even be invited to Lady Belamour's, and get
+Tickets for Ranelagh.  I called at my Lady's Door, but she was not
+within, nor has she returned my Visit, though I went in the Alderman's
+own Coach; but if you were with me she would have no Colour for
+Neglect, you being now her Sister-in-law, though it makes me laugh
+to think of it.  But as we poor married Ladies are compelled to obey
+our Lords and Masters; and as Mr. Belamour may chance to be too high
+in his Notions to permit you to be a Guest in this House (as I told
+our good Cousin Arden was very like), we intend to lie a Night at
+Brentford, and remain there for a Day, trusting that your Husband
+will not be so cruel as to prevent a Meeting, either by your coming
+to see us, or our coming to see you in your present Abode, which I
+long to do.  It is a Year since we parted, and I cannot tell you how
+I long to clasp my beloved Sister in my Arms."
+
+Harriet could not long more for such a meeting than did Aurelia, and
+there was, it must be owned, a little relief, that it was Harriet, and
+not the severer judge, Betty, who thus awaited her.  She could hardly
+brook the delay until the evening, and even wondered whether it were
+not a wife's privilege to anticipate the hour; but she did not venture,
+and only hovered about impatient for Jumbo's summons.  She came in with
+a rapid movement that led Mr. Belamour to say, "Ha, my fair visitor, I
+perceive that you have some tidings to bring to-day."
+
+Everything was rapidly poured out, and she anxiously awaited the
+decision.  She had little hope of being allowed to go to Gracechurch
+Street, and did not press for it; but she could not refrain from
+showing her earnest desire for the sight of her sister, so that it
+was plain that it would have been a cruel disappointment to her, if
+she had been prevented from meeting the newly-married couple.  She
+detected a certain sound of annoyance or perplexity in the tones
+that replied, and her accents became almost plaintively imploring
+as she concluded, "Pray, pray, sir, do not deny me."
+
+"No, my child, I could not be cruel enough for a refusal," he
+answered; "I was but considering how most safely the thing may be
+contrived.  I know it would be your wish, and that it would seem
+more befitting that you should act as hostess for your sister, but
+I fear that must be for another time.  This is not my house, and
+there are other reasons for which it would be wiser for you to
+receive no one here."
+
+"It will be quite enough for me if I may only go to Brentford to
+meet my dear, dear Harriet."
+
+"Then be it so, my child.  Present my compliments to Mrs. Arden,
+and entreat her to excuse the seeming inhospitality of the invalid."
+
+Aurelia was overflowing with joy at the anticipated meeting, wrote a
+delighted letter to make the appointment, and skipped about the dark
+stairs and passages more like the butterfly she was than like Madam
+Belamour; while Fay and Letty found her a more delightful playfellow
+than ever, recovering all the animation she had lost during the last
+weeks.  Her only drawback to the pleasure was that each intervening
+evening convinced her more strongly that Mr. Belamour was uneasy and
+dissatisfied about the meeting, which he could not prohibit.  On the
+previous night he asked many questions about her sister, in especial
+whether she were of an inquisitive disposition.
+
+"That rather depends on how much she has to say about herself,"
+returned Aurelia, after some reflection.  "She likes to hear about
+other people's affairs, but she had much rather talk of her own."
+
+This made Mr. Belamour laugh.  "Considering," he said, "how recently
+she has undergone the greatest event of a woman's life, let us hope
+that her imagination and her tongue may be fully occupied by it during
+the few hours that you are to pass together.  It seems hard to put any
+restraint on your ingenuous confidence, my sweet friend; but I trust
+to your discretion to say as little as you can contrive of your
+strange position here, and of the infirmities and caprices of him
+whose name you have deigned to bear."
+
+"Sir, do you think I could?"
+
+"It is not for my own sake, but for yours, that I would recommend
+caution," he continued.  "The situation is unusual, and such
+disclosures might impel persons to interfere for what they thought
+your interest; but you have promised me your implicit trust, and
+you will, I hope, prove it.  You can understand how painful would
+be such well-meaning interference, though you cannot understand
+how fatally mischievous it would be."
+
+"I had better say I can tell her nothing," said Aurelia, startled.
+
+"Nay, that would excite still greater suspicion.  Reply briefly and
+carefully, making no mysteries to excite curiosity, and avert the
+conversation from yourself as much as possible."
+
+Man of the world and brilliant talker as he had been, he had no
+notion of the difficulty of the task he had imposed on the simple
+open-hearted girl, accustomed to share all her thoughts with her
+sister; and she was too gay and joyous to take full note of all
+his cautions, only replying sincerely that she hoped that she
+should say nothing amiss, and that she would do her best to be
+heedful of his wishes.
+
+In spite of all such cautions, she was too happy to take in the notion
+of anxiety.  She rose early in the morning, caring for the first time
+to array herself in the insignia of her new rank.  Knowing that the
+bridle-path lay through parks, woodlands and heaths, so that there was
+no fear of dust, she put on a dainty habit of white cloth, trimmed and
+faced with blue velvet, and a low-crowned hat with a white feather.  On
+her pretty grey horse, the young Madam Belamour was a fair and gracious
+sight, as she rode into the yard of the Red Lion at Brentford.  Harriet
+was at the window watching for her, and Mr. Arden received her as she
+sprang off her steed, then led her up to the parlour, where breakfast
+was spread awaiting her.
+
+"Aurelia, what a sweet figure you make," cried Harriet, as the sisters
+unwound their arms after the first ecstasy of embracing one another
+again.  "Where did you get that exquisite habit?"
+
+"It came down from London with another, a dark blue," said Aurelia.
+"I suppose Mr. Belamour ordered them, for they came with my horse.
+It is the first time I have worn it."
+
+"Ah! fine things are of little account when there is no one to see
+them," said Mrs. Arden, shaking her head in commiseration.
+
+She was attired in a grey riding-dress with a little silver lace about
+it, and looked wonderfully plump and well, full of importance and
+complacency, and with such a return of comeliness that Aurelia would
+hardly have recognised the lean, haggard, fretful Harriet of the
+previous year.  Her sentiment and romance, her soft melancholy and
+little affectations had departed, and she was already the notable
+prosperous wife of a beneficed clergyman, of whose abilities she was
+very proud, though she patronised with good-humoured contempt his
+dreamy, unpractical, unworldly ways.
+
+The questions poured forth from Aurelia's heart-hunger about brother,
+sister and home, were answered kindly and fully over the breakfast-
+table; but as if Harriet had turned that page in her life, and
+expected Aurelia to have done the same, every now and then exclaiming:
+"La! you have not forgotten that!  What a memory you have, child!"
+
+She wanted much more to talk of the parsonage and glebe of Rundell
+Canonicorum, and of how many servants and cows she should keep, and
+showed herself almost annoyed when Aurelia brought her back to
+Carminster by asking whether Eugene had finished his Comenius, and
+if the speckled hen had hatched many chickens, whether Palmer had
+had his rheumatic attack this spring, or if the Major's letter to
+Vienna had produced any tidings of Nannerl's relation.  Harriet
+seemed only to be able to reply by an effort of memory, and was far
+more desirous of expatiating on the luxuries at alderman Arden's,
+and the deference with which she had been treated, in contrast to
+the indignity of Lady Belamour's neglect.
+
+It was disappointing to find that her father had heard nothing from
+my Lady about the settlement of the Manor House.
+
+"Was the promise in writing?" asked Mr. Arden, who had been silent
+all this time.
+
+"Certainly, in a letter to me."
+
+"I recommend you to keep it carefully until Mr. Wayland's return,"
+said Mr. Arden: "he will see justice done to you."
+
+"Poor Mr. Wayland!  When he does return, I pity him; but it is his
+own fault for leaving his lady to herself.  Have you ever seen the
+gallant colonel, sister?"
+
+"Never."
+
+"Ah! most like he is not much at Bowstead.  But do not folk talk
+there?"
+
+"My dear," said Mr. Arden, "you would do well to imitate your honoured
+father's discretion on certain points."
+
+"Bless me, Mr. Arden, how you startled me.  I thought you were in a
+brown study."  She winked at Aurelia as if to intimate that she meant
+to continue the subject in his absence, and went on; "I assure you, I
+had to be on the alert all the way to take care he looked at the sign-
+posts, or we might have been at York by this time.  And in London,
+what do you think was all my gentleman cared to go and see?  Why, he
+must needs go to some correspondents of his who are Fellows of the
+Royal Society.  I took it for granted they must be friends of his
+Majesty or of the Prince of Wales at the least, and would have had
+him wait for his new gown and cassock; but la! it was only a set of
+old doctors and philosophers, and he wished to know what musty
+discoveries they had been making.  That was one thing he desired in
+London, and the other was to hear that crazy Parson Wesley preach a
+sermon hours long!"
+
+"I was well rewarded in both instances," said Mr. Arden gravely.
+
+Aurelia did not take advantage of the opportunity of shining in the
+eyes of her new brother-in-law by showing her acquaintance with the
+discussions on electricity which she had studied for Mr. Belamour's
+benefit, nor did she speak of Dr. Godfrey's views of Wesley and
+Whitfield.  Had she so ventured, her sister would have pitied her,
+and Mr. Arden himself been somewhat shocked at her being admitted
+to knowledge unbecoming to a pretty young lady.  Intellect in ladies
+would have been a startling idea, and though very fond of his wife,
+he never thought of her as a companion, but only as the mistress of
+his house and guardian of his welfare.
+
+The dinner was ordered at one, and at three Aurelia would ride home,
+while Mr. and Mrs. Arden went on about twelve miles to the house of
+a great grazier, brother to the Alderman's wife, where they had been
+invited to make their next stage, and spend the next day, Sunday,
+when Harriet reckoned on picking up information about cattle, if she
+were not actually presented with a cow or a calf.  They went out and
+walked a little about the town, where presently they met Mrs. Hunter.
+Aurelia met her puzzled stare with a curtsey, and she shouted in her
+hearty tone "Miss Delavie!--I mean Mrs. Belamour!  Who would have
+thought of seeing you here!"
+
+"I am here to meet my sister--Mrs. Arden.  Let me--let me present
+you," said Aurelia in obedience to an imperious sign from her sister,
+going through the form for the first time, while Harriet volubly
+declared her happiness in making Mrs. Hunter's acquaintance, and
+explained how they were on their way to take possession of Mr. Arden's
+rectory of Rundell Canonicorum, the words rolling out of her mouth
+with magnificent emphasis.  "I congratulate you, ma'am," said Mrs.
+Hunter, cordially, "and you too, my dear," she added, turning to
+Aurelia.  "I would have been out long ago to call on you--a sort of
+relation as you are now, as I may say--but it was kept all so mum,
+one never knew the time to drink your health; and my Cousins Treforth
+wouldn't so much as give me a hint.  But la! says I, why should you
+talk about artfulness?  I'm right glad poor Mr. Amyas should find a
+sprightly young lady to cure him of his mopishness.  Never mind them,
+my dear, if they do look sour on you.  I'll come over one of these
+days and talk to them.  Now, I must have you come in to take your
+dinner with us.  The Doctor will be right pleased to find you.  I'll
+take no excuse.  I thank Heaven I'm always ready whoever may drop in.
+There's spring chicken and sparrow-grass."
+
+However, on hearing their dinner was ordered at the inn, the good lady
+was satisfied that to dine with her was impossible; but she insisted
+on their coming in to partake of wine and cake in her best parlour.
+
+This, however, was a little more than Mr. Arden could endure, he made
+an excuse about seeing to the horse, and escaped; while Mrs. Hunter
+led the two sisters to her closely shut-up parlour, wainscoted, and
+hung with two staring simpering portraits of herself and her husband,
+clean as soap could make it, but smelling like a long closed box.
+She went to a cupboard in the wall, and brought out a silver salver,
+a rich cake, glasses and wine, and pouring out the wine, touched the
+glass with her lips, as she wished health and happiness to the two
+brides before her.
+
+"We shall soon have another wedding in the family, if report speaks
+true," she added.  "They say--but you should be the best informed,
+Madam Belamour--
+
+"We hear nothing of the matter, ma'am," said Aurelia.
+
+"That's odd, since Mr. Belamour is young Sir Amyas's guardian; and
+they cannot well pass him over now he has begun life again as it
+were," laughed Mrs. Hunter.  "'Tis said that my Lady is resolved
+the wedding shall be within six weeks."
+
+There are two words to that question," said Harriet, oracularly; "I
+know from good authority that young Sir Amyas is determined against
+the match."
+
+"But is it true, ma'am," cried Mrs. Hunter, eagerly, "that my Lady
+and the Countess of Aresfield met at Bath, and that my Lady is to
+have 3,000 pounds down to pay off her debts before her husband
+comes home, the day her son is married to Lady Arabella?"
+
+"Every word of it is true, ma'am," said Harriet, importantly.
+
+"Well now, that folk should sell their own flesh and blood!"
+
+"How have you heard it, sister Harriet?" asked Aurelia.
+
+"From a sure hand, my love.  No other than Mrs. Dove.  She is wife to
+my Lady's coachman," explained Mrs. Arden to her hostess, "and nurse
+to the two children it is her pleasure to keep with her."
+
+"Dear good Nurse dove!" cried Aurelia, "did she come to see you?"
+
+"Yes, that did she!  So I have it from the fountain-head, as I may
+say, that the poor young gentleman's hand and heart are to be made
+over without his will, that so his mother may not have such a
+schedule of debts wherewith to face her husband on his return!"
+
+"Her jewels have been all paste long ago, I know very well," said
+Mrs. Hunter, not to be outdone; "though, would you believe it, Doctor
+Hunter is like all the men, and will believe nothing against her!
+But this beats all the rest!  Why, I have it from my maid, who is
+sister to one of the servants at the boarding-school in Queen Square,
+whither they have sent the Lady Belle, that she is a regular little
+shrew.  She flew at one of the young ladies like a wild cat, because
+she did not yield place to her at once, and scratched her cheeks till
+the blood ran down, and tore out whole handfuls of her hair.  She was
+like one possessed, and they had to call the lackey before they could
+get her safe tied down in bed, where they kept her on bread and water,
+trying to get her to make her apology; but not a word could be got
+out of her, till they had to yield the point lest she should fall
+sick."
+
+Aurelia mentally applauded her own discretion in not capping this
+with Mrs. Dove's former tale, and only observing that the marriage
+could not take place before the young baronet was of age, without
+the consent of his personal guardian, Mr. Belamour.
+
+"You will excuse me, my dear, in speaking of your husband, but he has
+so long been incapable of acting, that they say his consent can be
+dispensed with."
+
+"Aye, poor cousin Amyas Belamour!" said Mrs. Hunter.  "He was the only
+man who ever durst resist my Lady's will before, and you see to what
+she has brought him!"
+
+"Her son is resisting her now," said Harriet; "and our good Dove says
+it makes her blood boil to see the way the poor young gentleman is
+treated.  He, who was the darling for whom nothing was good enough a
+while ago, has now scarce a place in his mother's own house.  She is
+cold and stately with him, and Colonel Mar, the Lady Belle's brother,
+being his commanding officer, there is no end to the vexations and
+annoyances they give him, both at home and in his quarters.  Mrs. Dove
+says his own man, Grey, tells her it is a wonder how he stands out
+against it all!  And a truly well-bred young gentleman he is.  He
+came to pay me his call in Gracechurch Street only yesterday, knowing
+our kindred, and most unfortunate was it that I was stepped out to
+the office to speak as to our boxes being duly sent by the Buckingham
+wain; but he left his ticket, and a message with the servant, 'Tell
+my cousin, Mrs. Arden,' he said, 'that I much regret not having seen
+her, and I should have done myself the honour of calling sooner to
+inquire for her good father, if I had known she was in town."
+
+"Well, I have never seen the young gentleman since he was a mere
+child," said Mrs. Hunter.  "His mother has bred him to neglect his
+own home and relations, but I am sorry for him."
+
+"They say," continued Harriet significantly, "that they are sure there
+is some cause for his holding out so stiffly--I verily believe My Lady
+suspected--"
+
+"O hush, Harriet!" cried Aurelia, colouring painfully.
+
+"Well, it is all over now, so you need not be offended," said Harriet,
+laughing.  "Besides, if my Lady had any such notion when she brought
+about your marriage, she must be disappointed, for the young spark
+is as resolute as ever."
+
+"And no wonder, if he knows what the lady is like," said Aurelia.
+
+"Ah! he has admitted as much to the King."
+
+"To the King!" cried both auditors.
+
+"Oh yes! you know my Lady is very thick with my Lady Suffolk, and
+she persuaded the King to speak to him at the levee.  '_Comment_',
+says his majesty in French, 'are you a young rebel, sir, that refuse
+the good things your mother provides you?'  Not a whit was my young
+gentleman moved.  He bowed, and answered that he was acting by the
+desire of his guardian.  Excuse me, sister, but the King answered--'A
+raving melancholic!  That will not serve your turn, sir.  Come to your
+senses, fulfil your mother's bond, and we'll put you on the Duke's
+staff, where you may see more of service than of home, or belike get
+into gay quarters, where you may follow any other _fantaisie_ if that
+is making you commit such _betises!_'  At that Sir Amyas, who is but
+an innocent youth, flamed up in his cheeks till they were as red as
+his coat, and said his honour was engaged; on which his majesty swore
+at him for an idiot, and turned his back.  Every word of this Mrs.
+Dove heard Colonel Mar tell my Lady--and then they fell to rating the
+poor youth, and trying to force out who this secret flame may be; but
+his is of the same stuff as his mother, adamantine and impervious.
+And now the Colonel keeps him on hard duty continually, and they watch
+him day and night to find out what places he haunts.  But bless me,
+Mrs. Hunter, is the church clock striking?  We must be gone, or my
+good man will be wondering where we are."
+
+Mrs. Hunter would fain have kept them, and the last words and
+compliments were of long duration, while Aurelia looked on in some
+surprise at the transformation of all Harriet's languishing affected
+airs into the bustling self-importance of Mrs. Arden.  She was however
+much occupied with all she had heard, and was marvelling how her
+sister began again as soon as they were in the street again.  "You
+are very discreet, Aurelia, as it becomes a young married lady, but
+have you no notion who this innamorata of the baronet may be?"
+
+"No, indeed, how should I?"
+
+"I thought he might have confided in your husband, since he makes so
+sure of his support."
+
+"He has only once come to visit Mr. Belamour, and that was many
+months ago."
+
+"It is strange," mused Harriet; "Mrs. Dove says she would have taken
+her Bible oath that it was you, and my Lady believed as much, or she
+would not have been in such haste to have you wedded.  Nay, I'll
+never believe but he made his confidences to Betty when he came to
+the Manor House the Sunday after you were gone, though not a word
+could I get from her."
+
+"It must have been all a mistake," said Aurelia, not without a little
+twinge at the thought of what might have been.  "I wish you would not
+talk of it."
+
+"Well he could have been but a fickle adorer--'tis the way of men,
+my dear, for he must have found some new flame while his mother and
+the Colonel were both at the Bath.  They have proof positive of his
+riding out of town at sundown, but whither he goes is unknown, for he
+takes not so much as a groom with him, and he is always in time for
+morning parade."
+
+"Poor young man, it is hard to be so beset with spies and watchers,"
+said Aurelia.
+
+"Most true," said Harriet, "but I am monstrous glad you are safe
+married like me, child, so that no one can accuse us.  Such romantic
+affairs are well enough to furnish a course of letters to the _Tatler_,
+or the _Gentlewomen's Magazine_, but I am thankful for a comfortable
+life with my good man."
+
+Therewith they reached their inn, where Harriet, having satisfied
+herself that the said good man was safe within, and profiting by the
+unwonted calm to write his inaugural sermon, took Aurelia to her
+bedroom to prepare for dinner, and to indulge in further confidences.
+
+"So, Aurelia, I can report to my father that you are looking well,
+and as cheerful as can be expected."
+
+"Nay, I have always told you I am happy as the day is long."
+
+"What, when you have never so much as seen your husband?"
+
+"Only at our wedding, and then he was forced to veil his face from
+the light."
+
+"Nor has he ever seen you?"
+
+"Not unless he then saw me."
+
+"If he were not then charmed enough to repeat the view, you are the
+most cruelly wasted and unworthily matched--"
+
+"Hush, sister!" broke out Aurelia in eager indignation.
+
+"What! is a lovely young creature, almost equal to what I was before
+my cruel malady, to waste her bloom on a wretched old melancholic,
+who will not so much as look at her!"
+
+"Harriet, I cannot hear this--you know not of what you are talking!
+What is my poor skin-deep beauty--if beauty it be--compared with the
+stores of goodness and wisdom I find in him?"
+
+"La! child, what heat is this?  One would really think you loved him."
+
+"Of course I do!  I love and honour him more than any one I ever met--
+except my dear father."
+
+"Come, Aura, you are talking by rote out of the marriage service.  You
+may be open with me, you know, it will go no further; and I do long to
+know whether you can be truly content at heart," said Harriet with real
+affection.
+
+"Dear sister," said Aurelia, touched, "believe me that indeed I am.
+Mr. Belamour is kindness itself.  He is all he ever promised to be
+to me, and sometimes more."
+
+"Yet if he loved you, he could never let you live moped up there.  Are
+you never frighted at the dark chamber?  I should die of it!"
+
+"The dark does not fright me," said Aurelia.
+
+"You have a courage I have not!  Come, now, were you never frighted
+to talk with a voice in the dark?"
+
+"Scarcely ever!" said aurelia.
+
+"Scarcely--when was that?"
+
+"You will laugh, Harriet, but it is when he is most--most tender and
+full of warmth.  Then I hardly know him for the same."
+
+"What!  If he be not always tender to my poor dear child, he must be
+a wretch indeed."
+
+"O no, no, Harriet!  How shall I ever make you understand?" cried
+Aurelia.  "Never for a moment is he other than kind and gentle.  It
+is generally like a father, only more courtly and deferential, but
+sometimes something seems to come over him, and he is--oh! I cannot
+tell you--what I should think a lover would be," faltered Aurelia,
+colouring crimson, and hiding her face on her sister's shoulder,
+as old habits of confidence, and need of counsel and sympathy were
+obliterating all the warnings of last night.
+
+"You silly little chit!  Why don't you encourage these advances?
+You ought to be charmed, not frightened."
+
+"They would ch---I should like it if it were not so like two men
+in one, the one holding the other back."
+
+Harriet laughed at this fancy, and Aurelia was impelled to defend it.
+"Indeed, Harriet, it is really so.  There will be whispers--oh, such
+whispers!"--she sunk her voice and hid her face again--"close to my
+ear, and--endearments--while the grave voice sounds at the other end
+of the room, and then I long for light.  I swooned for fright the
+first time, but I am much more used to it now."
+
+"This is serious," said Harriet, with unwonted gravity.  "Do you
+really think that there is another person in the room?"
+
+"I do not feel as if it could be otherwise, and yet it is quite
+impossible."
+
+"I would not bear it," said her sister.  "You ought not to bear it.
+How do you know that it is not some vile stratagem?  It might even
+be the blackamoor!"
+
+"No, no, Harriet!  I know better than that.  It is quite impossible.
+Besides, I am sure of this--that the hands that wedded me are the
+same hands that caress me," she added, with another blushing effort,
+"strong but delicate hands, rather hard inside, as with the bridle.
+I noticed it because once I thought his hands soft with doing nothing
+and being shut up."
+
+"That convinces me the more, then, there is some strange imposition
+practised upon you," said Harriet, anxiously.
+
+"Oh, no!" said Aurelia, inconsistently; "Mr. Belamour is quite
+incapable of doing anything wrong by me.  I cannot let you have such
+shocking notions.  He told me I must be patient and trust him, though
+I should meet with much that was strange and inexplicable."
+
+"This is trusting him much too far.  They are playing on your
+inexperience, I am sure.  If you were not a mere child, you would
+see what a shocking situation this is."
+
+"I wish I had not told you," said Aurelia, tears rushing into her
+eyes.  "I ought not!  He bade me be cautious how I talked, and you
+have made me quite forget!"
+
+"Did he so?  Then it is evident that he fears disclosure!  Something
+must be done.  Why not write to our father?"
+
+"I could not!  He would call it a silly fancy."
+
+"And it might embroil him with my Lady," added Harriet.  "We must
+devise another mode."
+
+"You will not--must not tell Mr. Arden," exclaimed Aurelia,
+peremptorily.
+
+"Never fear!  He heeds nothing more sublunary than the course of the
+planets.  But I have it.  His device will serve the purpose.  Do you
+remember Eugene confounding him with Friar Bacon because he was said
+to light a candle without flint or steel?  It was true.  When he was
+a bachelor he always lit his own candle and fire, and he always
+carries the means.  I was frighted the first time he showed me, but
+now I can do it as well as he.  See," she said, opening a case, "a
+drop of this spirit upon this prepared cotton;" and as a bright flame
+sprang up and made Aurelia start, she laughed and applied a taper to
+it.  "There, one such flash would be quite enough to prove to you
+whether there be any deception practised on you."
+
+"I could never do it!  Light is agony to Mr. Belamour, and what would
+he think?"
+
+"He would take it for lightning, which I suppose he cannot keep out."
+
+"One flash did come through everything last summer, but I was not
+looking towards him."
+
+"You will be wiser this time.  Here, I can give you this little box,
+for Mr. Arden compounded a fresh store in town."
+
+"I dare not, sister.  He has ever bidden me trust without sight; and
+you cannot guess how good he is to me, and how noble and generous.
+I cannot insult him by a doubt."
+
+"Then he should not act as no true woman can endure."
+
+"And it would hurt him."
+
+"Tut, tut, child; if the lightning did not harm him how can this
+flash?  I tell you no man has a right to trifle with you in this
+manner, and it is your duty to yourself and all of us to find out
+the truth.  Some young rake may have bribed the black, and be
+personating him; and some day you may find yourself carried off
+you know not where."
+
+"Harriet, if you only knew either Mr. Belamour or Jumbo, you would
+know that you are saying things most shocking!"
+
+"Convince me, then!  Look here, Aurelia, if you cannot write to me
+and explain this double-faced or double-voiced husband of yours, I
+vow to you that I shall speak to Mr. Arden, and write to my father."
+
+"Oh! do not, do not, sister!  Remember, it is of no use unless this
+temper of affection be on him, and I have not heard it this fortnight,
+no, nor more."
+
+"Promise me, then, that you will make the experiment.  See, here is
+a little chain-stitch pouch--poor Peggy Duckworth's gift to me--with
+two pockets.  Let me fasten it under your dress, and then you will
+always have it about you."
+
+"If the bottle broke as I rode home!"
+
+"Impossible; it is a scent-bottle of strong glass."
+
+Here Mr. Arden knocked at the door, regretting to interrupt their
+confidences, but dinner awaited them; and as, immediately after,
+Mrs. Hunter brought her husband in his best wig to call on Madame
+Belamour and her relations, the sisters had no more time together,
+till the horses were at the door, and they went to their room
+together to put on their hats.
+
+A whole mass of refusals and declarations of perfect confidence
+were on Aurelia's tongue, but Harriet cut them all short by saying,
+"Remember, you are bound for your own honour and ours, to clear up
+this mystery!"
+
+Then they rode off their several ways, Madame Belamour towards
+Bowstead, Mr. and Mrs. Arden on their sturdy roadster towards
+Lea Farm.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.  A FATAL SPARK.
+
+
+    And so it chanced; which in those dark
+      And fireless halls was quite amazing,
+    Did we not know how small a spark
+      Can set the torch of love ablazing.
+                                       T. MOORE.
+
+
+Aurelia rode home in perplexity, much afraid of the combustibles at
+her girdle, and hating the task her sister had forced on her.  She
+felt as if her heedless avowals had been high treason to her husband;
+and yet Harriet was her elder, and those assurances that as a true
+woman she was bound to clear up the mystery, made her cheeks burn
+with shame, and her heart thrill with the determination to vindicate
+her husband, while the longing to know the face of one who so loved
+her was freshly awakened.
+
+She was strongly inclined to tell him all, indeed she knew herself
+well enough to be aware that half a dozen searching questions would
+draw out the whole confession of her own communication and Harriet's
+unworthy suspicions; and humiliating as this would be, she longed for
+the opportunity.  Here, however, she was checked in her meditations
+by a stumble of her horse, which proved to have lost a shoe.  It was
+necessary to leave the short cut, and make for the nearest forge,
+and when the mischief was repaired, to ride home by the high road.
+
+She thus came home much later than had been expected; Jumbo, Molly,
+and the little girls were all watching for her, and greeted her
+eagerly.  The supper was already on the table for her, and she had
+only just given Fay and Letty the cakes and comfits she had bought
+at Brentford for them when Jumbo brought the message that his master
+hoped that madam, if not too much fatigued, would come to him as soon
+as her supper was finished.
+
+Accordingly, she came without waiting to change her dress, having
+only taken off her hat and arranged her hair.
+
+She felt guilty, and dreaded the being questioned, yet longed to make
+her avowal and have all explained.  The usual greetings passed, and
+then Mr. Belamour said, "I heard your horse hoofs come in late.  You
+were detained?"
+
+She explained about the shoe, and a few sentences were passing about
+her sister when she detected a movement, as if a step were stealing
+towards her, together with a hesitation in the remark Mr. Belamour
+was making about Mrs. Hunter's good nature.
+
+Quite irrelevantly came in the whispering voice, "Where is my dearest
+life?"
+
+"Sir, sir!" she cried, driven at last to bay, "what is this?  Are you
+one or two?"
+
+"One with you, my sweetest life!  Your own--your husband!"
+
+Therewith there was a kind of groan further off, and as Aurelia felt
+a hand on her dress, her fight and distress at the duality were
+complete.  While, in the dark, the hands were still groping for her,
+she eluded them, and succeeded in carrying out Harriet's manoeuvre
+so far that a quick bright flame leapt forth, lighting up the whole
+room, and revealing two--yes, two!  But it did not die away! In her
+haste, and in the darkness, she had poured the whole contents of the
+bottle on the phosphoric cotton, and dropped both without knowing it
+on a chintz curtain.  A fresh evening breeze was blowing in from the
+window, open behind the shutters, and in one second the curtain was
+a flaming, waving sheet.  Some one sprang up to tear it down, leaping
+on a table in the window.  The table overbalanced, the heavy iron
+curtain-rod came out suddenly, and there was a fall, the flaming mass
+covering the fallen!  The glare shone on a strange white face and head
+as well as on Jumbo's black one, and with a trampling and crushing
+the fire died down, quenched as suddenly as it began, and all was
+obscurity again.
+
+"Nephew, dear boy, speak," exclaimed Mr. Belamour; and as there was
+no answer, "Open the shutters, Jumbo.  For Heaven's sake let us see!"
+
+"Oh! what have I done?" cried poor Aurelia, in horror and misery,
+dropping by him on the ground, while the opened shutters admitted
+the twilight of a May evening, with a full moon, disclosing a strange
+scene.  A youth in a livery riding coat lay senseless on the ground,
+partly covered by the black fragments of the curtain, the iron rod
+clenched in one hand, the other arm doubled under him.  A face
+absolutely white, with long snowy beard and hair hung over him, and
+an equally white pair of hands tried to lift the head.  Jumbo had
+in a second sprung down, removed the fallen table, and come to his
+masters help.  "Struck head with this," he said, as he tried to
+unclasp the fingers from the bar, and pointed to a grazed blow
+close to the temple.
+
+"We must lay him on my bed," said Mr. Belamour.  Then, seeing the
+girl's horror-stricken countenance, "Ah, child, would that you had
+been patient; but it was overtasking you!  Call Aylward, I beg of
+you.  Tell her he is here, badly hurt.  What, you do not know him,"
+as her bewildered eyes and half-opened lips implied the question
+she could not utter, "you do not know him?  Sir Amyas--my nephew--
+your true husband!"
+
+"Oh! and I have killed him!" she cried, with clasped hands.
+
+"Hush, child, no, with God's mercy!  Only call the woman and bring
+a light."
+
+She rushed away, and appeared, a pale terrified figure, with the
+smell of fire on her hair and white dress, in the room where Mrs.
+Aylward was reading her evening chapter.  She could scarcely utter
+her message as she stood under the gaze of blank amazement; but Mrs.
+Aylward understood enough to make her start up without another word,
+and hurry away, candle in hand.
