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+Project Gutenberg EBook, Alice, or The Mysteries, by Lytton, Book IV
+#206 in our series by Edward Bulwer Lytton
+
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+Title: Alice, or The Mysteries, Book IV
+
+Author: Edward Bulwer Lytton
+
+Release Date: January 2006  [EBook #9766]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 15, 2003]
+
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+Edition: 10
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+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
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+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ALICE, BY LYTTON, BOOK IV ***
+
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Dagny, and by David Widger
+
+
+
+Corrected and updated text and HTML PG Editions of the complete
+11 volume set may be found at:
+
+https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9774/9774.txt
+
+https://www.gutenberg.org/files/9774/9774-h/9774-h.htm
+
+
+
+
+
+
+BOOK IV.
+
+"A virtuous woman is man's greatest pride."--SIMONIDES.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  ABROAD uneasy, nor content at home.
+    .  .  .  .  .  .
+  And Wisdom shows the ill without the cure.
+
+  HAMMOND: _Elegies_.
+
+TWO or three days after the interview between Lord Vargrave and
+Maltravers, the solitude of Burleigh was relieved by the arrival of Mr.
+Cleveland.  The good old gentleman, when free from attacks of the gout,
+which were now somewhat more frequent than formerly, was the same
+cheerful and intelligent person as ever.  Amiable, urbane, accomplished,
+and benevolent, there was just enough worldliness in Cleveland's nature
+to make his views sensible as far as they went, but to bound their scope.
+Everything he said was so rational; and yet, to an imaginative person,
+his conversation was unsatisfactory, and his philosophy somewhat
+chilling.
+
+"I cannot say how pleased and surprised I am at your care of the fine old
+place," said he to Maltravers, as, leaning on his cane and his
+_ci-devant_ pupil's arm, he loitered observantly through the grounds; "I
+see everywhere the presence of the Master."
+
+And certainly the praise was deserved.  The gardens were now in order,
+the dilapidated fences were repaired, the weeds no longer encumbered the
+walks.  Nature was just assisted and relieved by Art, without being
+oppressed by too officious a service from her handmaid.  In the house
+itself some suitable and appropriate repairs and decorations--with such
+articles of furniture as combined modern comfort with the ancient and
+picturesque shapes of a former fashion--had redeemed the mansion from all
+appearance of dreariness and neglect; while still was left to its quaint
+halls and chambers the character which belonged to their architecture and
+associations.  It was surprising how much a little exercise of simple
+taste had effected.
+
+"I am glad you approve what I have done," said Maltravers.  "I know not
+how it was, but the desolation of the place when I returned to it
+reproached me.  We contract friendship with places as with human beings,
+and fancy they have claims upon us; at least, that is my weakness."
+
+"And an amiable one it is, too,--I share it.  As for me, I look upon
+Temple Grove as a fond husband upon a fair wife.  I am always anxious to
+adorn it, and as proud of its beauty as if it could understand and thank
+me for my partial admiration.  When I leave you I intend going to Paris,
+for the purpose of attending a sale of the pictures and effects of M. de
+-----. These auctions are to me what a jeweller's shop is to a lover; but
+then, Ernest, I am an old bachelor."
+
+"And I, too, am an Arcadian," said Maltravers, with a smile.
+
+"Ah, but you are not too old for repentance.  Burleigh now requires
+nothing but a mistress."
+
+"Perhaps it may soon receive that addition.  I am yet undecided whether I
+shall sell it."
+
+"Sell it! sell Burleigh!--the last memorial of your mother's ancestry!
+the classic retreat of the graceful Digbys!  Sell Burleigh!"
+
+"I had almost resolved to do so when I came hither; then I forswore the
+intention: now again I sometimes sorrowfully return to the idea."
+
+"And in Heaven's name, why?"
+
+"My old restlessness returns.  Busy myself as I will here, I find the
+range of action monotonous and confined.  I began too soon to draw around
+me the large circumference of literature and action; and the small
+provincial sphere seems to me a sad going back in life.  Perhaps I should
+not feel this, were my home less lonely; but as it is--no, the wanderer's
+ban is on me, and I again turn towards the lands of excitement and
+adventure."
+
+"I understand this, Ernest; but why is your home so solitary?  You are
+still at the age in which wise and congenial unions are the most
+frequently formed; your temper is domestic; your easy fortune and sobered
+ambition allow you to choose without reference to worldly considerations.
+Look round the world, and mix with the world again, and give Burleigh the
+mistress it requires."
+
+Maltravers shook his head, and sighed.
+
+"I do not say," continued Cleveland, wrapped in the glowing interest of
+the theme, "that you should marry a mere girl, but an amiable woman, who,
+like yourself, has seen something of life, and knows how to reckon on its
+cares, and to be contented with its enjoyments."
+
+"You have said enough," said Maltravers, impatiently; "an experienced
+woman of the world, whose freshness of hope and heart is gone!  What a
+picture!  No, to me there is something inexpressibly beautiful in
+innocence and youth.  But you say justly,--my years are not those that
+would make a union with youth desirable or well suited."
+
+"I do _not_ say that," said Cleveland, taking a pinch of snuff; "but you
+should avoid great disparity of age,--not for the sake of that disparity
+itself, but because with it is involved discord of temper, pursuits.  A
+_very_ young woman, new to the world, will not be contented with home
+alone; you are at once too gentle to curb her wishes, and a little too
+stern and reserved--pardon me for saying so--to be quite congenial to
+very early and sanguine youth."
+
+"It is true," said Maltravers, with a tone of voice that showed he was
+struck with the remark; "but how have we fallen on this subject? let us
+change it.  I have no idea of marriage,--the gloomy reminiscence of
+Florence Lascelles chains me to the past."
+
+"Poor Florence, she might once have suited you; but now you are older,
+and would require a calmer and more malleable temper."
+
+"Peace, I implore you!"
+
+The conversation was changed; and at noon Mr. Merton, who had heard of
+Cleveland's arrival, called at Burleigh to renew an old acquaintance.  He
+invited them to pass the evening at the rectory; and Cleveland, hearing
+that whist was a regular amusement, accepted the invitation for his host
+and himself.  But when the evening came, Maltravers pleaded
+indisposition, and Cleveland was obliged to go alone.
+
+When the old gentleman returned about midnight, he found Maltravers
+awaiting him in the library; and Cleveland, having won fourteen points,
+was in a very gay, conversable humour.
+
+"You perverse hermit!" said he, "talk of solitude, indeed, with so
+pleasant a family a hundred yards distant!  You deserve to be
+solitary,--I have no patience with you.  They complain bitterly of your
+desertion, and say you were, at first, the _enfant de la maison_."
+
+"So you like the Mertons?  The clergyman is sensible, but commonplace."
+
+"A very agreeable man, despite your cynical definition, and plays a very
+fair rubber.  But Vargrave is a first-rate player."
+
+"Vargrave is there still?"
+
+"Yes, he breakfasts with us to-morrow,--he invited himself."
+
+"Humph!"
+
+"He played one rubber; the rest of the evening he devoted himself to the
+prettiest girl I ever saw,--Miss Cameron.  What a sweet face! so modest,
+yet so intelligent!  I talked with her a good deal during the deals in
+which I cut out.  I almost lost my heart to her."
+
+"So Lord Vargrave devoted himself to Miss Cameron?"
+
+"To be sure,--you know they are to be married soon.  Merton told me so.
+She is very rich.  He is the luckiest fellow imaginable, that Vargrave!
+But he is much too old for her: she seems to think so too.  I can't
+explain why I think it; but by her pretty reserved manner I saw that she
+tried to keep the gay minister at a distance: but it would not do.  Now,
+if you were ten years younger, or Miss Cameron ten years older, you might
+have had some chance of cutting out your old friend."
+
+"So you think I also am too old for a lover?"
+
+"For a lover of a girl of seventeen, certainly.  You seem touchy on the
+score of age, Ernest."
+
+"Not I;" and Maltravers laughed.
+
+"No?  There was a young gentleman present, who, I think, Vargrave might
+really find a dangerous rival,--a Colonel Legard,--one of the handsomest
+men I ever saw in my life; just the style to turn a romantic young lady's
+head; a mixture of the wild and the thoroughbred; black curls, superb
+eyes, and the softest manners in the world.  But, to be sure, he has
+lived all his life in the best society.  Not so his friend, Lord
+Doltimore, who has a little too much of the green-room lounge and French
+_cafe_ manner for my taste."
+
+"Doltimore, Legard, names new to me; I never met them at the rectory."
+
+"Possibly they are staying at Admiral Legard's, in the neighbourhood.
+Miss Merton made their acquaintance at Knaresdean.  A good old lady--the
+most perfect Mrs. Grundy one would wish to meet with--who owns the
+monosyllabic appellation of Hare (and who, being my partner, trumped my
+king!) assured me that Lord Doltimore was desperately in love with
+Caroline Merton.  By the way, now, there is a young lady of a proper age
+for you,--handsome and clever, too."
+
+"You talk of antidotes to matrimony; and so Miss Cameron--"
+
+"Oh, no more of Miss Cameron now, or I shall sit up all night; she has
+half turned my head.  I can't help pitying her,--married to one so
+careless and worldly as Lord Vargrave, thrown so young into the whirl of
+London.  Poor thing! she had better have fallen in love with
+Legard,--which I dare say she will do, after all.  Well, good-night!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+  PASSION, as frequently is seen,
+  Subsiding, settles into spleen;
+  Hence, as the plague of happy life,
+  I ran away from party strife.--MATTHEW GREEN.
+
+  Here nymphs from hollow oaks relate
+  The dark decrees and will of fate.--_Ibid._
+
+ACCORDING to his engagement, Vargrave breakfasted the next morning at
+Burleigh.  Maltravers at first struggled to return his familiar
+cordiality with equal graciousness.  Condemning himself for former and
+unfounded suspicions, he wrestled against feelings which he could not or
+would not analyze, but which made Lumley an unwelcome visitor, and
+connected him with painful associations, whether of the present or the
+past.  But there were points on which the penetration of Maltravers
+served to justify his prepossessions.
+
+The conversation, chiefly sustained by Cleveland and Vargrave, fell on
+public questions; and as one was opposed to the other, Vargrave's
+exposition of views and motives had in them so much of the self-seeking
+of the professional placeman, that they might well have offended any man
+tinged by the lofty mania of political Quixotism.  It was with a strange
+mixture of feelings that Maltravers listened: at one moment he proudly
+congratulated himself on having quitted a career where such opinions
+seemed so well to prosper: at another, his better and juster sentiments
+awoke the long-dormant combative faculty, and he almost longed for the
+turbulent but sublime arena, in which truths are vindicated and mankind
+advanced.
