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+Project Gutenberg EBook, Alice, or The Mysteries, by Lytton, Book IX
+#211 in our series by Edward Bulwer Lytton
+
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+Title: Alice, or The Mysteries, Book IX
+
+Author: Edward Bulwer Lytton
+
+Release Date: January 2006  [EBook #9771]
+[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
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+Character set encoding: ASCII
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+
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ALICE, BY LYTTON, BOOK IX ***
+
+
+
+
+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 IX.
+
+  "Woe, woe: all things are clear."--SOPHOCLES: OEd. Tyr. 754.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+  THE privilege that statesmen ever claim,
+  Who private interest never yet pursued,
+  But still pretended 'twas for others' good.
+  .  .  .  .  .  .
+  From hence on every humorous wind that veered
+  With shifted sails a several course you steered.
+                 _Absalom and Achitophel_, Part ii.
+
+LORD VARGRAVE had for more than a fortnight remained at the inn at
+M-----, too ill to be removed with safety in a season so severe.  Even
+when at last, by easy stages, he reached London, he was subjected to a
+relapse; and his recovery was slow and gradual.  Hitherto unused to
+sickness, he bore his confinement with extreme impatience; and against
+the commands of his physician insisted on continuing to transact his
+official business, and consult with his political friends in his
+sick-room; for Lumley knew well, that it is most pernicious to public men
+to be considered failing in health,--turkeys are not more unfeeling to a
+sick brother than politicians to an ailing statesman; they give out that
+his head is touched, and see paralysis and epilepsy in every speech and
+every despatch.  The time, too, nearly ripe for his great schemes, made
+it doubly necessary that he should exert himself, and prevent being
+shelved with a plausible excuse of tender compassion for his infirmities.
+As soon therefore as he learned that Legard had left Paris, he thought
+himself safe for a while in that quarter, and surrendered his thoughts
+wholly to his ambitious projects.  Perhaps, too, with the susceptible
+vanity of a middle-aged man, who has had his _bonnes fortunes_, Lumley
+deemed, with Rousseau, that a lover, pale and haggard--just raised from
+the bed of suffering--is more interesting to friendship than attractive
+to love.  He and Rousseau were, I believe, both mistaken; but that is a
+matter of opinion: they both thought very coarsely of women,--one from
+having no sentiment, and the other from having a sentiment that was but a
+disease.  At length, just as Lumley was sufficiently recovered to quit
+his house, to appear at his office, and declare that his illness had
+wonderfully improved his constitution, intelligence from Paris, the more
+startling from being wholly unexpected, reached him.  From Caroline he
+learned that Maltravers had proposed to Evelyn, and been accepted.  From
+Maltravers himself he heard the confirmation of the news.  The last
+letter was short, but kind and manly.  He addressed Lord Vargrave as
+Evelyn's guardian; slightly alluded to the scruples he had entertained
+till Lord Vargrave's suit was broken off; and feeling the subject too
+delicate for a letter, expressed a desire to confer with Lumley
+respecting Evelyn's wishes as to certain arrangements in her property.
+
+And for this was it that Lumley had toiled! for this had he visited Lisle
+Court! and for this had he been stricken down to the bed of pain!  Was it
+only to make his old rival the purchaser, if he so pleased it, of the
+possessions of his own family?  Lumley thought at that moment less of
+Evelyn than of Lisle Court.  As he woke from the stupor and the first fit
+of rage into which these epistles cast him, the recollection of the story
+he had heard from Mr. Onslow flashed across him.  Were his suspicions
+true, what a secret he would possess! How fate might yet befriend him!
+Not a moment was to be lost.  Weak, suffering as he still was, he ordered
+his carriage, and hastened down to Mrs. Leslie.
+
+In the interview that took place, he was careful not to alarm her into
+discretion.  He managed the conference with his usual consummate
+dexterity.  He did not appear to believe that there had been any actual
+connection between Alice and the supposed Butler.  He began by simply
+asking whether Alice had ever, in early life, been acquainted with a
+person of that name, and when residing in the neighbourhood of -----.
+The change of countenance, the surprised start of Mrs. Leslie, convinced
+him that his suspicions were true.
+
+"And why do you ask, my lord?" said the old lady.  "Is it to ascertain
+this point that you have done me the honour to visit me?"