+
+Aurelia took up the other, and followed, trembling.  When she reached
+the outer room the rush of air almost blew out her light, and pausing,
+afraid to pass on, she perceived that Mr. Belamour and Jumbo were
+carrying the insensible form between them into the inner apartment,
+while a moan or two filled her heart with pangs of self-reproach.
+
+She hung about, in terrible anxiety, but not daring to come forward
+while the others were engaged about the sufferer, for what seemed a
+very long time before she heard Mrs. Aylward say, "His arm is broke,
+sir.  We must send for Dr. Hunter.  The maids are all in their beds,
+but I will go and wake one, and send her to the stables to call the
+groom."
+
+"I had best go," said Mr. Belamour.  "You are of more use than I.  He
+sleeps at the stables, you say?"  Then, seeing the waiting, watching
+form of Aurelia, he said, "Come in, my poor child.  Perhaps your voice
+may rouse him."  Every one, including himself, seemed to have forgotten
+Mr. Belamour's horror of the light, for candles were flaring on all
+the tables, as he led the you girl in, saying, "Speak to him."
+
+At the death-like face in its golden hair, Aurelia's voice choked in
+her throat, and it was in an unnatural hoarse tone that she tried to
+say, "Sir--Sir Amyas--"
+
+"I trust he will soon be better," said Mr. Belamour, marking her dismay
+and grief with his wonted kindness, "but his arm needs the surgeon,
+and I must be going.  Let Lady Belamour sit here, Mrs. Aylward.  I
+trust you with the knowledge.  It was my nephew, in disguise, who
+wedded her, unknown to her.  She is entirely blameless.  Let Jumbo
+fetch her a cordial.  There, my child, take this chair, so that his
+eyes may fall on you when he opens them.  Bathe his head if you will.
+I shall return quickly after having sped the groom on his journey."
+
+Gloomy and doubtful were the looks cast on Aurelia by the housekeeper,
+but all unseen by the wondering, bewildered, remorseful eyes fixed
+on the white face on the pillow, heedless of its perfect symmetry of
+feature, and knowing only that this was he who had thrilled her heart
+with his tender tones, who had loved her so dearly, and dared so much
+for her sake, but whom her impatience and distrust had so cruelly
+injured.  Had she seen him strong, well, and ardent, as she had so
+lately heard him, her womanhood would have recoiled indignantly at
+the deception which had stolen her vows; but the spectacle of the
+young senseless face and prostrate form filled her with compassion,
+tenderness, and remorse, for having yielded to her sister's
+persuasions.  With intense anxiety she watched, and assisted in the
+fomentations, longing for Mr. Belamour's return; but time passed on
+and still he came not.  No words passed, only a few faint sighs, and
+one of the hands closed tight on Aurelia's.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.  WRATH AND DESOLATION.
+
+
+    Straight down she ran
+    . . . . and fatally did vow
+    To wreake her on the mayden messenger
+    Whom she had caused be kept as prisonere.
+                                          SPENSER.
+
+
+Hark! there was the trampling of horses and thundering of wheels at
+the door!  Could the doctor be come already, and in such a fashion?
+
+Jumbo hurried to admit him, and Mrs. Aylward moved to arrange matters,
+but the clasp that was on Aurelia's hand would not let her go.
+
+Presently there came, not Dr. Hunter's tread, but a crisp, rustling
+sound, and the tap of high heels, and in the doorway stood, tall,
+erect, and terrible, Lady Belamour, with a blaze of wrath in her
+blue eyes, and concentrated rage in her whole form, while in accents
+low, but coming from between her teeth, she demanded, "Miserable boy,
+what means this?"
+
+"Oh! madam, take care! he is sadly hurt!" cried Aurelia, with a
+gesture as if to screen him.
+
+"I ask what this means?" repeated Lady Belamour, advancing, and
+seeming to fill the room with her majestic figure, in full brocaded
+dress, with feathers waving in her hair.
+
+"His Honour cannot answer you, my Lady," said Mrs. Aylward.  "He has
+had a bad fall, and Mr. Belamour is gone to send for the doctor."
+
+"This is the housekeeping in my absence!" said Lady Belamour, showing
+less solicitude as to her son's condition than indignation at the
+discovery, and her eyes and her diamonds glittering fearfully.
+
+"My Lady," said Mrs. Aylward, with stern respectfulness, "I knew nothing
+of all this till this lady called me an hour ago telling me Sir Amyas
+was hurt.  I found him as you see.  Please your Ladyship, I must go
+back to him."
+
+"Speak then, you little viper," said Lady Belamour, turning on Aurelia,
+who had risen, but was held fast by the hand upon hers.  "By what arts
+have you well nigh slain my son?  Come here, and tell me."
+
+"None, madam!" gasped Aurelia, trembling, so that she grasped her
+chair-back with her free hand for support.  "I never saw him till
+to-night."
+
+"Lies will not serve you, false girl.  Come here this instant!  I
+_know_ that you have been shamelessly receiving my son here, night
+after night."
+
+"I never knew!"
+
+"Missie Madam never knew," chimed in Jumbo.  "All in the dark.  She
+thought it old mas'r."
+
+Lady Belamour looked contemptuously incredulous; but the negro's
+advocacy gave a kind of courage to Aurelia, and availing herself
+of a slight relaxation of the fingers she withdrew her hand, and
+coming forward, said, "Indeed, madam, I know nothing, I was entirely
+deceived.  Only hearing two voices in the dark alarmed me, so that
+I listened to my sister, and struck a light to discover the truth.
+Then all caught fire, and blazed up, and--"
+
+"Then you are an incendiary as well as a traitor," said her Ladyship,
+with cold, triumphant malignity.  "This is work for the constable.
+Here, Loveday," to her own woman, who was waiting in the outer room,
+take this person away, and lock her into her own room till morning,
+when we can give her up to justice."
+
+"Oh, my Lady," cried Aurelia, crouching at her feet and clinging to
+her dress, "do not be so cruel!  Oh! let me go home to my father!"
+
+"Madam!" cried a voice from the bed, "let alone my wife!  Come,
+Aurelia. Oh!"
+
+Then starting up in bed had wrenched his broken arm, and he fell back
+senseless again, just as Aurelia would have flown back to him, but
+his mother stood between, spurning her away.
+
+Another defender, if she could so be called, spoke for her.  "It is
+true, please your Ladyship," said Mrs. Aylward, "that Mr. Belamour
+called her the wife of this poor young gentleman."
+
+Jumbo too exclaimed, "No one knew but Jumbo; His Honour marry pretty
+missie in mas'r's wig and crimson dressing-gown."
+
+"A new stratagem!" ironically observed the incensed lady.  "But your
+game is played out, miss, for madam I cannot call you.  Such a
+marriage cannot stand for a moment; and if a lawyer like Amyas
+Belamour pretended it could, either his wits were altogether astray
+or he grossly deceived you.  Or, as I believe, he trafficked with
+you to entrap this unhappy youth, whose person and house you have,
+between you, almost destroyed.  Remove her, Loveday, and lock her
+up till we can send for a magistrate to take depositions in the
+morning.  Go quietly, girl I will not have my son disturbed with
+your outcries."
+
+Poor Aurelia's voice died in her throat.  Oh! why did not Mr. Belamour
+come to her rescue?  Ah! he had bidden her trust and be patient; she
+had transgressed, and he had abandoned her!  There was no sign of life
+or consciousness in the pallid face on the bed, and with a bleeding
+heart she let the waiting-maid lead her through the outer apartment,
+still redolent of the burning, reached her own chamber, heard the key
+turn in the lock, and fell across her bed in a sort of annihilation.
+
+The threat was unspeakably frightful.  Those were days of capital
+punishment for half the offences in the calendar, and of what was
+to her scarcely less dreadful, of promiscuous imprisonment, fetters,
+and gaol fever.  Poor Aurelia's ignorance could hardly enhance these
+horrors, and when her perceptions began to clear themselves, her
+first thought was of flight from a fate equally dreadful to the
+guilty or not guilty.
+
+Springing from the bed, she tried the other door of her room, which
+was level with the wainscoting, and not readily observed by a person
+unfamiliar with the house.   It yielded to her hand, and she knew
+there was a whole suite of empty rooms thus communicating with one
+another.  It was one of those summer nights that are never absolutely
+dark, and there was a full moon, so that she had light enough to
+throw off her conspicuous white habit, all scorched and singed as
+it was, and to put on her dark blue cloth one, with her camlet cloak
+and hood.  She made up a small bundle of clothes, took her purse,
+which was well filled with guineas and silver, and moved softly to
+the door.  Hide and seek had taught her all the modes of eluding
+observation, and with her walking shoes in her hand, and her feet
+slippered, she noiselessly crept through one empty room after
+another, and descended the stair into her own lobby, where she knew
+how to open the sash door.
+
+One moment the thought that Mr. Belamour would protect her made her
+pause, but the white phantom she had seen seemed more unreal than
+the voice she was accustomed to, and both alike had vanished and
+abandoned her to her fate.  Nay, she had been cheated from the first.
+Everything had given way with her.  My Lady might be coming to send
+her to prison.  Hark, some one was coming!  She darted out, down the
+steps, along the path like a wild bird from a cage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.  THE WANDERER.
+
+
+    Widowed wife and wedded maid,
+    Betrothed, betrayer, and betrayed.--SCOTT.
+
+
+Aurelia's first halt was in a moss-grown summer-house at the end of
+the garden, where she ventured to sit down to put on her stout leather
+shoes.  The children's toys, a ball and a set of ninepins lay on the
+floor!  How many ages ago was it that she had made that sarcastic
+reply to Letty?--perhaps her last!
+
+A nightingale, close overhead, burst into a peal of song, repeating
+his one favourite note, which seemed to her to cry out "Although my
+heart is broke, broke, broke, broke."  The tears rushed into her
+eyes, but at a noise as of opening doors or windows at the house,
+terror mastered her again, and she hurried on to hide herself from
+the dawning light, which was beginning to increase, as she crossed
+the park, on turf dank with Maydew, and plunged deep into the thick
+woods beyond, causing many a twittering cry of wondering birds.
+
+Day had fully come, and slanting golden beams were shining through
+the tender green foliage, and illuminating the boles of the trees,
+ere she was forced by failing strength again to pause and sit on a
+faggot, while gathering breath and considering where she should go.
+Home was her first thought.  Who could shield her but her father
+and sister?  How she longed for their comfort and guardianship!
+But how reach them?  She had money but could do little for her.
+England never less resembled those days of Brian Boromhe when the
+maiden with the gems, rich and rare wandered unscathed form sea to
+sea in Ireland.  Post chaises, though coming into use, had not
+dawned on the simple country girl's imagination.  She knew there
+was a weekly coach from London to Bath, passing through Brentford,
+and that place was also a great starting-place for stage waggons,
+of which one went through Carminster, but her bewildered brain
+could not recall on what day it started, and there was an additional
+shock of despair when she remembered that it was Sunday morning.
+The chill of the morning dew was on her limbs, she was exhausted
+by her fatigues of the night, a drowsy recollection of the children
+in the wood came over her, and she sank into a dreamy state that
+soon became actual sleep.  She was wakened by a strong bright
+sunbeam on her eyes, and found that this was what had warmed her
+limbs in her sleep.  A sound as of singing was also in her ears,
+and of calling cows to be milked.  She did not in the least know
+where she was, for she had wandered into parts of the wood quite
+strange to her, but she thought she must be a great way from home,
+and quite beyond recognition, so she followed the voice, and soon
+came out on a tiny meadow glade, where a stout girl was milking a
+great sheeted cow.
+
+She knew now that she was faint with hunger and thirst, and must take
+food before she could go much farther, so taking out a groat, her
+smallest coin, she accosted the girl, and offered it for a draught
+of milk.  To her dismay the girl exclaimed "Lawk!  It be young Madam!
+Sarvice, ma'am!"
+
+"I have lost myself in the wood," said Aurelia.  "I should be much
+obliged for a little milk."
+
+"Well to be sure.  Think of that!  And have ee been out all night?
+Ye looks whisht!" said the girl, readily filling a wooden cup she
+had brought with her, for in those days good new milk was a luxury
+far more easily accessible than in ours.  She added a piece of barley
+bread, her own intended breakfast, and was full of respectful wonder,
+pity, and curiosity, proposing that young Madam should come and rest
+in mother's cottage in the wood, and offering to guide her home as
+soon as the cows were milked and the pigs fed.  Aurelia had some
+difficulty in shaking her off, finding also that she had gone round
+and round in the labyrinthine paths, and was much nearer the village
+of Bowstead than she had intended.
+
+Indeed, she was obliged to deceive the kindly girl by walking off in
+the direction she pointed out, intending to strike afterwards into
+another path, though where to go she had little idea, so long as it
+was out of reach of my Lady and her prison.
+
+Oh! if Harriet were only at Brentford, or if it were possible to reach
+the Lea Farm where she was!  Could she ask her way thither, or could
+she find some shelter near or in Brentford till the coach or the
+waggon started?  This was the most definite idea her brain, refreshed
+somewhat by the food, could form; but in the  meantime she was again
+getting bewildered in the field paths.  It was a part she did not
+know, lying between the backs of the cottages and their gardens, and
+the woods belonging to the great house; and the long sloping meadows,
+spangled with cowslips were much alike.  The cowslips seemed to strike
+her with a pang as she recollected her merry day among them last
+spring, and how little she then thought of being a homeless wanderer.
+At last, scarce knowing where she was, she sat down on the step of a
+stile leading to a little farmyard, leant her head on the top bar and
+wept bitterly.
+
+Again she startled by hearing a voice saying, "Sister, what is that
+in the field?" and starting up, she saw Mrs. Delia in high pattens,
+and her Sunday silk tucked up over her quilted petticoat, with a
+basket of corn in her hand, surrounded by her poultry, while Mrs.
+Phoebe was bending over a coop.  She had stumbled unawares on their
+back premises, and with a wild hope, founded on their well-known
+enmity to Lady Belamour, she sprang over the stile.  Mrs. Delia
+retreated in haste, but Mrs. Phoebe came to the front.
+
+"Oh! Mrs. Phoebe," she cried, "I ask your pardon."
+
+"Mrs. Belamour!  Upon my word!  To what are we indebted for this
+visit?"
+
+"Oh! of your kindness listen to me, madam," said Aurelia.  "My Lady
+is come, and there is some dreadful mistake, and she is very angry
+with me; and if you would only take me in and hide me till the waggon
+goes and I can get home!"
+
+"So my Lady has found you out, you artful hussy," returned Mrs. Phoebe.
+"I have long guessed at your tricks!  I knew it was no blackamoor that
+was stealing into the great house."
+
+"I do not know what you mean."
+
+"Oh! it is of no use to try your feigned artlessness on us.  I wonder
+at your assurance, after playing false with uncle and nephew both at
+once."
+
+"If you would but hear me!"
+
+"I have heard enough of you already.  I wonder you dare show your face
+at a respectable house.  Away with you, if you would not have me send
+the constable after you!"
+
+The threat renewed Aurelia's terror, and again she fled, but this time
+she fell into a path better known to her, that leading to Sedhurst,
+and ultimately to Brentford.
+
+The recollection of Dame Wheatfield's genial good nature inspired her
+with another hope, and she made her way towards the farm.  The church
+bells were ringing, and she saw the farmer and his children going
+towards the church, but not the mistress, and she might therefore
+hope to find her at home and alone.  As she approached, a great dog
+began a formidable barking, and his voice brought out the good woman
+in person.  "Down, Bouncer!  A won't hurt'ee, my lass.  What d'ye
+lack that you bain't at church?"
+
+"May I speak to you, Mrs. Wheatfield?"
+
+"My stars, if it bain't young Miss--Madam, I mean!  Nothing ain't
+wrong with the child?"
+
+"O no, she is quite well, but--"
+
+"What, ye be late for church?  Come in and sit ye down a bit and sup
+after your walk.  We have been and killed Spotty's calf, though
+'twas but a staggering Bob, but us couldn't spare the milk no longer.
+So we've got the l'in on un for dinner, and you're kindly welcome if
+you ain't too proud.  Only I wish you had brought my little missie."
+
+"O Mrs. Wheatfield!  Shall I ever see the dear little girl again?  Oh!
+can you help me?  Do you know where Lea Farm is?  I'd pay anything for
+a horse and man to take me there, where my sister is staying."
+
+"Well, I don't know as my master would hire a horse out of a Sunday,
+unless 'twere very particler--illness or suchlike.  Lea Farm did you
+say ma'am?  Is it the Lea out by Windmill hill--Master Brown's; or
+Lea Farm, down by the river--Tom Smith's?"
+
+"No, this is Mr. Meadows's, a grazier."
+
+"Never heard tell on him, ma'am, but the  master might, when he comes
+in.  But bless me," she added, after a moment's consideration, "what
+will your master say?  He'll be asking how it comes that a lady like
+you, with a coach and horses of her own, should be coming after a
+horse here.  You ain't been and got into trouble with my Lady, my
+dear?"
+
+"Oh! Dame, indeed I have; pray help me!"
+
+It was no wonder that Mrs. Wheatfield failed to gather more than that
+young Madam had almost burnt the house, and had fallen under grievous
+displeasure, so as even to fear the constable.
+
+"Bless your poor heart!  Think of that now!  But I'm afeard we can't
+do nothing for you.  My master would be nigh about killing me if I
+harboured you and got him into trouble, with the gentry."
+
+"If you could only hide me in some loft or barn till I could meet the
+coach for Bath!  Then I should be almost at home."
+
+"I dare not.  The children are routing about everywhere on a Sunday
+afternoon; and if so be as there's a warrant out after you" (Aurelia
+shuddered) "my man would be mad with me.  He ain't never forgot how
+his grandfather was hanged up there in that very walnut for changing
+clothes with a young gentleman in the wars long ago."
+
+"Then I must go!  Oh, what will become of me?"
+
+"Stay a bit!  It goes to my heart to turn you from the door, and you
+so white and faint.  And they won't be out of church yet a while.
+You've ate nothing all this time!  What was you thinking of doing,
+my dear?"
+
+"I don't know.  If I could only find out the right Lea Farm, and get
+a man and horse to take me there--but my sister goes on Monday, and
+I might not find her, and nobody knows where it is.  And nobody will
+take me in or hide my till the coach goes!  Oh, what will become of
+me?"
+
+"It is bitter hard," said the Dame.  "I wish to my heart I could take
+you in, but you see there's the master!  I'll tell you what: there's
+my cousin, Patty Woodman; she might take you in for a night or two.
+But you'd never find your way to her cot; it lies out beyond the
+spinneys.  I must show you the way.  Look you here.  Nobody can't
+touch you in a church, they hain't got no power there, and if you
+would slip into that there empty place as opens with the little door,
+as the ringers goes in by, afore morning prayers is over I'll make an
+excuse to come to evening prayer alone, or only with little Davy, as
+is lying asleep there.  If Patty is there I'll speak, and you can go
+home with her.  If not, I must e'en walk with you out to the spinney.
+Hern is a poor place, but her's a good sort of body, and won't let
+you come to no harm; and her goes into Brentford with berries and
+strawberries to meet the coaches, so may be she'll know the day."
+
+"Oh, thank you, thank you, dear Mrs. Wheatfield!  If I can only get
+safe home!"
+
+"Come, don't be in haste.  You'll take a bit of bread and cheese,
+and just a draught of ale to hearten you up a bit."
+
+Aurelia was too sick at heart for food, and feared to delay, lest
+she should meet the congregation, but Mrs. Wheatfield forced on her
+a little basket with some provisions, and she gladly accepted
+another draught of milk.
+
+No one came out by the little door she was told; all she had to do
+would be to keep out of sight when the ringers came in before the
+afternoon service.  She knew the way, and was soon close to Mary
+Sedhurst's grave.  "Ah! why was he not constant to her," she thought;
+"and oh! why has he deserted me in my need?"
+
+The little door easily yielded, and she found herself--after passing
+the staircase-turret that led by a gallery to the belfry in the centre
+of the church--in an exceedingly dilapidated transept; once, no doubt,
+it had been beautiful, before the coloured glass of the floriated
+window had been knocked out and its place supplied with bricks.  The
+broken effigy of a crusading Sedhurst, devoid of arms, feet, and nose
+was stowed away in the eastern sepulchre, in company with funeral
+apparatus, torn books, and moth-eaten cushions. But this would not
+have shocked her even in calmer  moments.  She only cared to find a
+corner where she was entirely sheltered, between a green stained
+pier and the high wall and curtain of a gigantic pew, where no doubt
+sweet Mary Sedhurst had once worshipped.  The lusty voices of the
+village choir in some exalted gallery beyond her view were shouting
+out a familiar tune, and with some of Betty's mild superstition about
+"the singing psalms," she heard--
+
+
+                  "Since I have placed my trust in God
+                     A refuge always nigh,
+                   Why should I, like tim'rous bird
+                     To distant mountains fly?
+
+                  "Behold the wicked bend their bow,
+                     And ready fix their dart,
+                   Lurking in ambush to destroy
+                     The man of upright heart.
+
+                  "When once the firm assurance fails
+                     Which public faith imparts,
+                  'Tis time for innocence to flee
+                     From such deceitful arts.
+
+                  "The Lord hath both a temple here
+                     And righteous throne above,
+                   Whence He surveys the sons of men,
+                     And how their counsels move."
+
+
+Poor timorous bird, whom even the firm assurance of wedded faith had
+failed, what was left to her but to flee from the darts levelled
+against her?  Yet that last verse brought a sense of protection.
+Ah! did she deserve it?  A prayerless night and prayerless morning
+had been hers, and no wonder, since she had never gone to bed nor
+risen with the ordinary forms; but it was with a pang that she
+recollected that the habit of calling out in her heart for guidance
+and help had been slipping from her for a long time past, and she
+had never asked for heavenly aid when her judgment was perplexed by
+Harriet, no, nor for protection in her flight.
+
+She resolved to say her morning prayers with full attention so soon as
+the church was empty, and meantime to follow the service with all her
+powers, though her pulses were still throbbing and her head aching.
+
+In the far distance she heard the Commandments, and near to her the
+unseen clerk responding, and then followed a gospel of love and
+comfort.  She could not catch every word, but there was a sense of
+promised peace and comfort, which began to soothe the fluttering
+heart, for the first time enjoying a respite from the immediate
+gripe of deadly terror.
+
+The sermon chimed in with these feelings, not that she could have
+any account of it, nor preserved any connected memory, but it was
+full of the words, Faith, Love, Sacrifice, so that they were borne
+in on her ear and thought.  Heavenly Love surrounding as with an
+atmosphere those who had only faith to "taste and see how gracious
+the Lord is," believing that which cannot be seen, and therefore
+having it revealed to their inmost sense, and thus living the only
+real life.
+
+This was the chief thought that penetrated to her mind as she crouched
+on the straw hassock behind the pew, and shared unseen in the blessing
+of peace.  No one saw her as the hob-nailed shoes trooped out of church,
+and soon she was entirely alone, kneeling still in her hiding-place,
+and whispering half-aloud the omitted morning prayer, whose heartfelt
+signification had, she felt, been neglected for a long, long time.
+
+Since when? Ah! ever since those strange mysterious voices and caresses
+had come to charm and terrify her, and when her very perplexity should
+have warned her to cling closer to the aid of her Heavenly Father.
+Vague yearnings, uplifted feelings, discontents, and little tempers
+had usurped the place of higher feelings, and blinded her eyes.  And
+through it all, her heart began to ache and long for tidings of him
+on whose pale features she had gazed so long and who had ventured and
+suffered so much for her, nay, who had started into a moment's life
+for her protection!  All the tumult of resentment at the deception
+practised on her fell on the uncle rather than the nephew; and in
+spite of this long year of tender kindness and consideration from the
+recluse, there was a certain consideration from the recluse, there
+was a certain leaping of heart at finding herself bound not to him
+but to the youth whose endearments returned with a flood of tender
+remembrance.  And she had fled just as he had claimed her as his
+wife, had fled just as he had claimed her as his wife, unheeding
+whether he died of the injury she had caused him!  All that justified
+her alarm was forgotten, her heartstrings had wound themselves round
+him, and began to pull her back.
+
+Then she thought of the danger of directing Lady Belamour's wrath
+on her father, and leading to his expulsion and destitution.  She
+had been sent from home, and bestowed in marriage to prevent his
+ruin, and should she now ensure it?  Her return to him or even her
+disappearance would no doubt lead to high words from him, and then
+he would be cast out to beggary in his old age.  No, she could only
+save him by yielding herself up, exonerating him from all knowledge
+of her strange marriage, far more of the catastrophe, and let my
+Lady do her worst!  She had, as she knew, not been going on well
+lately, but she had confessed her faults, and recovered her confidence
+that her Heavenly Father would guard her as long as she resolutely
+did her duty.  And her duty, as daughter and a wife, if indeed she
+was one, was surely to return, where her heart was drawing her.  It
+might be very terrible, but still it was going nearer to _him_, and
+it would save her father.
+
+The door was still open; she wrote a few words of gratitude and
+explanation to Dame Wheatfield, on a piece of a torn book, wrapped
+a couple of guineas in it, and laid it in the basket, then kneeling
+again to implore protection and safety, and if it might be, forgiveness
+and reconciliation, she set forth.  "Love is strong as death," said
+Mary Sedhurst's tomb.  She knew better what that meant than when her
+childish eyes first fell upon it.  A sense of Divine Love was wrapping
+her round with a feeling of support and trust, while the human love
+drew her onwards to confront all deadly possibilities in the hope of
+rejoining her husband, or at least of averting misfortune from her
+father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.  VANISHED.
+
+
+    Where there is no place
+      For the glow-worm to lie,
+    Where there is no space
+      For receipt of a fly,
+    Where the midge dares not venture
+      Lest herself fast she lay,
+    If Love come, he will enter
+      And find out the way.--OLD SONG.
+
+
+Major Delavie and his eldest daughter were sitting down to supper
+in the twilight, when a trampling of horses was heard in the lane
+a carriage was seen at the gate, and up the pathway came a slender
+youthful figure, in a scarlet coat, with an arm in a sling.
+
+"It is!--yes, it is!" exclaimed Betty: "Sir Amyas himself!"
+
+In spite of his lameness, the Major had opened the door before Palmer
+could reach it; but his greeting and inquiry were cut short by the
+young man's breathless question: "Is she here?"
+
+"Who?"
+
+"My wife--my love.  Your daughter, sweet Aurelia!  Ah! it was my one
+hope."
+
+"Come in, come in, sir," entreated Betty, seeing how fearfully pale
+he grew.  "What has befallen you, and where is my sister?"
+
+"Would that I knew!  I trusted to have found her here; but now, sir,
+you will come with me and find her!"
+
+"I do not understand you, sir," said the Major severely, "nor how you
+are concerned in the matter.  My daughter is the wife of your uncle,
+Mr. Belamour, and  if, as I fear, you bear the marks of a duel in
+consequence of any levity towards her, I shall not find it easy to
+forgive."
+
+"On my word and honour it is no such thing," said the youth, raising
+a face full of frank innocence: "Your daughter is my wife, my most
+dear and precious wife, with full consent and knowledge of my uncle.
+I was married to her in his clothes, in the darkened room, our names
+being the same!"
+
+"Was this your promise?" Betty exclaimed.
+
+"Miss Delavie, to the best of my ability I have kept my promise.
+Your sister has never seen me, nor to her knowledge spoken with me."
+
+"These are riddles, young man," said the Major sternly.  "If all
+be not well with my innocent child, I shall know how to demand an
+account."
+
+"Sir," said the youth: "I swear to you that she is the same innocent
+maiden as when she left you.  Oh!" he added with a gesture of earnest
+entreaty, "blame me as you will, only trace her."
+
+"Sit down, and let us hear," said Betty kindly, pushing a chair towards
+him and pouring out a glass of wine.  He sank into the first, but waved
+aside the second, becoming however so pale that the Major sprang to
+hold the wine to his lips saying: "Drink, boy, I say!"
+
+"Not unless you forgive me," he replied in a hoarse, exhausted voice.
+
+"Forgive!  Of course, I forgive, if you have done no wrong by my child.
+I see, I see, 'tis not wilfully.  You have been hurt in her defence."
+
+"Not exactly," he said: "I have much to tell," but the words came
+slowly, and there was a dazed weariness about his eye that made Betty
+say, in spite of her anxiety--"You cannot till you have eaten and
+rested.  If only one word to say where she is!"
+
+"Oh! that I could!  My hope was to find her here," and he was choked
+by a great strangling sob, which his youthful manhood sought to
+restrain.
+
+Betty perceived that he was far from being recovered from the injury
+he had suffered, and did her best to restrain her own and her father's
+anxiety till she had persuaded him to swallow some of the excellent
+coffee which Nannerl always made at sight of a guest.  To her father's
+questions meantime, he had answered that he had broken his arm ten
+days ago, but he could not wait, he had posted down as soon as he
+could move.
+
+"You ought to sleep before you tell us farther," said the Major,
+speaking from a strong sense of the duties of a host; but he was
+relieved when the youth answered, "You are very good, sir, but I
+could not sleep till you know all."
+
+"Speak, then," said the Major, "I cannot look at your honest young
+countenance and think you guilty of more than disobedient folly; but
+I fear it may have cost my poor child very dear!  Is it your mother
+that you dread?"
+
+"I would be thankful even to know her in my mother's keeping!" he said.
+
+"Is there no mistake?" said the Major; "my daughter, Mrs. Arden, saw
+her at Brentford, safe and blooming."
+
+"Oh, that was before--before--" said Sir Amyas, "the day before she
+fled from my mother at Bowstead, and has been seen no more."
+
+He put his hand over his face, and bowed it on the table in such
+overpowering grief as checked the exclamations of horror and dismay
+and the wrathful demands that were rising to the lips of his auditors,
+and they only looked at one another in speechless sorrow.  Presently
+he recovered enough to say, "Have patience with me, and I will try
+to explain all.  My cousin, Miss Delavie, knows that I loved her
+sweet sister from the moment I saw her, and that I hurried to London
+in the hope of meeting her at my mother's house.  On the contrary,
+my mother, finding it vain to deny all knowledge of her, led me to
+believe that she was boarded at a young ladies' school with my little
+sisters.  I lived on the vain hope of the holidays, and meantime
+every effort was made to drive me into a marriage which my very soul
+abhorred, the contract being absolutely made by the two ladies, the
+mothers, without my participation, nay, against my protest.  I was to
+be cajoled or else persecuted into it--sold, in fact, that my mother's
+debts might be paid before her husband's return!  I knew my Uncle
+Belamour was my sole true personal guardian, though he had never acted
+further than by affixing his signature when needed.  I ought to have
+gone long before to see him, but as I now understand, obstacles had
+been purposely placed in my way, while my neglectful reluctance was
+encouraged.  It was in the forlorn hope of finding in him a resource
+that took me to Bowstead at last, and then it was that I learnt how
+far my mother could carry deception.  There I found my sisters, and
+learnt that my own sweetest life had been placed there likewise.  She
+was that afternoon visiting some old ladies, but my uncle represented
+that my meeting her could only cause her trouble and lead to her being
+removed.  I was forced then to yield, having an engagement in London
+that it would have been fatal to break, but I came again at dark, and
+having sworn me to silence, he was forced to let me take advantage of
+the darkness of his chamber to listen to her enchanting voice.  He
+promised to help me, as far as he had the power, in resisting the
+hateful Aresfield engagement, and he obtained the assistance of an
+old friend in making himself acquainted with the terms of his
+guardianship, and likewise of a letter my father had left for him.
+He has given me leave to show a part of it to you, sir," he added,
+"you will see that my father expressed a strong opinion that you were
+wronged in the matter of the estates, and declared that he had hoped
+to make some compensation by a contract between one of your daughters
+and my brother who died.  He charged my uncle if possible to endeavour
+to bring about such a match between one of your children and myself.
+Thus, you see, I was acting in the strictest obedience.  You shall
+see the letter at once, if I may bid my fellow Gray bring my pocket-
+book from my valise."
+
+"I doubt not of your words, my young friend; your father was a
+gentleman of a high and scrupulous honour.  But why all this hide-
+and-seek work?--I hate holes and corners!"