+
+The interview did not serve for that renewal of intimacy which Vargrave
+appeared to seek, and Maltravers rejoiced when the placeman took his
+departure.
+
+Lumley, who was about to pay a morning visit to Lord Doltimore, had
+borrowed Mr. Merton's stanhope, as being better adapted than any
+statelier vehicle to get rapidly through the cross-roads which led to
+Admiral Legard's house; and as he settled himself in the seat, with his
+servant by his side, he said laughingly, "I almost fancy myself naughty
+master Lumley again in this young-man-kind of two-wheeled cockle-boat:
+not dignified, but rapid, eh?"
+
+And Lumley's face, as he spoke, had in it so much of frank gayety, and
+his manner was so simple, that Maltravers could with difficulty fancy him
+the same man who, five minutes before, had been uttering sentiments that
+might have become the oldest-hearted intriguer whom the hot-bed of
+ambition ever reared.
+
+As soon as Lumley was gone, Maltravers left Cleveland alone to write
+letters (Cleveland was an exemplary and voluminous correspondent) and
+strolled with his dogs into the village.  The effect which the presence
+of Maltravers produced among his peasantry was one that seldom failed to
+refresh and soothe his more bitter and disturbed thoughts.  They had
+gradually (for the poor are quick-sighted) become sensible of his
+_justice_,--a finer quality than many that seem more amiable.  They felt
+that his real object was to make them better and happier; and they had
+learned to see that the means he adopted generally advanced the end.
+Besides, if sometimes stern, he was never capricious or unreasonable; and
+then, too, he would listen patiently and advise kindly.  They were a
+little in awe of him, but the awe only served to make them more
+industrious and orderly,--to stimulate the idle man, to reclaim the
+drunkard.  He was one of the favourers of the small-allotment
+system,--not, indeed, as panacea, but as one excellent stimulant to
+exertion and independence; and his chosen rewards for good conduct were
+in such comforts as served to awaken amongst those hitherto passive,
+dogged, and hopeless a desire to better and improve their condition.
+Somehow or other, without direct alms, the goodwife found that the little
+savings in the cracked teapot or the old stocking had greatly increased
+since the squire's return, while her husband came home from his moderate
+cups at the alehouse more sober and in better temper.  Having already
+saved something was a great reason why he should save more.  The new
+school, too, was so much better conducted than the old one; the children
+actually liked going there; and now and then there were little village
+feasts connected with the schoolroom; play and work were joint
+associations.
+
+And Maltravers looked into his cottages, and looked at the
+allotment-ground; and it was pleasant to him to say to himself, "I am not
+altogether without use in life."  But as he pursued his lonely walk, and
+the glow of self-approval died away with the scenes that called it forth,
+the cloud again settled on his brow; and again he felt that in solitude
+the passions feed upon the heart.  As he thus walked along the green
+lane, and the insect life of summer rustled audibly among the shadowy
+hedges and along the thick grass that sprang up on either side, he came
+suddenly upon a little group that arrested all his attention.
+
+It was a woman, clad in rags, bleeding, and seemingly insensible,
+supported by the overseer of the parish and a labourer.
+
+"What is the matter?" asked Maltravers.
+
+"A poor woman has been knocked down and run over by a gentleman in a gig,
+your honour," replied the overseer.  "He stopped, half an hour ago, at my
+house to tell me that she was lying on the road; and he has given me two
+sovereigns for her, your honour.  But, poor cretur! she was too heavy for
+me to carry her, and I was forced to leave her and call Tom to help me."
+
+"The gentleman might have stayed to see what were the consequences of his
+own act," muttered Maltravers, as be examined the wound in the temple,
+whence the blood flowed copiously.
+
+"He said he was in a great hurry, your honour," said the village
+official, overhearing Maltravers.  "I think it was one of the grand folks
+up at the parsonage; for I know it was Mr. Merton's bay horse,--he is a
+hot 'un!"
+
+"Does the poor woman live in the neighbourhood?  Do you know her?" asked
+Maltravers, turning from the contemplation of this new instance of
+Vargrave's selfishness of character.
+
+"No; the old body seems quite a stranger here,--a tramper, or beggar, I
+think, sir.  But it won't be a settlement if we take her in; and we can
+carry her to the Chequers, up the village, your honour."
+
+"What is the nearest house,--your own?"
+
+"Yes; but we be so busy now!"
+
+"She shall not go to your house, and be neglected; and as for the
+public-house, it is too noisy: we must move her to the Hall."
+
+"Your honour!" ejaculated the overseer, opening his eyes.
+
+"It is not very far; she is severely hurt.  Get a hurdle, lay a mattress
+on it.  Make haste, both of you; I will wait here till you return."
+
+The poor woman was carefully placed on the grass by the road-side, and
+Maltravers supported her head, while the men hastened to obey his orders.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  ALSE from that forked hill, the boasted seat
+  Of studious Peace and mild Philosophy,
+  Indignant murmurs mote be heard to threat.--WEST.
+
+MR. CLEVELAND wanted to enrich one of his letters with a quotation from
+Ariosto, which he but imperfectly remembered.  He had seen the book he
+wished to refer to in the little study the day before; and he quitted the
+library to search for it.
+
+As he was tumbling over some volumes that lay piled on the writing-table,
+he felt a student's curiosity to discover what now constituted his host's
+favourite reading.  He was surprised to observe that the greater portion
+of the works that, by the doubled leaf and the pencilled reference,
+seemed most frequently consulted, were not of a literary nature,--they
+were chiefly scientific; and astronomy seemed the chosen science.  He
+then remembered that he had heard Maltravers speaking to a builder,
+employed on the recent repairs, on the subject of an observatory.  "This
+is very strange," thought Cleveland; "he gives up literature, the rewards
+of which are in his reach, and turns to science, at an age too late to
+discipline his mind to its austere training."
+
+Alas! Cleveland did not understand that there are times in life when
+imaginative minds seek to numb and to blunt imagination.  Still less did
+he feel that, when we perversely refuse to apply our active faculties to
+the catholic interests of the world, they turn morbidly into channels of
+research the least akin to their real genius.  By the collision of minds
+alone does each mind discover what is its proper product: left to
+ourselves, our talents become but intellectual eccentricities.
+
+Some scattered papers, in the handwriting of Maltravers, fell from one of
+the volumes.  Of these, a few were but algebraical calculations, or short
+scientific suggestions, the value of which Mr. Cleveland's studies did
+not enable him to ascertain; but in others they were wild snatches of
+mournful and impassioned verse, which showed that the old vein of poetry
+still flowed, though no longer to the daylight.  These verses Cleveland
+thought himself justified in glancing over; they seemed to portray a
+state of mind which deeply interested, and greatly saddened him.  They
+expressed, indeed, a firm determination to bear up against both the
+memory and the fear of ill; but mysterious and hinted allusions here and
+there served to denote some recent and yet existent struggle, revealed by
+the heart only to the genius.  In these partial and imperfect
+self-communings and confessions, there was the evidence of the pining
+affections, the wasted life, the desolate hearth of the lonely man.  Yet
+so calm was Maltravers himself, even to his early friend, that Cleveland
+knew not what to think of the reality of the feelings painted.  Had that
+fervid and romantic spirit been again awakened by a living object?  If
+so, where was the object found?  The dates affixed to the verses were
+most recent.  But whom had Maltravers seen?  Cleveland's thoughts turned
+to Caroline Merton, to Evelyn; but when he had spoken of both, nothing in
+the countenance, the manner, of Maltravers had betrayed emotion.  And
+once the heart of Maltravers had so readily betrayed itself!  Cleveland
+knew not how pride, years, and suffering school the features, and repress
+the outward signs of what pass within.  While thus engaged, the door of
+the study opened abruptly, and the servant announced Mr. Merton.
+
+"A thousand pardons," said the courteous rector.  "I fear we disturb you;
+but Admiral Legard and Lord Doltimore, who called on us this morning,
+were so anxious to see Burleigh, I thought I might take the liberty.  We
+have come over quite in a large party,--taken the place by storm.  Mr.
+Maltravers is out, I hear; but you will let us see the house.  My allies
+are already in the hall, examining the armour."
+
+Cleveland, ever sociable and urbane, answered suitably, and went with Mr.
+Merton into the hall, where Caroline, her little sisters, Evelyn, Lord
+Doltimore, Admiral Legard, and his nephew were assembled.
+
+"Very proud to be my host's representative and your guide," said
+Cleveland.  "Your visit, Lord Doltimore, is indeed an agreeable surprise.
+Lord Vargrave left us an hour or so since to call on you at Admiral
+Legard's: we buy our pleasure with his disappointment."
+
+"It is very unfortunate," said the admiral, a bluff, harsh-looking old
+gentleman; "but we were not aware, till we saw Mr. Merton, of the honour
+Lord Vargrave has done us.  I can't think how we missed him on the road."
+
+"My dear uncle," said Colonel Legard, in a peculiarly sweet and agreeable
+tone of voice, "you forget we came three miles round by the high road;
+and Mr. Merton says that Lord Vargrave took the short cut by Langley End.
+My uncle, Mr. Cleveland, never feels in safety upon land, unless the road
+is as wide as the British Channel, and the horses go before the wind at
+the rapid pace of two knots and a half an hour!"
+
+"I just wish I had you at sea, Mr. Jackanapes," said the admiral, looking
+grimly at his handsome nephew, while he shook his cane at him.
+
+The nephew smiled; and, falling back, conversed with Evelyn.
+
+The party were now shown over the house; and Lord Doltimore was loud in
+its praises.  It was like a chateau he had once hired in Normandy,--it
+had a French character; those old chairs were in excellent taste,--quite
+the style of Francis the First.
+
+"I know no man I respect more than Mr. Maltravers," quoth the admiral.
+"Since he has been amongst us this time, he has been a pattern to us
+country gentlemen.  He would make an excellent colleague for Sir John.
+We really must get him to stand against that young puppy who is member of
+the House of Commons only because his father is a peer, and never votes
+more than twice a session."
+
+Mr. Merton looked grave.
+
+"I wish to Heaven you could persuade him to stay amongst you," said
+Cleveland.  "He has half taken it into his head to part with Burleigh!"
+
+"Part with Burleigh!" exclaimed Evelyn, turning abruptly from the
+handsome colonel, in whose conversation she had hitherto seemed absorbed.
+
+"My very ejaculation when I heard him say so, my dear young lady."