+
+"Not exactly, my dear madam," said Lumley, smiling.  "But I am going to
+C----- on business; and besides that I wished to give an account of your
+health to Evelyn, whom I shall shortly see at Paris, I certainly did
+desire to know whether it would be any gratification to Lady Vargrave,
+for whom I have the deepest regard, to renew her acquaintance with the
+said Mr. Butler."
+
+"What does your lordship know of him?  What is he; who is he?"
+
+"Ah, my dear lady, you turn the tables on me, I see,--for my one question
+you would give me fifty.  But, seriously, before I answer you, you must
+tell me whether Lady Vargrave does know a gentleman of that name; yet,
+indeed, to save trouble, I may as well inform you, that I know it was
+under that name that she resided at C-----, when my poor uncle first made
+her acquaintance.  What I ought to ask is this,--supposing Mr. Butler be
+still alive, and a gentleman of character and fortune, would it please
+Lady Vargrave to meet with him once more?"
+
+"I cannot tell you," said Mrs. Leslie, sinking back in her chair, much
+embarrassed.
+
+"Enough, I shall not stir further in the matter.  Glad to see you looking
+so well.  Fine place, beautiful trees.  Any commands at C-----, or any
+message for Evelyn?"
+
+Lumley rose to depart.
+
+"Stay," said Mrs. Leslie, recalling all the pining, restless, untiring
+love that Lady Vargrave had manifested towards the lost, and feeling that
+she ought not to sacrifice to slight scruples the chance of happiness for
+her friend's future years,--"stay; I think this question you should
+address to Lady Vargrave,--or shall I?"
+
+"As you will,--perhaps I had better write.  Good-day," and Vargrave
+hurried away.
+
+He had satisfied himself, but he had another yet to satisfy,--and that,
+from certain reasons known but to himself, without bringing the third
+person in contact with Lady Vargrave.  On arriving at C----- he wrote,
+therefore, to Lady Vargrave as follows:--
+
+
+MY DEAR FRIEND,--Do not think me impertinent or intrusive--but you know
+me too well for that.  A gentleman of the name of Butler is exceedingly
+anxious to ascertain if you once lived near -----, in a pretty little
+cottage,--Dove, or Dale, or Dell cottage (some such appellation),--and if
+you remember a person of his name.  Should you care to give a reply to
+these queries, send me a line addressed to London, which I shall get on
+my way to Paris.
+
+     Yours most truly,
+
+          VARGRAVE.
+
+
+As soon as he had concluded, and despatched this letter, Vargrave wrote
+to Mr. Winsley as follows:--
+
+
+MY DEAR SIR,--I am so unwell as to be unable to call on you, or even to
+see any one, however agreeable (nay, the more agreeable the more
+exciting!).  I hope, however, to renew our personal acquaintance before
+quitting C-----.  Meanwhile, oblige me with a line to say if I did not
+understand you to signify that you could, if necessary, prove that Lady
+Vargrave once resided in this town as Mrs. Butler, a very short time
+before she married my uncle, under the name of Cameron, in Devonshire;
+and had she not also at that time a little girl,--an infant, or nearly
+so,--who must necessarily be the young lady who is my uncle's heiress,
+Miss Evelyn Cameron.  My reason for thus troubling you is obvious.  As
+Miss Cameron's guardian, I have very shortly to wind up certain affairs
+connected with my uncle's will; and, what is more, there is some property
+bequeathed by the late Mr. Butler, which may make it necessary to prove
+identity.
+
+     Truly yours,
+
+          VARGRAVE.
+
+
+The answer to the latter communication ran thus:--
+
+
+"MY LORD,--I am very sorry to hear your lordship is so unwell, and will
+pay my respects to-morrow.  I certainly can swear that the present Lady
+Vargrave was the Mrs. Butler who resided at C-----, and taught music.
+And as the child with her was of the same sex, and about the same age as
+Miss Cameron, there can, I should think, be no difficulty in establishing
+the identity between that young lady and the child Lady Vargrave had by
+her first husband, Mr. Butler; but of this, of course, I cannot speak.
+
+     "I have the honour, etc."