+
+"You will see how we were driven, sir.  My mother came in her turn
+to see my uncle, and obtain his sanction to her cherished plan, and
+when he absolutely refused, on account of Lady Aresfield's notorious
+character, if for no other, she made him understand that nothing would
+be easier than to get him declared a lunatic and thus to dispense
+with his consent.  Then, finding how the sweet society of your dear
+daughter had restored him to new life and spirit, she devised the
+notable expedient of removing what she suspected to be the chief cause
+of my contumacy, by marrying the poor child to him.  He scouted the
+idea as a preposterous and cruel sacrifice, but it presently appeared
+that Colonel Mar was ready to find her a debauched old lieutenant who
+would gladly marry--what do I say?--it profanes the word--but accept
+the young lady for a couple of hundred pounds.  Then did I implore my
+uncle to seem to yield, and permit me to personate him at the ceremony.
+Our names being the same, and all being done in private and in the
+dark, the whole was quite possible, and it seemed the only means of
+saving her from a terrible fate."
+
+"He might--or you might, have remembered that she had a father!" said
+the Major.
+
+"True.  But you were at a distance, and my mother's displeasure
+against you was to be deprecated."
+
+"I had rather she had been offended fifty times than have had such
+practices with my poor little girl!" said Major Delavie.  "No wonder
+the proposals struck me as strange and ambiguous.  Whose writing was
+it?"
+
+"Mine, at his dictation," said the youth.  "He was unwilling, but my
+importunity was backed by my mother's threats, conveyed through
+Hargrave, that unless Aurelia became his wife she should be disposed
+of otherwise, and that his sanity might be inquired into.  Hargrave,
+who is much attached to my uncle, and is in great awe of my Lady,
+was thoroughly frightened, and implored him to secure himself and the
+young lady by consenting, thinking, too, that anything that would
+rouse him would be beneficial."
+
+"It is strange!" mused the Major.  "A clear-headed punctilious man
+like your uncle, to lend himself to a false marriage!  His ten years
+of melancholy must have changed him greatly!"
+
+"Less than you suppose, sir; but you will remember that my mother is
+esteemed as a terrible power by all concerned with her.  Even when
+she seemed to love me tenderly, I was made to know what it was to
+cross her will, and alas! she always carries her point."
+
+"It did seem a mode of protection," said Betty, more kindly.
+
+"And" added the youth, "my uncle impressed on me from the first that
+he only consented on condition the I treated this wedlock as betrothal
+alone, never met my sweet love save in his dark room, and never revealed
+myself to her.  He said it was a mere expedient for guarding her until
+I shall come of age, or Mr. Wayland comes home, when I shall woo her
+openly, and if needful, repeat the ceremony with her full knowledge.
+Meanwhile I wrote the whole to my stepfather, and am amazed that he
+has never written nor come home."
+
+"That is the only rational thing I have heard," said the Major.
+"Though--did your uncle expect your young blood to keep the terms?"
+
+"Indeed, sir, I was frightened enough the first evening that I
+ventured on any advances, for they startled her enough to make her
+swoon away.  I carried her from her room, and my uncle dragged me
+back before the colour came back to that lovely face so that the
+women might come to her.  That was the only time I ever saw her
+save through the chinks of the shutters.  Judge of the distraction
+I lived in!"
+
+Betty looked shocked, but her father chuckled a little, though he
+maintained his tone of censure "And may I inquire how often these
+distracting interviews took place?"
+
+"Cruelly seldom for one to whom they were life itself!  Mar is, as
+you know, colonel of my corps, and my liberty has been restrained
+as much as possible; I believe I have been oftener on guard and on
+court-martial than any officer of my standing in the service; but
+about once in a fortnight I could contrive to ride down to a little
+wayside inn where I kept a fresh horse, also a livery coat and hat.
+I tied up my horse in a barn on the borders of the park, and put on
+a black vizard, so as to pass for my uncle's negro in the dark.  I
+could get admittance to my uncle's rooms unknown to any servant save
+faithful Jumbo--who has been the sole depository of our secret.
+However, since my mother's return from Bath, where the compact with
+Lady Aresfield was fully determined, the persecution has been fiercer.
+I may have aroused suspicion by failing to act my part when she
+triumphantly announced my uncle's marriage to me, or else by my
+unabated resistance to the little termagant who is to be forced on me.
+At any rate, I have been so intolerably watched whenever I was not on
+duty, that my hours of bliss became rarer than ever.  Well, sir, my
+uncle charges me with indiscretion, and says my ardour aroused
+unreasonable suspicions.  He was constantly anxious, and would baulk
+me in my happiest and most tantalising moments by making some excuse
+for breaking up the evening, and then would drive me frantic by asking
+whether he was to keep up my character for consistency in my absence.
+However, ten days since, the twelfth of May, after three weeks'
+unendurable detention in town on one pretext or another, I escaped,
+and made my way to Bowstead at last.  My uncle told me that he had
+been obliged unwillingly to consent to our precious charge going to
+meet her sister at Brentford, and that she was but newly come home.
+Presently she entered, but scarcely had I accosted her before a blaze
+broke out close to us.  The flame caught the dry old curtains, they
+flamed up like tinder, and as I leaped up on a table to tear them
+down, it gave way with me, I got a blow on the head, and knew no more.
+It seems that my uncle, as soon as the fire was out, finding that my
+arm was broken, set out to send the groom for the doctor--he being
+used to range the park at night.  The stupid fellow, coming home half
+tipsy from the village, saw his white hair and beard in the moonlight,
+took him for a ghost, and ran off headlong.  Thereupon my uncle,
+with new energy in the time of need, saddled the horse, changed his
+dressing-gown with the groom's coat, and rode off to Brentford.  Then,
+finding that Dr. Hunter was not within, he actually went on to London,
+where Dr. Sandys, who had attended him ever since his would, forced
+him to go to bed, and to remain there till his own return.  Thus my
+darling had no one to protect her, when, an hour or so after the
+accident, my mother suddenly appeared.  Spies had been set on me by
+Mar, and so soon as they had brought intelligence of my movements
+she had hurried off from Ranelagh, in full dress, just as she was,
+to track and surprise me.  My uncle, having gone by the bridle path,
+had not met her, and I was only beginning to return to my senses.  I
+have a dim recollection of hearing my mother threatening and accusing
+Aurelia, and striving to interfere, but I was as one bound down, and
+all after that is blank to me.  When my understanding again became
+clear, I could only learn that my mother had locked her into her own
+room, whence she had escaped, and"--with a groan--"nothing has been
+heard of her since!"  Again he dropped his head on his hand as one
+in utter dejection.
+
+"Fled!  What has been done to trace her?" cried the Major.
+
+"Nothing could be done till my mother was gone and my uncle returned.
+The delirium was on me, and whatever I tried to say turned to raving,
+all the worse if I saw or heard my mother, till Dr. Sandys forbade
+her coming near me.  She was invited to the Queen's Sunday card party
+moreover, so she fortunately quitted Bowstead just before Mr. Belamour's
+return."
+
+"Poor gentleman, he could do nothing," said Betty.
+
+"Indeed I should have thought so, but it seems that he only needed a
+shock to rouse him.  His state had become hypochondriacal, and this
+strong emotion has caused him to exert himself; and when he came into
+the daylight, he found he could bear it.  I could scarce believe my
+eyes when, on awakening from a sleep, I found him by my bedside,
+promising me that if I would only remain still, he would use every
+endeavour to recover the dear one.  He went first to Brentford,
+thinking she might have joined her sister there, but Mr. and Mrs.
+Arden had left it at the same time as she did.  Then he travelled
+on to their Rectory at Rundell Canonicorum, thinking she  might have
+followed them, but they had only just arrived, and had heard nothing
+of her; and he next sought her with his friend the Canon of Windsor,
+but all in vain.  Meantime my mother had visited me, and denied all
+knowledge of her, only carrying away my little sisters, I believe
+because she found them on either side of my bed, telling me tales
+of their dear Cousin Aura's kindness.  When my uncle returned to
+Bowstead I could bear inaction no longer, and profited by my sick
+leave to travel down hither, trusting that she might have found her
+way to her home, and longing to confess all and implore your pardon,
+sir,--and, alas! Your aid in seeking her."
+
+With the large tears in his eyes, the youth rose from his chair as
+he spoke, and knelt on one knee before the Major, who exclaimed,
+extremely affected--"By all that is sacred, you have it, my dear
+boy.  It is a wretched affair, but you meant to act honourably
+throughout, and you have suffered heavily.  May God bless you both,
+and give us back my dear child.  My Lady must have been very hard
+with her, to make her thus fly, all alone."
+
+"You do not know, I suppose, any cause for so timid a creature
+preferring flight to a little restraint?"
+
+"It seems," said Sir Amyas sadly, "that something the dear girl said
+gave colour to the charge of having caused the fire, and that my
+mother in her first passion threatened her with the constable!"
+
+"My poor Aurelia! that might well scare her," cried Betty: "but how
+could it be?"
+
+"They say she spoke of using something her sister had given her to
+discover what the mystery was that alarmed her."
+
+"Ah! that gunpowder trick of Mr. Arden's--I always hated it!"
+exclaimed Betty.
+
+"Gunpowder indeed!" growled the old soldier.  "Well, if ever there's
+mischief among the children, Harriet is always at the bottom of it.
+I hope Mr. Belamour made her confess if she had a hand in it."
+
+"I believe he did," said Sir Amyas.
+
+"Just like her to set the match to the train and then run away," said
+the Major.
+
+"Still, sir," said Betty, her womanhood roused to defence, "though I am
+angered and grieved enough that Harriet should have left Aurelia to face
+the consequences of the act she instigated, I must confess that even by
+Sir Amyas's own showing, if he will allow me to say so, my sisters were
+justified in wishing to understand the truth."
+
+"That is what my uncle tells me," said the baronet.  "He declares that
+if I had attended to his stipulations, restrained my fervour, or kept
+my distance, there would have been neither suspicion nor alarm.  As if
+I had not restrained myself!"
+
+"Ay, I dare say," said the Major, a little amused.
+
+"Well, sir, what could a man do with most bewitching creature in the
+world, his own wife, too, on the next chair to him?"
+
+There was a simplicity about the stripling--for he was hardly more--
+which forced them to forgive him; besides, they were touched by his
+paleness and fatigue.  His own man--a respectable elderly servant whom
+the Major recollected waiting on Sir Jovian--came to beg that his honour
+would sit up no longer, as he had been travelling since six in the
+morning, and was quite worn out.  Indeed, so it proved; for when the
+Major and Betty not only promised to come with him on the search the
+next day, but bade him a kind affectionate good-night, the poor lad,
+all unused to kindness, fairly burst into tears, which all his dawning
+manhood could not restrain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.  THE TRACES.
+
+
+    Oh, if I were an eagle to soar into the sky,
+    I'd gaze around with piercing eye when I my love might spy.
+
+
+The second-best coach, which resided at Bowstead, the same which had
+carried Aurelia off from Knightsbridge, had brought Sir Amyas Belamour
+to Carminster--an effeminate proceeding of which he was rather ashamed,
+though clearly he could not have ridden, and he had hoped to have
+brought his bride back in it.
+
+There was plenty of room in it to take back the Major, Betty, and even
+Eugene, since he could not well have been left without his sister or
+Palmer, who was indispensable to the Major.  He was so enchanted at
+"riding in a coach," and going perhaps to see London, that he did not
+trouble himself much about sister Aurelia being lost, and was in such
+high spirits as to be best disposed of outside, between Palmer and
+Gray, where he could at his ease contemplate the horses, generally
+four in number, though at some stages only two could be procured,
+and then at an extra steep hill a farmer's horse from the hayfield
+would be hitched on in front.  Luckily there was no lack of money;
+Mr. Belamour and Hargrave had taken care that Sir Amyas should be
+amply supplied, and thus the journey was as rapid as posting could
+be in those days of insufficient inns, worse roads, and necessary
+precautions against highwaymen.
+
+The road was not the same as that which the young baronet had come
+down by, as it was thought better to take the chance of meeting a
+different stage waggon, Sir Amyas and his servant having, of course,
+examined the one they had overtaken in coming down.  At every possible
+resting place on the route was inquiry made, but all in vain; no one
+had seen such a young gentlewoman as was described, or if some answer
+inspired hope for a moment, it was dashed again at once.  The young
+gentlewoman once turned out to be the Squire's fat lady, and another
+time was actually pursued into a troop of strolling players, attiring
+themselves in a barn, whence she came with cheeks freshly rouged with
+blood taken from a cat's tail.
+
+The young baronet had meanwhile become very dear to the Major and his
+daughter.  He had inherited his mother's indescribable attractiveness,
+and he was so frank, so affectionate, so unspoilt, so grateful for the
+little attentions demanded by his maimed condition, so considerate of
+the Major, and so regardless of himself, and, above all, so passionately
+devoted to his dearest life, as he called Aurelia, that it was impossible
+not to take him into their hearts, and let him be, as he entreated, a
+son and a brother.
+
+The travellers decided on first repairing to Bowstead, thinking it
+probable that the truant might have returned thither, or that Mr.
+Belamour might have found her in some one of the cottages around.
+Hopes began to rise, and Major Delavie scolded Sir Amyas in quite a
+paternal manner whenever he began to despond, though the parts were
+reversed whenever the young people's expectations began to soar beyond
+his own spirits at the moment.
+
+"Is yonder Hargrave?  No, it is almost like my father!"  exclaimed
+Sir Amyas, in amazement, as the coach lumbered slowly up the approach,
+and a very remarkable figure was before them.  The long white beard
+was gone, the hair was brushed back, tied up, and the ends disposed
+of in a square black silk bag, hanging down behind; and the dark grey
+coat, with collar and deep cuffs of black velvet, was such as would
+be the ordinary wear of an elderly man of good position; but the
+face, a fine aquiline one, as to feature, was of perfectly absolute
+whiteness, scarcely relieved by the thin pale lips, or the eyes,
+which, naturally of a light-grey, had become almost as colourless
+as the rest of the face, and Betty felt a shock as if she had seen
+a marble statue clothed and animated, bowing and speaking.
+
+The anxious inquiry and the mournful negative had been mutually
+exchanged before the carriage door was opened, and all were standing
+together in the avenue.
+
+"I have, however, found a clue, or what may so prove," said Mr.
+Belamour, when the greetings had passed.  "I have discovered how our
+fugitive passed the early part of the Sunday;" and he related how he
+had elicited from the Mistresses Treforth that they had seen her and
+driven her away with contumely.
+
+Sir Amyas and the Major were not sparing of interjections, and the
+former hoped that his uncle had told them what they deserved.
+
+"Thereby only incurring the more compassion," said Mr. Belamour,
+dryly, and going on to say that he had extended his inquires to
+Sedhurst, and had heard of her visit to Dame Wheatfield; also,
+that the good woman, going to seek her at the church, had found
+only the basket with the guineas in the paper.  She had regarded
+this merely as a wrapper, and, being unable to read, had never
+noticed the writing, but she had fortunately preserved it, and
+Mr. Belamour thus learnt Aurelia's intention of throwing herself
+on Lady Belamour's mercy.
+
+"My mother utterly denied all knowledge of her, when I cried out
+in anguish when she came to see me!" said Sir Amyas.
+
+"So she does to Hargrave, whom she sent off to interrogate Mrs.
+Arden," said Mr. Belamour.
+
+"Have you any reason to think the child could have reached my Lady?"
+inquired Betty, seeing that none of the gentlemen regarded my Lady's
+denials as making any difference to their belief, though not one of
+them chose to say so.
+
+"Merely negative evidence," said Mr. Belamour.  "I find that no one
+in the house actually beheld the departure of my Lady on that Sunday
+afternoon.  The little girls had been found troublesome, and sent out
+into the park with Molly, and my nephew was giving full employment to
+Jumbo and Mrs. Aylward in my room.  The groom, who was at the horses'
+heads, once averred that he saw two women get into the carriage
+besides her ladyship; but he is such a sodden confused fellow, and
+so contradicts himself, that I can make nothing of him."
+
+"He would surely know his young mistress," said Sir Amyas.
+
+"Perhaps not in the camlet hood, which Dame Wheatfield says she wore."
+
+"Was good old Dove acting as coachman?" said Betty.  "We should learn
+something from him."
+
+"It was not her own coach," said Mr. Belamour.  "All the servants were
+strangers, the liveries sanguine, and the panels painted with helmets
+and trophies."
+
+"Mar's," said Sir Amyas, low and bitterly.
+
+"I guessed as much," said his uncle.  "It was probably chosen on
+purpose, if the child has friends in your own household."
+
+"Then I must demand her," said the Major.  "She cannot be denied to
+her father."
+
+"At any rate we must go to town to-morrow," said Mr. Belamour.  "We
+have done all we can here."
+
+"Let us send for horses and go on at once," cried Sir Amyas.
+
+"Not so fast, nephew.  I see, by her face, that Miss Delavie does not
+approve, though our side of the town is safer than Hounslow."
+
+"I was not thinking of highwaymen, sir, but we set forth at five this
+morning, and Sir Amyas always becomes flushed and feverish if he is
+over fatigued; nor is my father so strong as he was."
+
+"Ah, ha! young sir, in adopting Betty for a sister you find you have
+adopted a quartermaster-general, eh?" said the Major; "but she is
+quite right.  We should not get to town before ten or eleven at
+night, and what good would that do?  No, no, let us sup and have
+a good night's rest, and we will drive into town long enough before
+fine ladies are astir in the morning, whatever may be the fashionable
+hour nowadays."
+
+"Yes, nephew, you must content yourself with acting host to your
+father and sister-in-law in your own house," said his uncle.
+
+"It seems to me more like yours, sir," rejoined the youth; but at the
+hall door, with all his native grace, he turned and gave his welcome,
+kissing Betty on the cheek with the grave ceremony of the host, and
+lamenting, poor fellow, that he stood alone without his bride to
+receive them.
+
+"Is that Jumbo?" asked Betty.  "I must thank him for all his kind
+service to my dear sister."
+
+Faithful Jumbo fairly wept when--infinite condescension for those
+days--Major Delavie shook hands with him and thanked him.
+
+"If pretty Missie Madam were but safe and well, Jumbo would wish no
+more," he sobbed out.
+
+"Poor Jumbo," said Mr. Belamour, "he has never been the same man since
+pretty Missie Madam has been lost.  I hear his violin mourning for her
+till it is enough to break one's heart!"
+
+However Eugene created a diversion by curious inquiries whether Jumbo
+would indeed play the fiddle of which he had heard from Archer and
+Amoret, and he ran off most eagerly after the negro to be introduced
+to the various curiosities of the place.
+
+Mrs. Aylward attended Miss Delavie to her room, and showed herself
+much softened.  As a good, conscientious woman, she felt that she
+had acted a selfish part towards the lonely maiden, and Betty's
+confident belief that she had been a kind friend was a keen reproach.
+
+"Indeed, madam," she said, "I would lief you could truly call me such,
+but when young Miss came here first I took her for one of that flighty
+sort that it is wise not to meddle with more than needful.  I have
+kept my place here these thirty years by never making or meddling,
+and knowing nothing about what don't concern me, and is out of my
+province.  Now, I wish I had let the poor young lady be more friendly
+with me, for maybe I could have been of use to her in her need.
+
+"You had no suspicion?"
+
+"No, ma'am; though I find there were those who suspected some one came
+up here disguised as Jumbo; but I was never one to lend an ear to
+gossip, and by that time I trusted the dear young lady altogether,
+and knew she would never knowingly do aught that was unbecoming
+her station, or her religion."
+
+"I am glad the dear child won your good opinion," said Betty.
+
+"Indeed, ma'am, that you may say," returned Mrs. Aylward, whom anxiety
+had made confidential; "for I own I was prejudiced against her from
+the first, as, if you'll excuse me, ma'am, all we Bowstead people are
+apt to be set against whatever comes from my Lady's side.  However,
+one must have been made of the nether millstone not to feel the
+difference she made in the house.  She was the very life of it with
+her pretty ways, singing and playing with the children, and rousing
+up the poor gentleman too that had lived just like a mere heathen in
+a dungeon, and wouldn't so much as hear a godly word in his despair.
+And now he has a minister once a fortnight to read prayers, and is
+quite another man--all through that blessed young lady, who has
+brought him back to light and life."  And as Betty's tears flowed
+at this testimony to her sister, the housekeeper added, "Never you
+fear, ma'am; she is one of God's innocents and His Hand will be
+over her."
+
+Meantime, having dismissed the young lover to take, if he could, a
+much needed night's rest, the Major was listening to Mr. Belamour's
+confession.  "I was the most to blame, in as much as an old fool is
+worse than a young one; and I would that the penalty fell on me
+alone."
+
+"If she be in my cousin's hands I cannot believe that she will permit
+any harm to befall her," said the good Major, still clinging to his
+faith in Urania--the child he had taught to ride, and with whom he
+had danced her first minuet.
+
+"What I dread most is her being forced into some low marriage," said
+Mr. Belamour.  "The poor child's faith in the ceremony that passed
+must have been overthrown, and who can tell what she may be induced
+to accept?"
+
+"It was that threat which moved you?" said the Major.
+
+"Yes.  Hargrave assured me that my Lady had actually offered her to
+him, with a bribe of a farm on easy terms; and when she found that
+he had other intentions, there seemed to be some broken-down sycophant
+of Mar's upon the cards, but of course I was preferable, both because
+my fair sister-in-law has some lingering respect for the honour of
+her own blood, and because the bar between Aurelia and my nephew
+would be perpetual.  I knew  likewise that it was my brother's earnest
+desire that a match should take place between your children and his.
+
+"He did me too much honour.  The lad showed me the extract from his
+letter."
+
+"I could not give him the whole.  It was fit for no eyes but mine,
+who had so long neglected it, and barely understood that it existed.
+My poor brother's eyes were fully opened to his wife's character, and
+even while he loved her to distraction, and yielded to her fascinating
+mastery against his better judgment, he left me the charge of trying
+in some degree to repair the injustice he believed you to be suffering,
+and of counteracting evil influences on her son."
+
+"That seems at least to have been done."
+
+"By no efforts of mine; but because the boy was happily permitted
+to remain with the worthy tutor his father had chosen for him, and
+because Wayland is an excellent man, wise and prudent in all things
+save in being bewitched by a fair face.  Would that he were returned!
+When I first consented to act this fool's part, I trusted that he
+would have been at home soon enough to prevent more than the nominal
+engagement, and when my Lady's threats rendered it needful to secure
+the poor child by giving her my name, I still expected him before my
+young gentleman should utterly betray himself by his warmth."
+
+"He tells me that he has written."
+
+"True.  On that I insisted, and I am the more uneasy, for there has
+been ample time for a reply.  It is only too likely, from what my
+nephew tells me of his venturesome explorations, that he may have
+fallen into the hands of the Moorish corsairs!  Hargrave says it is
+rumoured; but my Lady will not be checked in her career of pleasure,
+and if she is fearful of his return, she may precipitate matters
+with the poor girl!"
+
+"Come, come, sir, I cannot have you give way to despondency.  You
+did your best, and if it did not succeed, it was owing to my foolish
+daughter Arden.  Why, if she was not satisfied about her sister, could
+she not have come here, and demanded an explanation?  That would have
+been the straightforward way!"
+
+"Would that she had!  Or would that I had sooner discovered my own
+entire recovery, which I owe in very truth to the sweet being who
+has brought new life alike of body and mind to me, and who must
+think I have requited her so cruelly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.  CYTHEREA'S BOWER.
+
+
+    There Citherea, goddesse was and quene,
+    Honourid highly for her majeste,
+    And eke her sonne, the mighty god I weene,
+    Cupid the blinde, that for his dignite
+    A M lovers worshipp on ther kne.
+    There was I bid on pain of dethe to pere,
+    By Mercury, the winged messengre.--CHAUCER.
+
+
+By twelve o'clock on the ensuing day Mr. Belamour, with Eugene and
+Jumbo, was set down at a hotel near Whitehall, to secure apartments,
+while the Major went on to demand his daughter from Lady Belamour,
+taking with him Betty, whom he allowed to be a much better match
+for my Lady than he could be.  Very little faith in his cousin
+Urania remained to him in the abstract, yet even now he could not
+be sure that she would not talk him over and hoodwink him in any
+actual encounter.  Sir Amyas likewise accompanied him, both to
+gratify his own anxiety and to secure admission.  The young man
+still looked pale and worn with restless anxiety; but he had, in
+spite of remonstrances, that morning discarded his sling, saying
+that he should return to his quarters.  Let his Colonel do his worst
+the; he had still more liberty than if compelled to return to his
+mother's house.
+
+Lady Belamour had, on her second marriage, forsaken her own old
+hereditary mansion in the Strand, where Sir Jovian had died, and
+which, she said, gave her the vapours.  Mr. Wayland, whose wealth
+far exceeded her own, had purchased one of the new houses in
+Hanover Square, the fashionable quarter and very much admired; but
+the Major regretted the gloomy dignity of the separate enclosure
+and walled court of Delavie House, whereas the new one, in modern
+fashion, had only an area and steps between the front and the
+pavement.
+
+The hall door stood wide open, with a stately porter within, and
+lackeys planted about at intervals.  Grey descended from the box, and
+after some inquiry, brought word that "her Ladyship was at breakfast,"
+then, at a sign from his master, opened the carriage door.  Sir Amyas,
+taking Betty by the tips of her fingers, led her forward, receiving by
+the way greetings and inquiries from the servants, whose countenances
+showed him to be a welcome arrival.
+
+"Is it a reception day, Maine?" he asked of a kind of major-domo whom
+he met on the top of the broad stairs.
+
+"No, your honour."
+
+"Is company with her ladyship?"
+
+"No, not company, sir," with a certain hesitation, which damped Betty's
+satisfaction in the first assurance.
+
+What did she see as Maine opened the door?  It was a very spacious
+bedroom, the bed in an alcove hung with rose-coloured satin embroidered
+with myrtles and white roses, looped up with lace and muslin.  Like
+draperies hung round the window, fluted silk lined the room, and
+beautiful japanned and inlaid cabinets and _etageres_ adorned the
+walls, bearing all varieties and devices of new and old porcelain
+from Chins, Sevres, Dresden, or Worcester, tokens of Mr. Wayland's
+travels.  There was a toilette table before one window covered with
+lacquer ware, silver and ivory boxes, and other apparatus, and an
+exquisite Venetian mirror with the borders of frosted silver work.
+
+Not far off, but sideways to it, sat Lady Belamour in a loose sacque
+of some rich striped silk, in crimson and blue stripes shot with gold
+threads.  Slippers, embroidered with gold, showed off her dainty feet,
+and a French hairdresser stood behind her chair putting the finishing
+touches to the imposing fabric of powder, flower, and feather upon
+her head.  A little hand-mirror, framed in carved ivory inlaid with
+coral, and a fan, lay on a tiny spindle-legged table close in front
+of her, together with a buff-coloured cup of chocolate.  At a somewhat
+larger table Mrs. Loveday, her woman, was dispensing the chocolate,
+whilst a little negro boy, in a fantastic Oriental costume, waited
+to carry the cups about.
+
+On a sofa near at hand, in an easy attitude, reclined Colonel Mar,
+holding out to Lady Belamour a snuff-box of tortoiseshell and gold,
+and a lady sat near on one of the tall black-and-gold chairs drinking
+chocolate, while all were giving their opinions on the laces, feathers,
+ribbons, and trinkets which another Frenchman was displaying from a
+basket-box placed on the floor, trying to keep aloof a little Maltese
+lion-dog, which had been roused from its cushion, and had come to
+inspect his wares.  A little further off, Archer, in a blue velvet
+coat, white satin waistcoat, and breeches and silk stockings, and
+Amoret, white-frocked, blue-sashed, and bare-headed (an innovation
+of fashion), were admiring the nodding mandarins, grinning nondescript
+monsters, and green lions of extraordinary form which an emissary
+from a curiosity-shop was unpacking.  Near the door, in an attitude
+weary yet obsequious, stood, paper in hand, a dejected figure in
+shabby plum-colour--_i.e._ a poor author--waiting in hopes that his
+sonnet in praise of Cytherea's triumphant charms would win his the
+guinea he so sorely needed, as
+
+
+            To quench the blushes of ingenuous shame,
+              And heap the shrine of luxury and pride
+            With incense kindled at the Muses' flame.
+
+
+The scene was completed by a blue and yellow macaw at one window
+chained to his perch, and a green monkey tethered in like manner
+at the other.
+
+Of course Elizabeth Delavie did not perceive all these details at once.
+Her first sensation was the shock to the decorum of a modest English
+lady at intruding into a bed-room; but her foreign recollections coming
+to her aid, she accepted the fashion with one momentary feminine review
+of her own appearance, and relief that she had changed her travelling
+gear for her Sunday silks, and made her father put on his full uniform.
+All this passed while Sir Amyas was leading her into the room, steering
+her carefully out of the monkey's reach.  Then he went a step or two
+forward and bent before his mother, almost touching the ground with
+one knee, as he kissed her hand, and rising, acknowledged the lady
+with a circular sweep of his hat, and his Colonel with a military
+salute, all rapidly, but with perfect ease and gracefulness.  "Ah!
+my truant, my runaway invalid!" said Lady Belamour, "you are come to
+surrender."
+
+"I am come," he said gravely, holding out his stronger hand to his
+little brother and sister, who sprang to him, "to bring my father-
+and sister-in-law, Major and Miss Delavie."
+
+"Ah! my good cousin, my excellent Mrs. Betty, excuse me that my
+tyrant _friseur_ prevents my rising to welcome you.  It is so good
+and friendly in you to come in this informal way to cheer me under
+this terrible anxiety.  Let me present you to my kind friend, the
+Countess of Aresfield, who has been so good as to come in to-day
+to sustain my spirits.  Colonel Mar you know already.   Pray be
+seated.  Amyas--Archer--chairs.  Let Syphax give you a cup of
+chocolate."
+
+"Madam," said the Major, disregarding all this and standing as if on
+parade, "can I see you alone?  My business is urgent."
+
+"No evil news, I trust!  I have undergone such frightful shocks of
+late, my constitution is well nigh ruined."
+
+"It is I that have to ask news of you madam."
+
+She saw that, if she trifled with him, something would break out that
+she would not wish to have said publicly.  "My time is so little my
+own," she said, "I am under command to be at the Palace by two o'clock,
+but in a few minutes I shall be able to dismiss my tormentor, and then,
+till my woman comes to dress me, I shall be at your service.  Sit down,
+I entreat, and take some chocolate.  I know Mrs. Betty is an excellent
+housekeeper, and I want her opinion.  My dear Lady Aresfield, suffer
+me to introduce my estimable cousin, Mrs. Betty Delavie."
+
+The Countess looking in her feathers and powder like a beetroot in
+white sauce, favoured Betty with a broad stare.  Vulgarity was very
+vulgar in those days, especially when it had purchased rank, and
+thought manners might be dispensed with.  Betty sat down, and Amoret
+climbed on her lap, while a diversion was made by Archer's imperious
+entreaty that his mamma would purchase a mandarin who not only nodded,
+but waved his hands and protruded his tongue.
+
+Then ensued what seemed, to the sickening suspense of the two Delavies,
+a senseless Babel of tongues on all sides; but it ended in the _friseur_
+putting up his implements, the trades-folk leaving the selected goods
+unpaid for, and the poor poet bowing himself within reach of the monkey,
+who made a clutch at his MS., chattered over it, and tore it into
+fragments.  There was a peal of mirth--loudest from Lady Aresfield--
+but Sir Amyas sprang forward with gentlemanly regrets, apologies, and
+excuses, finally opening the door and following the poor man out of
+the room to administer the guinea from his own pocket, while Colonel
+Mar exclaimed, "Here, Archer, boy, run after him with this.  The poor
+devil has won it by producing a smile from those divine lips--such as
+his jungle might never have done---"
+
+"Fie! fie! Mar," said the Lady, shaking her fan at him, "the child
+will repeat it to him."
+
+"The better sport if he do," said Colonel Mar, carelessly; "he may
+term himself a very Orpheus charming the beasts, so that they snatch
+his poems from him!"
+
+Then, as Sir Amyas returned, Lady Belamour entreated her dear Countess
+to allow him to conduct her to the withdrawing room, and there endeavour
+to entertain her.  The Colonel could not but follow, and the Major and
+Betty found themselves at length alone with her Ladyship.