+
+"I wish he would," said Lord Doltimore hastily, and glancing towards
+Caroline.  "I should much like to buy it.  What do you think would be the
+purchase-money?"
+
+"Don't talk so cold-bloodedly," said the admiral, letting the point of
+his cane fall with great emphasis on the floor.  "I can't bear to see old
+families deserting their old places,--quite wicked.  You buy Burleigh!
+have not you got a country seat of your own, my lord?  Go and live there,
+and take Mr. Maltravers for your model,--you could not have a better."
+
+Lord Doltimore sneered, coloured, settled his neckcloth, and turning
+round to Colonel Legard, whispered, "Legard, your good uncle is a bore."
+
+Legard looked a little offended, and made no reply.
+
+"But," said Caroline, coming to the relief of her admirer, "if Mr.
+Maltravers will sell the place, surely he could not have a better
+successor."
+
+"He sha'n't sell the place, ma'am, and that's poz!" cried the admiral.
+"The whole county shall sign a round-robin to tell him it's a shame; and
+if any one dares to buy it we'll send him to Coventry."
+
+Miss Merton laughed, but looked round the old wainscot walls with unusual
+interest; she thought it would be a fine thing to be Lady of Burleigh!
+
+"And what is that picture so carefully covered up?" said the admiral, as
+they now stood in the library.
+
+"The late Mrs. Maltravers, Ernest's mother," replied Cleveland, slowly.
+"He dislikes it to be shown--to strangers: the other is a Digby."
+
+Evelyn looked towards the veiled portrait, and thought of her first
+interview with Maltravers; but the soft voice of Colonel Legard murmured
+in her ear; and her revery was broken.
+
+Cleveland eyed the colonel, and muttered to himself, "Vargrave should
+keep a sharp look-out."
+
+They had now finished their round of the show-apartments--which indeed
+had little but their antiquity and old portraits to recommend them--and
+were in a lobby at the back of the house, communicating with a courtyard,
+two sides of which were occupied with the stables.  The sight of the
+stables reminded Caroline of the Arab horses; and at the word "horses"
+Lord Doltimore seized Legard's arm and carried him off to inspect the
+animals.  Caroline, her father, and the admiral followed.  Mr. Cleveland
+happened not to have on his walking-shoes; and the flagstones in the
+courtyard looked damp; and Mr. Cleveland, like most old bachelors, was
+prudently afraid of cold; so he excused himself, and stayed behind.  He
+was talking to Evelyn about the Digbys, and full of anecdotes about Sir
+Kenelm at the moment the rest departed so abruptly; and Evelyn was
+interested, so she insisted on keeping him company.
+
+The old gentleman was flattered; he thought it excellent breeding in Miss
+Cameron.  The children ran out to renew acquaintance with the peacock,
+who, perched on an old stirrup-stone, was sunning his gay plumage in the
+noon-day.
+
+"It is astonishing," said Cleveland, "how certain family features are
+transmitted from generation to generation!  Maltravers has still the
+forehead and eyebrows of the Digbys,--that peculiar, brooding, thoughtful
+forehead, which you observed in the picture of Sir Kenelm.  Once, too, he
+had much the same dreaming character of mind, but he has lost that, in
+some measure at least.  He has fine qualities, Miss Cameron,--I have
+known him since he was born.  I trust his career is not yet closed; could
+he but form ties that would bind him to England, I should indulge in
+higher expectations than I did even when the wild boy turned half the
+heads in Gottingen.
+
+"But we were talking of family portraits: there is one in the
+entrance-hall, which perhaps you have not observed; it is half
+obliterated by damp and time, yet it is of a remarkable personage,
+connected with Maltravers by ancestral intermarriages,--Lord Falkland,
+the Falkland of Clarendon; a man weak in character, but made most
+interesting by history,--utterly unfitted for the severe ordeal of those
+stormy times; sighing for peace when his whole soul should have been in
+war; and repentant alike whether with the Parliament or the king, but
+still a personage of elegant and endearing associations; a
+student-soldier, with a high heart and a gallant spirit.  Come and look
+at his features,--homely and worn, but with a characteristic air of
+refinement and melancholy thought."
+
+Thus running on, the agreeable old gentleman drew Evelyn into the outer
+hall.  Upon arriving there, through a small passage, which opened upon
+the hall, they were surprised to find the old housekeeper and another
+female servant standing by a rude kind of couch on which lay the form of
+the poor woman described in the last chapter.  Maltravers and two other
+men were also there; and Maltravers himself was giving orders to his
+servants, while he leaned over the sufferer, who was now conscious both
+of pain and the service rendered to her.  As Evelyn stopped abruptly, and
+in surprise, opposite and almost at the foot of the homely litter, the
+woman raised herself up on one arm, and gazed at her with a wild stare;
+then muttering some incoherent words which appeared to betoken delirium,
+she sank back, and was again insensible.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  HENCE oft to win some stubborn maid,
+    Still does the wanton god assume
+  The martial air, the gay cockade,
+    The sword, the shoulder-knot, and plume.
+
+  MARRIOTT.
+
+THE hall was cleared, the sufferer had been removed, and Maltravers was
+left alone with Cleveland and Evelyn.
+
+He simply and shortly narrated the adventure of the morning; but he did
+not mention that Vargrave had been the cause of the injury his new guest
+had sustained.  Now this event had served to make a mutual and kindred
+impression on Evelyn and Maltravers.  The humanity of the latter, natural
+and commonplace as it was, was an endearing recollection to Evelyn,
+precisely as it showed that his cold theory of disdain towards the mass
+did not affect his actual conduct towards individuals.  On the other
+hand, Maltravers had perhaps been yet more impressed with the prompt and
+ingenuous sympathy which Evelyn had testified towards the sufferer: it
+had so evidently been her first gracious and womanly impulse to hasten to
+the side of this humble stranger.  In that impulse, Maltravers himself
+had been almost forgotten; and as the poor woman lay pale and lifeless,
+and the young Evelyn bent over her in beautiful compassion, Maltravers
+thought she had never seemed so lovely, so irresistible,--in fact, pity
+in woman is a great beautifier.
+
+As Maltravers finished his short tale, Evelyn's eyes were fixed upon him
+with such frank and yet such soft approval, that the look went straight
+to his heart.  He quickly turned away, and abruptly changed the
+conversation.
+
+"But how long have you been here, Miss Cameron,--and your companions?"
+
+"We are again intruders; but this time it was not my fault."
+
+"No," said Cleveland, "for a wonder it was male, and not lady-like
+curiosity that trespassed on Bluebeard's chamber.  But, however, to
+soften your resentment, know that Miss Cameron has brought you a
+purchaser for Burleigh.  Now, then, we can test the sincerity of your
+wish to part with it.  I assure you, meanwhile, that Miss Cameron was as
+much shocked at the idea as I was.  Were you not?"
+
+"But you surely have no intention of selling Burleigh?" said Evelyn,
+anxiously.
+
+"I fear I do not know my own mind."
+
+"Well," said Cleveland, "here comes your tempter.  Lord Doltimore, let me
+introduce Mr. Maltravers."
+
+Lord Doltimore bowed.
+
+"Been admiring your horses, Mr. Maltravers.  I never saw anything so
+perfect as the black one; may I ask where you bought him?"
+
+"It was a present to me," answered Maltravers.
+
+"A present?"
+
+"Yes, from one who would not have sold that horse for a king's
+ransom,--an old Arab chief, with whom I formed a kind of friendship in
+the desert.  A wound disabled him from riding, and he bestowed the horse
+on me, with as much solemn tenderness for the gift as if he had given me
+his daughter in marriage."
+
+"I think of travelling in the East," said Lord Doltimore, with much
+gravity: "I suppose nothing will induce you to sell the black horse?"
+
+"Lord Doltimore!" said Maltravers, in a tone of lofty surprise.
+
+"I do not care for the price," continued the young nobleman, a little
+disconcerted.
+
+"No; I never sell any horse that has once learned to know me.  I would as
+soon think of selling a friend.  In the desert, one's horse is one's
+friend.  I am almost an Arab myself in these matters."
+
+"But talking of sale and barter reminds me of Burleigh," said Cleveland,
+maliciously.  "Lord Doltimore is a universal buyer.  He covets all your
+goods: he will take the house, if he can't have the stables."
+
+"I only mean," said Lord Doltimore, rather peevishly, "that if you wish
+to part with Burleigh, I should like to have the option of purchase."
+
+"I will remember it, if I determine to sell the place," answered
+Maltravers, smiling gravely; "at present I am undecided."
+
+He turned away towards Evelyn as he spoke, and almost started to observe
+that she was joined by a stranger, whose approach he had not before
+noticed,--and that stranger a man of such remarkable personal advantages,
+that, had Maltravers been in Vargrave's position, he might reasonably
+have experienced a pang of jealous apprehension.  Slightly above the
+common height; slender, yet strongly formed; set off by every advantage
+of dress, of air, of the nameless tone and pervading refinement that
+sometimes, though not always, springs from early and habitual intercourse
+with the most polished female society,--Colonel Legard, at the age of
+eight and twenty, had acquired a reputation for beauty almost as popular
+and as well known as that which men usually acquire by mental
+qualifications.  Yet there was nothing effeminate in his countenance, the
+symmetrical features of which were made masculine and expressive by the
+rich olive of the complexion, and the close jetty curls of the
+Antinous-like hair.
+
+They seemed, as they there stood--Evelyn and Legard--so well suited to
+each other in personal advantages, their different styles so happily
+contrasted; and Legard, at the moment, was regarding her with such
+respectful admiration, and whispering compliment to her in so subdued a
+tone, that the dullest observer might have ventured a prophecy by no
+means agreeable to the hopes of Lumley Lord Vargrave.
+
+But a feeling or fear of this nature was not that which occurred to
+Maltravers, or dictated his startled exclamation of surprise.
+
+Legard looked up as he heard the exclamation, and saw Maltravers, whose
+back had hitherto been turned towards him.  He, too, was evidently
+surprised, and seemingly confused; the colour mounted to his cheek, and
+then left it pale.
+
+"Colonel Legard," said Cleveland, "a thousand apologies for my neglect: I
+really did not observe you enter,--you came round by the front door, I
+suppose.  Let me make you acquainted with Mr. Maltravers."
+
+Legard bowed low.
+
+"We have met before," said he, in embarrassed accents: "at Venice, I
+think!"
+
+Maltravers inclined his head rather stiffly at first, but then, as if
+moved by a second impulse, held out his hand cordially.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Ernest, here you are!" cried Sophy, bounding into the hall,
+followed by Mr. Merton, the old admiral, Caroline, and Cecilia.