+
+
+The next morning Vargrave despatched a note to Mr. Winsley, saying that
+his health required him to return to town immediately,--and to town, in
+fact, he hastened.  The day after his arrival, he received, in a hurried
+hand--strangely blurred and blotted, perhaps by tears--this short
+letter:--
+
+
+For Heaven's sake, tell me what you mean!  Yes, yes, I did once reside at
+Dale Cottage, I did know one of the name of Butler!  Has _he_ discovered
+the name _I_ bear?  Where is he?  I implore you to write, or let me see
+you before you leave England!
+
+          ALICE VARGRAVE.
+
+
+Lumley smiled triumphantly when he read and carefully put up this letter.
+
+"I must now amuse and put her off--at all events for the present."
+
+In answer to Lady Vargrave's letter, he wrote a few lines to say that he
+had only heard through a third person (a lawyer) of a Mr. Butler residing
+somewhere abroad, who had wished these inquiries to be made; that he
+believed it only related to some disposition of property; that,
+_perhaps_, the Mr. Butler who made the inquiry was heir to the Mr. Butler
+she had known; that he could learn nothing else at present, as the
+purport of her reply must be sent abroad,--the lawyer would or could say
+nothing more; that directly he received a further communication it should
+be despatched to her, that he was most affectionately and most truly
+hers.
+
+The rest of that morning Vargrave devoted to Lord Saxingham and his
+allies; and declaring, and believing, that he should not be long absent
+at Paris, he took an early dinner, and was about once more to commit
+himself to the risks of travel, when, as he crossed the hall, Mr. Douce
+came hastily upon him.
+
+"My lord--my lord--I must have a word with your l-l-lordship;--you are
+going to--that is--" (and the little man looked frightened) "you intend
+to--to go to--that is--ab-ab-ab--"
+
+"Not abscond, Mr. Douce; come into the library: I am in a great hurry,
+but I have always time for _you_.  What's the matter?"
+
+"Why, then, my  lord,--I--I have heard nothing m-m-more from your
+lordship about the pur-pur--"
+
+"Purchase?--I am going to Paris, to settle all particulars with Miss
+Cameron; tell the lawyers so."
+
+"May--may--we draw out the money to--to--show--that--that we are in
+earnest?  Otherwise I fear--that is, I suspect--I mean I know, that
+Colonel Maltravers will be off the bargain."
+
+"Why, Mr. Douce, really I must just see my ward first; but you shall hear
+from me in a day or two;--and the ten thousand pounds I owe you!"
+
+"Yes, indeed, the  ten--ten--ten!--my  partner is very--"
+
+"Anxious for it, no doubt!  My compliments to him.  God bless you!--take
+care of yourself,--must be off to save the packet;" and Vargrave hurried
+away, muttering, "Heaven sends money, and the devil sends duns!"
+
+Douce gasped like a fish for breath, as his eyes followed the rapid steps
+of Vargrave; and there was an angry scowl of disappointment on his small
+features.  Lumley, by this time, seated in his carriage, and wrapped up
+in his cloak, had forgotten the creditor's existence, and whispered to
+his aristocratic secretary, as he bent his head out of the carriage
+window, "I have told Lord Saxingham to despatch you to me, if there is
+any--the least--necessity for me in London.  I leave you behind, Howard,
+because your sister being at court, and your cousin with our notable
+premier, you will find out every change in the wind--you understand.
+And, I say, Howard, don't think I forget your kindness!--you know that no
+man ever served me in vain!  Oh, there's that horrid little Douce behind
+you,--tell them to drive on!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+            HEARD you that?
+  What prodigy of horror is disclosing?--LILLO: _Fatal Curiosity_.
+
+THE unhappy companion of Cesarini's flight was soon discovered and
+recaptured; but all search for Cesarini himself proved ineffectual, not
+only in the neighbourhood of St. Cloud, but in the surrounding country
+and in Paris.  The only comfort was in thinking that his watch would at
+least preserve him for some time from the horrors of want; and that by
+the sale of the trinket, he might be traced.  The police, too, were set
+at work,--the vigilant police of Paris!  Still day rolled on day, and no
+tidings.  The secret of the escape was carefully concealed from Teresa;
+and public cares were a sufficient excuse for the gloom on De Montaigne's
+brow.
+
+Evelyn heard from Maltravers with mingled emotions of compassion, grief,
+and awe the gloomy tale connected with the history of the maniac.  She
+wept for the fate of Florence; she shuddered at the curse that had fallen
+on Cesarini; and perhaps Maltravers grew dearer to her from the thought
+that there was so much in the memories of the past that needed a
+comforter and a soother.