+
+"I trust you have come to relieve my mind as to our poor runaway,"
+she began.
+
+"Would to Heaven I could!" said the Major.
+
+"Good Heavens!  Then she has never reached you!"
+
+"Certainly not.
+
+"Nor her sister?  Oh, surely she is with her sister!"
+
+"No, madam, her sisters knows nothing of her.  Cousin, you have
+children of your own!  I entreat of you to tell me what you have
+done with her."
+
+"How should I have done anything with her?  I who have been feeding
+all this time on the assurance that she had returned to you."
+
+"How could a child like her do so?"
+
+"We know she had money," said Lady Belamour.
+
+"And we know," said Betty, fixing her eyes on the lady, "that though
+she escaped, on the first alarm, as far as Sedhurst, and was there
+seen, she had decided on returning to Bowstead and giving herself
+up to you Ladyship."
+
+"Indeed?  At what time was that?" exclaimed my Lady.
+
+"Some time in the afternoon of Sunday!"
+
+"Ah! then I must have left Bowstead.  I was pledged to her Majesty's
+card-table, and royal commands cannot be disregarded, so I had to go
+away in grievous anxiety for my poor boy.  She meant to return to
+Bowstead, did she?  Ah.  Does not an idea strike you that old Amyas
+Belamour may know more than he confesses!  He has been playing a
+double game throughout."
+
+"He is as anxious to find the dear girl as we are madam."
+
+"So he may seem to you and to my poor infatuated boy, but you see
+those crazed persons are full of strange devices and secrets, as
+indeed we have already experienced.  I see what you would say; he
+may appear sane and plausible enough to a stranger, but to those
+who have known him ever since his misfortunes, the truth is but
+too plain.  He was harmless enough as long as he was content to
+remain secluded in his dark chamber, but now that I hear he has
+broken loose, Heaven knows what mischief he may do.  My dear cousin
+Delavie, you are the prop left to me in these troubles, with my
+poor good man in the hands of those cruel pirates, who may be
+making him work in chains for all I know," and the tears came
+into her beautiful eyes.
+
+"They will not do that," said Major Delavie, eager to reassure her;
+"I have heard enough of their tricks to know that they keep such game
+as he most carefully till they can get a ransom."
+
+"Your are sure of that!"
+
+"Perfectly.  I met an Italian fellow at Vienna who told me how it was
+all managed by the Genoese bankers."
+
+"Ah! I was just thinking that you would be the only person who could
+be of use--you who know foreign languages and all their ways.  If you
+could go abroad, and arrange it for me!"
+
+"If my daughter were restored---" began the Major.
+
+"I see what you would say, and I am convinced that the first step
+towards the discovery would be to put Mr. Belamour under restraint,
+and separate his black from him.  Then one or other of them would
+speak, and we might know how she has been played upon."
+
+"What does your Ladyship suppose then?" asked the Major.
+
+"This is what I imagine.  The poor silly maid repents herself and
+comes back in search of me.  Would that she had found me, her best
+friend!  But instead of that, she falls in with old Belamour, and
+he, having by this time perceived the danger of the perilous
+masquerade in which he had involved my unlucky boy, a minor, has
+mewed her up somewhere, till the cry should be over."
+
+"That would be the part of a villain, but scarcely of a madman,"
+said Betty dryly.
+
+"My dear cousin Betty, there are lunatics endowed with a marvellous
+shrewdness to commit senseless villanies, and to put on a specious
+seeming.  Depend upon it, my unfortunate brother-in-law's wanderings
+at night were not solely spent in communings with the trees and
+brooks.  Who knows what might be discovered if he were under proper
+restraint?  And it is to you, the only relation I have, that I must
+turn for assistance in my most unhappy circumstances," she added,
+wit a glance so full of sweet helplessness that no man could withstand
+it.  "I am so glad you are here.  You will be acting for me as well
+as for yourself in endeavouring to find your poor lovely child, and
+the first thing I would have done would be to separate Belamour and
+his black, put them under restraint, and interrogate them separately.
+You could easily get an order from a magistrate.  But ah, here comes
+my woman.  No more now.  You will come to me this evening, and we
+can talk further on this matter.  I shall have some company, and
+it will not be a regular rout, only a few card-tables, and a little
+dancing for the young people."
+
+"Your ladyship must excuse me," said Betty, "I have no dress to appear
+in, even if I had spirits for the company."
+
+"Ah! my dear cousin, how do you think it is with my spirits?  Yet I
+think it my duty not to allow myself to be moped, but to exert myself
+for the interest of my son.  While as to dress, my woman can direct
+you to the milliner who would equip you in the last mode.  What,
+still obstinate?  Nay, then, Harry, I can take no excuse from you,
+and I may have been able to collect some intelligence from the
+servants."
+
+Nothing remained but to take leave and walk home, the Major observing--
+
+"Well, what think you of that, Betty?"
+
+"Think, sir?--I think it is not for my lady to talk of villains."
+
+"She is in absolute error respecting Belamour; but then she has not
+seen him since his recovery.  Women are prone to those fancies, and
+in her unprotected state, poor thing, no wonder she takes alarms."
+
+"I should have thought her rather over-protected."
+
+"Now, Betty, you need not take a leaf out of Mrs. Duckworth's book,
+and begin to be censorious.  You saw how relieved she was to have me,
+her own blood relation, to turn to, instead of that empty braggart
+of a fellow.  Besides, a man does not bring his step-mother when
+there's anything amiss."
+
+There was something in this argument, and Betty held her peace, knowing
+that to censure my Lady only incited her father to defend her.
+
+For her own part her consternation was great, and she walked on in
+silence, only speaking again to acquiesce in her father's observation
+that they must say nothing to Mr. Belamour of my Lady's plans for
+his seclusion.
+
+They found Mr. Belamour in the square parlour of the Royal York,
+having sent Eugene out for a walk with Jumbo.  The boy's return
+in the most eager state of excitement at the shops, the horses,
+sedans, and other wonders, did something, together with dinner,
+to wile away the weary time till, about three hours after the
+Major and his daughter had returned, they were joined by the
+young baronet, who came running up the stairs with a good deal
+more impetuosity than he would have permitted himself at home.
+
+"At last I have escaped," he said.  "I fear you have waited long
+for me?"
+
+"I have been hoping you had discovered some indications," said
+the Major.
+
+"Alas, no!  I should imagine my Lady as ignorant as we are, save for
+one thing."
+
+"And that was---?"
+
+"The pains that were taken to prevent my speaking with any of the
+servants.  I was forced to attend on that harridan, Lady Aresfield,
+till my mother sent for me; and then she made Mar absolutely watch
+me off the premises.  Then I had to go and report myself at head-
+quarters, and see the surgeon, so that there may be no colour of
+irregularity for the Colonel to take advantage of."
+
+"Right, right!" said the Major; "do not let him get a handle against
+you, though I should not call you fit for duty yet, even for holiday-
+work like yours."
+
+"You still suspect that your mother knows where our Aurelia is?"
+said Betty.  "When I think of her demeanour, I can hardly believe
+it!  But did you hear nothing of your little sisters?"
+
+"I did not ask.  In truth I was confounded by a proposal that was
+made to me.  If I will immediately marry my mother's darling, Lady
+Belle, I may have leave of absence from her and my regiment, both
+at once, and go to meet Mr. Wayland if I like, or at any rate make
+the grand tour, while they try to break in my charming bride for
+me.  Of course I said that, being a married man, nothing should
+induce me to break the law, nor to put any lady in such a position;
+and equally, of course, I was shown a lawyer's opinion that the
+transaction was invalid."
+
+"As I always believed," said his uncle.  "The ceremony must be
+repeated when we find her: though even if you were willing, the other
+parties are very ill-advised to press for a marriage without judgment
+first being delivered, how far the present is binding.  So she wants
+to send you off on your travels, does she?"
+
+"She wishes me to go and arrange for her husband's ransom," said the
+Major.  "I would be ready enough were my child only found, but I
+believe government would take it up, he being on his Majesty's service."
+
+"It is a mere device for disposing of you--yes, and of my nephew too,"
+said Mr. Belamour.  "As for me, we know already her kind plans for
+putting me out of reach of interference.  I see, she communicated
+them to you.  Did she ask your cooperation, Major?  Ah! certainly,
+an ingenious plan for disuniting us.  I am the more convinced that
+she is well aware of where the poor child is, and that she wishes
+to be speedy in her measures."
+
+There is no need to describe the half-frantic vehemence of the young
+lover, nor the way in which the father and sister tried to moderate
+his transports, though no less wretched themselves.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.  THE ROUT.
+
+
+    Great troups of people travelled thitherward
+    Both day and night, of each degree and place.--SPENSER.
+
+
+Much against their will, Major Delavie and his _soi-disant_ son-in-law
+set forth for Lady Belamour's entertainment, thinking no opportunity
+of collecting intelligence was to be despised; while she probably
+wished to obviate all reports of a misunderstanding as well as to keep
+them under her own eye.
+
+The reception rooms were less adorned than the lady's private apartment.
+There were pictures on the walls, and long ranks of chairs ranged round,
+and card-tables were set out in order.  The ladies sat in rows, and the
+gentlemen stood in knots and talked, all in full dress, resplendent
+figures in brilliant velvet, gold lace, and embroidery, with swords by
+their sides, cocked hats, edged with gold or silver lace, under their
+arms, and gemmed shoe buckles.  The order of creation was not yet
+reversed; the male creature was quite as gorgeous in colour and
+ornament as the female, who sat in her brocade, powder and patches,
+fan in hand, to receive the homage of his snuff-box.
+
+Sir Amyas went the round, giving and returning greetings, which were
+bestowed on him with an ardour sufficient to prove that he was a
+general favourite.  His mother, exquisitely dressed in a rich rose-
+coloured velvet train, over a creamy satin petticoat, both exquisitely
+embroidered, sailed up with a cordial greeting to her good cousin, and
+wanted to set him down to loo or ombre; but the veteran knew too well
+what the play in her house was, and saw, moreover, Lady Aresfield
+sitting like a harpy before the green baize field of her spoils.
+While he was refusing, Sir Amyas returned to him, saying, "Sir, here
+is a gentleman whom I think you must have known in Flanders;" and the
+Major found himself shaking hands with an old comrade.  Save for his
+heavy heart, he would been extremely happy in the ensuing conversation.
+
+In the meantime Lady Belamour, turning towards a stout, clumsy, short
+girl, her intensely red cheeks and huge black eyes staring out of her
+powder, while the extreme costliness of her crimson satin dress, and
+profusion of her rubies were ridiculous on the unformed person of a
+creature scarcely fifteen.  If she had been any one else she would
+have been a hideous spectacle in the eyes of the exquisitely tasteful
+Lady Belamour, who, detecting the expression in her son's eye,
+whispered behind her fan, "We will soon set all that right;" then
+aloud, "My son cannot recover from his surprise.  He did not imagine
+that we could steal you for an evening from Queen's Square to procure
+him this delight."  Then as Sir Amyas bowed, "The Yellow Room is
+cleared for dancing.  Lady Belle will favour you, Amyas."
+
+"You must excuse me, madam," he said; "I have not yet the free use of
+my arm, and could not acquit myself properly in a minuet."
+
+"I hate minuets," returned Lady Belle; "the very notion gives me the
+spleen."
+
+"Ah, pretty heretic!" said my Lady, making a playful gesture with her
+fan at the peony-coloured cheek.  "I meant this wounded knight to have
+converted you, but he must amuse you otherwise.  What, my Lord I
+thought you knew I never meant to dance again.  Cannot you open the
+dance without me?  I, who have no spirits!"
+
+The rest was lost as she sailed away on the arm of a gentleman in a
+turquoise-coloured coat, and waistcoat embroidered with gillyflowers;
+leaving the Lady Arabella on the hands of her son, who, neither as
+host nor gentleman, could escape, until the young lady had found some
+other companion.  He stiffly and wearily addressed to her the inquiry
+how she liked London.
+
+"I should like it monstrously if I were not moped up in school," she
+answered.  "So you have come back.  How did you hurt your arm?" she
+said, in the most provincial of dialects.
+
+"In the fire, madam."
+
+"What?  In snatching your innamorata from the flames?"
+
+"Not precisely," he said.
+
+"Come, now, tell me; did she set the room a-fire?" demanded the young
+lady.  "Oh, you need not think to deceive me.  My brother Mar's
+coachman told my mamma's woman all about it, and how she was locked
+up and ran away; but they have her fast enough now, after all her
+tricks!"
+
+"Who have?  For pity's sake tell me, Lady Belle!"
+
+Loving to tease, she exclaimed: "There, now, what a work to make
+about a white-faced little rustic!"
+
+"Your ladyship has not seen her."
+
+"Have I not, though?  I don't admire your taste."
+
+"Is she in Queen's Square?"
+
+"Do not you wish me to tell you where you can find your old faded
+doll, with a waist just like a wasp, and an old blue sacque--not a
+bit of powder in her hair?"
+
+"Lady Belle, if you would have me for ever beholden to you---"
+
+"The cap fits," she cried, clapping her hands.  "Not a word to say
+for her!  I would not have such a beau for the world."
+
+"When I have found her it will be time to defend her beauty!  If your
+ladyship would only tell me where she is, you know not what gratitude
+I should feel!"
+
+"I dare say, but that's my secret.  My mamma and yours would be ready
+to kill me with rage if they knew I had let out even so much."
+
+"They would forgive you.  Come, Lady Belle, think of her brave old
+father, and give some clue to finding her.  Where is she?"
+
+"Ah! where you will never get at her!"
+
+"Is she at Queen's Square?"
+
+"What would you do if you thought she was?  Get a constable and come
+and search?  Oh, what a rage Madam would be in!  Goodness me, what
+sport!" and she fell back in a violent giggling fit; but the two
+matrons were so delighted to see the young people talking to one
+another, that there was no attempt to repress her.  Sir Amyas made
+another attempt to elicit whether Aurelia were really at the school
+in Queen's Square, but Lady Arabella still refused to answer directly.
+Then he tried the expedient of declaring that she was only trying to
+tease him, and had not really seen the lady.  He pretended not to
+believe her, but when she insisted, "Hair just the colour of Lady
+Belamour's," his incredulity vanished; but on his next entreaty, she
+put on a sly look imitated from the evil world in which she lived,
+and declared she should not encourage naughty doings.  The youth, who
+though four years older, was by far the more simple and innocent of
+the two, replied with great gravity, "It is the Lady Belamour, my
+own wife, that I am seeking."
+
+"That's just the nonsense she talks!"
+
+"For Heaven's sake, what did she say?"
+
+But Belle was tired of her game, and threw herself boisterously on a
+young lady who had the "sweetest enamel necklace in the world," and
+whose ornaments she began to handle and admire in true spoilt-child
+fashion.
+
+Sir Amyas then betook himself to the Major, who saw at once by his eye
+and step that something was gained.  They took leave together, Lady
+Belamour making a hurried lamentation that she had seen so little of
+her dear cousin, but accepting her son's excuse that he must return
+to his quarters; and they walked away together escorted by Palmer and
+Grey, as well as by two link-boys, summer night though it was.
+
+Sir Amyas repaired first to the hotel, where Mr. Belamour and Betty
+were still sitting, for even the fashionable world kept comparatively
+early hours, and it was not yet eleven o'clock.  The parlor where
+they sat was nearly dark, one candle out and the other shaded so as
+to produce the dimness which Mr. Belamour still preferred, and they
+were sitting on either side of the open window, Betty listening to
+her companion's reminiscences of the evenings enlivened by poor
+Aurelia, and of the many traits of her goodness, sweet temper, and
+intelligence which he had stored up in his mind.  He had, he said,
+already learned through her to know Miss Delavie, and he declared
+that the voices of the sisters were so much alike that he could have
+believed himself at Bowstead with the gentle visitor who had brought
+him new life.
+
+The tidings of Lady Arabella's secret were eagerly listened to, and
+the token of the mouse-coloured hair was accepted; Sir Amyas comparing,
+to every one's satisfaction, a certain lock that he bore on a chain
+next his heart, and a little knot, surrounded with diamonds, in a
+ring, which he had been still wearing from force of habit, though he
+declared he should never endure to do so again.
+
+It was evident that Lady Belle had really seen Aurelia; and where
+could that have been save at the famous boarding-school in Queen's
+Square, where the daughters of "the great" were trained in the
+accomplishments of the day?  The Major, with rising hopes, declared
+that he had always maintained that his cousin meant no ill by his
+daughter, and though it had been cruel, not to say worse, in her,
+to deny all knowledge of the fugitive, yet women would have their
+strange ways.
+
+"That is very hard on us women, sir," said Betty.
+
+"Ah! my dear, poor Urania never had such a mother as you, and she has
+lived in the great world besides, and that's a bad school.  You will
+not take our Aurelia much into it, my dear boy," he added, turning
+wistfully to Sir Amyas.
+
+"I would not let a breath blow on her that could touch the bloom of
+her charming frank innocence," cried the lad.  "But think you she can
+be in health?  Lady Belle spoke of her being pale!"
+
+"Look at my young lady herself!" said the Major, which made them all
+laugh.  They were full of hope.  The Major and his daughter would go
+themselves the next day, and a father's claim could not be refused
+even though not enforced according to Lady Arabella's desire.
+
+Their coach--for so Sir Amyas insisted on their going--was at the door
+at the earliest possible moment that a school for young ladies could be
+supposed to be astir; long before Mr. Belamour was up, for he retained
+his old habits so much that it was only on great occasions the he rose
+before noon; and while Eugene, under the care of Jumbo and Grey, was
+going off in great felicity to see the morning parade in St. James's
+Park.
+
+One of the expedients of well-born Huguenot refugees had been tuition,
+and Madame d'Elmar had made here boarding-school so popular and
+fashionable that a second generation still maintained its fame, and
+damsels of the highest rank were sent there to learn French, to play
+the spinnet, to embroider, to dance, and to get into a carriage with
+grace.  It was only countrified misses, bred by old-fashioned scholars,
+who attempted to go any farther, such as that _lusus naturae_, Miss
+Elizabeth Carter, who knew seven languages, or the Bishop of Oxford's
+niece, Catherine Talbot, who even painted natural flowers and wrote
+meditations!  The education Aurelia Delavie had received over her
+Homer and Racine would be smiled at as quite superfluous.
+
+There was no difficulty about admission.  The coach with its Belamour
+trappings was a warrant of admittance.  The father and daughter were
+shown into a parlour with a print of Marshal Schomberg over the
+mantelpiece, and wonderful performances in tapestry work and
+embroidery on every available chair, as well as framed upon the
+wainscoted walls.
+
+A little lady, more French than English, moving like a perfectly wound
+up piece of mechanism, all but her bright little eyes, appeared at their
+request to see Madame.  It had been agreed before-hand that the Major
+should betray neither doubt nor difficulty, but simply say that he had
+come up from the country and wished to see his daughter.
+
+Madame, in perfectly good English, excused herself, but begged to hear
+the name again.
+
+There must be some error, no young lady of the name of Delavie was
+there.
+
+They looked at one another, then Betty asked, "Has not a young lady
+been placed here by Lady Belamour?"
+
+"No, madam, Lady Belamour once requested me to receive her twin
+daughters, but they were mere infants; I receive none under twelve
+year old."
+
+"My good lady," cried the Major, "if you are denying my daughter to me,
+pray consider what you are doing.  I am her own father, and whatever
+Lady Belamour may tell you, I can enforce my claim."
+
+"I am not in the habit of having my word doubted, sir," and the little
+lady drew herself up like a true Gascon baroness, as she was.
+
+"Madam, forgive me, I am in terrible perplexity and distress.  My poor
+child, who was under Lady Belamour's charge, has been lost to us these
+three weeks or more, and we have been told that she has been seen here."
+
+"Thus," said Betty, seeing that the lady still needed to be appeased,
+"we thought Lady Belamour might have deceived you as well as others."
+
+"May I ask who said the young lady had been seen here?" asked the
+mistress coldly.
+
+"It was Lady Arabella Mar," said Betty, "and, justly speaking, I
+believe she did not say it was here that my poor sister was seen, but
+that she had seen her, and we drew the conclusion that it was here."
+
+"My Lady Arabella Mar is too often taken out by my Lady Countess,"
+said Madame d'Elmar.
+
+"Could I see her?  Perhaps she would tell me where she saw my dear
+sister?" said Betty.
+
+"She went to a rout last evening and has not returned," was the reply.
+"Indeed my lady, her mother, spoke as if she might never come back,
+her marriage being on the _tapis_.  Indeed, sir, indeed, madam, I
+should most gladly assist you," she said as a gesture of bitter grief
+and disappointment passed between father and daughter, both of whom
+were evidently persons of condition.  "If it will be any satisfaction
+to the lady to see all my pupils, I will conduct her through my
+establishment."
+
+Betty caught at this, though there was no doubt that the mistress was
+speaking in good faith.  She was led to a large empty room, where a
+dozen young ladies were drawn up awaiting the dancing master--girls
+from fourteen to seventeen, the elder ones in mob caps, those with
+more pretensions to fashion, with loose hair.  Their twelve curtsies
+were made, their twenty-four eyes peeped more or less through their
+lashes at the visitor, but no such soft brown eyes as Aurelia's were
+among them.
+
+"Madame," said Betty, "may I be permitted to ask the ladies a question?"
+She spoke it low, and in French, and her excellent accent won Madame's
+heart at once.  Only Madame trusted to Mademoiselle's discretion not
+to put mysteries into their minds, or they would be all _tete montee_.
+
+So, as discretely as the occasion would permit, Betty asked whether
+any one had seen or heard Lady Belle speak of having seen any one--a
+young lady?
+
+Half-a-dozen tongues broke out, "We thought it all Lady Belle's
+whimsical secrets," and as many stories were beginning, but Madame's
+awful little hand waved silence, as she said, "Speak then, Miss
+Staunton."
+
+"I know none of Lady Belle's secrets, ma'am--ask Miss Howard."
+
+Miss Howard looked sulky; and a little eager, black-eyed thing cried,
+"She said it was an odious girl whom Lady Belamour keeps shut up in
+a great dungeon of an old house, and is going to send beyond seas,
+because she married two men at once in disguise."
+
+"Fie, Miss Crawford, you know nothing about it."
+
+"You told me so, yourself, Miss Howard."
+
+"I never said anything so foolish."
+
+"Hush, young ladies," said Madame.  "Miss Howard, if you know anything,
+I request you to speak."
+
+"It would be a great kindness," said Betty.  "Might I ask the favour
+of seeing Miss Howard in private?"
+
+Madame consented, and Miss Howard followed Betty out of hearing,
+muttering that Belle would fly at her for betraying her.
+
+"I do not like asking you to betray your friend's confidence," said
+Betty.
+
+"Oh, as to that, I'm not her friend, and I believe she has talked to
+a half-a-dozen more."
+
+"I am this poor young lady's sister," said Betty.  "We are afraid
+she has fallen into unkind hands; and I should be very thankful if
+you could help me to find her.  Where do you think Lady Belle saw
+her?"
+
+"I thought it was in some old house in Hertfordshire," said Miss
+Howard, more readily, "but I am not sure; for it was last Sunday,
+which she spent with her mamma.  She came back and made it a great
+secret that she had seen the girl that had taken in Sir Amyas
+Belamour, who was contracted to herself, to marry him and his uncle
+both at once in disguise, and then had set the house a-fire.  Belle
+had got some one to let her see the girl, and then she went on about
+her being not pretty."
+
+"What did she say about sending her beyond seas?"
+
+"Oh! that Miss Crawford made up.  She told me that they were going
+to find a husband for her such as a low creature like that deserved.
+And she protests she is to be married to Sir Amyas very soon, and
+come back here while he makes the grand tour.  I hope she won't.
+She will have more spiteful ways than ever."
+
+This was all that Betty could extract.  She saw Miss Crawford alone,
+but her tiding melted into the vaguest second-hand hearsay.  The
+inquiry had only produced a fresh anxiety.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.  A BLACK BLONDEL.
+
+
+    And to the castle gate approached in quiet wise,
+    Whereat soft knocking, entrance he desired.
+                                          SPENSER.
+
+
+"Nephew, is Delavie House inhabited?" inquired Mr. Belamour, as the
+baffled seekers sat together that evening.
+
+"No, sir," replied Sir Amyas.  "My Lady will only lease it to persons
+of quality, on such high terms that she cannot obtain them for a house
+in so antiquated a neighbourhood.  Oh, you do not think it possible
+that my dearest life can be in captivity so near us!  An old house!
+On my soul, so it must be; I will go thither instantly."
+
+"And be taken for a Mohock!  No, no, sit down, rash youth, and tell me
+who keeps the house."
+
+One Madge, an old woman as sour as vinegar, who snarled at me like a
+toothless cur when I once went there to find an old fowling-piece of
+my father's."
+
+"Then you ar the last person who should show yourself there, since
+there are sure to be strict charges against admitting you, and
+you would only put the garrison on the alert.  You had better let
+the reconnoitring party consist of Jumbo and myself."
+
+The ensuing day was Sunday.  Something was said of St. Paul's, then
+in bloom of youth and the wonder of England; but Betty declared that
+she could not run about to see fine churches till her mind was at
+ease about her poor sister.  Might she only go to the nearest and
+quietest church?  So she, with her father and Eugene, repaired to
+St. Clement Danes, where their landlord possessed a solid oak pew,
+and they heard a sermon on the wickedness and presumption of
+inoculating for the small-pox.
+
+It was not a genteel neighbourhood, and the congregation was therefore
+large, for the substantial tradesfolk who had poured into the Strand
+since it had been rebuilt were far more religiously disposed than the
+fashionable world, retaining either the Puritan zeal, or the High
+Church fervour, which were alike discouraged in the godless court.
+The Major and his son and daughter were solitary units in the midst
+of the groups of portly citizens, with soberly handsome wives, and
+gay sons and daughters, who were exchanging greetings; and on their
+return to their hotel, the Major betook himself to a pipe in the bar,
+and Eugene was allowed to go for a walk in the park with Palmer, while
+Betty sat in her own room with her Bible, striving to strengthen her
+assurance that the innocent would never be forsaken.  Indeed Mr.
+Belamour had much strengthened her grounds of hope and comfort by his
+testimony to poor Aurelia's perfect guilelessness and simplicity
+throughout the affair.  Yet the echo of that girl's chatter about
+Lady Belle's rival being sent beyond the sea would return upon her
+ominously, although it might be mere exaggeration and misapprehension,
+like so much besides.
+
+A great clock, chiming one, warned her to repair to the sitting-room,
+where she met Eugene, full of the unedifying spectacle of a fight
+between two street lads.  There had been a regular ring, and the boy
+had been so much excited that Palmer had had much ado to bring him
+away.  Betty had scarcely hushed his eager communications and repaired
+his toilette for dinner before Sir Amyas came in, having hurried away
+as soon as possible after attending his men to and from church.
+
+"Sister," he said, for so he insisted on calling Betty, "I really
+think my uncle's surmise may be right.  I went home past Delavie
+House last night, just to look at it, and there was--there really
+was, a light in one of the windows on the first floor, which always
+used to be as black as Erebus.  I had much ado to keep myself from
+thundering at the gate.  I would have done so before now but for my
+uncle's warning.  Where can he be?"
+
+The Major and Mr. Belamour here came in together, and the same torrent
+was beginning to be poured forth, when the latter cut it short with,
+"They are about to lay the cloth.  Restrain yourself, my dear boy,
+or---" and as at that moment the waiter entered, he went on with the
+utmost readiness--"or, as it seems, the Queen of Hungary will never
+make good her claims.  Pray, sir," turning to Major Delavie, "have
+you ever seen these young Archduchesses whose pretensions seem likely
+to convulse the continent to its centre?"
+
+The Major, with an effort to gather his attention, replied that he
+could not remember; but Betty, with greater presence of mind, described
+how she had admired the two sisters of Austria as little girls walking
+on the Prater.  Indeed she and Mr. Belamour contrived to keep up the
+ball till the Major was roused into giving an opinion of Prussian
+discipline, and to tell stories of Leopold of Dessau, Eugene, and
+Marlborough with sufficient zest to drive the young baronet almost
+frantic, especially as Jumbo, behind his master's chair, was on the
+broad grin all the time, and almost dancing in his shoes.  Once he
+contrived to give an absolute wink with one of his big black eyes;
+not, however, undetected, for Mr. Belamour in a grave tone of
+reprimand ordered him off to fetch an ivory toothpick-case.
+
+Not till the cloth had been remove, and dishes of early strawberries
+and of biscuits, accompanied by bottles of port and claret, placed on
+the table, and the servants had withdrawn, did Mr. Belamour observe,
+"I have penetrated the outworks."
+
+There was an outburst of inquiry and explanation, but he was not to
+be prevented from telling the story in his own way.  "I know the house
+well, for my brother lived there the first years of his marriage,
+before you came on the stage, young sir.  Perhaps you do not know
+how to open the door from without?"
+
+"Oh, sir, tell me the trick!"
+
+Mr. Belamour held up a small pass-key.  There was a certain tone of
+banter about him which almost drove his nephew wild, but greatly
+reassured Miss Delavie.
+
+"Why--why keep me in torments, instead of taking me with you?" cried
+the youth.
+
+"Because I wished my expedition to be no failure.  I could not tell
+whether my key, which I found with my watch and seals, would still
+serve me.  Ah! you look on fire; but remember the outworks are not
+the citadel."
+
+"For Heaven's sake, sir, torture me not thus!"
+
+"I knew that to make my summons at the out gate would lead to a
+summary denial by the sour porteress, so I experimented on the lock
+of the little door into the lane, and admitted myself and Jumbo into
+the court; but the great hall-door stood before me jealously closed,
+and the lower windows were shut with shutters, so that all I could
+do was to cause Jumbo to awake the echoes with a lusty peal on the
+knocker, which he repeated at intervals, until there hobbled forth to
+open it a crone as wrinkled and crabbed as one of Macbeth's witches.
+I demanded whether my Lady Belamour lived there. She croaked forth
+a negative sound, and had nearly shut the door in my face, but I
+kept her in parley by protesting that I had often visited my Lady
+there, and offering a crown-piece if she would direct me to her."
+
+"A crown! a kingdom, if she would bring us to the right one!" cried
+Sir Amyas.
+
+"Of course she directed me to Hanover Square, and then, evidently
+supposing there was something amiss with the great gates, she insisted
+on coming to let me out, and securing them after me."
+
+The youth gave a great groan, saying, "Excuse me, sir, but what are
+we the better of that?"
+
+"Endure a little while, impatient swain, and you shall hear.  I fancy
+she recognised the Belamour Livery on Jumbo, for she hobbled by my
+side maundering apologies about its being against orders to admit
+gentle or simple, beast or body into the court, and that a poor woman
+could not lose her place and the roof over her head.  But mark me,
+while this was passing, Jumbo, who had kept nearer the house whistling
+'The Nightingale' just above his breath, heard his name called, and
+presently saw two little faces at an up-stairs window."
+
+"My little sisters!" cried Sir Amyas.
+
+"Even so; and he believes he heard one of them call out, 'Cousin,
+cousin Aura, come and see Jumbo;' but as the window was high up, I
+scarce dare credit his ears rather than his imagination, and we were
+instantly hustled away by the old woman, whose evident alarm is a
+further presumption that the captive is there, since Faith and Hope
+scarce have reached the years of being princesses immured in towers."
+
+"It must be so," said Betty; "it would explain Lady Belle's having
+had access to her!  And now?"
+
+"Is it impossible to effect an entrance from the court and carry her
+away?" asked Sir Amyas.
+
+"Entirely so," said his uncle.  "The only door into the court is fit
+to stand a siege, and all the lower windows are barred and fastened
+with shutters.  The servants' entrance is at the back towards the
+river, but no doubt it is also guarded, and my key will not serve
+for it."
+
+"I could get some sprightly fellow of ours to come disguised as Mohocks,
+and break in," proceeded the youth, eagerly.  "Once in the court, trust
+me for forcing my way to her."
+
+"And getting lodged in Newgate for your pains, or tried by court-
+martial," said the Major.  "No, when right is on our side, do not let
+us make it wrong.  Hush, Sir Amyas, it is I who must here act.  Whether
+you are her husband I do not know, I know that I am her father, and
+to-morrow morning, as soon as a magistrate can be spoken with, I shall
+go and demand a search warrant for the body of my daughter, Aurelia
+Delavie."