+
+The interruption seemed welcome and opportune.  The admiral, with blunt
+cordiality, expressed his pleasure at being made known to Mr. Maltravers.
+
+The conversation grew general; refreshments were proffered and declined;
+the visit drew to its close.
+
+It so happened that as the guests departed, Evelyn, from whose side the
+constant colonel had insensibly melted away, lingered last,--save,
+indeed, the admiral, who was discussing with Cleveland a new specific for
+the gout.  And as Maltravers stood on the steps, Evelyn turned to him
+with all her beautiful _naivete_ of mingled timidity and kindness, and
+said,--
+
+"And are we really never to see you again; never to hear again your tales
+of Egypt and Arabia; never to talk over Tasso and Dante?  No books, no
+talk, no disputes, no quarrels?  What have we done?  I thought we had
+made it up,--and yet you are still unforgiving.  Give me a good scold,
+and be friends!"
+
+"Friends! you have no friend more anxious, more devoted than I am.
+Young, rich, fascinating as you are, you will carve no impression on
+human hearts deeper than that you have graven here!"
+
+Carried away by the charm of her childlike familiarity and enchanting
+sweetness, Maltravers had said more than he intended; yet his eyes, his
+emotion, said more than his words.
+
+Evelyn coloured deeply, and her whole manner changed.  However, she
+turned away, and saying, with a forced gayety, "Well, then, you will not
+desert us; we shall see you once more?" hurried down the steps to join
+her companions.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  SEE how the skilful lover spreads his toils.--STILLINGFLEET.
+
+THE party had not long returned to the rectory, and the admiral's
+carriage was ordered, when Lord Vargrave made his appearance.  He
+descanted with gay good-humour on his long drive, the bad roads, and his
+disappointment at the _contretemps_ that awaited him; then, drawing aside
+Colonel Legard, who seemed unusually silent and abstracted, he said to
+him,--
+
+"My dear colonel, my visit this morning was rather to you than to
+Doltimore.  I confess that I should like to see your abilities enlisted
+on the side of the Government; and knowing that the post of Storekeeper
+to the Ordnance will be vacant in a day or two by the promotion of Mr.
+-----, I wrote to secure the refusal.  To-day's post brings me the
+answer.  I offer the place to you; and I trust, before long, to procure
+you also a seat in parliament.  But you must start for London
+immediately."
+
+A week ago, and Legard's utmost ambition would have been amply gratified
+by this post; he now hesitated.
+
+"My dear lord," said he, "I cannot say how grateful I feel for your
+kindness; but--but--"
+
+"Enough; no thanks, my dear Legard.  Can you go to town to-morrow?"
+
+"Indeed," said Legard, "I fear not; I must consult my uncle."
+
+"I can answer for him; I sounded him before I wrote.  Reflect!  You are
+not rich, my dear Legard; it is an excellent opening: a seat in
+parliament, too!  Why, what can be your reason for hesitation?"
+
+There was something meaning and inquisitive in the tone of voice in which
+this question was put that brought the colour to the colonel's cheek.  He
+knew not well what to reply; and he began, too, to think that he ought
+not to refuse the appointment.  Nay, would his uncle, on whom he was
+dependent, consent to such a refusal?  Lord Vargrave saw the
+irresolution, and proceeded.  He spent ten minutes in combating every
+scruple, every objection: he placed all the advantages of the post, real
+or imaginary, in every conceivable point of view before the colonel's
+eyes; he sought to flatter, to wheedle, to coax, to weary him into
+accepting it; and he at length partially succeeded.  The colonel
+petitioned for three days' consideration, which Vargrave reluctantly
+acceded to; and Legard then stepped into his uncle's carriage, with the
+air rather of a martyr than a maiden placeman.
+
+"Aha!" said Vargrave, chuckling to himself as he took a turn in the
+grounds, "I have got rid of that handsome knave; and now I shall have
+Evelyn all to myself!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+  I AM forfeited to eternal disgrace if you do not commiserate.
+    .  .  .  .  .  .
+  Go to, then, raise, recover.--BEN JONSON: _Poetaster_.
+
+THE next morning Admiral Legard and his nephew were conversing in the
+little cabin consecrated by the name of the admiral's "own room."
+
+"Yes," said the veteran, "it would be moonshine and madness not to accept
+Vargrave's offer; though one can see through such a millstone as that
+with half an eye.  His lordship is jealous of such a fine, handsome young
+fellow as you are,--and very justly.  But as long as he is under the same
+roof with Miss Cameron, you will have no opportunity to pay your court;
+when he goes, you can always manage to be in her neighbourhood; and then,
+you know--puppy that you are--her business will be very soon settled."
+And the admiral eyed the handsome colonel with grim fondness.
+
+Legard sighed.
+
+"Have you any commands at -----?" said he; "I am just going to canter
+over there before Doltimore is up."
+
+"Sad lazy dog, your friend."
+
+"I shall be back by twelve."
+
+"What are you going to ----- for?"
+
+"Brookes, the farrier, has a little spaniel,--King Charles's breed.  Miss
+Cameron is fond of dogs.  I can send it to her, with my compliments,--it
+will be a sort of leave-taking."
+
+"Sly rogue; ha, ha, ha! d-----d sly; ha, ha!" and the admiral punched the
+slender waist of his nephew, and laughed till the tears ran down his
+cheeks.
+
+"Good-by, sir."
+
+"Stop, George; I forgot to ask you a question; you never told me you knew
+Mr. Maltravers.  Why don't you cultivate his acquaintance?"
+
+"We met at Venice accidentally.  I did not know his name then; he left
+just as I arrived.  As you say, I ought to cultivate his acquaintance."
+
+"Fine character!"
+
+"Very!" said Legard, with energy, as he abruptly quitted the room.
+
+George Legard was an orphan.  His father--the admiral's elder
+brother--had been a spendthrift man of fashion, with a tolerably large
+unentailed estate.  He married a duke's daughter without a sixpence.
+Estates are troublesome,--Mr. Legard's was sold.  On the purchase-money
+the happy pair lived for some years in great comfort, when Mr. Legard
+died of a brain fever; and his disconsolate widow found herself alone in
+the world with a beautiful little curly-headed boy, and an annuity of one
+thousand a year, for which her settlement had been exchanged.  All the
+rest of the fortune was gone,--a discovery not made till Mr. Legard's
+death.  Lady Louisa did not long survive the loss of her husband and her
+station in society; her income of course died with herself.  Her only
+child was brought up in the house of his grandfather, the duke, till he
+was of age to hold the office of king's page; thence, as is customary, he
+was promoted to a commission in the Guards.  To the munificent emoluments
+of his pay, the ducal family liberally added an allowance of two hundred
+a year; upon which income Cornet Legard contrived to get very handsomely
+in debt.  The extraordinary beauty of his person, his connections, and
+his manners obtained him all the celebrity that fashion can bestow; but
+poverty is a bad thing.  Luckily, at this time, his uncle the admiral
+returned from sea, to settle for the rest of his life in England.
+
+Hitherto, the admiral had taken no notice of George.  He himself had
+married a merchant's daughter with a fair portion; and had been blessed
+with two children, who monopolized all his affection.  But there seemed
+some mortality in the Legard family; in one year after returning to
+England and settling in B-----shire, the admiral found himself wifeless
+and childless.  He then turned to his orphan nephew; and soon became
+fonder of him than he had ever been of his own children.  The admiral,
+though in easy circumstances, was not wealthy; nevertheless, he advanced
+the money requisite for George's rise in the army, and doubled the
+allowance bestowed by the duke.  His grace heard of this generosity, and
+discovered that he himself had a very large family growing up; that the
+marquess was going to be married, and required an increase of income;
+that he had already behaved most handsomely to his nephew; and the result
+of this discovery was that the duke withdrew the two hundred a year.
+Legard, however, who looked on his uncle as an exhaustless mine, went on
+breaking hearts and making debts--till one morning he woke in the Bench.
+The admiral was hastily summoned to London.  He arrived; paid off the
+duns--a kindness which seriously embarrassed him--swore, scolded, and
+cried; and finally insisted that Legard should give up that d-----d
+coxcomb regiment, in which he was now captain, retire on half-pay, and
+learn economy and a change of habits on the Continent.
+
+The admiral, a rough but good-natured man on the whole, had two or three
+little peculiarities.  In the first place, he piqued himself on a sort of
+John Bull independence; was a bit of a Radical (a strange anomaly in an
+admiral)--which was owing, perhaps, to two or three young lords having
+been put over his head in the earlier part of his career; and he made it
+a point with his nephew (of whose affection he was jealous) to break with
+those fine grand connections, who plunged him into a sea of extravagance,
+and then never threw him a rope to save him from drowning.
+
+In the second place, without being stingy, the admiral had a good deal of
+economy in his disposition.  He was not a man to allow his nephew to ruin
+him.  He had an extraordinarily old-fashioned horror of gambling,--a
+polite habit of George's; and he declared positively that his nephew
+must, while a bachelor, learn to live upon seven hundred a year.
+Thirdly, the admiral could be a very stern, stubborn, passionate old
+brute; and when he coolly told George, "Harkye, you young puppy, if you
+get into debt again--if you exceed the very handsome allowance I make
+you--I shall just cut you off with a shilling," George was fully aware
+that his uncle was one who would rigidly keep his word.
+
+However, it was something to be out of debt, and one of the handsomest
+men of his age; and George Legard, whose rank in the Guards made him a
+colonel in the line, left England tolerably contented with the state of
+affairs.
+
+Despite the foibles of his youth, George Legard had many high and
+generous qualities.  Society had done its best to spoil a fine and candid
+disposition, with abilities far above mediocrity; but society had only
+partially succeeded.  Still, unhappily, dissipation had grown a habit
+with him; all his talents were of a nature that brought a ready return.
+At his age, it was but natural that the praise of _salons_ should retain
+all its sweetness.
+
+In addition to those qualities which please the softer sex, Legard was a
+good whist player, superb at billiards, famous as a shot, unrivalled as a
+horseman,--in fact, an accomplished man, "who did everything so devilish
+well!" These accomplishments did not stand him in much stead in Italy;
+and, though with reluctance and remorse, he took again to gambling,--he
+really _had_ nothing else to do.
+
+In Venice there was, one year, established a society somewhat on the
+principle of the _salon_ at Paris.  Some rich Venetians belonged to it;
+but it was chiefly for the convenience of foreigners,--French, English,
+and Austrians.  Here there was select gaming in one room, while another
+apartment served the purposes of a club.  Many who never played belonged
+to this society; but still they were not the _habitues_.