+
+They returned to Paris, affianced and plighted lovers; and then it was
+that Evelyn sought carefully and resolutely to banish from her mind all
+recollection, all regret, of the absent Legard: she felt the solemnity of
+the trust confided in her, and she resolved that no thought of hers
+should ever be of a nature to gall the generous and tender spirit that
+had confided its life of life to her care.  The influence of Maltravers
+over her increased in their new and more familiar position, and yet still
+it partook too much of veneration, too little of passion; but that might
+be her innocence and youth.  He, at least, was sensible of no want,--she
+had chosen him from the world; and fastidious as he deemed himself, he
+reposed, without a doubt, on the security of her faith.  None of those
+presentiments which had haunted him when first betrothed to Florence
+disturbed him now.  The affection of one so young and so guileless seemed
+to bring back to him all his own youth--we are ever young while the young
+can love us!  Suddenly, too, the world took to his eyes a brighter and
+fairer aspect.  Hope, born again, reconciled him to his career and to his
+race!  The more he listened to Evelyn, the more he watched every evidence
+of her docile but generous nature, the more he felt assured that he had
+found at last a heart suited to his own.  Her beautiful serenity of
+temper, cheerful, yet never fitful or unquiet, gladdened him with its
+insensible contagion.  To be with Evelyn was like basking in the sunshine
+of some happy sky!  It was an inexpressible charm to one wearied with
+"the hack sights and sounds" of this jaded world,--to watch the
+ever-fresh and sparkling the thoughts and fancies which came from a soul
+so new to life!  It enchanted one, painfully fastidious in what relates
+to the true nobility of character, that, however various the themes
+discussed, no low or mean thought ever sullied those beautiful lips.  It
+was not the mere innocence of inexperience, but the moral incapability of
+guile, that charmed him in the companion he had chosen on his path to
+Eternity!  He was also delighted to notice Evelyn's readiness of
+resources: she had that faculty, without which woman has no independence
+from the world, no pledge that domestic retirement will not soon languish
+into wearisome monotony,--the faculty of making trifles contribute to
+occupation or amusement; she was easily pleased, and yet she so soon
+reconciled herself to disappointment.  He felt, and chid his own dulness
+for not feeling it before, that, young and surpassingly lovely as she
+was, she required no stimulant from the heated pursuits and the hollow
+admiration of the crowd.
+
+"Such," thought he, "are the natures that alone can preserve through
+years the poetry of the first passionate illusion, that can alone render
+wedlock the seal that confirms affection, and not the mocking ceremonial
+that vainly consecrates its grave!"
+
+Maltravers, as we have seen, formally wrote to Lumley some days after
+their return to Paris.  He would have written also to Lady Vargrave, but
+Evelyn thought it best to prepare her mother by a letter from herself.
+
+Miss Cameron now wanted but a few weeks to the age of eighteen, at which
+she was to be the sole mistress of her own destiny.  On arriving at that
+age the marriage was to take place.  Valerie heard with sincere delight
+of the new engagement her friend had formed.  She eagerly sought every
+opportunity to increase her intimacy with Evelyn, who was completely won
+by her graceful kindness; the result of Valerie's examination was, that
+she did not wonder at the passionate love of Maltravers, but that her
+deep knowledge of the human heart (that knowledge so remarkable in the
+women of her country!) made her doubt how far it was adequately returned,
+how far Evelyn deceived herself.  Her first satisfaction became mingled
+with anxiety, and she relied more for the future felicity of her friend
+on Evelyn's purity of thought and general tenderness of heart than on the
+exclusiveness and ardour of her love.  Alas! few at eighteen are not too
+young for the irrevocable step,--and Evelyn was younger than her years!
+One evening at Madame de Ventadour's Maltravers asked Evelyn if she had
+yet heard from Lady Vargrave.  Evelyn expressed her surprise that she had
+not, and the conversation fell, as was natural, upon Lady Vargrave
+herself.  "Is she as fond of music as you are?" asked Maltravers.
+
+"Yes, indeed, I think so--and of the songs of a certain person in
+particular; they always had for her an indescribable charm.  Often have I
+heard her say that to read your writings was like talking to an early
+friend.  Your name and genius seemed to make her solitary connection with
+the great world.  Nay--but you will not be angry--I half think it was her
+enthusiasm, so strange and rare, that first taught me interest in
+yourself."