+
+"The body!  Good Heavens, sir," cried Betty.
+
+"Not without the sweet soul, my dear Miss Delavie," said Mr. Belamour.
+"Your excellent father has arrived at the only right and safe decision,
+and provided no farther alarm is given, I think he may succeed.  It is
+scarcely probable that my Lady is in constant communication with her
+stern porteress, and my person was evidently unknown.  For her own sake,
+as well as that of the small fee I dropped into her hand, she is
+unlikely to report my reconnoissance."
+
+Sir Amyas was frantic to go with his father-in-law, but both the elder
+men justly thought that his ambiguous claims would but complicate the
+matter.  The landlord was consulted as to the acting magistrates of
+the time, and gave two or three addresses.
+
+Another night of prayer, suspense, and hope for Betty's sick heart.
+Then, immediately after breakfast, the Major set forth, attended by
+Palmer, long before Mr. Belamour had left his room, or the young
+baronet could escape from his military duties.  Being outside the
+City, the Strand was under the jurisdiction of justices of the peace
+for Middlesex, and they had so much more than they could do properly,
+that some of them did it as little as possible.  The first magistrate
+would not see him, because it was too early to attend to business; the
+second never heard matters at his private house, and referred him to
+the office in Bow Street.  In fact he would have been wiser to have
+gone thither at first, but he had hoped to have saved time.  He had
+to wait sitting on a greasy chair when he could no longer stand, till
+case after case was gone through, and when he finally had a hearing
+and applied for a warrant to search for his daughter in Delavie House,
+there was much surprise and reluctance to put such an insult on a
+lady of quality in favour at Court.  On his giving his reasons on
+oath for believing the young lady to be there, the grounds of his
+belief seemed to shrink away, so that the three magistrates held
+consultation whether the warrant could be granted.  Finally, after
+eying him all over, and asking him where he had served, one of
+them, who had the air of having been in the army, told him that
+in consideration of his being a gentleman of high respectability
+who had served his country, they granted what he asked, being assured
+that he would not make the accusation lightly.  The reforms made by
+Fielding had not yet begun, everybody had too much work, and the poor
+Major had still some time to wait before an officer--tipstaff, as he
+was called--could accompany him, so that it was past noon when, off
+in the Bowstead carriage again, they went along the Strand, to a high-
+walled court belonging to one of the old houses of the nobility, most
+of which had perished in the fire of London.  There was a double-
+doored gateway, and after much thundering in vain, at which the
+tipstaff, a red-nosed old soldier, waxed very irate, the old woman
+came out in curtseying, crying, frightened humility, declaring that
+they would find no one there--they might look if they would.
+
+So they drove over the paved road, crossing the pitched pebbles, the
+door was unbarred, but no Aurelia sprang into her father's arms.  Only
+a little terrier came barking out into the dismal paved hall.  Into
+every room they looked, the old woman asseverating denials that it
+was of no use, they might see for themselves, that no one had been
+there for years past.  Full of emptiness, indeed, with faded grimy
+family portraits on the walls, moth-eaten carpets and cushions, high-
+backed chairs with worm-holes; and yet, somehow, there was one room
+that did look as if it had recently been sat in.  Two little stools
+were drawn up close to a chair; the terrier poked and smelt about
+uneasily as though in search of some one, and dragged out from under
+a couch a child's ball which he began to worry.  On the carpet, too,
+were some fragments of bright fresh embroidery silk, which the
+practiced eye of the constable noticed.  "This here was not left
+ten or a dozen years ago," said he; and, extracting the ball from
+the fangs of the dog, "No, and this ball ain't ten year old, neither.
+Come, Mother What's'-name, it's no good deceiving an officer of the
+law; whose is this here ball?"
+
+"It's the little misses.  They've a bin here with their maid, but
+their nurse have been and fetched 'em away this morning, and a good
+riddance too."
+
+"Who was the maid?--on your oath!"
+
+"One Deborah Davis, a deaf woman, and pretty nigh a dumb one.  She be
+gone too."
+
+Nor could the old woman tell where she was to be found.  "My Lady's
+woman sent her in," she said, "and she was glad enough to be rid of
+her."
+
+"Come, now, my good woman, speak out, and it will be better for you,"
+said the Major.  "I know my daughter was here yesterday."
+
+"And what do I know of where she be gone?  She went off in a sedan-
+chair this morning before seven o'clock, and if you was to put me to
+the rack I couldn't say no more."
+
+As to which way or with whom she had gone, the old woman was,
+apparently, really ignorant.
+
+The poor Major had to return home baffled and despairing, still taking
+the tipstaff with him, in case, on consultation with Mr. Belamour, it
+should be deemed expedient to storm Hanover Square itself, and examine
+Lady Belamour and her servants upon oath.
+
+Behold, the parlour was empty.  Even Betty and Eugene were absent.  The
+Major hastened to knock at Mr. Belamour's door.  There was no answer;
+and when he knocked louder it was still in vain.  He tried the door
+and found it locked.  Then he retreated to the sitting-room, rang, and
+made inquiries of the waiter who answered the bell.
+
+Mr. Belamour had received a note at about ten o'clock, and had gone
+out with him "in great disorder," said the waiter.
+
+At the same moment there was a knock at the door, and a billet was
+brought in from Lady Belamour.  The Major tore it open and read:--
+
+
+  "MY DEAR COUSIN,
+
+      "I grieve for you, but my Suspicions were correct.  We have all
+been completely hoodwinked by that old Villain, my Brother-in-law.  I
+can give him no other Name, for his partial Aberration of Mind has
+only sharpened his natural Cunning.  Would you believe it?  He had
+obtained access to Delavie House, and had there hidden the unfortunate
+Object of your Search, while he pretended to be assisting you, and
+this Morning he carried her off in a Sedan.  I have sent the good
+Doves to Bowstead in case he should have the Assurance to return to
+his old Quarters, but I suspect that they are on the Way to Dover.
+You had better consult with Hargrave on the means of confirming the
+strange Marriage Ceremony that has passed between them, since that
+affords the best Security for your Daughter's Maintenance and
+Reputation.  Believe me, I share in your Distress.  Indeed I have so
+frightful a Megrim that I can scarcely tell what I write, and I dare
+not admit you to-day.
+
+                 "I remain,
+            "Your loving and much-grieved Cousin,
+                              "URANIA BELAMOUR."
+
+
+Poor Major!  His horror, perplexity, and despair were indescribable.
+He had one only hope--that Sir Amyas and Betty might be on the track.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.  THE FIRST TASK.
+
+
+    After all these there marcht a most faire dame,
+    Led of two gryslie villains, th' one Despight,
+    The other cleped Crueltie by name.
+                                      SPENSER.
+
+
+The traces of occupation had not deceived Major Delavie;  Aurelia had
+been recently in Delavie House, and we must go back some way in our
+narrative to her arrival there.
+
+She had, on her return from Sedhurst on that Sunday, reached Bowstead,
+and entered by the lobby door just as Lady Belamour was coming down
+the stairs only attended by her woman, and ready to get into the
+carriage which waited at the hall door.
+
+Sinking on her knees before her with clasped hands, Aurelia exclaimed,
+"O madam, I ought not to have come away.  Here I am, do what you will
+with me, but spare my father.  He knew nothing of it.  Only, for
+pity's sake, do not put me among the poor wicked creatures in gaol."
+
+"Get into that carriage immediately, and you shall know by decision,"
+said Lady Belamour, with icy frigidness, but not the same fierceness
+as before; and Aurelia submissively obeyed, silenced by an imperious
+gesture when she would have asked, "How is it with _him_?" whom she
+durst not name.
+
+Lady Belamour waited a minute or two while sending Loveday on a last
+message to the sick room, then entered the large deep carriage,
+signing to her captive to take a corner where she could hardly be
+seen if any one looked through the window.  Loveday followed, the door
+was shut by a strange servant, as it was in fact Lady Aresfield's
+carriage, borrowed both for the sake of speed, and of secrecy towards
+her own household.
+
+A few words passed by which Aurelia gathered something reassuring as
+to the state of the patient, and then Lady Belamour turned on her,
+demanding, "So, young miss, you tried to escape me!  Where have you
+been?"
+
+"Only as far as Sedhurst Church, madam.  I would have gone home, but
+I feared to bring trouble on my father, and I came back to implore
+you to forgive."
+
+There was no softening of the terrible, beautiful face before her, and
+she durst put no objective case to her verb.  However, the answer was
+somewhat less dreadful than she had anticipated.
+
+"I have been shamefully duped," said Lady Belamour, "but it is well
+that it is no worse; nor shall I visit our offences on your father if
+you show your penitence by absolute submission.  The absurd ceremony
+you went through was a mere mockery, and the old fool, Belamour, showed
+himself crazed for consenting to such an improper frolic on the part
+of my son.  Whether your innocence be feigned or not, however, I cannot
+permit you to go out of my custody until the foolish youth or yourself
+be properly bestowed in marriage elsewhere.  Meantime, you will remain
+where I place you, and exactly fulfil my commands.  Remember that any
+attempt to communicate with any person outside the house will be
+followed by your Father's immediate dismissal."
+
+"May I not let him know that I am safe?"
+
+"Certainly not; I will see to your father."
+
+It was a period when great ladies did not scruple to scold at the top
+of their voices, and sometimes proceed to blows, but Lady Belamour
+never raised her low silvery tones, and thus increased the awfulness
+of her wrath and the impressiveness of her determination.  Face to
+face with her, there were few who did not cower under her displeasure;
+and poor Aurelia, resolute to endure for her father's sake, could only
+promise implicit obedience.
+
+She only guessed when the entered London by the louder rumbling, and
+for one moment the coach paused as a horse was reined up near it, and
+with plumed hat in hand the rider bent forward to the window, exclaiming,
+"Successful, by all that is lovely!  Captured, by Jove!"
+
+"You shall hear all another time," said lady Belamour.  "Let us go on
+now."
+
+They did so, but the horseman continued to flash across the windows,
+and when the coach, after considerable delay, had entered the walled
+court, rumbled over the pavement, and stopped before a closed door, he
+was still there.  When, after much thundering, the door was opened,
+Aurelia had a moment's glimpse of a splendid figure in gold and
+scarlet handing out Lady Belamour, who stood talking with him on the
+steps of the house for some moments.  Then, shrugging his shoulders,
+he remounted, and cantered off, after which my Lady signed to Aurelia
+to alight, and followed her into the hall.
+
+"Madge," said Lady Belamour to the witch-like old woman who had
+admitted her, "this young lady is to remain here.  You will open a
+bedroom and sitting-room for her at the back of the house.  Let her
+be properly cared for, and go out in the court behind, but on no
+account approach the front gates.  Let no one know she is here."
+
+Madge muttered some demands about supplies and payments, and Lady
+Belamour waved her to settle them with Mrs. Loveday, turning meantime
+to the prisoner and saying, "There, child, you are to remain here on
+your good behaviour.  Do your best to merit my good will, so that I
+may overlook what is past.  Recollect, the least attempt to escape,
+or to hold intercourse with the young, or the old, fool, and it shall
+be the worse with them and with your father."
+
+Therewith she departed, followed by Loveday, leaving Aurelia standing
+in the middle of the hall, the old hag gazing on her with a malignant
+leer.  "Ho! ho'!  So that's the way!  He has begun that work early,
+has he?  What's your name, my lass?  Oh, you need give yourself airs!
+I cry you mercy," and she made a derisive curtsey.
+
+Poor Aurelia, pride had less to do with her silence than absolute
+uncertainty what to call herself.  The wedding ring was on her finger,
+and she would not deny her marriage by calling herself Delavie, but
+Belamour might be dangerous, and the prefix was likewise a difficulty,
+so faltered, "You may call me Madam Aurelia."
+
+"Madam Really.  That's a queer name, but it will serve while you are
+here."
+
+"Pray let me go to my room," entreated the poor prisoner, who felt as
+ineffable disgust at her jailor, and was becoming sensible to extreme
+fatigue.
+
+"Your room, hey?  D'ye think I keep rooms and beds as though this were
+an inn, single-handed as I am?  You must wait, unless you be too fine
+to lend a hand."
+
+"Anything will do," said Aurelia, "if I may only rest.  I would help,
+but I am so much tired that I can hardly stand."
+
+"My Lady has given it to you well, Mistress Really or Mistress Falsely,
+which ever you may be," mumbled Madge, perhaps in soliloquy, fumbling
+at the lock of a room which at last she opened.  It smelt very close
+and fusty, and most of the furniture was heaped together under a cloth
+in the midst, dimly visible by the light of a heart-shaped aperture in
+the shutters.  Unclosing one of the leaves, the old woman admitted
+enough daylight to guide Aurelia to a couch against the wall, saying,
+"You can wait there till I see to your bed.  And you'll be wanting
+supper too!" she added in a tone of infinite disgust.
+
+"O never mind supper, if I can only go to bed," sighed Aurelia, sinking
+on the couch as the old woman hobbled off.  Lassitude and exhaustion
+had brought her to a state like annihilation--unable to think or guess,
+hope or fear, with shoes hurting her footsore feet, a stiff dress
+cramping her too much for sleep, and her weary aching eyes gathering
+a few impressions in a passive way.  On the walls hung dimly seen
+portraits strangely familiar to her.  The man in a green dressing gown
+with floating hair had a face she knew; so had the lady in the yellow
+ruff.  And was that not the old crest, the Delavie butterfly, with the
+motto, _Ma Vie et ma Mie_, carved on the mantelpiece?  Thus she knew
+that she must be in Delavie House, and felt somewhat less desolate as
+she recognised several portraits as duplicates of those at the Great
+House at Carminster, and thought they looked at her in pity with
+their eyes like her father's.  The youngest son in the great family
+group was, as she knew, an Amyas, and he put her in mind of her own.
+Oh, was he her own, when she could not tell whether those great soft,
+dark-grey eyes that looked so kindly on her had descended to the young
+baronet?  She hoped not, for Harriet and she had often agreed that
+they presaged the fate of that gallant youth, who had been killed by
+Sir Bevil Grenville's side.  He must have looked just as Sir Amyas
+did, lying senseless after the hurt she had caused.
+
+No more definite nor useful thought passed through the brain of the
+overwearied maiden as she rest on the couch, how long she knew not;
+but it was growing dark by the time Madge returned with a guttering
+candle, a cracked plate and wedge of greasy-looking pie, a piece of
+dry bread, a pewter cup of small beer, and an impaired repulsive
+steel knife with a rounded end, and fork with broken prong.  The fact
+of this being steel was not distressing to one who had never seen a
+silver fork, but the condition of both made her shudder, and added to
+the sick sense of exhaustion that destroyed her appetite.  She took
+a little of the bread, and, being parched with thirst, drank some of
+the beer before Madge came back again.  "Oh ho, you're nice I see,
+my fine Dame Really!"
+
+"Thank you, indeed I can't eat, I am so much tired," said Aurelia
+apologetically.
+
+"You'll have to put up with what serves your betters, I can tell you,"
+was all the reply she received.  "Well be ye coming to your bed?"
+
+So up the creaking stairs she was guided to a room, very unlike that
+fresh white bower at Bowstead, large, eerie, ghostly-looking, bare
+save for a dark oak chest, and a bed of the same material, the posts
+apparently absolute trees, squared and richly carved, and supporting
+a solid wooden canopy with an immense boss as big as a cabbage, and
+carved something like one, depending from the centre, as if to
+endanger the head of the unwary, who should start up in bed.  No
+means of ablution were provided, and Aurelia felt so grimed and dusty
+that she ventured to beg for an ewer and basin; but her amiable hostess
+snarled out that she had enough to do without humouring fiddle-faddle
+whimsies, and that she  might wash at the pump if nothing else would
+serve her.
+
+Aurelia wished she had known this before going up stairs, and, worn
+out as she was, the sense implanted by her mother that it was wicked
+to go to sleep dirty, actually made her drag herself down to a grim
+little scullery, where she was permitted to borrow a wooden bowl,
+since she was too _nice_ forsooth to wash down stairs.  She carried
+it up with a considerable trouble more than half full, and a bit
+of yellow soap and clean towel were likewise vouchsafed to her.  The
+wash--perhaps because of the infinite trouble it cost her--did her
+great good,--it gave her energy to recollect her prayers and bring
+good angels about her.  If this had been her first plunge from home,
+when Jumbo's violin had so scared her, such a place as this would have
+almost killed her; but the peace that had come to her in Sedhurst
+Church lingered still round her, and as she climbed up into the lofty
+bed the verse sang in her ears "Love is strong as death."  Whether
+Love Divine or human she did not ask herself, but with the sense of
+soothing upon her, she slept--and slept as a seventeen-years'-old
+frame will sleep after having been thirty-six hours awake and afoot.
+
+When she awoke it was with the sense of some one being in the room.
+"O gemini!" she heard, and starting up, only just avoiding the knob,
+she saw Mrs. Loveday's well-preserved brunette face gazing at her.
+
+"Your servant, ma'am," she said.  "You'll excuse me if I speak with
+you here, for I must be back by the time my Lady's bell rings."
+
+"Is it very late?" said Aurelia, taking from under her pillow her
+watch, which had stopped long ago.
+
+"Nigh upon ten o'clock," said Loveday.  "I must not stay, but it is my
+Lady's wish that you should have all that is comformable, and you'll
+let me know how Madge behaves herself."
+
+"Is there any news from Bowstead?" was all Aurelia could at first
+demand.
+
+"Not yet; but bless you, my dear young lady, you had best put all
+that matter out of your head for ever and a day.  I know what these
+young gentlemen are.  They are not to be hearkened to one moment,
+not the best of them.  Let them be ever so much in earnest at the
+time, their parents and guardians have the mastery of them sooner
+or later, and the farther it has gone, the worse it is.  I saw you
+lying asleep here looking so innocent that it went to my heart, and
+I heard you mutter in your sleep 'Love is strong as death,' but
+that's only a bit of some play-book, and don't you trust to it, for
+I never saw love that was stronger than a spider's web."
+
+"Oh, hush, Mrs. Loveday.  It is in the Bible!"
+
+"You don't say so, ma'am," the woman said awestruck.
+
+"I would show it you, only all my things are away.  God is love, you
+know," said Aurelia, sitting up with clasped hands, "and He gives it,
+so it must be strong."
+
+"Well, all the love I've ever seen was more the devil's," said Loveday
+truly enough; "and you'll find it so if you mean to trust to these
+fine young beaux and what they say."
+
+Aurelia shook her head a little as she sat up in bed with her clasped
+hands; and there was a look on her face that Mrs. Loveday did not
+understand, as she went on with her advice.
+
+"So, my dear young lady, you see all that is left for you is to frame
+your mind to keep close here, and conform to my Lady's will till all
+is blown over one way or another."
+
+"I know that," said Aurelia.
+
+"Don't' you do anything to anger her," added the waiting-woman, "for
+there's no one who can stand against her; and I'll speak up for you
+when I can, for I know how to come round my Lady, if any one does.
+Tell me what you want, and I'll get it for you; but don't try to
+get out, and don't send Madge, for she is not to be trusted with
+money.  If I were you, I'd not let her see that watch, and I'd lock
+my door at night.  You're too innocent, whatever my Lady may say.
+Here's half a pound of tea and sugar, which you had best keep to
+yourself, and I've seen to there being things decent down stairs.
+Tell me, my dear, is there anything you want?  Your clothes, did you
+say?  Oh, yes, you shall have them--yes, and your books.  Here's some
+warm water," as a growling was heard at the door;  "I must not wait
+till you are dressed, but there's a box of shells down in your room
+that Mr. Wayland sent home for my Lady to line a grotto with, and
+she wants them all sorted out. 'Tell her she must make herself of
+use if she wants to be forgiven,' says my Lady, for she is in a
+mighty hurry for them now she has heard of the Duchess of Portland's
+grotto; though she has let them lie here unpacked for this half year
+and more.  So if they are all done by night, maybe may Lady will be
+pleased to let you have a bit more liberty."
+
+Mrs. Loveday departed, having certainly cheered the captive, and
+Aurelia rose, weary-limbed and sad-hearted, with a patient trust in
+her soul that Love Divine would not fail her, and that earthly love
+would do its best.
+
+She found matters improved in the down-stairs room, the furniture was
+in order, a clean cloth on the table, a white roll, butter, and above
+all clean bright implements, showing Mrs. Loveday's influence.  She
+ate and drank like a hungry girl, washed up for herself rather than
+let Madge touch anything she could help, and looked from the window
+into a dull court of dreary, blighted-looking turf divided by flagged
+walks, radiating from a statue in the middle, representing a Triton
+blowing a conch--no doubt intended to spout water, for there was a
+stone trough round him, but he had long forgotten his functions, and
+held a sparrow's nest with streaming straws in his hand.  This must
+be the prison-yard, where alone she might walk, since it lay at the
+back of the house; and with a sense of depression she turned to the
+task that awaited her.
+
+A very large foreign-looking case had been partly opened, and when
+she looked in she was appalled at the task to be accomplished in one
+day.  It was crammed with shells of every size and description, from
+the large helmet-conch and Triton's trumpet, down to the tiny pink
+cowry and rice-volute, all stuffed together without arrangement or
+packing, forming a mass in which the unbroken shells reposed in a
+kind of sand, of _debris_ ground together out of the victims; and
+when she took up a tolerably-sized univalve, quantities of little
+ones came tumbling out of its inner folds.  She took up a handful,
+and presently picked out one perfect valve like a rose petal, three
+fairy cups of limpets, four ribbed cowries, and a thing like a green
+pea.  Of course she knew no names, but a kind of interest was
+awakened by the beauty and variety before her.  A pile of papers had
+been provided, and the housewife [a pocket-size container for small
+articles (as thread)--D.L.] which Betty made her always carry in her
+pocket furnished wherewithal to make up a number of bags for the
+lesser sorts; and she went to work, her troubles somewhat beguiled
+by the novel beauties of each delicate creature she disinterred, but
+remembering with a pang how, if she could have described them to Mr.
+Belamour, he would have discoursed upon the Order of Nature.
+
+London noises were not the continuous roar of vehicles of the present
+day, but there was sound enough to remind the country girl where she
+was, and the street cries "Old Clothes!"  "Sprats, oh!"  "Sweep!" were
+heard over the wall, sometimes with tumultuous voices that seemed to
+enhance her loneliness, as she sat on the floor, hour after hour,
+sifting out the entire shells, and feeling a languid pleasure in
+joining the two halves of a bivalve, especially those lovely sunset
+shells that have rosy rays diverging from their crimson hinge over
+their polished surface, white, or just tinted with the hues of a
+daffodil sky.  She never clasped a pair together without a little
+half-uttered ejaculation, "Oh, bring me and my dear young love thus
+together again!"  And when she found a couple making a perfect heart,
+and holding together through all, she kissed it tenderly in the hope
+that thus it might be with her and with him whose hand and whose
+voice returned on her, calling her his dearest life!
+
+She durst only quit the shells to eat the dinner which Madge served
+at one o'clock--a tolerable meal of slices of cold beef from a cook's-
+shop, but seasoned with sour looks and a murmur at ladies' fancies.
+The weariness and languor of the former day's exertions made her for
+the present disinclined to explore the house, even had she had time,
+and when twilight came there could have been little but fragments at
+the bottom of the case, though she could see no more to sort them.
+
+And what were these noises around her making her start?  Rats!  Yes,
+here they were, venturing out from all the corners.  They knew there
+had been food in the room.  This was why Madge had those to gaunt,
+weird-looking cats in her kitchen!  Aurelia went and sat on the step
+into the court to be out of their way, but Madge hunted her in that
+the door might be shut and barred; and when she returned trembling to
+the sitting room, she heard such a scampering and a scrambling that
+she durst not enter, and betook herself to her chamber and to bed.
+
+Alas! that was no refuge.  She had been too much tired to hear
+anything the night before, but to-night there was scratching,
+nibbling, careering, fighting, squeaking, recoil and rally, charge
+and rout, as the grey Hanover rat fought his successful battle with
+his black English cousin all over the floors and stairs--nay, once
+or twice came rushing up and over the bed--frightening its occupant
+almost out of her senses, as she cowered under the bed-clothes, not
+at all sure that they would not proceed to eating her.  Happily
+daylight came early.  Aurelia, at its first ray, darted across the
+room, starting in horror when she touched a soft thing with her bare
+foot, opened the shutter, and threw open the casement.  Light drove
+the enemy back to their holes, and she had a few hours' sleep, but
+when Mrs. Loveday came to the room when she was nearly dressed, she
+exclaimed, "Why, miss, you look paler than you did yesterday."
+
+"The rats!" said Aurelia under her breath.
+
+"Ah! the rats!  Of course they are bad enough in an old desolate place
+like this.  But you've done the shells right beautiful, that I will
+say; and you may leave this house this very day if you will only give
+your consent to what my Lady asks.  You shall be sent down this very
+day to Carminster, if so be you'll give up that ring of yours, and
+sign a paper giving up all claim to be married to his Honour.  See,
+here it is, all ready, in my Lady's letter."
+
+"I cannot," said Aurelia, with her hands behind her.
+
+"You can read my Lady's letter," said Loveday; "that can do you no
+harm."
+
+Aurelia felt she must do that at least.
+
+
+  "CHILD,
+
+      "I will overlook your Transgression on the One Condition, that
+you sign this Paper and send it with your so-called Wedding Ring back
+to me immediately.  Otherwise you must take the Consequences, and
+remain where you are till after my Son's Marriage.
+
+                                              "URANIA BELAMOUR."
+
+
+The paper was a formal renunciation of all rights or claims from the
+fictitious marriage by which she had been deceived, and an absolute
+pledge never to renew any contract with Sir Amyas Belamour, Knight
+Baronet, who had grossly played on her.
+
+"No, I cannot," said Aurelia, pushing it from her.
+
+"Indeed, miss, I would not persuade you to it if it were not for your
+own good; but you may be sure it is no use holding out against her
+Ladyship.  If you sign it now, and give it up honourable, she will
+send Mr. Dove home with you, and there you'll be as if nothing had
+been amiss, no one knowing nothing about it; but if you persist it
+will not make the marriage a bit more true, and you will only be
+kept moped up in this dismal place till his Honour is married, and
+there's no saying what worse my Lady may do to you."
+
+Another night of rats came up before Aurelia's imagination in contrast
+with the tender welcome at home; but the white face and the tones that
+had exclaimed, "Madam, what are you doing to my wife?" arose and
+forbade her.  She would not fail him.  So she said firmly once more,
+"No, Mrs. Loveday, I cannot.  I do not know what lawyers may say, but
+I feel myself bound to Sir Amyas, and I will not break my vow--God
+helping me," she added under breath.
+
+"You must write it to her ladyship then.  She will never take such a
+message through me.  Here is paper and pen that I brought, in hopes
+that you would be wise and submit for your honoured father's sake."
+
+"My father cannot be persecuted for what he has nothing to do with,"
+said Aurelia, with the gentle dignity that had grown on her since
+her troubles.  And taking the pen, she wrote her simple refusal,
+signing it Aurelia Belamour.
+
+"As you please, ma'am," said Mrs. Loveday, "but I have my Lady's
+orders to bring this paper every day till you sign it, and it would
+be better for you if you would do it at once."
+
+Aurelia only shook her head, and asked if Mrs. Loveday had seen that
+she had finished sorting the shells.  Yes; and as she was now dressed
+they went down together to the sitting-room.  The shutters were
+still closed, Madge would not put a hand to the room except on the
+compulsion, and Aurelia's enemies had left evidence of their work;
+not only was the odour of the room like that of a barn, but the paper
+bags had in some cases been bitten through, and the shells scattered
+about, and of the loaf and butter which Aurelia had left on a high
+shelf in the cupboard nothing remained but a few fragments.
+
+Loveday was very much shocked, all the more when Aurelia quietly said
+she should not mind it so much if the rats would only stay down stairs,
+and not run over her in bed.
+
+"Yet you will not sign the paper."
+
+"I cannot," again said Aurelia.
+
+"My stars, I never could abear rats!  Why they fly at one's throat
+sometimes!"
+
+"I hope God will take care of me," said Aurelia, in a trembling voice.
+"He did last night."
+
+Loveday began a formal leave-taking curtsey, but presently turned back.
+"There now," she said, "I cannot do it, I couldn't sleep a wink for
+thinking of you among the rats!  Look here, I shall send a porter to
+bring away those shells if you'll make up their bags again that the
+nasty vermin have eaten, and there's a little terrier dog about the
+place that no one will miss, he shall bring it down, and depend upon
+it, the rats won't venture near it."
+
+"Oh! thank you, Mrs. Loveday, how good you are!"
+
+"Ah, don't then!  If you could say that my dear!"
+
+Mrs. Loveday hurried away, and after breakfasting, Aurelia repaired
+the ravages of the rats, and  made a last sorting of the residuum of
+shell dust, discovering numerous minute beauties, which awoke in her
+the happy thought of the Creator's individual love.
+
+She had not yet finished before Madge's voice was heard in querulous
+anger, and a heavy tread came along with her.  A big man, who could
+have carried ten times the weight of the box of shells, came in with
+a little white dog with black ears, under his arm.
+
+"There," said the amiable guardian of the house, "that smart madam
+says that it's her ladyship's pleasure you should have that little
+beast to keep down the rats.  As if my cats was not enough!  But
+mind you, Madam Really, if so be he meddles with my cats, it will
+be the worse for him."
+
+The porter took up the box, and departed, and Aurelia was left with
+her new companion sniffing all round the room, much excited by the
+neighbourhood of his natural enemies.  However, he obeyed her call,
+and let her make friends, and read the name on the brass plate upon
+his collar.  When she read "Sir A. Belamour, Bart.," she took the
+little dog in her arms and kissed it's white head.
+
+Being fairly rested, and having no task to accomplish, she felt the
+day much longer, though less solitary, in the companionship of the dog,
+to whom she whispered many fond compliments, and vain questions as to
+his name.  With him at her heels and Madge and her cats safely shut
+into the kitchen, she took courage to wander about the dull court,
+and then to explore the mansion and try to get a view from the higher
+windows, in case they were not shuttered up like the lower ones.  The
+emptiness of Bowstead was nothing to this, and she smiled to herself
+at having thought herself a prisoner there.
+
+Most of the rooms were completely dismantled, or had only ghastly rags
+of torn leather or tapestry hanging to their walls.  The upper windows,
+however, were merely obscured by dust and cobwebs.  Her own bedroom
+windows only showed the tall front of an opposite house, but climbing
+to the higher storey, she could see at the back over the garden wall
+the broad sheet of the Thames, covered with boats and wherries, and
+the banks provided with steps and stairs, at the opening of every
+street on the opposite side, where she beheld a confused mass of trees,
+churches, and houses.  Nearer, the view to the westward was closed in
+by a stately edifice which she did not know to be Somerset House; and
+from another window on the east side of the house she saw, over
+numerous tiled roofs, a gateway which she guessed to be Temple Bar,
+and a crowded thoroughfare, where the people looked like ants, toiling
+towards the great dome that rose in the misty distance.  Was this the
+way she was to see London?
+
+Coming down with a lagging step, she met Madge's face peering up.
+"Humph! there you be, my fine miss!  No gaping after sweethearts
+from the window, or it will be the worse for you."
+
+The terrier growled, as having already adopted his young lady's defence,
+and Aurelia, dreading a perilous explosion of his zeal in her cause,
+hurried him into her parlour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.  THE SECOND TASK.
+
+
+                       Hope no more,
+    Since thou art furnished with hidden lore,
+    To 'scape thy due reward if any day
+    Without some task accomplished passed away.
+                                               MOORE.
+
+
+The little dog's presence was a comfort, but his night of combat and
+scuffling was not a restful one and the poor prisoner's sickness of
+heart and nervous terrors grew upon her every hour, with misgivings
+lest she should be clinging to a shadow, and sacrificing her return
+to Betty's arms for a phantom.  There were moments when her anguish
+of vague terror and utter loneliness impelled her to long to sign
+her renunciation that moment; and when she thought of recurring hours
+and weeks of such days and such nights her spirit quailed within her,
+and Loveday might have found her less calmly steadfast had she come
+in the morning.