+
+Legard played: he won at first, then he lost, then he won again; it was a
+pleasant excitement.  One night, after winning largely at _roulette_, he
+sat down to play _ecarte_ with a Frenchman of high rank.  Legard played
+well at this, as at all scientific games; he thought he should make a
+fortune out of the Frenchman.  The game excited much interest; the crowd
+gathered round the table; bets ran high; the vanity of Legard, as well as
+his interest, was implicated in the conflict.  It was soon evident that
+the Frenchman played as well as the Englishman.  The stakes, at first
+tolerably high, were doubled.  Legard betted freely.  Cards went against
+him; he lost much, lost all that he had, lost more than he had, lost
+several hundreds, which he promised to pay the next morning.  The table
+was broken up, the spectators separated.  Amongst the latter had been one
+Englishman, introduced into the club for the first time that night.  He
+had neither played nor betted, but had observed the game with a quiet and
+watchful interest.  This Englishman lodged at the same hotel as Legard.
+He was at Venice only for a day; the promised sight of a file of English
+newspapers had drawn him to the club; the general excitement around had
+attracted him to the table; and once there, the spectacle of human
+emotions exercised its customary charm.
+
+On ascending the stairs that conducted to his apartment, the Englishman
+heard a deep groan in a room the door of which was ajar.  He paused, the
+sound was repeated; he gently pushed open the door and saw Legard seated
+by a table, while a glass on the opposite wall reflected his working and
+convulsed countenance, with his hands trembling visibly, as they took a
+brace of pistols from the case.
+
+The Englishman recognized the loser at the club; and at once divined the
+act that his madness or his despair dictated.  Legard twice took up one
+of the pistols, and twice laid it down irresolute; the third time he rose
+with a start, raised the weapon to his head, and the next moment it was
+wrenched from his grasp.
+
+"Sit down, sir!" said the stranger, in a loud and commanding voice.
+
+Legard, astonished and abashed, sank once more into his seat, and stared
+sullenly and half-unconsciously at his countryman.
+
+"You have lost your money," said the Englishman, after calmly replacing
+the pistols in their case, which he locked, putting the key into his
+pocket; "and that is misfortune enough for one night.  If you had won,
+and ruined your opponent, you would be excessively happy, and go to bed,
+thinking Good Luck (which is the representative of Providence) watched
+over you.  For my part, I think you ought to be very thankful that you
+are not the winner."
+
+"Sir," said Legard, recovering from his surprise, and beginning to feel
+resentment, "I do not understand this intrusion in my apartments.  You
+have saved me, it is true, from death,--but life is a worse curse."
+
+"Young man, no! moments in life are agony, but life itself is a blessing.
+Life is a mystery that defies all calculation.  You can never say,
+'To-day is wretched, therefore to-morrow must be the same!'  And for the
+loss of a little gold you, in the full vigour of youth, with all the
+future before you, will dare to rush into the chances of eternity!  You,
+who have never, perhaps, thought what eternity is!  Yet," added the
+stranger, in a soft and melancholy voice, "you are young and
+beautiful,--perhaps the pride and hope of others!  Have you no tie, no
+affection, no kindred; are you lord of yourself?"
+
+Legard was moved by the tone of the stranger, as well as by the words.
+
+"It is not the loss of money," said he, gloomily,--"it is the loss of
+honour.  To-morrow I must go forth a shunned and despised man,--I, a
+gentleman and a soldier!  They may insult me--and I have no reply!"
+
+The Englishman seemed to muse, for his brow lowered, and he made no
+answer.  Legard threw himself back, overcome with his own excitement, and
+wept like a child.  The stranger, who imagined himself above the
+indulgence of emotion (vain man!), woke from his revery at this burst of
+passion.  He gazed at first (I grieve to write) with a curl of the
+haughty lip that had in it contempt; but it passed quickly away; and the
+hard man remembered that he too had been young and weak, and his own
+errors greater perhaps than those of the one he had ventured to despise.
+He walked to and fro the room, still without speaking.  At last he
+approached the gamester, and took his hand.
+
+"What is your debt?" he asked gently.
+
+"What matters it?--more than I can pay."
+
+"If life is a trust, so is wealth: _you_ have the first in charge for
+others, _I_ may have the last.  What is the debt?"
+
+Legard started; it was a strong struggle between shame and hope.  "If I
+could borrow it, I could repay it hereafter,--I know I could; I would not
+think of it otherwise."
+
+"Very well, so be it,--I will lend you the money on one condition.
+Solemnly promise me, on your faith as a soldier and a gentleman, that you
+will not, for ten years to come--even if you grow rich, and can ruin
+others--touch card or dice-box.  Promise me that you will shun all gaming
+for gain, under whatever disguise, whatever appellation.  I will take
+your word as my bond."
+
+Legard, overjoyed, and scarcely trusting his senses, gave the promise.
+
+"Sleep then, to-night, in hope and assurance of the morrow," said the
+Englishman: "let this event be an omen to you, that while there is a
+future there is no despair.  One word more,--I do not want your thanks!
+it is easy to be generous at the expense of justice.  Perhaps I have been
+so now.  This sum, which is to save your life--a life you so little
+value--might have blessed fifty human beings,--better men than either the
+giver or receiver.  What is given to error may perhaps be a wrong to
+virtue.  When you would ask others to support a career of blind and
+selfish extravagance, pause and think over the breadless lips this wasted
+gold would have fed! the joyless hearts it would have comforted!  You
+talk of repaying me: if the occasion offer, do so; if not--if we never
+meet again, and you have it in your power, pay it for me to the Poor!
+And now, farewell."
+
+"Stay,--give me the name of my preserver!  Mine is--"
+
+"Hush! what matter names?  This is a sacrifice we have both made to
+honour.  You will sooner recover your self-esteem (and without
+self-esteem there is neither faith nor honour), when you think that your
+family, your connections, are spared all association with your own error;
+that I may hear them spoken of, that I may mix with them without fancying
+that they owe me gratitude."
+
+"Your own name then?" said Legard, deeply penetrated with the delicate
+generosity of his benefactor.
+
+"Tush!" muttered the stranger impatiently as he closed the door.
+
+The next morning when he awoke Legard saw upon the table a small packet;
+it contained a sum that exceeded the debt named.
+
+On the envelope was written, "Remember the bond."
+
+The stranger had already quitted Venice.  He had not travelled through
+the Italian cities under his own name, for he had just returned from the
+solitudes of the East, and was not yet hardened to the publicity of the
+gossip which in towns haunted by his countrymen attended a well-known
+name; that given to Legard by the innkeeper, mutilated by Italian
+pronunciation, the young man had never heard before, and soon forgot.  He
+paid his debts, and he scrupulously kept his word.  The adventure of that
+night went far, indeed, to reform and ennoble the mind and habits of
+George Legard.  Time passed, and he never met his benefactor, till in the
+halls of Burleigh he recognized the stranger in Maltravers.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+  WHY value, then, that strength of mind they boast,
+  As often varying, and as often lost?
+
+  HAWKINS BROWNE (translated by SOAME JENYNS).
+
+MALTRAVERS was lying at length, with his dogs around him, under a
+beech-tree that threw its arms over one of the calm still pieces of water
+that relieved the groves of Burleigh, when Colonel Legard spied him from
+the bridle-road which led through the park to the house.  The colonel
+dismounted, threw the rein over his arm; and at the sound of the hoofs
+Maltravers turned, saw the visitor, and rose.  He held out his hand to
+Legard, and immediately began talking of indifferent matters.
+
+Legard was embarrassed; but his nature was not one to profit by the
+silence of a benefactor.  "Mr. Maltravers," said he, with graceful
+emotion, "though you have not yet allowed me an opportunity to allude to
+it, do not think I am ungrateful for the service you rendered me."
+
+Maltravers looked grave, but made no reply.  Legard resumed, with a
+heightened colour,--
+
+"I cannot say how I regret that it is not yet in my power to discharge my
+debt; but--"
+
+"When it is, you will do so.  Pray think no more of it.  Are you going to
+the rectory?"
+
+"No, not this morning; in fact, I leave B-----shire tomorrow.  Pleasant
+family, the Mertons."
+
+"And Miss Cameron--"
+
+"Is certainly beautiful,--and very rich.  How could she ever think of
+marrying Lord Vargrave, so much older,--she who could have so many
+admirers?"
+
+"Not, surely, while betrothed to another?"
+
+This was a refinement which Legard, though an honourable man as men go,
+did not quite understand.  "Oh," said he, "that was by some eccentric old
+relation,--her father-in-law, I think.  Do you think she is bound by such
+an engagement?"
+
+Maltravers made no reply, but amused himself by throwing a stick into the
+water, and sending one of his dogs after it.  Legard looked on, and his
+affectionate disposition yearned to make advances which something distant
+in the manner of Maltravers chilled and repelled.
+
+When Legard was gone, Maltravers followed him with his eyes.  "And this
+is the man whom Cleveland thinks Evelyn could love!  I could forgive her
+marrying Vargrave.  Independently of the conscientious feeling that may
+belong to the engagement, Vargrave has wit, talent, intellect; and this
+man has nothing but the skin of the panther.  Was I wrong to save him?
+No.  Every human life, I suppose, has its uses.  But Evelyn--I could
+despise her if her heart was the fool of the eye!"
+
+These comments were most unjust to Legard; but they were just of that
+kind of injustice which the man of talent often commits against the man
+of external advantages, and which the latter still more often retaliates
+on the man of talent.  As Maltravers thus soliloquized, he was accosted
+by Mr. Cleveland.
+
+"Come, Ernest, you must not cut these unfortunate Mertons any longer.  If
+you continue to do so, do you know what Mrs. Hare and the world will
+say?"
+
+"No--what?"
+
+"That you have been refused by Miss Merton."
+
+"That _would_ be a calumny!" said Ernest, smiling.
+
+"Or that you are hopelessly in love with Miss Cameron."
+
+Maltravers started; his proud heart swelled; he pulled his hat over his
+brows, and said, after a short pause,--
+
+"Well, Mrs. Hare and the world must not have it all their own way; and
+so, whenever you go to the rectory, take me with you."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+                 THE more he strove
+  To advance his suit, the farther from her love.
+
+                      DRYDEN: _Theodore and Honoria_.
+
+THE line of conduct which Vargrave now adopted with regard to Evelyn was
+craftily conceived and carefully pursued.  He did not hazard a single
+syllable which might draw on him a rejection of his claims; but at the
+same time no lover could be more constant, more devoted, in attentions.