+
+She did not come, and this in itself was a disappointment, for at
+least she brought a human voice and a pitying countenance which,
+temptress though she might be, had helped to bear Aurelia through
+the first days.  Oh! could she but find anything to do!  She had
+dusted her two rooms as well as she could consistently with care
+for the dress she could not change.  She blamed herself extremely
+for having forgotten her Bible and Prayer-book when hastily making
+up her bundle of necessaries, and though there was little chance
+that Madge should possess either, or be able to read, she nerved
+herself to ask.  "Bible! what should ye want of a Bible, unless
+to play the hypocrite?  I hain't got none!" was the reply.
+
+So Aurelia could only walk up and down the court trying to repeat the
+Psalms, and afterwards the poetry she had learnt for Mr. Belamour's
+benefit, sometimes deriving comfort from the promises, but oftener
+wondering whether he had indeed deserted her in anger at her
+distrustful curiosity.  She tried to scrape the mossgrown Triton,
+she crept up stairs to the window that looked towards the City, and
+cleared off some of the dimness, and she got a needle and thread and
+tried to darn the holes in the curtains and cushions, but the rotten
+stuff crumbled under her fingers, and would not hold the stitches.
+At last she found in a dusty corner a boardless book with neither
+beginning nor end, being Defoe's _Plague of London_.  She read and
+read with a horrid fascination, believing every word of it, wondering
+whether this house could have been infected, and at length feeling for
+the plague spot!
+
+A great church-clock enabled her to count the hours!  Oh, how many
+there were of them!  How many more would there be?  This was only her
+second day, and deliverance could not come for weeks, were her young
+husband--if husband he were--ever so faithful.  How should she find
+patience in this dreariness, interspersed with fits of alarm lest he
+should be dangerously ill and suffering?  She fell on her knees and
+prayed for him and for herself!
+
+Here it was getting dark again, and Madge would hunt her in presently
+and shut the shutters.  Hark! what was that?  A bell echoing over the
+house!  Madge came after her.  "Where are you, my fine mistress!  Go
+you into the parlour, I say," and she turned the key upon the prisoner,
+whose heart beat like a bird fluttering in a cage.  Suddenly her door
+was opened, and in darted Fidelia and Lettice, who flung themselves
+upon her with ecstatic shrieks of "Cousin Aura, dear cousin Aura!"
+Loveday was behind, directing the bringing in of trunks from a hackney
+coach.  All she said was, "My Lady's daughters are to be with you for
+the night, madam; I must not say more, for her ladyship is waiting
+for me."
+
+She was gone, while the three were still in the glad tangle of
+an embrace beginning again and again, with all sorts of little
+exclamations from the children, into which Aurelia broke with the
+inquiry for their brother.  "He is much better," said Fay.  "He is
+to get up to-morrow, and then he will come and find you."
+
+"Have you seen him?"
+
+"Oh, yes, and he says it is Sister Aura, and not Cousin Aura--"
+
+"My dear, dear little sisters--" and she hugged them again.
+
+"I was sitting upon his bed," said Letty, "and we were all talking
+about you when my Lady mamma came.  Are mothers kinder than Lady
+mammas?"
+
+"Was she angry?" asked Aurelia.
+
+"Oh! she frightened me," said Fay.  "She said we were pert, forward
+misses, and we must hold our tongues, for we should be whipped if
+we ever said you name, Cousin--Sister Aura, again; and she would
+not let us go to wish Brother Amyas good-bye this morning."
+
+Aurelia's heart could not but leap with joy that her tyrant should
+have failed in carrying to Bowstead the renunciation of the marriage.
+Whether Lady Belamour meant it or not, she had made resistance much
+easier by the company of Faith and Hope, if only for a single night.
+She gathered from their prattle that their mother, having found that
+their talk with their brother was all of the one object of his
+thoughts, had carried them off summarily, and had been since driving
+about London in search of a school at which to leave them; but they
+were too young for Queen's Square, and there was no room at another
+house at which Lady Belamour had applied.  She would not take them
+home, being, of course, afraid of their tongues, and in her perplexity
+had been reduced to letting them share Aurelia's captivity at least
+for the night.
+
+What joy it was!  They said it was an ugly dark house, but Aurelia's
+presence was perfect content to them, and theirs was to her comparative
+felicity, assuring her as they did, through their childish talk, of
+Sir Amyas's unbroken love and of Mr. Belamour's endeavours to find
+her.  What mattered it that Madge was more offended than ever, and
+refused to make the slightest exertion for "the Wayland brats at
+that time of night" without warning.  They had enough for supper, and
+if Aurelia had not, their company was worth much more to her than a
+full meal.  The terrier's rushes after rats were only diversion now,
+and when all three nestled together in the big bed, the fun was more
+delightful than ever.  Between those soft caressing creatures Aurelia
+heard no rats, and could well bear some kicks at night, and being
+drummed awake at some strange hour in the morning.
+
+Mrs. Loveday arrive soon after the little party had gone down stairs.
+She said the children were to remain until her ladyship had decided
+where to send them; and she confirmed their report that his Honour
+was recovering quickly.  As soon as he was sufficiently well to leave
+Bowstead he was to be brought to London, and married to Lady Arabella
+before going abroad to make the grand tour; and as a true well-wisher,
+Mrs. Loveday begged Miss Delavie not to hold out when it was of no
+use, for her Ladyship declared that her contumacy would be the worse
+for her.  Aurelia's garrison was, however, too well reinforced for
+any vague alarms to shake even her out works, and she only smiled
+her refusal, as in truth Mrs. Loveday must have expected, for it
+appeared that she had secured a maid to attend on the prisoners; an
+extremely deaf woman, who only spoke in the broken imperfect mode of
+those who have never heard their own voice, deficiencies that made
+it possible that Madge would keep the peace with her.
+
+Lady Belamour had also found another piece of work for Aurelia.  A
+dark cupboard was opened, revealing shelves piled with bundle of
+old letters and papers.  There was a family tradition that one of
+the ladies of the Delavie family had been an attendant of Mary of
+Scotland for a short time, and had received from her a recipe for
+preserving the complexion and texture of the skin, devised by the
+French Court perfumer.  Nobody had ever seen this precious
+prescription; but it was presumed to be in the archives of the
+family, and her ladyship sent word that if Miss Delavie wished
+to deserve her favour she would put her French to some account
+and discover it.
+
+A severe undertaking it was.  Piles of yellow letters, files of dusty
+accounts, multitudes of receipts, more than one old will had to be
+conned it was possible to be certain they were not the nostrum.  In
+the utter solitude, even this occupation would have been valuable,
+but with the little girls about her, and her own and their property,
+she had alternative employments enough to make it an effort to apply
+herself to this.
+
+Why should she?  she asked herself more than once; but then came the
+recollection that if she showed herself willing to obey and gratify
+my Lady, it might gain her good will, and if Sir Amyas should indeed
+hold out till Mr. Wayland came home--Her heart beat wildly at the
+vision of hope.
+
+She worked principally at the letters, after the children had gone to
+bed, taking a packet up stairs with her, and sitting in the bedroom,
+deciphering them as best she might by the light of the candles that
+Loveday had brought her.
+
+Every morning Loveday appeared with supplies, and messages from her
+Ladyship, that it was time Miss submitted; but she was not at all
+substantially unkind, and showed increasing interest in her captive,
+though always impressing on her that her obstinacy was all in vain.
+My Lady was angered enough at his Honour having got up from his sick
+bed and gone off to Carminster, and if Miss did not wish to bring her
+father into trouble she must yield.  No, this gladdened rather than
+startled Aurelia, though her heart sank within her when she was
+warned that Mr. Wayland had been taken by the corsairs, so that my
+Lady would have the ball at her own foot now.  The term of waiting
+seemed indefinitely prolonged.
+
+The confinement to the dingy house and courtyard was trying to all
+three, who had been used to run about in the green park and breezy
+fields; but Aurelia did her best to keep her little companions happy
+and busy, and the sense of the insecurity of her tenure of their
+company aided her the more to meet with good temper and sweetness
+the various rubs incidental to their captivity in this close warm
+house in the hottest of summer weather.  The pang she had felt at
+her own fretfulness, when she thought she had lost them, made her
+guard the more against giving way to impatience if they were
+troublesome or hard to please.  Indeed, she was much more gentle
+and equable now, in the strength of her resolution, than she had
+been when uplifted by her position, yet doubtful of its mysteries.
+
+Sundays were the most trying time.  The lack of occupation in the
+small space was wearisome, and Aurelia's heart often echoed the old
+strains of Tate and Brady,
+
+                   I sigh whene'er my musing thoughts
+                     Those happy days present,
+                   When I with troops of pious friends
+                     Thy temple did frequent.
+
+She and her charges climbed up to the window above, which happily had
+a broken pane, tried to identify the chimes of the church bells by the
+notable nursery rhyme,
+
+                   Oranges and lemons,
+                   Say the bells of St. Clements, &c.,
+
+watched the church-goers as far as they could see them, and then came
+down to such reading of the service and other Sunday occupations as
+Aurelia could devise.  On the Sunday of her durance it was such a
+broiling day that, unable to bear the heat of her parlour, she
+established herself and her charges in a nook of the court, close
+under the window, but shaded by the wall, which was covered with an
+immense bush of overhanging ivy, and by the elm tree in the court.
+Here she made Fay and Letty say their catechism, and the Psalm she
+had been teaching them in the week, and then rewarded them with a
+Bible story, that of Daniel in the den of lions.  Once or twice the
+terrier (whose name she had learnt was Bob) had pricked his ears,
+and the children had thought there was a noise, but the sparrows in
+the ivy might be accountable for a great deal, and the little ones
+were to much wrapped in her tale to be attentive to anything else.
+
+"Then it came true!" said Letty.  "His God Whom he trusted did deliver
+him out of the den of lions?"
+
+"God always does deliver people when they trust Him," said Fay, with
+gleaming eyes.
+
+"Yes, one way or the other," said Aurelia.
+
+"How do you think He will deliver us?" asked Letty; "for I am sure
+this is a den, though there are no lions."
+
+"I do not know how," said Aurelia, "but I know He will bear us through
+it as long as we trust Him and do nothing wrong," and she looked up at
+the bright sky with hope and strength in her face.
+
+"Hark! what's that?" cried Letty, and Bob leapt up and barked as a
+great sob became plainly audible, and within the room appeared Mrs.
+Loveday, her face all over tears, which she was fast wiping away as
+she rose up from crouching with her head against the window-sill.
+
+"I beg your pardon, ma'am," said she, her voice still broken when she
+rejoined them, "but I would not interrupt you, so I waited within; and
+oh, it was so like my poor old mother at home, it quite overcame me!
+I did not think there was anything so near the angels left on earth."
+
+"Nay, Loveday," said Fay, apprehending the words in a different sense,
+"the angels are just as near us as ever they were to Daniel, only we
+cannot see them.  Are they not, Cousin Aura?"
+
+"Indeed they are, and we may be as sure that they will shut the lions'
+mouths," said Aurelia.
+
+"Ah! may they," sighed Loveday, who had by this time mastered her
+agitation, and remembered that she must discharge herself of her
+messages, and return hastily to my Lady's toilette.
+
+"I have found the recipe," said Aurelia.  "Here it is."  And she put
+into Loveday's hand a yellow letter, bearing the title in scribbled
+writing, "_Poure Embellire et blanchire la Pel, de part de Maistre
+Raoul, Parfumeur de la Royne Catherine_."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.  LIONS.
+
+
+    The helmet of darkness Pallas donned,
+    To hide her presence from the sight of man.
+                                           _Derby's_ HOMER.
+
+
+The next morning Loveday returned with orders from Lady Belamour that
+Miss Delavie should translate the French recipe, and make a fair copy
+of it.  It was not an easy task, for the MS. was difficult and the
+French old; whereas Aurelia lived on the modern side of the _Acadamie_,
+her French was that of Fenelon and Racine.
+
+However, she went to work as best she could in her cool corner,
+guessing at many of the words by lights derived from _Comenius_, and
+had just made out that the chief ingredients were pounded pearls and
+rubies, mixed with white of eggs laid by pullets under a year old,
+during the waxing of the April moon, when she heard voices chattering
+in the hall, and a girlish figure appeared in a light cloak and calash,
+whom Loveday seemed to be guiding, and yet keeping as much repressed
+as she could.
+
+"Gracious Heavens!" were the first words to be distinguished; "what a
+frightful old place; enough to make one die of the dismals!  I won't
+live here when I'm married, I promise Sir Amyas!  Bless me, is this
+the wench?"
+
+"Your Ladyship promised to be careful," entreated Loveday, while
+Aurelia rose, with a graceful gesture of acknowledgment, which,
+however remained unnoticed, the lady apparently considering herself
+unseen.
+
+"Who are these little girls?" asked she, in a giggling whisper.
+"Little Waylands?  Then it is true," she cried, with a peal of shrill
+laughter.  "There are three of them, only Lady Belamour shuts them up
+like kittens--I wonder she did not.   Oh, what sport!  Won't I tease
+her now that I know her secret!"
+
+"Your ladyship!" intreated Loveday in distress in an audible aside,
+"you will undo me."  Then coming forward, she said, "You did not
+expect me at this hour, madam; but if your French copy be finished,
+my Lady would like to have it at once."
+
+"I have written it out once as well as I could," said Aurelia, "but I
+have not translated it; I will find the copy."
+
+She rose and found the stranger full before her in the doorway, gazing
+at her with an enormous pair of sloe-black eyes, under heavy inky brows,
+set in a hard, red-complexioned face.  She burst into a loud, hoydenish
+laugh as Loveday tried to stammer something about a friend of her own.
+
+"Never mind, the murder's out, good Mrs. Abigail," she cried, "it is
+me.  I was determined to see the wench that has made such a fool of
+young Belamour.  I vow I can't guess what he means by it.  Why, you
+are a poor pale tallow-candle, without a bit of colour in your face.
+Look at me!  Shall you ever have such a complexion as mine, with ever
+so much rouge?"
+
+"I think not," said Aurelia, with one look at the peony face.
+
+"Do you know who I am, miss?  I am the Lady Bella Mar.  The Countess
+of Aresfield is my mamma.  I shall have Battlefield when she dies, and
+twenty thousand pounds on my wedding day.  The Earl of Aresfield and
+Colonel Mar are my brothers, and a wretched little country girl like
+you is not to come between me and what my mamma has fixed for me; so
+you must give it up at once, for you see he belongs to me."
+
+"Not yet, madam," said Aurelia.
+
+"What do you say?  Do you pretend that your masquerade was worth a
+button?"
+
+"That is not my part to decide," said Aurelia.  "I am bound by it, and
+have no power to break it."
+
+"You mean the lawyers!  Bless you, they will never give it to you
+against me!  You'd best give it up at once, and if you want a husband,
+my mamma has one ready for you."
+
+"I thank her ladyship," said Aurelia, with simple dignity, "but I will
+not give her the trouble."
+
+She glanced at her wedding ring, and so did Lady Belle, who screamed,
+"You've the impudence to wear that!  Give it to me."
+
+"I cannot," repeated Aurelia.
+
+"You cannot, you insolent, vulgar, low"--
+
+"Hush! hush, my lady," entreated Loveday.  "Come away, I beg of your
+ladyship!"
+
+"Not till I have made that impudent hussy give me that ring," cried
+Belle, stamping violently.  "What's that you say?"
+
+"That your ladyship asks what is impossible," said Aurelia, firmly.
+
+"Take that then, insolent minx!" cried the girl, flying forward and
+violently slapping Aurelia's soft cheeks, and making a snatch at her
+hair.
+
+Loveday screamed, Letty cried, but Fidelia and Bob both rushed forward
+to Aurelia's defence, one with her little fists clenched, beating Lady
+Belle back, the other tearing at her skirts with his teeth.  At that
+moment a man's step was heard, and a tall, powerful officer was among
+them, uttering a fierce imprecation.  "You little vixen, at your
+tricks again," he said, taking Belle by the waist, while she kicked
+and screamed in vain.  She was like an angry cat in his arms.  "Be
+quiet, Belle," he said, backing into the sitting-room.  "Let Loveday
+compose your dress.  Recover your senses and I shall take you home:
+I wish it was to the whipping you deserve."
+
+He thrust her in, waved aside Loveday's excuses about her ladyship not
+being denied, and stood with his back to the door as she bounced
+shrieking against it from within.
+
+"I fear this little devil has hurt you, madam," he said.
+
+"Not at all, I thank you, sire." said Aurelia, though one side of her
+face still tingled.
+
+"She made at you like a little game-cock," he said.  "I am glad I was
+in time.  I followed when I found she had slipped away from Lady
+Belamour's, knowing that her curiosity is only equalled by her spite.
+By Jove, it is well that her nails did not touch that angel face!"
+
+Aurelia could only curtsey and thank him, hoping within herself that
+Lady Belle would soon recover, and wondering how he had let himself
+in.  There was something in his manner of examining her with his eyes
+that made her supremely uncomfortable.  He uttered fashionable
+expletives of admiration under his breath, and she turned aside in
+displeasure, bending down to Fidelia.  He went on, "You must be
+devilishly moped in this dungeon of a place!  Cannot we contrive
+something better?"
+
+"Thank you, sir, I have no complaint to make.  Permit me to see
+whether the Lady Arabella is better."
+
+"I advise you not.  Those orbs are too soft and sparkling to be
+exposed to her talons.  'Pon my honour, I pity young Belamour.
+But there is no help for it, and such charms ought not to be wasted
+in solitude on his account.  These young lads are as fickle as the
+weather-cock, and have half-a-dozen fancies in as many weeks.
+Come now, make me your friend, and we will hit on some device
+for delivering the enchanted princess from her durance vile."
+
+"Thank you, sir, I promised Lady Belamour to make no attempt to
+escape."
+
+At that moment out burst Lady Belle, shouting with laughter: "Ho!
+ho!  Have I caught you, brother, gallanting away with Miss?  What
+will my lady say?  Pretty doings!"
+
+She had no time for more.  Her brother fiercely laid hold of her,
+and bore her away with a peremptory violence that she could not
+resist, and only turning at the hall door to make one magnificent
+bow.
+
+Loveday was obliged to follow, and the children were left clinging
+to Aurelia and declaring that the dreadful young lady was as bad as
+the lions; while Aurelia, glowing with shame and resentment at what
+she felt as insults, had a misgiving that her protector had been the
+worse lion of the two.
+
+She had no explanation of the invasion till the next morning, when
+Loveday appeared full of excuses and apologies.  From the fact of
+Lady Aresfield's carriage having been used on Aurelia's arrival, her
+imprisonment was known, and Lady Belle, spending a holiday at Lady
+Belamour's, had besieged Loveday with entreaties to take her to see
+her rival.  As the waiting-woman said, for fear of the young lady's
+violent temper, but more probably in consideration of her bribes,
+she had yielded, hoping that Lady Belle would be satisfied with a
+view from the window, herself unseen.  However, from that moment all
+had been taken out of the hands of Loveday, and she verily believed
+the Colonel had made following his sister an excuse for catching a
+sight of Miss Delavie, for he had been monstrously smitten even
+with the glimpse he had had of her in the carriage.  And now, as
+his sister had cut short what he had to say, he had written her a
+billet.  And Loveday held out a perfumed letter.
+
+Aurelia's eyes flashed, and she drew herself up: "You forget, Loveday,
+I promised to receive no letters!"
+
+"Bless me, ma'am, they, that are treated as my lady treats you, are
+not bound to be so particular as that."
+
+"O fie, Loveday," said Aurelia earnestly, "you have been so kind, that
+I thought you would be faithful.  This is not being faithful to your
+lady, nor to me."
+
+"It is only from my wish to serve you, ma'am," said Loveday in her
+fawning voice.  "How can I bear to see a beautiful young lady like
+you, that ought to be the star of all the court, mewed up here for
+the sake of a young giddy pate like his Honour, when there's one of
+the first gentlemen in the land ready to be at your feet?"
+
+"For shame! for shame!" exclaimed Aurelia, crimson already.  "You
+know I am married."
+
+"And you will not take the letter, nor see what the poor gentleman
+means?  May be he wants to reconcile you with my lady, and he has
+power with her."
+
+Aurelia took the letter, and, strong paper though it was, tore it
+across and across till it was all in fragments, no bigger than daisy
+flowers.  "There," she said, "you may tell him what I have done to
+his letter."
+
+Loveday stared for a minute, then exclaimed, "You are in the right, my
+dear lady.  Oh, I am a wretch--a wretch--" and she went away sobbing.
+
+Aurelia hoped the matter was ended.  It had given her a terrible
+feeling of insecurity, but she found to her relief that Madge was
+really more trustworthy than Loveday.  She overheard from the court
+a conversation at the back door in which Madge was strenuously
+refusing admission to some one who was both threatening and bribing
+her, all in vain; but she was only beginning to breathe freely when
+Loveday brought, not another letter, but what was less easy to stop,
+a personal message from "that poor gentleman."
+
+"Loveday, after what you said yesterday, how can you be so--wicked?"
+said Aurelia.
+
+"Indeed, miss, 'tis only as your true well-wisher."
+
+Aurelia turned away to leave the room.
+
+"Yes, it is, ma'am!  On my bended knees I will swear it," cried
+Loveday, throwing herself on them and catching her dress.  "It is
+because I know my lady has worse in store for you!"
+
+"Nothing can be worse than wrong-doing," said Aurelia.
+
+"Ah! you don't know.  Now, listen, one moment.  I would not--indeed
+I would not--if I did not know that he meant true and honourable--
+as he does, indeed he does.  He is madder after you then ever he was
+for my lady, for he says you have all her beauty, and freshness and
+simplicity besides.  He is raving.  And you should never leave me,
+indeed you should not, miss, if you slipped out after me in Deb's
+muffler--and we'd go to the Fleet.  I have got a cousin there, poor
+fellow--he is always in trouble, but he is a real true parson
+notwithstanding, and I'd never leave your side till the knot was
+tied fast.  Then you would laugh at my lady, and be one of the first
+ladies in the land, for my Lord Aresfield is half a fool, and can't
+live long, and when you are a countess you will remember your poor
+Loveday."
+
+"Let me go.  You have said too much to a married woman," said Aurelia,
+and as the maid began the old demonstrations of the invalidity of the
+marriage, and the folly of adhering to it when nobody knew where his
+honour was gone, she said resolutely, "I shall write to Lady Belamour
+to send me a more trustworthy messenger."
+
+On this Loveday fairly fell on the floor, grovelling in her wild
+entreaty that my Lady might hear nothing of this, declaring that
+it was not so much for the sake of the consequences to herself as
+to the young lady, for there was no guessing what my lady might not
+be capable of if she guessed at Colonel Mar's admiration of her
+prisoner.  Aurelia, frightened at her violence, finally promised
+not to appeal to her ladyship as long as Loveday abstained from
+transmitting his messages, but on the least attempt on her part
+to refer to him, a complaint should certainly be made to my lady.
+
+"Very well, madam," said Loveday, wiping her eyes.  "I only hope it
+will not be the worse for you in the end, and that you will not wish
+you had listened to poor Loveday's advice."
+
+"I can never wish to have done what I know to be a great sin," said
+Aurelia gravely.
+
+"Ah! you little know!" said Loveday, shaking her head sadly and
+ominously.
+
+Something brought to Aurelia's lips what she had been teaching the
+children last Sunday, and she answered,
+
+"My God, in Whom I have trusted, is able to deliver me out of the
+mouth of lions, and He will deliver me out of thy hand."
+
+"Oh! if ever there were one whom He should deliver!" broke out
+Loveday, and again she went away weeping bitterly.
+
+Aurelia could not guess what the danger the woman threatened could
+be; so many had been mentioned as possible.  A forcible marriage,
+incarceration in some lonely country place, a vague threat of being
+taken beyond seas to the plantation--all these had been mentioned;
+but she was far more afraid of Colonel Mar forcing his way in and
+carrying her off, and this kept her constantly in a state of nervous
+watchfulness, always listening by day and hardly able to sleep by
+night.
+
+Once she had a terrible alarm, on a Sunday.  Letty came rushing to
+her, declaring that Jumbo, dear Jumbo, and a gentleman were in the
+front court.  Was it really Jumbo?  Come and see!  No, she durst not,
+and Fay almost instantly declared that Madge had shut them out.  The
+children both insisted that Jumbo it was, but Aurelia would not
+believe that it could be anything but an attempt of her enemies.
+She interrogated Madge, who had grown into a certain liking for
+one so submissive and inoffensive.  Madge shook her head, could not
+guess how such folks had got into the court, was sure they were after
+no good, and declared that my Lady should hear of all the strange
+doings, and the letters that had been left with her.  Oh, no, she
+knew better than to give them, but my Lady should see them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.  THE COSMETIC.
+
+
+    But one more task I charge thee with to-day,
+    For unto Proserpine then take thy way,
+    And give this golden casket to her hands.
+                                               MORRIS.
+
+
+Late on that Sunday afternoon, a muffled and masked figure came
+through the house into the court behind, and after the first shock
+Aurelia was relieved to see that it was too tall, and moved too
+gracefully, to belong to Loveday.
+
+"Why, child, what a colour you have!" said Lady Belamour, taking off
+her mask.  "You need no aids to nature at your happy age.  That is
+right, children," as they curtsied and kissed her hand.  "Go into
+the house, I wish to speak with your cousin."
+
+Lady Belamour's unfailing self-command gave her such dignity that she
+seemed truly a grand and majestic dame dispensing justice, and the
+gentle, shrinking Aurelia like a culprit on trial before her.
+
+"You have been here a month, Aurelia Delavie.  Have you come to your
+senses, and are you ready to sign this paper?"
+
+"No, madam, I cannot."
+
+"Silly fly; you are as bent as ever on remaining in the web in which
+a madman and a foolish boy have involved you?"
+
+"I cannot help it, madam."
+
+"Oh! I thought," and her voice became harshly clear, though so low,
+"that you might have other schemes, and be spreading your toils at
+higher game."
+
+"Certainly not, madam."
+
+"Your colour shows that you understand, in spite of all your pretences."
+
+"I have never used any pretences, my lady," said Aurelia, looking up
+in her face with clear innocent eyes.
+
+"You have had no visitors?  None!"
+
+"None, madam, except once when the Lady Arabella Mar forced her way
+in, out of curiosity, I believe, and her brother followed to take her
+away."
+
+"Her brother?  You saw him?"  Each word came out edged like a knife
+from between her nearly closed lips.
+
+"Yes, madam."
+
+"How often?"
+
+"That once."
+
+"That has not hindered a traffic in letters."
+
+"Not on my side, madam.  I tore to fragments unread the only one that
+I received.  He had no right to send it!"
+
+"Certainly not.  You judge discreetly, Miss Delavie.  In fact you are
+too transcendent a paragon to be retained here."  Then, biting her lip,
+as if the bitter phrase had escaped unawares, she smiled blandly and
+said, "My good girl, you have merited to be returned to your friends.
+You may pack your mails and those of the children!"
+
+Aurelia shuddered with gladness, but Lady Belamour checked her thanks
+by continuing, "One service you must first do for me.  My perfumer is
+at a loss to understand your translation of the recipe for Queen Mary's
+wash.  I wish you to read and explain it to her."
+
+"Certainly, madam."
+
+"She lives near Greenwich Park," continued Lady Belamour, "and as I
+would not have the secret get abroad, I shall send a wherry to take
+you to the place early to-morrow morning.  Can you be ready by eight
+o'clock?"
+
+Aurelia readily promised, her heart bounding at the notion of a
+voyage down the river after her long imprisonment and at the promise
+of liberty!  She thought her husband must still be true to her, since
+my lady would have been the first to inform her of his defection, and
+as long as she had her ring and her certificate, she could feel little
+doubt that her father would be able to establish her claims.  And oh!
+to be with him and Betty once more!
+
+She was ready in good time, and had spent her leisure in packing.
+When Loveday appeared, she was greeted with a petition that the two
+little girls might accompany her; but this was refused at once, and
+the waiting-maid added in her caressing, consoling tone that Mrs.
+Dove was coming with their little brother and sister to take them
+a drive into the country.  They skipped about with glee, following
+Aurelia to the door of the court, and promising her posies of
+honeysuckles and roses, and she left her dear love with them for
+Amoret and Nurse Dove.
+
+At the door was a sedan chair, in which Aurelia was carried to some
+broad stone stairs, beside which lay a smartly-painted, trim-looking
+boat with four stout oarsmen.  She was handed into the stern, Loveday
+sitting opposite to her.  The woman was unusually silent, and could
+hardly be roused to reply to Aurelia's eager questions as she passed
+the gardens of Lincoln's Inn, saw St. Paul's rise above her, shot
+beneath the arch of London Bridge, and beheld the massive walls of
+the Tower with its low-browed arches opening above their steps.
+Whenever a scarlet uniform came in view, how the girl's eyes
+strained after it, thinking of one impossible, improbable chance
+of a recognition!  Once or twice she thought of a far more terrible
+chance, and wondered whether Lady Belamour knew how little confidence
+could be placed in Loveday; but she was sure that their expedition
+was my lady's own device, and the fresh air and motion, with all the
+new scenes, were so delightful to her that she could not dwell on any
+alarms.
+
+On, on, Redriffe, as the watermen named Rotherhithe, was on one bank,
+the marshes of the Isle of Dogs were gay with white cotton-grass and
+red rattle on the other.  Then came the wharves and building yards of
+Deptford, and beyond them rose the trees of Greenwich Park, while the
+river below exhibited a forest of masts.  The boat stopped at a
+landing-place to a little garden, with a sanded path, between herbs
+and flowers.  "This is Mistress Darke's," said Loveday, and as a
+little dwarfish lad came to the gate, she said, "We would speak
+with your mistress."
+
+"On your own part?'
+
+"From the great lady in Hanover Square."
+
+The lad came down to assist in their landing, and took them up the
+path to a little cupboard of a room, scented with a compound of every
+imaginable perfume.  Bottles of every sort of essence, pomade, and
+cosmetic were ranged on shelves, or within glass doors, interspersed
+with masks, boxes for patches, bunches of false hair, powder puffs,
+curling-irons, and rare feathers.  An alembic [a device used in
+distillation--D.L.] was in the fireplace, and pen and ink, in a
+strangely-shaped standish, were on the table.  Altogether there was
+something uncanny about the look and air of the room which made
+Aurelia tremble, especially as she perceived that Loveday was both
+frightened and distressed.
+
+The mistress of the establishment speedily appeared.  She had been a
+splendid Jewish beauty, and still in middle age, had great owl-like
+eyes, and a complexion that did her credit to her arts; but there was
+something indescribably repulsive in her fawning, deferential curtsey,
+as she said, in a flattering tone, with a slightly foreign accent,
+"The pretty lady is come, as our noble dame promised, to explain to
+the poor Cora Darke the great queen's secret!  Ah! how good it is to
+have learning.  What would not my clients give for such a skin as
+hers!  And I have many more, and greater than you would think, come
+to poor Cora's cottage.  There was a countess here but yesterday to
+ask how to blanch the complexion of miladi her daughter, who is about
+to wed a young baronet, beautiful as Love.  Bah! I might as well try
+to whiten a clove gillyflower!  Yet what has not nature done for this
+lovely miss?"
+
+"Shall I read you the paper?" said Aurelia, longing to end this part
+of the affair.
+
+"Be seated, fair and gracious lady."
+
+Aurelia tried to wave aside a chair, but Mrs. Darke, on the plea of
+looking over the words as she read, got her down upon a low couch,
+putting her own stout person and hooked face in unpleasant proximity,
+while she asked questions, and Aurelia mentioned her own conjectures
+on the obsolete French of the recipe, while she perceived, to her
+alarm, that the woman understood the technical terms much better than
+she did, and that her ignorance could have been only an excuse.
+
+At last it was finished, and she rose, saying it was time to return
+to the boat.
+
+"Nay, madam, that cannot be yet," said Loveday; "the watermen are gone
+to rest and dine, and we must wait for the tide to shoot the bridge."
+
+"Then pray let us go out and walk in Greenwich Park," exclaimed Aurelia,
+longing to escape from this den.
+
+"The sweet young lady will take something in the meantime?" said Mrs.
+Darke.
+
+"I thank you, I have breakfasted," said Aurelia.