+In the presence of others, there was an air of familiar intimacy that
+seemed to arrogate a right, which to her he scrupulously shunned to
+assert.  Nothing could be more respectful, nay, more timid, than his
+language, or more calmly confident than his manner.  Not having much
+vanity, nor any very acute self-conceit, he did not delude himself into
+the idea of winning Evelyn's affections; he rather sought to entangle her
+judgment, to weave around her web upon web,--not the less dangerous for
+being invisible.  He took the compact as a matter of course, as something
+not to be broken by any possible chance; her hand was to be his as a
+right: it was her heart that he so anxiously sought to gain.  But this
+distinction was so delicately drawn, and insisted upon so little in any
+tangible form, that, whatever Evelyn's wishes for an understanding, a
+much more experienced woman would have been at a loss to ripen one.
+
+Evelyn longed to confide in Caroline, to consult her; but Caroline,
+though still kind, had grown distant.  "I wish," said Evelyn, one night
+as she sat in Caroline's dressing-room,--"I wish that I knew what tone to
+take with Lord Vargrave. I feel more and more convinced that a union
+between us is impossible; and yet, precisely because he does not press
+it, am I unable to tell him so.  I wish you could undertake that task;
+you seem such friends with him."
+
+"I!" said Caroline, changing countenance.
+
+"Yes, you!  Nay, do not blush, or I shall think you envy me.  Could you
+not save us both from the pain that otherwise must come sooner or later?"
+
+"Lord Vargrave would not thank me for such an act of friendship.
+Besides, Evelyn, consider,--it is scarcely possible to break off this
+engagement _now_."
+
+"_Now_! and why now?" said Evelyn, astonished.
+
+"The world believes it so implicitly.  Observe, whoever sits next you
+rises if Lord Vargrave approaches; the neighbourhood talk of nothing else
+but your marriage; and your fate, Evelyn, is not pitied."
+
+"I will leave this place!  I will go back to the cottage!  I cannot bear
+this!" said Evelyn, passionately wringing her hands.
+
+"You do not love another, I am sure: not young Mr. Hare, with his green
+coat and straw-coloured whiskers; or Sir Henry Foxglove, with his
+how-d'ye-do like a view-halloo; perhaps, indeed, Colonel Legard,--he is
+handsome.  What! do you blush at his name?  No; you say 'not Legard:' who
+else is there?"
+
+"You are cruel; you trifle with me!" said Evelyn, in tearful reproach;
+and she rose to go to her own room.
+
+"My dear girl!" said Caroline, touched by her evident pain; "learn from
+me--if I may say so--that marriages are _not_ made in heaven!  Yours will
+be as fortunate as earth can bestow.  A love-match is usually the least
+happy of all.  Our foolish sex demand so much in love; and love, after
+all, is but one blessing among many.  Wealth and rank remain when love is
+but a heap of ashes.  For my part, I have chosen my destiny and my
+husband."
+
+"Your husband!"
+
+"Yes, you see him in Lord Doltimore.  I dare say we shall be as happy as
+any amorous Corydon and Phyllis."  But there was irony in Caroline's
+voice as she spoke; and she sighed heavily.  Evelyn did not believe her
+serious; and the friends parted for the night.
+
+"Mine is a strange fate!" said Caroline to herself; "I am asked by the
+man whom I love, and who professes to love me, to bestow myself on
+another, and to plead for him to a younger and fairer bride.  Well, I
+will obey him in the first; the last is a bitterer task, and I cannot
+perform it earnestly.  Yet Vargrave has a strange power over me; and when
+I look round the world, I see that he is right.  In these most
+commonplace artifices, there is yet a wild majesty that charms and
+fascinates me.  It is something to rule the world: and his and mine are
+natures formed to do so."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+  A SMOKE raised with the fume of sighs.
+
+                      _Romeo and Juliet_.
+
+IT is certain that Evelyn experienced for Maltravers sentiments which, if
+not love, might easily be mistaken for it.  But whether it were that
+master-passion, or merely its fanciful resemblance,--love in early youth
+and innocent natures, if of sudden growth, is long before it makes itself
+apparent.  Evelyn had been prepared to feel an interest in her solitary
+neighbour.  His mind, as developed in his works, had half-formed her own.
+Her childish adventure with the stranger had never been forgotten.  Her
+present knowledge of Maltravers was an union of dangerous and often
+opposite associations,--the Ideal and the Real.
+
+Love, in its first dim and imperfect shape, is but imagination
+concentrated on one object.  It is a genius of the heart, resembling that
+of the intellect; it appeals to, it stirs up, it evokes, the sentiments
+and sympathies that lie most latent in our nature.  Its sigh is the
+spirit that moves over the ocean, and arouses the Anadyomene into life.
+Therefore is it that MIND produces affections deeper than those of
+external form; therefore it is that women are worshippers of glory, which
+is the palpable and visible representative of a genius whose operations
+they cannot always comprehend.  Genius has so much in common with love,
+the imagination that animates one is so much the property of the other,
+that there is not a surer sign of the existence of genius than the love
+that it creates and bequeaths.  It penetrates deeper than the reason, it
+binds a nobler captive than the fancy.  As the sun upon the dial, it
+gives to the human heart both its shadow and its light.  Nations are its
+worshippers and wooers; and Posterity learns from its oracles to dream,
+to aspire, to adore!
+
+Had Maltravers declared the passion that consumed him, it is probable
+that it would soon have kindled a return.  But his frequent absence, his
+sustained distance of manner, had served to repress the feelings that in
+a young and virgin heart rarely flow with much force until they are
+invited and aroused.  _Le besoin d'aimer_ in girls, is, perhaps, in
+itself powerful; but is fed by another want, _le besoin d'etre aime_!
+_If_, therefore, Evelyn at present felt love for Maltravers, the love had
+certainly not passed into the core of life: the tree had not so far
+struck its roots but what it might have borne transplanting.  There was
+in her enough of the pride of sex to have recoiled from the thought of
+giving love to one who had not asked the treasure.  Capable of
+attachment, more trustful and therefore, if less vehement, more beautiful
+and durable than that which had animated the brief tragedy of Florence
+Lascelles, she could not have been the unknown correspondent, or revealed
+the soul, because the features wore a mask.
+
+It must also be allowed that, in some respects, Evelyn was too young and
+inexperienced thoroughly to appreciate all that was most truly lovable
+and attractive in Maltravers.  At four and twenty she would, perhaps,
+have felt no fear mingled with her respect for him; but seventeen and six
+and thirty is a wide interval!  She never felt that there was that
+difference in years until she had met Legard, and then at once she
+comprehended it.  With Legard she had moved on equal terms; he was not
+too wise, too high for her every-day thoughts.  He less excited her
+imagination, less attracted her reverence.  But, somehow or other, that
+voice which proclaimed her power, those eyes which never turned from
+hers, went nearer to her heart.  As Evelyn had once said to Caroline, "It
+was a great enigma!"--her own feelings were a mystery to her, and she
+reclined by the "Golden Waterfalls" without tracing her likeness in the
+glass of the pool below.
+
+Maltravers appeared again at the rectory.  He joined their parties by
+day, and his evenings were spent with them as of old.  In this I know not
+precisely what were his motives--perhaps he did not know them himself.
+It might be that his pride was roused; it might be that he could not
+endure the notion that Lord Vargrave should guess his secret by an
+absence almost otherwise unaccountable,--he could not patiently bear to
+give Vargrave that triumph; it might be that, in the sternness of his
+self-esteem, he imagined he had already conquered all save affectionate
+interest in Evelyn's fate, and trusted too vainly to his own strength;
+and it might be, also, that he could not resist the temptation of seeing
+if Evelyn were contented with her lot, and if Vargrave were worthy of the
+blessing that awaited him.  Whether one of these or all united made him
+resolve to brave his danger, or whether, after all, he yielded to a
+weakness, or consented to what--invited by Evelyn herself--was almost a
+social necessity, the reader and not the narrator shall decide.
+
+Legard was gone; but Doltimore remained in the neighbourhood, having
+hired a hunting-box not far from Sir John Merton's manors, over which he
+easily obtained permission to sport.  When he did not dine elsewhere,
+there was always a place for him at the parson's hospitable board,--and
+that place was generally next to Caroline.  Mr. and Mrs. Merton had given
+up all hope of Mr. Maltravers for their eldest daughter; and, very
+strangely, this conviction came upon their minds on the first day they
+made the acquaintance of the young lord.
+
+"My dear," said the rector, as he was winding up his watch, preparatory
+to entering the connubial couch,--"my dear, I don't think Mr. Maltravers
+is a marrying man."
+
+"I was just going to make the same remark," said Mrs. Merton, drawing the
+clothes over her.  "Lord Doltimore is a very fine young man, his estates
+unencumbered.  I like him vastly, my love.  He is evidently smitten with
+Caroline: so Lord Vargrave and Mrs. Hare said."
+
+"Sensible, shrewd woman, Mrs. Hare.  By the by, we'll send her a
+pineapple.  Caroline was made to be a woman of rank!"
+
+"Quite; so much self-possession!"
+
+"And if Mr. Maltravers would sell or let Burleigh--"
+
+"It would be so pleasant!"
+
+"Had you not better give Caroline a hint?"
+
+"My love, she is so sensible, let her go her own way."
+
+"You are right, my dear Betsy; I shall always say that no one has more
+common-sense than you; you have brought up your children admirably!"
+
+"Dear Charles!"
+
+"It is coldish to-night, love," said the rector; and he put out the
+candle.
+
+From that time, it was not the fault of Mr. and Mrs. Merton if Lord
+Doltimore did not find their house the pleasantest in the county.
+
+One evening the rectory party were assembled together in the cheerful
+drawing-room.  Cleveland, Mr. Merton, Sir John, and Lord Vargrave,
+reluctantly compelled to make up the fourth, were at the whist-table;
+Evelyn, Caroline, and Lord Doltimore were seated round the fire, and Mrs.
+Merton was working a footstool.  The fire burned clear, the curtains were
+down, the children in bed: it was a family picture of elegant comfort.
+
+Mr. Maltravers was announced.
+
+"I am glad you are come at last," said Caroline, holding out her fair
+hand.  "Mr. Cleveland could not answer for you.  We are all disputing as
+to which mode of life is the happiest."
+
+"And your opinion?" asked Maltravers, seating himself in the vacant
+chair,--it chanced to be next to Evelyn's.
+
+"My opinion is decidedly in favour of London.  A metropolitan life, with
+its perpetual and graceful excitements,--the best music, the best
+companions, the best things in short.  Provincial life is so dull, its
+pleasures so tiresome; to talk over the last year's news, and wear out
+one's last year's dresses, cultivate a conservatory, and play Pope Joan
+with a young party,--dreadful!"
+
+"I agree with Miss Merton," said Lord Doltimore, solemnly; not but what I
+like the country for three or four months in the year, with good shooting
+and hunting, and a large house properly filled, independent of one's own
+neighbourhood: but if I am condemned to choose one place to live in, give
+me Paris."
+
+"Ah, Paris; I never was in Paris.  I should so like to travel!" said
+Caroline.
+
+"But the inns abroad are so very bad," said Lord Doltimore; "how people
+can rave about Italy, I can't think.  I never suffered so much in my life
+as I did in Calabria; and at Venice I was bit to death by mosquitoes.
+Nothing like Paris, I assure you: don't you think so, Mr. Maltravers?"
+
+"Perhaps I shall be able to answer you better in a short time.  I think
+of accompanying Mr. Cleveland to Paris!"
+
+"Indeed!" said Caroline.  "Well, I envy you; but is it a sudden
+resolution?"
+
+"Not very."
+
+"Do you stay long?" asked Lord Doltimore.
+
+"My stay is uncertain."
+
+"And you won't let Burleigh in the meanwhile?"
+
+"_Let_ Burleigh?  No; if it once pass from my hands it will be forever!"
+
+Maltravers spoke gravely, and the subject was changed.  Lord Doltimore
+challenged Caroline to chess.
+
+They sat down, and Lord Doltimore arranged the pieces.
+
+"Sensible man, Mr. Maltravers," said the young lord; "but I don't hit it
+off with him: Vargrave is more agreeable.  Don't you think so?"
+
+"Y-e-s."
+
+"Lord Vargrave is very kind to me,--I never remember any one being more
+so; got Legard that appointment solely because it would please me,--very
+friendly fellow!  I mean to put myself under his wing next session!"
+
+"You could not do better, I'm sure," said Caroline; "he is so much looked
+up to; I dare say he will be prime minister one of these days."
+
+"I take the bishop:--do you think so really?--you are rather a
+politician?"
+
+"Oh, no; not much of that.  But my father and my uncle are stanch
+politicians; gentlemen know so much more than ladies.  We should always
+go by their opinions.  I think I will take the queen's pawn--your
+politics are the same as Lord Vargrave's?"
+
+"Yes, I fancy so: at least I shall leave my proxy with him.  Glad you
+don't like politics,--great bore."
+
+"Why, so young, so connected as you are--" Caroline stopped short, and
+made a wrong move.
+
+"I wish we were going to Paris together, we should enjoy it so;" and Lord
+Doltimore's knight checked the tower and queen.
+
+Caroline coughed, and stretched her hand quickly to move.
+
+"Pardon me, you will lose the game if you do so!" and Doltimore placed
+his hand on hers, their eyes met, Caroline turned away, and Lord
+Doltimore settled his right collar.
+
+
+
+"And is it true? are you really going to leave us?" said Evelyn, and she
+felt very sad.  But still the sadness might not be that of love,--she had
+felt sad after Legard had gone.
+
+"I do not think I shall long stay away," said Maltravers, trying to speak
+indifferently.  "Burleigh has become more dear to me than it was in
+earlier youth; perhaps because I have made myself duties there: and in
+other places I am but an isolated and useless unit in the great mass."
+
+"You! everywhere, you must have occupations and resources,--everywhere,
+you must find yourself not alone.  But you will not go yet?"
+
+"Not yet--no.  [Evelyn's spirits rose.]  Have you read the book I sent
+you?"  (It was one of De Stael's.)
+
+"Yes; but it disappoints me."
+
+"And why?  It is eloquent."
+
+"But is it true?  Is there so much melancholy in life?  Are the
+affections so full of bitterness?  For me, I am so happy when with those
+I love!  When I am with my mother, the air seems more fragrant, the skies
+more blue: it is surely not affection, but the absence of it, that makes
+us melancholy."
+
+"Perhaps so; but if we had never known affection, we might not miss it:
+and the brilliant Frenchwoman speaks from memory, while you speak from
+hope,--memory, which is the ghost of joy: yet surely, even in the
+indulgence of affection, there is at times a certain melancholy, a
+certain fear.  Have you never felt it, even with--with your mother?"
+
+"Ah, yes! when she suffered, or when I have thought she loved me less
+than I desired."
+
+"That must have been an idle and vain thought.  Your mother! does she
+resemble you?"
+
+"I wish I could think so.  Oh, if you knew her!  I have longed so often
+that you were acquainted with each other!  It was she who taught me to
+sing your songs."
+
+"My dear Mrs. Hare, we may as well throw up our cards," said the keen
+clear voice of Lord Vargrave: "you have played most admirably, and I know
+that your last card will be the ace of trumps; still the luck is against
+us."
+
+"No, no; pray play it out, my lord."
+
+"Quite useless, ma'am," said Sir John, showing two honours.  "We have
+only the trick to make."
+
+"Quite useless," echoed Lumley, tossing down his sovereigns, and rising
+with a careless yawn.
+
+"How d'ye do, Maltravers?"
+
+Maltravers rose; and Vargrave turned to Evelyn, and addressed her in a
+whisper.  The proud Maltravers walked away, and suppressed a sigh; a
+moment more, and he saw Lord Vargrave occupying the chair he had left
+vacant.  He laid his hand on Cleveland's shoulder.
+
+"The carriage is waiting,--are you ready?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+  OBSCURIS vera involvens.*--VIRGIL.
+
+  * "Wrapping truth in obscurity."
+
+A DAY or two after the date of the last chapter, Evelyn and Caroline were
+riding out with Lord Vargrave and Mr. Merton, and on returning home they
+passed through the village of Burleigh.
+
+"Maltravers, I suppose, has an eye to the county one of these days," said
+Lord Vargrave, who honestly fancied that a man's eyes were always
+directed towards something for his own interest or advancement;
+"otherwise he could not surely take all this trouble about workhouses and
+paupers.  Who could ever have imagined my romantic friend would sink into
+a country squire?"
+
+"It is astonishing what talent and energy he throws into everything he
+attempts," said the parson.  "One could not, indeed, have supposed that a
+man of genius could make a man of business."
+
+"Flattering to your humble servant--whom all the world allow to be the
+last, and deny to be the first.  But your remark shows what a sad
+possession genius is: like the rest of the world, you fancy that it
+cannot be of the least possible use.  If a man is called a genius, it
+means that he is to be thrust out of all the good things in this life.
+He is not fit for anything but a garret!  Put a _genius_ into office!
+make a _genius_ a bishop! or a lord chancellor!--the world would be
+turned topsy-turvy!  You see that you are quite astonished that a genius
+can be even a county magistrate, and know the difference between a spade
+and a poker!  In fact, a genius is supposed to be the most ignorant,
+impracticable, good-for-nothing, do-nothing sort of thing that ever
+walked upon two legs.  Well, when I began life I took excellent care that
+nobody should take _me_ for a genius; and it is only within the last year
+or two that I ventured to emerge a little out of my shell.  I have not
+been the better for it; I was getting on faster while I was merely a
+plodder.  The world is so fond of that droll fable, the hare and the
+tortoise,--it really believes because (I suppose the fable to be true!) a
+tortoise _once_ beat a hare that all tortoises are much better runners
+than hares possibly can be.  Mediocre men have the monopoly of the loaves
+and fishes; and even when talent does rise in life, it is a talent which
+only differs from mediocrity by being more energetic and bustling."
+
+"You are bitter, Lord Vargrave," said Caroline, laughing; "yet surely you
+have had no reason to complain of the non-appreciation of talent?"
+
+"Humph! if I had had a grain more talent I should have been crushed by
+it.  There is a subtle allegory in the story of the lean poet, who put
+_lead_ in his pocket to prevent being blown away!  'Mais a nos
+moutons,'--to return to Maltravers.  Let us suppose that he was merely
+clever, had not had a particle of what is called genius, been merely a
+hardworking able gentleman, of good character and fortune, he might be
+half-way up the hill by this time; whereas now, what is he?  Less before
+the public than he was at twenty-eight,--a discontented anchorite, a
+meditative idler."
+
+"No, not that," said Evelyn, warmly, and then checked herself.
+
+Lord Vargrave looked at her sharply; but his knowledge of life told him
+that Legard was a much more dangerous rival than Maltravers.  Now and
+then, it is true, a suspicion to the contrary crossed him; but it did not
+take root and become a serious apprehension.  Still, be did not quite
+like the tone of voice in which Evelyn had put her abrupt negative, and
+said, with a slight sneer,--
+
+"If not that, what is he?"
+
+"One who purchased by the noblest exertions the right to be idle," said
+Evelyn with spirit; "and whom genius itself will not suffer to be idle
+long."
+
+"Besides," said Mr. Merton, "he has won a high reputation, which he
+cannot lose merely by not seeking to increase it."
+
+"Reputation!  Oh, yes! we give men like that--men of genius--a large
+property in the clouds, in order to justify ourselves in pushing them out
+of our way below.  But if they are contented with fame, why, they deserve
+their fate.  Hang fame,--give me power."
+
+"And is there no power in genius?" said Evelyn, with deepening fervour;
+"no power over the mind, and the heart, and the thought; no power over
+its own time, over posterity, over nations yet uncivilized, races yet
+unborn?"
+
+This burst from one so simple and young as Evelyn seemed to Vargrave so
+surprising that he stared on her without saying a word.
+
+"You will laugh at my championship," she added, with a blush and a smile;
+"but you provoked the encounter."
+
+"And you have won the battle," said Vargrave, with prompt gallantry.  "My
+charming ward, every day develops in you some new gift of nature!"
+
+Caroline, with a movement of impatience, put her horse into a canter.
+
+Just at this time, from a cross-road, emerged a horseman,--it was
+Maltravers.  The party halted, salutations were exchanged.
+
+"I suppose you have been enjoying the sweet business of squiredom," said
+Vargrave, gayly: "Atticus and his farm,--classical associations!
+Charming weather for the agriculturists, eh!  What news about corn and
+barley?  I suppose our English habit of talking on the weather arose when
+we were all a squirearchal farming, George-the-Third kind of people!
+Weather is really a serious matter to gentlemen who are interested in
+beans and vetches, wheat and hay.  You hang your happiness upon the
+changes of the moon!"
+
+"As you upon the smiles of a minister.  The weather of a court is more
+capricious than that of the skies,--at least we are better husbandmen
+than you who sow the wind and reap the whirlwind."