+
+"My Lady intended us to eat here," said Loveday in an undertone to
+her young lady, as their hostess bustled out.  "She will make it
+good to Mrs. Darke."
+
+"I had rather go to the inn--I have money--or sit in the park," she
+added as Loveday looked as if going to the inn were an improper
+proposal.  "Could we not buy a loaf and eat in the park?  I should
+like it so much better."
+
+"One cup of coffee," said Mrs. Darke, entering; "the excellent Mocha
+that I get from the Turkey captains."
+
+She set down on a small table a wonderful cup of Eastern porcelain, and
+some little sugared cakes, and Aurelia, not to be utterly ungracious,
+tasted one, and began on the coffee, which was so hot that it had to
+be taken slowly.  As she sipped a soothing drowsiness came over her,
+which at first was accounted for by the warm room after her row on
+the river; but it gained upon her, and instead of setting out for
+her walk she fell sound asleep in the corner of the couch.
+
+"It has worked.  It is well," said Mrs. Darke, lifting the girl's feet
+on the couch, and producing a large pair of scissors.
+
+Loveday could not repress a little shriek.
+
+"Hush!" as the woman untied the black silk hood, drew it gently off,
+and then undid the ribbon that confined the victim's abundant tresses.
+"Bah! it will be grown by the time she arrives, and if not so long as
+present, what will they know of it?  It will be the more agreeable
+surprise!  Here, put yonder cloth under her head while I hold it up."
+
+"I cannot," sobbed Loveday.  "This is too much.  I never would have
+entered my Lady's service if I had known I was to be set to such as
+this."
+
+"Come, come, Grace Loveday, I know too much of you for you to come
+the Presician over me."
+
+"Such a sweet innocent!  So tender-hearted and civil too."
+
+"Bless you, woman, you don't know what's good for her!  She will be
+a very queen over the black slaves on the Indies.  Captain Karen will
+tell you how the wenches thank him for having brought 'em out.  They
+could never do any good here, you know, poor lasses; but out there,
+where white women are scarce, they are ready to worship the very
+ground they tread upon."
+
+"I tell you she ain't one of that sort.  She is a young lady of birth,
+a cousin of my Lady's own, as innocent as a babe, and there are two
+gentlemen, if not three, a dying for her."
+
+"I lay you anything not one of 'em is worth old Mr. Van Draagen, who
+turns his thousands every month.  'Send me out a lady lass,' says he,
+'one that will do me credit with the governor's lady.'  Why she will
+have an estate as big as from here to Dover, and slaves to wait on
+her, so as she need never stoop to pick up her glove.  He has been
+married twice before, and his last used to send orders for the best
+brocades in London.  He stuck at no expense.  The Queen has not finer
+gowns!"
+
+"But to think of the poor child's waking up out at sea."
+
+"Oh! Mrs. Karen will let her know she may think herself well off. I
+never let 'em go unless there's a married woman aboard to take charge
+of them, and that's why I kept your lady waiting till the _Red Cloud_
+was ready to sail.  You may tell her Ladyship she could not have a
+better berth, and she'll want for nothing.  I know what is due to the
+real quality, and I've put aboard all the toilette, and linen, and
+dresses as was bespoke for the last Mrs. Van Draagen, and there's a
+civil spoken wench aboard, what will wait on her for a consideration."
+
+"Nay, but mistress," said Loveday, whispering: "I know those that
+would give more than you will ever get from my Lady if they found
+her safe here."
+
+"Of course there are, or she would not be here now," said Mrs. Darke,
+with a horrid grin; "but that won't do, my lass.  A lady that's
+afraid of exposure will pay you, if she pawns her last diamond, but
+a gentleman--why, he gets sick of his fancy, and snaps his fingers
+at them that helped him!"  Then, looking keenly at Loveday, "You've
+not been playing me false, eh?"
+
+"O no, no," hastily exclaimed Loveday, cowering at the malignant look.
+
+"If so be you have, Grace Loveday, two can play at that game," said
+Mrs. Darke composedly.  "There, I have left her enough to turn back.
+What hair it is!  Feel the weight of it!  There's not another head
+of the mouse-colour to match your Lady's in the kingdom," she added,
+smoothing out the severed tresses with the satisfaction of a
+connoisseur.  "No wonder madame could not let this be wasted on the
+plantations, when you and I and M. le Griseur know her own hair is
+getting thinner than she would wish a certain Colonel to guess.
+There! the pretty dear, what a baby she looks!  I will tie her on
+a cowl, lest she should take cold on the river.  See these rings.
+Did you Lady give no charge about them?"
+
+"I had forgot!" said the waiting-woman, confused; "she charged me to
+bring them back, old family jewels, she said, that must not be carried
+off to foreign parts; but I cannot, cannot do it.  To rob that pretty
+creature in her sleep."
+
+"Never fear.  She'll soon have a store much finer than these!  You
+fool, I tell you she will not wake these six or eight hours.  Afraid?
+There, I'll do it! Ho! A ruby?  A love-token, I wager; and what's
+this?  A carved Cupid.  I could turn a pretty penny by that, when
+your lady finds it convenient, and her luck at play goes against her.
+Eh! is this a wedding-ring?  Best take that off; Mr. Van Draagen
+might not understand it, you see.  Here they are.  Have you a patch-
+box handy for them in your pocket?  Why what ails the woman?  You
+may thank your stars there's some one here with her wits about her!
+None of your whimpering, I say, her comes Captain Karen."
+
+Two seafaring men here came up the garden path, the foremost small
+and dapper, with a ready address and astute countenance.  "All right,
+Mother Darkness, is our consignment ready?  Aye, aye!  And the
+freight?"
+
+"This lady has it," said Mrs. Darke, pointing to Loveday; "I have
+been telling her she need have no fears for her young kinswoman in
+your hands, Captain."
+
+He swore a round oath to that effect, and looking at the sleeping
+maiden, again swore that she was the choicest piece of goods ever
+confided to him, and that he knew better than let such an article
+arrive damaged.  Mr. Van Draagen ought to come down handsomely
+for such an extra fine sample; but in the meantime he accepted
+the rouleau of guineas that Loveday handed to him, the proceeds,
+as she told Mrs. Darke, of my Lady's winnings last night at loo.
+
+All was ready.  Poor Aurelia was swathed from head to foot in a large
+mantle, like the chrysalis whose name she bore, the two sailors took
+her up between them, carried her to their boat, and laid her along in
+the stern.  Then they pushed off and rowed down the river.  Loveday
+looked up and looked down, then sank on the steps, convulsed with
+grief, sobbing bitterly.  "She said He could deliver her from the
+mouth of lions!  And He has not," she murmured under her breath,
+in utter misery and hopelessness.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.  DOWN THE RIVER.
+
+    The lioness, ye may move her
+    To give o'er her prey,
+    But ye'll ne'er stop a lover,
+    He will find out the way.
+
+
+Elizabeth Delavie and her little brother were standing in the bay
+window of their hotel, gazing eagerly along the street in hopes of
+seeing the Major return, when Sir Amyas was seen riding hastily up
+on his charger, in full accoutrements, with a soldier following.
+In another moment he had dashed up stairs, and saying, "Sister,
+read that!" put into Betty's hand a slip of paper on which was
+written in pencil--
+
+"If Sir A. B. would not have his true love kidnapped to the plantations,
+he had best keep watch on the river gate of Mistress Darke's garden
+at Greenwich.  No time to lose."
+
+"Who brought you this?" demanded Betty, as well as she could speak
+for horror.
+
+"My mother's little negro boy, Syphax.  He says Mrs. Loveday, her
+waiting-woman, gave it to him privately on the stairs, as she was
+about to get into a sedan, telling him I would give him a crown if
+he gave it me as I came off parade."
+
+"Noon!  Is there time?"
+
+"Barely, but there shall be time.  There is no time to seek your
+father."
+
+"No, but I must come with you."
+
+"The water is the quickest way.  There are stairs near.  I'll send
+my fellow to secure a boat."
+
+"I will be ready instantly, while you tell your uncle.  It might be
+better if he came."
+
+Sir Amyas flew to his uncle's door, but found him gone out, and, in
+too great haste to inquire further, came down again to find Betty in
+cloak and hood.  He gave her his arm, and, Eugene trotting after them,
+they hurried to the nearest stairs, remembering in dire confirmation
+what Betty had heard from the school-girl.  Both had heard reports
+that young women were sometimes thus deported to become wives to the
+planters in the southern colonies or the West Indies, but that such
+a destiny should be intended for their own Aurelia, and by Lady
+Belamour, was scarcely credible.  Doubts rushed over Betty, but she
+remembered what the school-girl had said of the captive being sent
+beyond seas; and at any rate, she must risk the expedition being
+futile when such issues hung upon it.  And if they failed to meet her
+father, she felt that her presence might prevail when the undefined
+rights of so mere a lad as her companion might be disregarded.
+
+His soldier servant had secured a boat, and they rapidly descended
+to the river; Sir Amyas silent between suspense, dismay and shame
+for his mother, and Betty trying to keep Eugene quiet by hurried
+answers to his eager questions about all he saw.  They had to get
+out at London Bridge, and take a fresh boat on the other side, a
+much larger one, with two oarsmen, and a grizzled old coxswain, with
+a pleasant honest countenance, who presently relieved Betty of all
+necessity of attending to, or answering, Eugene's chatter.
+
+"Do you know where this garden is?" said she, leaning across to Sir
+Amyas, who had engaged the boat to go to Greenwich.
+
+He started as if it were a new and sudden thought, and turning to the
+steersman demanded whether he knew Mrs. Darke's garden.
+
+The old man gave a kind of grunt, and eyed the trio interrogatively,
+the young officer with his fresh, innocent, boyish face and brilliant
+undisguised uniform, the handsome child, the lady neither young, gay,
+nor beautiful, but unmistakeably a decorous gentlewoman.
+
+"Do you know Mrs. Darke's?" repeated Sir Amyas.
+
+"Aye, do I?  Mayhap I know more about the place than you do."
+
+There was that about his face that moved Betty and the young man to
+look at one another, and the former said, "She has had to do with--
+evil doings?"
+
+"You may say that, ma'am."
+
+"Then," they cried in one breath, "you will help us!"  And in a very
+few words Betty explained their fears for her young sister, and asked
+whether he thought the warning possible.
+
+"I've heard tell of such things!" said the old man between his teeth,
+"and Mother Darkness is one to do 'em.  Help you to bring back the
+poor young lass?  That we will, if we have to break down the door
+with our fists.  And who is this young spark?  Her brother or her
+sweetheart?"
+
+"Her husband!" said Sir Amyas.  "Her husband from whom she has been
+cruelly spirited away.  Aid me to bring her back, my good fellow, and
+nothing would be too much to reward you."
+
+"Aye, aye, captain, Jem Green's not the man to see an English girl
+handed over to they slave-driving, outlandish chaps.  But I say, I
+wish you'd got a cloak or summat to put over that scarlet and gold
+of yourn.  It's a regular flag to put the old witch on her guard."
+
+On that summer's day, however, no cloak was at hand.  They went down
+the river very rapidly, for the tide was running out and at length
+Jem Green pointed out the neat little garden.  On the step sat a
+woman, apparently weeping bitterly.  Could it be the object of their
+search?  No, but as they came nearer, and she was roused so as to
+catch sight of the scarlet coat, she beckoned and gesticulated with
+all her might; and as they approached Sir Amyas recognised her as
+his mother's maid.
+
+"You will be in time yet," she cried breathlessly.  "Oh! take me in,
+or you won't know the ship!"
+
+So eager and terrified was she, that but for the old steersman's
+peremptory steadiness, her own life and theirs would have been in
+much peril, but she was safely seated at last, gasping out, "The
+_Red Cloud_, Captain Karen.  They've been gone these ten minutes."
+
+"Aye, aye," gruffly responded Green, and the oars moved rapidly, while
+Loveday with another sob cried, "Oh! sir, I thought you would never
+come!"
+
+"You sent the warning?"
+
+Yes, sir, I knew nothing till the morning, when my Lady called me
+up.  I lie in her room, you know.  She had given orders, and I was
+to take the sweet lady and go down the river with her to Mrs. Darke,
+the perfuming woman my Lady has dealings with about here hair and
+complexion.  There I was to stay with her till--till this same sea-
+captain was to come and carry her off where she would give no more
+trouble.  Oh, sir, it was too much--and my Lady knew it, for she
+had tied my hands so that I had but a moment to scribble down that
+scrip, and bid Syphax take it to you.  The dear lady! she said, 'her
+God could deliver her out of the mouth of the lion,' and I could not
+believe it!  I thought it too late!"
+
+"How can we thank you," began Betty; but she was choked by intense
+anxiety, and Jem Green broke in with an inquiry where the ship was
+bound for.  Loveday only had a general impression of the West Indies,
+and believed that the poor lady's destined spouse was a tobacconist,
+and as the boat was soon among a forest of shipping where it could
+not proceed so fast, Green had to inquire of neighbouring mariners
+where the _Red Cloud_ was lying.
+
+"The _Red Cloud_, Karen, weighs anchor for Carolina at flood tide
+to-night.  Shipper just going aboard," they were told.
+
+Their speed had been so rapid that they were in time to see the
+boat alongside, and preparations being made to draw up some one
+or something on board.  "Oh! that is she!" cried Loveday in great
+agitation.  "They've drugged her.  No harm done.  She don't know
+it.  But it is she!"
+
+Sir Amyas, with a voice of thunder, called out, "Halt, villain," at
+the same moment as Green shouted "Avast there, mate!"  And their boat
+came dashing up alongside.
+
+"Yield me up that lady instantly, fellow!" cried Sir Amyas, with his
+sword half drawn.
+
+"And who are you, I should like to know," returned Karen, coolly,
+"swaggering at an honest man taking his freight and passengers
+aboard?"
+
+"I'll soon show you!"
+
+"Hush, sir," said Green, who had caught sight of pistols and cutlasses,
+"let me speak a moment.  Look you here, skipper, this young gentleman
+and lady have right on their side.  This is her sister, and he is her
+husband.  They are people of condition, as you see."
+
+"All's one to me on the broad seas."
+
+"That may be," said Green, "but you see you can't weigh anchor these
+three hours or more; and what's to hinder the young captain here from
+swearing against you before a magistrate, and getting your vessel
+searched, eh?"
+
+"I've no objection to hear reason if I'm spoke to reasonable," said
+Karen, sulkily; "but I'll not be bullied like a highwayman, when I've
+my consignment regularly made out, and the freight down in hand,
+square."
+
+"You may keep your accursed passage-money and welcome," cried Sir
+Amyas, "so you'll only give me my wife!"
+
+"Show him the certificate," whispered Betty.
+
+Sir Amyas had it ready, and he read it loud enough for all on the
+Thames to hear.  Karen gave a sneering little laugh.  "What's that
+to me?  My passenger here has her berth taken in the name of Ann
+Davis."
+
+"Like enough," said Loveday, "but you remember me, captain, and I
+swear that this poor young lady is what his Honour Sir Amyas say.
+He is a generous young gentleman, and will make it up to you if you
+are at any loss in the matter."
+
+"A hundred times over!" exclaimed Amyas hotly.
+
+"Hardly that," said Karen.  "Van Draagen might have been good for a
+round hundred if he'd been pleased with the commission."
+
+"I'll give you and order--" began Sir Amyas.
+
+"What have you got about you, sir?" interrupted Karen.  "I fancy hard
+cash better than your orders."
+
+The youth pulled out his purse.  There was only a guinea or two and
+some silver.  "One does not go out to parade with much money about
+one," he said, with a trembling endeavour for a smile, "but if you
+would send up to my quarters in Whitehall Barracks---"
+
+"Never mind, sir," said Karen, graciously.  "I see you are in earnest,
+and I'll put up with the loss rather than stand in the light of a couple
+of true lovers.  Here, Jack, lend a hand, and we'll hoist the young
+woman over.  She's quiet enough, thanks to Mother Darkness."
+
+The sudden change in tone might perhaps be owing to the skipper's
+attention having been called by a sign from one of his men to a boat
+coming up from Woolwich, rowed by men of the Royal navy, who were
+certain to take part with an officer; but Sir Amyas and Betty were
+only intent on receiving the inanimate form wrapped up in its mantle.
+What a meeting it was for Betty, and yet what joy to have her at all!
+They laid her with her head in her sister's lap, and Sir Amyas hung
+over her, clasping one of the limp gloved hands, while Eugene called
+"Aura, Aura," and would have impetuously kissed her awake, but Loveday
+caught hold of him.  "Do not, do not, for pity's sake, little master,"
+she said; "the potion will do her no harm if you let her sleep it off,
+but she may not know you if you waken her before the time."
+
+"Wretch, what have you given her?" cried Sir Amyas.
+
+"It was not me, sir, it was Mrs. Darke, in a cup of coffee.  She vowed
+it would do no hurt if only she was let to sleep six or eight hours.
+And see what a misery it has saved her from!"
+
+"That is true," said Betty.  "Indeed I believe this is a healthy sleep.
+See how gently she breathes, how soft and natural her colour is, how
+cool and fresh her cheek is.  I cannot believe there is serious harm
+done."
+
+"How soon can we reach a physician?" asked Sir Amyas, still anxiously,
+of the coxswain.
+
+"I can't rightly say, sir," replied he; "but never you fear.  They
+wouldn't do aught to damage such as she."
+
+Patience must perforce be exercised as, now against the tide and the
+stream, the wherry worked its way back.  Once there was a little stir;
+Sir Amyas instantly hovered over Aurelia, and clasped her hand with a
+cry of "My dearest life!"  The long dark eyelashes slowly rose, the
+eyes looked up for one moment from his face to her sister's, and then
+to her brother's, but the lids sank as if weighed down, and with a
+murmur, "Oh, don't wake me," she turned her face around on Betty's
+lap and slept again.
+
+"Poor darling, she thinks it a dream," said Betty.  "Eugene, do not.
+Sir, I entreat!  Brother, yes I _will_ call you so if you will only
+let her alone!  See how happy and peaceful her dear face is!  Do not
+rouse her into terror and bewilderment."
+
+"If I only were sure she was safe," he sighed, hanging over, with an
+intensity of affection and anxiety that brought a dew even to the old
+steersman's eyes; and he kindly engrossed Eugene by telling about the
+places they passed, and setting him to watch the smart crew of the
+boat from the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, which was gaining on them.
+
+Meanwhile the others interrogated Loveday, who told them of the
+pretext on which Lady Belamour had sent her captive down to Mrs.
+Darke's.  No one save herself had, in my Lady's household, she said,
+an idea of where the young lady was, Lady Belamour having employed
+only hired porters except on that night when Lady Aresfield's carriage
+brought her.  This had led to the captivity being know to Lady Belle
+and her brother, and Loveday had no doubt that it was the discovery
+of their being aware of it, as well as Jumbo's appearance in the
+court, that had made her mistress finally decide on this frightful
+mode of ridding herself of the poor girl.  The maid was as adroit a
+dissembler as her mistress, and she held her peace as to her own part
+in forwarding Colonel Mar's suit, whether her lady guessed it or not,
+but she owned with floods of tears how the sight of the young lady's
+meek and dutiful submission, her quiet trust, and her sweet, simple
+teaching of the children, had wakened into life again a conscience
+long dead to all good, and made it impossible to her to carry out
+this last wicked commission without an attempt to save the creature
+whom she had learnt to reverence as a saint.  Most likely her scruples
+had been suspected by her mistress, for there had been an endeavour
+to put it out of her power to give any warning to the victim.  Yet
+after all, the waiting-maid had been too adroit for the lady, or,
+as she fully owned, Aurelia's firm trust had not been baulked, and
+deliverance from the lions had come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.  THE RETURN.
+
+
+    And now the glorious artist, ere he yet
+    Had reached the Lemnian Isle, limping, returned;
+    With aching heart he sought his home.
+                                      _Odyssey_--COWPER.
+
+
+How were they to get the slumbering maiden home?  That was the next
+question.  Loveday advised carrying her direct to her old prison,
+where she would wake without alarm; but Sir Amyas shuddered at the
+notion, and Betty said she _could_ not take her again into a house
+of Lady Belamour's.
+
+The watermen, who were enthusiastic in the cause, which they understood
+as that of one young sweetheart rescued by the other, declared that they
+would carry the sweet lady between them on the cushions of their boat,
+laid on stretchers; and as they knew of a land-place near the _Royal
+York_, with no need of crossing any great thoroughfare, Betty thought
+this the best chance of taking her sister home without a shock.
+
+The boat from Woolwich had shot London Bridge immediately after them,
+and stopped at the stairs nearest that where they landed; and just as
+Sir Amyas, with an exclamation of annoyance at his unserviceable arm,
+had resigned Aurelia to be lifted on to her temporary litter, a hand
+was laid on his shoulder, a voice said "Amyas, what means this?" and
+he found himself face to face with a small, keen-visaged, pale man,
+with thick grizzled brows overhanging searching dark grey eyes, shaded
+by a great Spanish hat.
+
+"Sir! oh sir, is it you?" he cried, breathlessly; "now all will be well!"
+
+"I am very glad you think so, Amyas," was the grave answer; "for all
+this has a strange appearance."
+
+"It is my dearest wife, sir, my wife, whom I have just recovered after
+--Oh, say, sir, if you think all is well with her, and it is only a
+harmless sleeping potion.  Sister--Betty--this is my good father, Mr.
+Wayland.  He is as good as a physician.  Let him see my sweetest life."
+
+Mr. Wayland bent over the slumbering figure still in the bottom of
+the boat, heard what could be told of the draught by Loveday, whom
+he recognized as his wife's attendant, and feeling Aurelia's pulse,
+said, "I should not think there was need for fear.  To the outward
+eye she is a model of sleeping innocence."  "Well you may say so,"
+and "She is indeed," broke from the baronet and the waiting-maid at
+the same instant; but Mr. Wayland heeded them little as he impatiently
+asked, "Where and how is your mother, Amyas?"
+
+"In health sir, at home, I suppose," said Sir Amyas; "but oh, sir,
+hear me, before you see her."
+
+"I must, if you walk with me," said Mr. Wayland, turning for a moment
+to bid his servant reward and dismiss the boat's crew, and see to the
+transport of his luggage; and in the meantime Aurelia was lifted by
+her bearers.
+
+Sir Amyas again uttered a rejoicing, "We feared you were in the hands
+of the pirates, sir."
+
+"So I was; but the governor of Gibraltar obtained my release, and was
+good enough to send me home direct in a vessel on the king's service,"
+said Mr. Wayland, taking the arm his stepson offered to assist his
+lameness.  "Now for your explanation, Amyas; only let me hear first
+that my babes are well."
+
+"Yes, sir, all well.  You had my letter?"
+
+"Telling of that strange disguised wedding?  I had, the very day I
+was captured."
+
+By the time they had come to the place where their ways parted, Mr.
+Wayland had heard enough to be so perplexed and distressed that he
+knew not that he had been drawn out of the way to Hanover Square,
+till at the entrance of the _Royal York_, they found Betty asseverating
+to the landlady that she was bringing no case of small pox into the
+house; and showing, as a passport of admittance, two little dents on
+the white wrist and temple.
+
+At that instant the sound brought Major Delavie hurrying from his
+sitting-room at his best speed.  There was a look of horror on his
+face as he saw his daughter's senseless condition, but Betty sprang
+to his side to prevent his wakening her, and Aurelia was safely
+carried up stairs and laid upon her sister's bed, still sleeping,
+while Betty and Loveday unloosed her clothes.  Her bearers were
+sent for refreshment to the bar, and the gentlemen stood looking
+on one another in the sitting-room, Mr. Wayland utterly shocked,
+incredulous of the little he did understand, and yet unable to go
+home until he should hear more; and the Major hardly less horrified,
+in the midst of his relief.  "But where's Belamour!" he cried, "Your
+uncle, I mean."
+
+"Where?" said Sir Amyas.  "They said he was gone out."
+
+"So they told me!  And see here!"
+
+Major Delavie produced Lady Belamour's note.
+
+"A blind!" cried Sir Amyas, turning away under a strange stroke of
+pain and sham.  "Oh! mother, mother!" and he dashed out of the room.
+
+Poor Mr. Wayland sat down as one who could stand no longer.  "Of
+what do they suspect her?" he said hoarsely.
+
+"Sir," said the good Major, "I grieve sincerely for and with you.
+Opposition to this match with my poor child seems to have transported
+my poor cousin to strange and frantic lengths, but you may trust me
+to shield and guard her from exposure as far as may be."
+
+Her husband only answered by a groan, and wrung Major Delavie's hand,
+but their words were interrupted by Sir Amyas's return.  He had been
+to his uncle's chamber, and had found on the table a note addressed
+to the Major.  Within was a inclosure directed to A. Belamour, Esq.
+
+  "If you have found the way to the poor captive, for pity's sake
+   come to her rescue.  Be in the court with your faithful black
+   by ten o'clock, and you may yet save on who loves and looks to
+   you."
+
+On the outer sheet was written--
+
+  "I distrust this handwriting, and suspect a ruse.  In case I do
+   not return, send for Hargrave, Sandys, Godfrey, as witnesses to
+   my sanity, and storm the fair one's fortress in person.   A. B."
+
+"It is not my Aurelia's writing," said the Major.  "Bravest of friends,
+what has he not dared on her account!"
+
+"This is too much!" cried Mr. Wayland, striving in horror against his
+convictions.  "I cannot hear my beloved wife loaded with monstrous
+suspicions in her absence!"
+
+"I am sorry to say this is no new threat ever since poor Belamour has
+crossed her path," said the Major.
+
+"What have you done, sir!" asked Sir Amyas.
+
+"I fear I have but wasted time," said the Major.  "I have been to
+Hanover Square, and getting no admittance there, I came back in the
+hope you might be on the track with Betty--as, thank God, you were!
+The first thing to be done now is to find what she has done with
+Belamour," he added, rising up.
+
+"That must fall to my share," said Mr. Wayland, pale and resolute.
+"Come with me, Amyas, your young limbs will easily return before the
+effect of the narcotic has passed, and I need fuller explanation."
+
+Stillness than came on the Delavie party.  The Major went up stairs,
+and sat by Aurelia's bed gazing with eyes dazzled with tears at the
+child he had so longed to see, and whom he found again in this strange
+trance.  A doctor came, and quite confirmed Mr. Wayland's opinion,
+that the drug would not prove deleterious, provided the sleep was
+not disturbed, and Betty continued her watch, after hearing what her
+father knew of Mr. Belamour.  She was greatly struck with the self-
+devotion that had gone with open eyes into so dreadful a snare as a
+madhouse of those days rather than miss the least chance of saving
+Aurelia.
+
+"If we go by perils dared, the uncle is the true knight-errant," said
+she to her father.  "I wonder which our child truly loves the best!"
+
+"Betty!" said her father, scandalised.
+
+"Ay, I know, Sir Amyas is a charming boy, but what a boy he is!  And
+she has barely spoken with him or seen him, whereas Mr. Belamour has
+been kind to her for a whole twelvemonth.  I know what I should do if
+I were in her place.  I would declare that I intended to be married
+to the uncle, and would keep it!"
+
+"He would think it base to put the question."
+
+"He would; but indeed, dear sir, I think it would be but right and
+due to the dear child herself that she should have here free choice,
+and not be bound for ever by a deception!  Yes, I know the poor boy's
+despair would be dreadful, but it would be better for them both than
+such a mistake."
+
+"Hush! I hear him knocking at the door, you cruel woman."
+
+The bedroom opened into the parlour the party had hired, so that both
+could come out and meet Sir Amyas with the door ajar, without relaxing
+their watch upon the sleeper.  The poor young man looked pale, shocked,
+and sorrowful.  "Well," said he, after having read in their looks that
+there was no change, "he knows the worst."  Then on a further token
+of interrogation, "It may have been my fault; I took him, unannounced,
+through the whole suite of rooms, and in the closet at the end, with
+all the doors open, she was having an altercation with Mar.  He was
+insisting on knowing what she had done with"--(he signed towards the
+other room) "she, upbraiding him with faithlessness.  They were deaf
+to an approach, till Mr. Wayland, in a loud voice, ordered me back,
+saying 'it was no scene for a son.'"
+
+"I trust it will not end in a challenge?" asked the Major, gravely.
+
+"No, my father's infirmity renders him no fighting man, and I--I may
+not challenge my superior officer."
+
+"But your uncle?" said Betty, much fearing that such a scene might
+have led to his being forgotten.
+
+"I should have told you.  We had not made many steps from hence before
+we met poor Jumbo wandering like a dog that had lost his master.  Mr.
+Belamour had taken the precaution of giving Jumbo the pass-key, and
+not taking him into that house (some day I will pull every brick of
+it down), so he watched till by and by he saw a coach come out with
+all the windows closed, and as his master had bidden him in such a
+case, he kept along on the pavement near, and never lost sight of it
+till he had tracked it right across the City to a house with iron-
+barred windows inside a high wall.  There it went in, and he could
+not follow, but he asked the people what place it was, and though
+they jeered at him, he made out that it was as we feared.  Nay, do
+not be alarmed, sister, he will soon be with us.  My poor father
+shut me out, and I know not what passed with my mother, but just as
+I could wait no longer to return to my dearest, he came out and told
+me that he had found out that my uncle was in a house at Moorfields,
+and he is gone himself to liberate him.  He is himself a justice of
+the peace, and he will call for Dr. Sandys by the way, that there
+may be no difficulty.  He is gone in the coach-and-four, with Jumbo
+on the box, so that matters will soon be righted."
+
+"And a heroic champion set free," said Betty moving to return to her
+sister, when the others would not be denied having another look at
+the sweet slumberer, on whose face there was now a smile as if her
+dreams were marvellously lovely; or, as Betty thought, as if she
+knew their voices even in her sleep.
+
+Sir Amyas had not seen his mother again.  He only knew that Mr.
+Wayland had come out with a face as of one stricken to the heart,
+a sad contrast to that which had greeted him an hour before, and
+while the carriage was coming round, had simply said, "I did wrong
+to leave her."
+
+It would not bear being talked over, and both son and kinsman took
+refuge in silence.  Two hours more of this long day had passed, and
+then a coach stopped at the door.  Sir Amyas hurried down in his
+eager anxiety, and came back with his uncle, holding him by the hand
+like a child, in his gladness, and Betty came out to meet them in the
+outer room with a face of grateful welcome and outstretched hands.
+
+"Sir! sir! you have done more than all of us."
+
+"Yet you and your young champion here were the victors," said Mr.
+Belamour.
+
+"Ah, we dared and suffered nothing like you."
+
+"I hope you did not suffer much," said the major, looking at the calm
+face and neatly-tied white hair, which seemed to have suffered no
+disarrangement.
+
+"No," said Mr. Belamour, smiling, "my little friend Eugene, ay, and
+my nephew himself, are hoping to hear I was released from fetters
+and a heap of straw, but I took care to give them no opportunity.  I
+merely told them they were under a mistake, and had better take care.
+I gave them a reference or two, but I saw plainly that was of no use,
+though they promised to send, and then I did exactly as they bade me,
+so as to deprive them of all excuse for meddling with me, letting
+them know that I could pay for decent treatment so long as I was in
+their hands."
+
+"Did you receive it?"
+
+"I was told in a mild manner, adapted to my intelligence, that if I
+behaved well, I might eat at the master's table, and have a room with
+only one inmate.  Of the former I have not an engaging experience,
+either as to the fare, the hostess, or the company.  Of the latter,
+happily I know little, as I only know that my comrade was to be a
+harmless gibbering idiot; of good birth, poor fellow.  However, the
+sounds I heard, and the court I looked into, convinced me that my
+privileges were worth paying for."
+
+He spoke very quietly, but he shuddered involuntarily, and Betty,
+unable to restrain her tears, retreated to her sister's side.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVI.  WAKING.
+
+
+    So Love was still the Lord of all.--SCOTT.
+
+
+The summer sun was sinking and a red glow was on the wall above Aurelia's
+head when she moved again, upon the shutting of the door, while supper
+was being taken by the gentlemen in the outer room.
+
+Presently her lips moved, and she said, "Sister," not in surprise,
+but as if she thought herself at home, and as Betty gently answered,
+"Yes, my darling child," the same voice added, "I have had such a
+dream; I thought I was a chrysalis, and that I could not break my
+shell nor spread my wings."
+
+"You can now, my sweet," said Betty, venturing to kiss her.
+
+Recollection came.  "Sister Betty, is it you indeed?" and she threw
+her arms round Betty's neck, clinging tight to her in delicious
+silence, till she raised her head and said: "No, this is not home.
+Oh, is it all true?"
+
+"True that I have you again, my dear, dearest, sweetest child," said
+Betty.  "Oh, thank God for it."
+
+"Thank God," repeated Aurelia.  "Now I have you nothing will be
+dreadful.  But where am I?  I thought once I was in a boat with you
+and Eugene, and some one else.  Was it a dream?  I can't remember
+anything since that terrible old woman made me drink the coffee.
+You have not come there, have you?"
+
+"No, dear child, it was no dream that you were in a boat.  We had
+been searching everywhere for you, and we were bringing you back
+sound, sound asleep," said Betty, in her tenderness speaking as it
+to a little child.
+
+"I knew you would," said Aurelia; "I knew God would save me.  Love is
+strong as death, you know," she added dreamily: "I think I felt it all
+round me in that sleep."
+
+"That was what you murmured once or twice in your sleep," said Betty.
+
+"And now, oh! it is so sweet to lie here and know it is you.  And
+wasn't _he_ there too?"
+
+"Sir Amyas?  Yes, my dear.  He came for you.  He and my father and
+the others are in the other room waiting for you to wake."
+
+"I hear their voices," cried Aurelia, with a start, sitting up.  "Oh!
+that's my papa's voice!  Oh! how good it is to hear it!"
+
+"I will call him as soon as I have set you a little in order.  Are
+you sure you are well, my dearest?  No headache?"
+
+"Quite, quite well!  Why, sister, I have not been ill; and if I had,
+I should skip to see you and hear their voices, only I wish they would
+speak louder!  That's Eugene!  Oh! they are hushing him.  Let me make
+haste," and she moved with an alacrity that was most reassuring.  "But
+I can't understand.  Is it morning or evening?"
+
+"Evening, my dear.  They are at supper.  Are not you hungry?"
+
+"Oh, yes, I believe I am;" but as she was about to wash her hands:
+"My rings, my wedding-ring?  Look in my glove!"
+
+"No, they are not there my dear, they must have robbed you!  And oh!
+Aurelia, what have you done to your hair?"
+
+"My hair?  It was all there this morning.  Sister, it was that woman,
+I remember now, I was not quite sound asleep, but I had no power to
+move or cry out, and the woman was snipping and Loveday crying."
+
+"Vile creature!" burst out Betty.
+
+"My hair will grow!" said Aurelia; "but I had so guarded my wedding-
+ring--and what will he, Sir Amyas, think?"
+
+Their voices were at this moment heard, and in another second Aurelia
+was held against her father's breast, as in broken words he sobbed out
+thanks for her restoration, and implored her pardon for having trusted
+her out of his care.
+
+"Oh! sir, do not speak so!  Dear papa, I have tried hard to do you no
+harm, and to behave well.  Please, sir, give me your blessing."
+
+"God bless you indeed, my child.  He has blessed you in guarding you as
+your innocence deserved, though I did not.  Ah! others are impatient.
+The poor old father comes second now."
+
+After a few minutes spent in repairing the disorder of her dress, and
+her hands in those of her father and little brother, she was led to
+the outer room where in the twilight there was a rapturous rush, an
+embrace, a fondling of the hand in the manner more familiar to her
+than the figure from before whom it proceeded.  She only said in her
+gentle plaintive tone, "Oh, sir, it was not my fault.   They took
+away your rings."
+
+"Nay," said a voice, new to her, "here are your rings, Lady Belamour.
+I must trust to your Christian charity to pardon her who caused you
+to be stripped of them."
+
+The name of Lady Belamour made her start as that of her enemy, but a
+truly familiar tone said, "You need not fear, my kind friend.  This
+is Mr. Wayland, who, to our great joy, has returned, and has come to
+restore your jewels."
+
+"Indeed I am very glad yours is not lost," said Aurelia, not a little
+bewildered.
+
+Mr. Wayland said a few words of explanation that his wife's agent at
+Greenwich had brought them back to her.
+
+"Pray let me have them," entreated Sir Amyas; "I must put them on
+again!"
+
+"Stay," said Major Delavie; "I can have such things done only under
+true colours and in the full light of day.  The child is scarcely
+awake yet, and does not know one from the other!  Why neither of you
+so much as know the colour of the eyes of the other!  Can you tell
+me sir?"
+
+"Heavenly," exclaimed the youth, in an ecstatic tone of self-defence,
+which set the Major laughing and saying, "My silly maid knows as
+little which gentleman put on the ring."
+
+"I do, sir," said Aurelia indignantly; "I know his voice and hand
+quite well," and in the impulse she quitted her father's arm and
+put both hands into those of her young adorer, saying, "Pray sir,
+pardon me, I never thought to hurt you so cruelly."
+
+There was a cry of, "My own, my dearest life," and she was clasped as
+she had been immediately after her strange wedding.
+
+However, the sound of a servant's step made them separate instantly,
+and Betty begged that the supper might not be removed, since it was
+many hours since her sister had tasted food.
+
+Sir Amyas and Betty hovered about her, giving her whatever she could
+need, in the partial light, while the others stood apart, exchanging
+such explanations as they could.  Mr. Wayland said he must report
+himself to Government on the morrow; but intended afterwards to take
+his wife to Bowstead, whither she had sent all her children with Mrs.
+Dove.  There was a great tenderness in his tone as he spoke of her,
+and when he took leave Mr. Belamour shrugged his shoulders saying,
+"She will come round him again!"
+
+"It is true enough that he ought not to have left her to herself,"
+said the Major.
+
+"You making excuses for her after the diabolical plot of to-day?"
+said Mr. Belamour; "I could forgive her all but that letter to you."
+
+"My Lady loves her will," quoted the Major; "it amounts to insanity
+in some women, I believe."
+
+"So I might say does men's infatuation towards women like her,"
+muttered Mr. Belamour.
+
+By this time Aurelia had finished her meal, and Betty was anxious to
+carry her off without any more excitement, for she was still drowsy
+and confused.  She bade her father good night, asking his blessing
+as of old, but when Mr. Belamour kissed her hand and repeated the
+good night, she said, "Sir, I ought to have trusted you; I am so
+sorry."
+
+"It is all well now, my child," he said, soothingly, understanding
+Betty's wish; "Sleep, and we will talk it over."
+
+So the happy sisters once more slept in each other's arms, till in
+the early summer morning Betty heard the whole story from Aurelia,
+now fully herself, though she slumbered again after all was poured
+into her sister's bosom.
+
+Betty had sympathised step by step, and felt even more strongly than
+Harriet that the situation had been intolerable for womanhood, and
+that only Aurelia's childishness could have endured it so long.  Only
+the eldest sister held that it would have been right and honourable
+to have spoken before flashing out the flame; but when, with many
+tears of contrition, Aurelia owned that she had long thought so, and
+longed to confess it, what could the motherly sister do but kiss the
+tears away, and rejoice that the penance was over which had been borne
+with such constancy and self-devotion.
+
+Then Betty rose quietly, and after giving thanks on her knees that the
+gentle spirit had passed through all unscathed, untainted with even
+the perception of evil, she applied herself to the adaptation of one
+of her morning caps to her poor shorn lamb's head.  Nor did Aurelia
+wake again till her father came to the door to make sure that all was
+well with his recovered treasure, and to say that Loveday would
+recover for her the box of clothes, which old Madge had hidden.
+
+Loveday had gone back to her mistress, who either had not discovered
+her betrayal, or, as things had turned out, could not resent it.
+
+So, fresh and blooming, Aurelia came out into the sitting-room, whence
+her father held out his arms to her.  He would have her all to himself
+for a little while, since even Eugene was gone to his daily delight,
+the seeing the changing of the guard.
+
+"And now, my child, tell me," he said, when he had heard a little of
+her feelings through these adventures, "what would you have me do?
+Remember, such a wedding as yours goes for nothing, and you are still
+free to choose either or neither of your swains."
+
+"Oh, papa!" in a remonstrating tone.
+
+"You were willing to wed your old hermit?"
+
+"I was content _then_.  He was very kind to me."
+
+"Content then, eh?  Suppose you were told he was your real husband?"
+
+"Sir, he is not!" cried Aurelia, frightened.
+
+"If he were?"
+
+"I would try to do my duty," she said, in a choked voice.
+
+"Silly child, don't cry.  And how, if after these fool's tricks it
+turns out that the other young spark is bound to that red-faced
+little spitfire and cannot have you?"
+
+"Papa, don't!" she cried.  "You know he is my husband in my heart,
+and always will be, and if he cannot come back to me take me home,
+and I will try to be a good daughter to you," and she hid her face
+on his shoulder.
+
+"Poor child, it is a shame to tease her," said her father, raising up
+her face; "I only wanted to know which of them you would wish to put
+on the ring again.  I see.  You need not be afraid, you shall have
+the ruby one.  But as for the little gold one, wait for that till it
+is put on in church, my dear.  Ah! and there's the flutter of his
+wings, or rather the rattle of his spurs.  Now then, young people,
+you shall not be hindered from a full view of each others lineaments.
+It is the first time you ever had a real sight of each other, neither
+of you being in a swoon, is it not?  I trust you do not repent upon
+further acquaintance.  Aurelia got as far as the shoe-buckles once,
+I believe."
+
+"She will get no farther this time, sir, if you annihilate her with
+your pleasantry," said Betty, fully convinced by this time.
+
+"Ah! young Love has made himself more dazzling than ever," continued
+the Major, too delighted to be stopped.  "The fullest dress uniform,
+I declare; M. le Capitaine is bent on doing honour to the occasion."
+
+"Would that it were on for no other reason, sir," said Sir Amyas; "but
+the King and Queen have taken it into their heads to go off to Kew and
+here am I under orders to command the escort.  I verily believe it is
+all spite on the Colonel's part, for Russell would have exchanged the
+turn with me, but he sent down special orders for me.  I have but half
+an hour to spend here, and when I shall be able to get back again
+Heaven only knows."
+
+However, he and Aurelia were permitted to improve that half hour to
+the utmost in their own way, while the Major and Betty were reading
+a long and characteristic letter from Mrs. Arden, inquiring certainly
+for her sister's fate, but showing far more solicitude in proving that
+she (Harriet Arden) had acted a wise, prudent, and sisterly part, and
+that it was most unreasonable and cruel to treat her as accountable
+for her sister's disappearance.  It was really making her quite ill,
+and Mr. Arden was like a man--so disagreeable about it.
+
+Betty was very glad this epistle had not come till it was possible to
+laugh at it.  She would have sat down to reply to it at once, had not
+a billet been brought in from the widow of one of her father's old
+brother officers who had heard of his being in town, and begged him
+to bring his daughter to see her, excusing herself for not waiting on
+Miss Delavie, as she was very feeble and infirm.
+
+It was a request that could not be refused, but Aurelia was not equipped
+for such a visit, and shrank timidly from showing herself.  So when Mr.
+Belamour came down it was agreed that she should remain at home under
+his protection, in which she could be very happy, though his person
+was as strange to her as his voice was familiar.  Indeed she felt as
+if a burden was on her mind till she could tell him of her shame at
+having failed in the trust and silence that he had enjoined on her.
+
+"My child," he said, "we have carried it too far.  It was more than we
+ought to have required of you, and I knew it.  I had made up my mind,
+and told my nephew that the first time you really asked I should tell
+the whole truth, and trust to your discretion, while of course he
+wished for nothing more."
+
+"As my sister said, it was my fault."
+
+"Nay, I think you had good cause to stand on your defence, and I
+cannot have you grieve over it.  You have shown an unshaken steadiness
+under trial since, such as ought indeed to be compensation."
+
+"I deserved it all," said Aurelia; "and I do hope that I am a little
+wiser and less foolish for it all; a little more of a woman," she
+added, blushing.
+
+"A soul trained by love and suffering, as in the old legend," said Mr.
+Belamour thoughtfully.
+
+Thoroughly pleasant was here _tete-a-tete_ with him, especially when
+she artlessly asked him whether her dear sister were not all she had
+told him, and he fervently answered that indeed she was "a perfect
+lesson to all so-called beauties of what true loveliness of a
+countenance can be."
+
+"Oh, I am so glad," cried Aurelia.  "I never saw a face--a woman's I
+mean--that I like as well as my dear sister's!"
+
+She was sorry when they were interrupted by a call from Mr. Wayland,
+who had reported himself at the Secretary of War, but could do no more
+that day, and had come to inquire for her.  He and Mr. Belamour drew
+apart into a window, and conversed in a low voice, and then they came
+to her, and Mr. Wayland desired to know from where she found the recipe
+for the cosmetic which had nearly cost her so dearly.
+
+"It was in a shelf in the wainscoting, in a sort of little study at
+that house," said Aurelia.
+
+"Among other papers?"
+
+"Quantities of other papers."
+
+"Of what kind?"
+
+"Letters, and bills, and wills, and parchments!  Oh, so dusty!  Some
+were on paper tumbling to pieces, and some on tiny slips of parchment."
+
+"And you read them all?"
+
+"I had to read them to see what they were, as well as I could make
+out, and sorted them and tied them up in bundles."
+
+"Can you tell me whether they were Delavie wills?"
+
+"I should think they were.  I know that the oldest of all were Latin,
+and I could make nothing out in them but something about _Manoriem_
+and Carminster, and what looked like the names of some of the fields
+at home."
+
+"Do you think you could show me those slips?"
+
+"I do not suppose any one has touched them."
+
+"Then, my dear young lady, you would confer a great favour on me if
+you would allow Mr. Belamour and myself to escort you to Delavie and
+show us these papers.  I fear it may be alarming and distressing."
+
+"Oh no, sir, I know no harm can happen to me where Mr. Belamour is,"
+she said, smiling.
+
+"It may be very important," he said, and she went to put on her hood.
+
+"Surely," said Mr. Wayland, "the title-deeds cannot have been left
+there?"
+
+"No.  The title-deeds to the main body of the property are at
+Hargrave's.  I have seen them, at the time of my brother's marriage;
+but still this may be what was wanting."
+
+"Yet the sending this child to search is presumption that no such
+document existed."
+
+"Of course no one supposed it did," said Mr. Wayland, on the defence
+again.
+
+Aurelia was quickly ready in her little hood and kerchief, and trim
+high-heeled shoes.  She was greatly surprised to find how near she
+had been to her friends during these last few days of her captivity,
+and when Madge obeyed the summons to the door, the old woman
+absolutely smiled to see her safe, and the little terrier danced
+about her in such transports that she begged to take him back with
+her.
+
+She opened the door of the little empty book room, where nothing
+stood except the old bureau.  That, she said, had been full of
+letters, but all the oldest things had been within a door opening
+in the wainscot, which she should never have found had not Bob
+pushed it open in his search for rats, and then she found a tin case
+full of papers and parchments, much older, she thought, than the
+letters.  She had tied them up together, and easily produced them.
+
+Mr. Wayland handed them to Mr. Belamour, whose legal eye was better
+accustomed to crabbed old documents.  A conversation that had begun
+on the way about Fay and Letty was resumed, and interested both
+their father and Aurelia so much that they forgot to be impatient,
+until Mr. Belamour looked up from his examination, saying, "This is
+what was wanting.  Here is a grant in the 12th year of Henry III.
+to Guglielmus ab Vita and the heirs male of his body to the Manor,
+lying without the city of Carminster, and here are three wills of
+successive lords of Delavie expressly mentioning heirs male.  Now
+the deeds that I have seen do not go beyond 1539, when Henry Delavie
+had a grant of the Grange and lands belonging to Carminster Abbey--
+the place, in fact, where the Great House stands, and there is in
+that no exclusion of female heirs.  But the Manor house can certainly
+be proved to be entailed in the male line alone, according to what
+was, I believe, the tradition of the family."
+
+"There is no large amount of property involved, I fear," said Mr.
+Wayland.
+
+"There is an old house, much out of repair, and a few farms worth,
+may be, 200 pounds a year, a loss that will not be material to you,
+sir, I hope."
+
+"Do you mean--?" said Aurelia, not daring to ask farther.
+
+"I mean, my dear young lady," said Mr. Wayland, "that your researches
+have brought to light the means of doing tardy justice to your good
+father."
+
+"His right to the Manor House is here established," explained Mr.
+Belamour.  "It will not be a matter of favour of my Lady's, but, as
+my brother supposed, he ought to have been put in possession on the
+old Lord's death."
+
+"And Eugene will be a gentleman of estate," cried Aurelia, joyously.
+"Nor will any one be able to drive out my dear father!  Oh! how happy
+I am."
+
+Both she and Mr. Belamour spared Mr. Wayland the knowledge of my
+Lady's many broken promises, and indeed she was anxious to get back
+to the _Royal York_, lest her father and sister should have returned,
+and think her again vanished.
+
+They all met at the door, and much amazed were the Major and Betty
+to encounter her with her two squires.  Mr. Wayland took the Major
+to show him the parchments.  Betty had her explanation from her
+sister and Mr. Belamour.
+
+"You actually ventured back to that dreadful house," she said,
+looking at them gratefully.
+
+"You see what protectors I had," said Aurelia, with a happy smile.
+
+"Yes," said Betty, "I have been longing to say--only I cannot," for
+she was almost choked by a great sob, "how very much we owe to you,
+sir.  I could say it better if I did not feel it so much."  And she
+held out her hand.
+
+"You cannot owe to me a tithe of what I owe to your sister," said Mr.
+Belamour, "and through her to you, madam.  Much as nature had done for
+her, never would she have been to the miserable recluse the life and
+light-bringing creature she was, save for the 'sister' she taught me
+to know and love, even before I saw her."
+
+A wonderful revelation here burst on Aurelia, the at least half-married
+woman, and she fled precipitately, smiling to herself in ecstasy, behind
+her great fan.
+
+Betty, never dreaming of the drift of the words, so utterly out of
+the reach of love did she suppose herself, replied, composedly, "Our
+Aurelia is a dear good girl, and I am thankful that through all her
+trials she has so proved herself.  I am glad she has been a comfort
+to you, sir.  She---"
+
+"And will not you complete the cure, and render the benefit lasting?"
+said Mr. Belamour, who had never let go the hand she had given him
+in gratitude, and now gave it a pressure that conveyed, for the first
+time, his meaning.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, trying to take it away, "your kindness and gratitude
+are leading you too far, sir.  A hideous old fright like me, instead
+of a lovely young thing like her!  It is an absurdity."
+
+"Stay, Miss Delavie.  Remember that your Aurelia's roses and lilies
+were utterly wasted on me; I never thought whether she was beautiful
+save when others raved about her.  I never saw her till yesterday;
+but the voice, the goodness, the amiability, in fact all that I did
+truly esteem and prize in her I had already found matured and mellowed
+together with that beauty of countenance which is independent of mere
+skin-deep complexion and feature.  You know my history, and how far
+I am from being able to offer you a fresh untouched young heart, such
+as my nephew brings to the fair Aurelia; but the devotion of my life
+will be yours if you will accept it."
+
+"Sir, I cannot listen to you.  You are very good, but I can never
+leave my father.  Oh, let me go away!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXVII.  MAKING THE BEST OF IT.
+
+
+    At last the Queen said, "Girl, I bid thee rise,
+    For now thou hast found favour in mine eyes,
+    And I repent me of the misery
+    That in this place thou hast endured me,
+    Altho' because of it the Joy indeed
+    Shall now be mine, that pleasure is thy meed."
+                                              MORRIS.
+
+
+Those were evil times, and the court examples were most corrupting,
+so that a splendid and imperious woman like Urania, Lady Belamour,
+had found little aid from public opinion when left to herself by the
+absence of her second husband.  Selfish, unscrupulous, and pleasure-
+loving she was by nature, but during Sir Jovian Belamour's lifetime
+she had been kept within bounds.  Then came a brief widowhood, when
+debt and difficulty hurried her into accepting Mr. Wayland, a
+thoughtful scientific man, whose wealth had accumulated without much
+volition of his own to an extent that made her covet his alliance.
+Enthralled by her charm of manner, he had not awakened to the
+perception of what she really was during the few years that had
+elapsed before he was sent abroad, and she refused to accompany him.
+
+Then it was that wealth larger than she had before commanded, and
+a court appointment, involved her in more dangerous habits.  Her
+debts, both of extravagance and of the gaming table, were enormous,
+trenching hard on the Delavie property, and making severe inroads on
+Mr. Wayland's means; but the Belamour estates being safely tied up,
+she had only been able to borrow on her dower.  She had sinned with
+a high hand, after the fashion of the time, and then, in terror at
+the approaching return of her husband, had endeavoured to conceal
+the ravages of her extravagance by her bargain for her son's hand.
+
+The youth, bred up at a distance, and then the companion of his step-
+father, had on his return found his home painfully altered in his two
+years' absence, and had been galled and grieved by the state of things,
+so that even apart from the clearing of his prospects, the relief was
+great.  The quarrel with Colonel Mar that Mr. Wayland had interrupted
+was not made up.  There was no opportunity, for Mr. Wayland at once
+removed his family to Bowstead, there to remain while he transacted
+his business in London.
+
+Moreover Mr. Belamour and Mr. Wayland agreed in selling the young
+baronet's commission.  The Major allowed that it was impossible
+that he should remain under the command of his present Colonel, but
+regretted that he should not continue in the service, declaring it
+the best school for a young man, and that he did not want to see
+his son-in-law a muddle-brained sporting country squire.  He would
+have had Sir Amyas exchange into the line, and see a little service
+before settling down, but Maria Theresa had not as yet set Europe in
+a blaze, and in the absence of a promising war Sir Amyas did more
+incline to his uncle's representations of duties to tenants and to
+his county, and was even ready to prepare himself for them when he
+should be of sufficient age to undertake them.  However, in the midst
+of the debates a new scheme was made.  Mr. Belamour had been called
+upon and welcomed by his old friends, who, being men of rank and
+influence, had risen in life while he was immured at Bowstead.  One
+of these had just received a diplomatic appointment at Vienna, and
+in spite of insular ignorance of foreign manners was at a loss for
+a capable suite.  Mr. Belamour suggested Major Delavie, as from his
+long service in Austria likely to be very useful.  The Envoy caught
+at the idea, and the thought of once more seeing his old comrades
+enchanted the Major, whose only regret was that his hero, Prince
+Eugene, had been dead three years; but to visit his grave would be
+something.  Appointments ran in families, so that nothing could be
+easier than to obtain one for the young baronet; and though Mr.
+Belamour did not depend on his own health enough to accept anything,
+he was quite willing to join the party, and to spend a little time
+abroad, while his nephew was growing somewhat older, making an essay
+of his talents, and at any rate putting off the commencement of
+stagnation.  Thus matters settled themselves, the only disappointed
+member of the family being Mrs. Arden, who thought it very hard
+that she could not stir any one up to request an appointment of
+her husband as chaplain--not even himself!
+
+Mr. Wayland was at once called upon to go out to America to superintend
+the defences of the Canadian frontier, and he resolved on taking his
+family out, obtaining land, and settling there permanently.  He would
+pay all my Lady's debts, but she should never again appear in London
+society, and cruel exile as it must seem to her, he trusted that his
+affection and tenderness would in time reconcile her to the new way
+of life, knowing as she did that he had forgiven much that had made
+him look like a crushed and sorrowful man in the midst of all the
+successes and the honours he received from his country.
+
+She remained quietly at Bowstead, and none of them saw her except her
+son and the Major, to the latter of whom her husband brought a message
+that she would esteem it a favour if he would come and visit her there,
+the day before he returned to Carminster.  Very much affected, the
+good Major complied with her request, went down with Mr. Wayland and
+spent a night at Bowstead.
+
+He found that she had accepted her fate with the good grace of a woman
+whose first instinct was not to make herself disagreeable.  She was
+rather pale, and not "made up" in any way, but exquisitely though more
+simply dressed, and more beautiful than ever, her cousin thought, as
+he always did whenever he came into her presence.  She was one of those
+people whose beauty is always a fresh surprise, and she was far more
+self-possessed than he was.
+
+"So, Cousin Harry, where am I to begin my congratulations!  I did you
+and unwitting service when I sent your daughter to search among those
+musty old parchments.  I knew my father believed in the existence of
+some such document, but I thought all those hoards in Delavie House
+were devoid of all legal importance, and had been sifted again and
+again.  Besides, I always meant to settle that old house upon you."
+
+"I have always heard so, cousin," he answered.
+
+"But it was such a mere trifle," she added, "that it never seemed
+worth while to set the lawyers to work about that alone, so I waited
+for other work to be in hand."
+
+"There is a homely Scottish proverb, my Lady, which declares that the
+scrapings of the muckle pot are worth the wee pot fu'.  A mere trifle
+to you is affluence to us."
+
+"I am sincerely rejoiced at it, Harry" (no doubt she thought she was),
+"you will keep up the old name, while my scrupulous lord and master
+gives up my poor patrimony to the extortionate creditors for years to
+come.  It is well that the young lovers have other prospects.  So Harry,
+you see after all, I kept my word, and your daughter is provided for,"
+she continued with an arch smile.  "Pretty creature, I find my son
+bears me more malice than she does for the robbery that was perpetrated
+on her.  It was too tempting, Harry.  Nature will repair her loss, but
+at out time of life we must beg, borrow, or steal."
+
+"That was the least matter," said the Major gravely.
+
+"This is the reason why I wished to see you," said my Lady, laying her
+white hand on his, "I wanted to explain."
+
+"Cousin, cousin, had not you better leave it alone?" said Major Delavie.
+"You know you can always talk a poor man out of his senses at the
+moment."
+
+"Yet listen, Harry, and understand my troubles.  Here I was pledged,
+absolutely pledged, to give my son to Lady Aresfield's daughter.  I
+do not know whether she may not yet sue me for breach of contract,
+though Wayland has repaid her the loans she advanced me; and on the
+other hand, in spite of all my precautions, Mar had obtained a sight
+of your poor daughter, and I knew him well enough to be aware that to
+put her entirely and secretly out of his reach was the only chance
+preserving her from his pursuit.  I had excellent accounts of the
+worthy man to whom I meant her to be consigned, and I knew that when
+she wrote to you as a West Indian queen you would be able to forgive
+your poor cousin.  I see what you would say, but sending her to you
+was impossible, since I had to secure her both from Amyas and from
+Mar.  It would only have involved you in perplexities innumerable,
+and might have led even to bloodshed!  I may not have acted wisely,
+but weak women in difficulties know not which path to choose."
+
+"There is always the straight one," said he.
+
+"Ah! you strong men can easily says so, but for us poor much-tried
+women!  However," she said suddenly changing her tone, "Love has
+check-mated us, and I rejoice.  Your daughter will support the credit
+of the name!  I am glad the new Lady Belamour will not be that little
+termagant milkmaid Belle, whom circumstances compelled me to inflict
+upon my poor boy!  The title will be your daughter's alone.  I have
+promised my husband that in the New World I will sink into plain Mrs.
+Wayland."  Then with a burst of genuine feeling she exclaimed, "He
+_is_ a good man, Harry."
+
+"He is indeed, Urania, I believe you will yet be happier than you have
+ever been."
+
+"What, among barbarians who never saw a loo-table, and get the modes
+three months too late!  And you are laughing at me, but see I am a
+poor frivolous being, not sufficient to myself like your daughters!
+They say Aurelia was as sprightly as a spring butterfly all the time
+she was shut up at Bowstead with no company save the children and old
+Belamour!"
+
+"They are lovely children, madam, Aurelia dotes on them, and you will
+soon find them all you need."
+
+"Their father is never weary of telling me so.  He is never so happy
+as when they hang about him and tell him of Cousin Aura, or Sister
+Aura as they love to call her."
+
+"It was charming to see them dance round her when he brought them to
+spend the day with her.  Mr. Wayland brought his good kinswoman, who
+will take charge of them on the voyage, and Aurelia was a little
+consoled at the parting by seeing how tender and kind she is with
+them."
+
+"Aye!  If I do not hate that woman it will be well, for she is as
+much a duenna for me as governess for the children!  Heigh-ho! what
+do not our follies bring on us?  We poor creatures should never be
+left to the great world."
+
+The pretty air of repentance was almost irresistible, well as the
+Major knew it for the mood of the moment, assumed as what would
+best satisfy him.
+
+"I rejoice," she went on, "in spite of my lovely daughter-in-law's
+discretion, she will be well surrounded with guardians.  Has the
+excellent Betty consented?"
+
+"At last, madam.  My persuasions were vain till she found that Mr.
+Belamour would gladly come with us to Austria, and that she should
+be enabled to watch over both her young sister and me."
+
+"There, again, I give myself credit, Harry.  Would the sacred flame
+ever have awakened in yonder misanthrope had I not sent your daughter
+to restore him to life?"  She spoke playfully, but the Major could
+not help thinking she had persuaded herself that all his present
+felicity was owing to her benevolence, and that she would persuade
+him of it too, if she went on much longer looking at him so sweetly.
+He _would_ not tax her with the wicked note she had written to account
+for Mr. Belamour's disappearance, and which she had forgotten; he felt
+that he could not impel one, whom he could not but still regard with
+tenderness, to utter any more untruths and excuses.
+
+"By the by," she added, "does your daughter take my waiting-maid after
+all?  I would have forgiven her, for she is an admirable hairdresser,
+but Wayland says he cannot have so ingenious person in his house;
+though after all I do not see that she is a bit worse than others of
+her condition, and she herself insists on trying to become Aurelia's
+attendant, vowing that the sight of her is as good as any Methodist
+sermon!"
+
+"Precisely, madam.  We were all averse to taking her with us, but
+Aurelia said she owed her much gratitude; and she declared so
+earnestly that the sight of my dear child brought back all the
+virtuous and pious thoughts she had forgotten, that even Betty's
+heart was touched, and she is to go with us, on trial."
+
+"Oh! she is as honest as regards money and jewels as ever I knew a
+waiting-maid, but for the rest!"  Lady Belamour shrugged her shoulders.
+"However, one is as good as another, and at least she will never let
+her lady go a fright!  See here, Harry.  These are the Delavie jewels:
+I shall never need them more: carry them to your daughters."
+
+"Nay, your own daughters, Urania."
+
+"Never mind the little wretches.  Their father will provide for them,
+and they will marry American settlers in the forests.  What should
+they do with court jewels?  It is his desire.  See here, this suit
+of pearls is what I wore at my wedding with Amyas's father, I should
+like Aurelia to be married in them.  Farewell, Harry, you did better
+for yourself than if you had taken me.  Yet maybe I might been a
+better woman---"  She stopped short as she looked at his honest face,
+and eyes full of tears.
+
+"No, Urania," he said, "man's love could not have done for you what
+only another Love can do.  May you yet find that and true Life."
+
+
+
+
+The sisters were not married at the same time.  Neither Mr. Belamour
+nor his Elizabeth could endure to make part of the public pageant
+that it was thought well should mark the _real_ wedding at Bowstead.
+So their banns were put up at St. Clement Danes, and one quiet
+morning they slipped out, with no witnesses but the Major, Aurelia,
+and Eugene, and were wedded there in the most unobtrusive manner.
+
+As to the great marriage, a month later at Bowstead, there was a
+certain bookseller named Richardson, who by favour of Hargrave got
+a view of it, and who is thought there to have obtained some ideas
+for the culminating wedding of his great novel.
+
+A little later, the following letter was written from the excellent
+Mrs. Montagu to her correspondent Mrs. Elizabeth Carter.  "There was
+yesterday presented, preparatory to leaving England for Vienna, the
+young Lady Belamour, incomparably the greatest beauty who has this
+year appeared at Court.  Every one is running after her, but she
+appears perfectly unconscious of the _furore_ she has excited, and
+is said to have been bred up in all simplicity in the country, and
+to be as good as she is fair.  Her young husband, Sir Amyas Belamour,
+is a youth of much promise, and they seem absolutely devoted, with
+eyes only for each other.  They are said to have gone through a
+series of adventures as curious as they are romantic; and indeed,
+when they made their appearance, there was a general whisper, begun
+by young Mr. Horace Walpole, of
+
+
+                        "CUPID AND PSYCHE."
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Love and Life, by Charlotte M. Yonge
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