+
+"Well retorted: and really, when I look round, I am half inclined to envy
+you.  Were I not Vargrave, I would be Maltravers."
+
+It was, indeed, a scene that seemed quiet and serene, with the English
+union of the feudal and the pastoral life,--the village-green, with its
+trim scattered cottages; the fields and pastures that spread beyond; the
+turf of the park behind, broken by the shadows of the unequal grounds,
+with its mounds and hollows and venerable groves, from which rose the
+turrets of the old Hall, its mullion windows gleaming in the western sun;
+a scene that preached tranquillity and content, and might have been
+equally grateful to humble philosophy and hereditary pride.
+
+"I never saw any place so peculiar in its character as Burleigh," said
+the rector; "the old seats left to us in England are chiefly those of our
+great nobles.  It is so rare to see one that does not aspire beyond the
+residence of a private gentleman preserve all the relics of the Tudor
+age."
+
+"I think," said Vargrave, turning to Evelyn, "that as by my uncle's will
+your fortune is to be laid out in the purchase of land, we could not find
+a better investment than Burleigh.  So, whenever you are inclined to
+sell, Maltravers, I think we must outbid Doltimore.  What say you, my
+fair ward?"
+
+"Leave Burleigh in peace, I beseech you!" said Maltravers, angrily.
+
+"That is said like a Digby," returned Vargrave.  "_Allons_!--will you not
+come home with us?"
+
+"I thank you,--not to-day."
+
+"We meet at Lord Raby's next Thursday.  It is a ball given almost wholly
+in honour of your return to Burleigh; we are all going,--it is my young
+cousin's _debut_ at Knaresdean.  We have all an interest in her
+conquests."
+
+Now, as Maltravers looked up to answer, he caught Evelyn's glance, and
+his voice faltered.
+
+"Yes," he said, "we shall meet--once again.  Adieu!"  He wheeled round
+his horse, and they separated.
+
+"I can bear this no more," said Maltravers to himself; "I overrated my
+strength.  To see her thus, day after day, and to know her another's, to
+writhe beneath his calm, unconscious assertion of his rights!  Happy
+Vargrave!--and yet, ah! will _she_ be happy?  Oh, could I think so!"
+
+Thus soliloquizing, he suffered the rein to fall on the neck of his
+horse, which paced slowly home through the village, till it stopped--as
+if in the mechanism of custom--at the door of a cottage a stone's throw
+from the lodge.  At this door, indeed, for several successive days, had
+Maltravers stopped regularly; it was now tenanted by the poor woman his
+introduction to whom has been before narrated.  She had recovered from
+the immediate effects of the injury she had sustained; but her
+constitution, greatly broken by previous suffering and exhaustion, had
+received a mortal shock.  She was hurt inwardly; and the surgeon informed
+Maltravers that she had not many months to live.  He had placed her under
+the roof of one of his favourite cottagers, where she received all the
+assistance and alleviation that careful nursing and medical advice could
+give her.
+
+This poor woman, whose name was Sarah Elton, interested Maltravers much.
+She had known better days: there was a certain propriety in her
+expressions which denoted an education superior to her circumstances; and
+what touched Maltravers most, she seemed far more to feel her husband's
+death than her own sufferings,--which, somehow or other, is not common
+with widows the other side of forty!  We say that youth easily consoles
+itself for the robberies of the grave,--middle age is a still better
+self-comforter.  When Mrs. Elton found herself installed in the cottage,
+she looked round, and burst into tears.
+
+"And William is not here!" she said.  "Friends--friends! if we had had
+but one such friend before he died!"
+
+Maltravers was pleased that her first thought was rather that of sorrow
+for the dead than of gratitude for the living.  Yet Mrs. Elton was
+grateful,--simply, honestly, deeply grateful; her manner, her voice,
+betokened it.  And she seemed so glad when her benefactor called to speak
+kindly and inquire cordially, that Maltravers did so constantly; at first
+from a compassionate and at last from a selfish motive--for who is not
+pleased to give pleasure?  And Maltravers had so few in the world to care
+for him, that perhaps he was flattered by the grateful respect of this
+humble stranger.
+
+When his horse stopped, the cottager's daughter opened the door and
+courtesied,--it was an invitation to enter; and he threw his rein over
+the paling and walked into the cottage.
+
+Mrs. Elton, who had been seated by the open casement, rose to receive
+him.  But Maltravers made her sit down, and soon put her at her ease.
+The woman and her daughter who occupied the cottage retired into the
+garden, and Mrs. Elton, watching them withdraw, then exclaimed
+abruptly,--
+
+"Oh, sir, I have so longed to see you this morning!  I so long to make
+bold to ask you whether, indeed, I dreamed it--or did I, when you first
+took me to your house--did I see--" She stopped abruptly; and though she
+strove to suppress her emotion, it was too strong for her efforts,--she
+sank back on her chair, pale as death, and almost gasped for breath.
+
+Maltravers waited in surprise for her recovery.
+
+"I beg pardon, sir,--I was thinking of days long past; and--but I wished
+to ask whether, when I lay in your hall, almost insensible, any one
+besides yourself and your servants were present?---or was it"--added the
+woman, with a shudder--"was it the dead?"
+
+"I remember," said Maltravers, much struck and interested in her question
+and manner, "that a lady was present."
+
+"It is so! it is so!" cried the woman, half rising and clasping her
+hands.  "And she passed by this cottage a little time ago; her veil was
+thrown aside as she turned that fair young face towards the cottage.  Her
+name, sir,--oh, what is her name?  It was the same--the same face that
+shone across me in that hour of pain!  I did not dream!  I was not mad!"
+
+"Compose yourself; you could never, I think, have seen that lady before.
+Her name is Cameron."
+
+"Cameron--Cameron!"  The woman shook her head mournfully.  "No; that name
+is strange to me.  And her mother, sir,--she is dead?"
+
+"No; her mother lives."
+
+A shade came over the face of the sufferer; and she said, after a
+pause,--
+
+"My eyes deceive me then, sir; and, indeed, I feel that my head is
+touched, and I wander sometimes.  But the likeness was so great; yet that
+young lady is even lovelier!"
+
+"Likenesses are very deceitful and very capricious, and depend more on
+fancy than reality.  One person discovers a likeness between faces most
+dissimilar,--a likeness invisible to others.  But who does Miss Cameron
+resemble?"
+
+"One now dead, sir; dead many years ago.  But it is a long story, and one
+that lies heavy on my conscience.  Some day or other, if you will give me
+leave, sir, I will unburden myself to you."
+
+"If I can assist you in anyway, command me.  Meanwhile, have you no
+friends, no relations, no children, whom you would wish to see?"
+
+"Children!--no, sir; I never had but one child of _my own_ (she laid an
+emphasis on the last words), and that died in a foreign land."
+
+"And no other relatives?"
+
+"None, sir.  My history is very short and simple.  I was well brought
+up,--an only child.  My father was a small farmer; he died when I was
+sixteen, and I went into service with a kind old lady and her daughter,
+who treated me more as a companion than a servant.  I was a vain, giddy
+girl, then, sir.  A young man, the son of a neighbouring farmer, courted
+me, and I was much attached to him; but neither of us had money, and his
+parents would not give their consent to our marrying.  I was silly enough
+to think that, if William loved me, he should have braved all; and his
+prudence mortified me, so I married another whom I did not love.  I was
+rightly punished, for he ill-used me and took to drinking; I returned to
+my old service to escape from him--for I was with child, and my life was
+in danger from his violence.  He died suddenly, and in debt.  And then,
+afterwards, a gentleman--a rich gentleman--to whom I rendered a service
+(do not misunderstand me, sir, if I say the service was one of which I
+repent), gave me money, and made me rich enough to marry my first lover;
+and William and I went to America.  We lived many years in New York upon
+our little fortune comfortably; and I was a long while happy, for I had
+always loved William dearly.  My first affliction was the death of my
+child by my first husband; but I was soon roused from my grief.  William
+schemed and speculated, as everybody does in America, and so we lost all;
+and William was weakly and could not work.  At length he got the place of
+steward on board a vessel from New York to Liverpool, and I was taken to
+assist in the cabin.  We wanted to come to London; I thought my old
+benefactor might do something for us, though he had never answered the
+letters I sent to him.  But poor William fell ill on board, and died in
+sight of land."
+
+Mrs. Elton wept bitterly, but with the subdued grief of one to whom tears
+have been familiar; and when she recovered, she soon brought her humble
+tale to an end.  She herself, incapacitated from all work by sorrow and a
+breaking constitution, was left in the streets of Liverpool without other
+means of subsistence than the charitable contributions of the passengers
+and sailors on board the vessel.  With this sum she had gone to London,
+where she found her old patron had been long since dead, and she had no
+claims on his family.  She had, on quitting England, left one relation
+settled in a town in the North; thither she now repaired, to find her
+last hope wrecked; the relation also was dead and gone.  Her money was
+now spent, and she had begged her way along the road, or through the
+lanes, she scarce knew whither, till the accident which, in shortening
+her life, had raised up a friend for its close.
+
+"And such, sir," said she in conclusion, "such has been the story of my
+life, except one part of it, which, if I get stronger, I can tell better;
+but you will excuse that now."
+
+"And are you comfortable and contented, my poor friend?  These people are
+kind to you?"
+
+"Oh, so kind!  And every night we all pray for you, sir; you ought to be
+happy, if the blessings of the poor can avail the rich."
+
+Maltravers remounted his horse, and sought his home; and his heart was
+lighter than before he entered that cottage.  But at evening Cleveland
+talked of Vargrave and Evelyn, and the good fortune of the one, and the
+charms of the other; and the wound, so well concealed, bled afresh.
+
+"I heard from De Montaigne the other day," said Ernest, just as they were
+retiring for the night, "and his letter decides my movements.  If you
+will accept me, then, as a travelling companion, I will go with you to
+Paris.  Have you made up your mind to leave Burleigh on Saturday?"
+
+"Yes; that gives us a day to recover from Lord Raby's ball.  I am so
+delighted at your offer!  We need only stay a day or so in town.  The
+excursion will do you good,---your spirits, my dear Ernest, seem more
+dejected than when you first returned to England: you live too much alone
+here; you will enjoy Burleigh more on your return.  And perhaps then you
+will open the old house a little more to the neighbourhood, and to your
+friends.  They expect it: you are looked to for the county."
+
+"I have done with politics, and sicken but for peace."
+
+"Pick up a wife in Paris, and you will then know that peace is an
+impossible possession," said the old bachelor, laughing.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ALICE BY LYTTON, BOOK IV ***
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