+
+"I have a double reason, then, for loving your mother," said Maltravers,
+much pleased and flattered.  "And does she not like Italian music?"
+
+"Not much; she prefers some rather old-fashioned German airs, very
+simple, but very touching."
+
+"My own early passion," said Maltravers, more and more interested.
+
+"But there are also one or two English songs which I have occasionally,
+but very seldom, heard her sing.  One in especial affects her so deeply,
+even when she plays the air, that I have always attached to it a certain
+mysterious sanctity.  I should not like to sing it before a crowd, but
+to-morrow, when you call on me, and we are alone--"
+
+"Ah, to-morrow I will not fail to remind you."
+
+Their conversation ceased; yet, somehow or other, that night when he
+retired to rest the recollection of it haunted Maltravers.  He felt a
+vague, unaccountable curiosity respecting this secluded and solitary
+mother; all concerning her early fate seemed so wrapped in mystery.
+Cleveland, in reply to his letter, had informed him that all inquiries
+respecting the birth and first marriage of Lady Vargrave had failed.
+Evelyn evidently knew but little of either, and he felt a certain
+delicacy in pressing questions which might be ascribed to the
+inquisitiveness of a vulgar family pride.  Moreover, lovers have so much
+to say to each other, that he had not time to talk at length to Evelyn
+about third persons.  He slept ill that night,--dark and boding dreams
+disturbed his slumber.  He rose late and dejected by presentiments he
+could not master: his morning meal was scarcely over, and he had already
+taken his hat to go to Evelyn's for comfort and sunshine, when the door
+opened, and he was surprised by the entrance of Lord Vargrave.
+
+Lumley seated himself with a formal gravity very unusual to him, and as
+if anxious to waive unnecessary explanations, began as follows, with a
+serious and impressive voice and aspect:--
+
+"Maltravers, of late years we have been estranged from each other.  I do
+not presume to dictate to you your friendships or your dislikes.  Why
+this estrangement has happened you alone can determine.  For my part I am
+conscious of no offence; that which I was I am still.  It is you who have
+changed.  Whether it be the difference of our political opinions, or any
+other and more secret cause, I know not.  I lament, but it is now too
+late to attempt to remove it.  If you suspect me of ever seeking, or even
+wishing, to sow dissension between yourself and my ill-fated cousin, now
+no more, you are mistaken.  I ever sought the happiness and union of you
+both.  And yet, Maltravers, you then came between me and an early and
+cherished dream.  But I suffered in silence; my course was at least
+disinterested, perhaps generous: let it pass.  A second time you cross my
+path,--you win from me a heart I had long learned to consider mine.  You
+have no scruple of early friendship, you have no forbearance towards
+acknowledged and affianced ties.  You are my rival with Evelyn Cameron,
+and your suit has prospered."
+
+"Vargrave," said Maltravers, "you have spoken frankly; and I will reply
+with an equal candour.  A difference of tastes, tempers, and opinions led
+us long since into opposite paths.  I am one who cannot disunite public
+morality from private virtue.  From motives best known to you, but which
+I say openly I hold to have been those of interest or ambition, you did
+not change your opinions (there is no sin in that), but retaining them in
+private, professed others in public, and played with the destinies of
+mankind as if they were but counters to mark a mercenary game.  This led
+me to examine your character with more searching eyes; and I found it one
+I could no longer trust.  With respect to the Dead, let the pall drop
+over that early grave,--I acquit you of all blame.  He who sinned has
+suffered more than would atone the crime!  You charge me with my love to
+Evelyn.  Pardon me, but I seduced no affection, I have broken no tie.
+Not till she was free in heart and in hand to choose between us, did I
+hint at love.  Let me think that a way may be found to soften one portion
+at least of the disappointment you cannot but feel acutely."
+
+"Stay!" said Lord Vargrave (who, plunged in a gloomy revery, had scarcely
+seemed to hear the last few sentences of his rival): "stay, Maltravers.
+Speak not of love to Evelyn!  A horrible foreboding tells me that, a few
+hours hence, you would rather pluck out your tongue by the roots than
+couple the words of love with the thought of that unfortunate girl!  Oh,
+if I were vindictive, what awful triumph would await me now!  What
+retaliation on your harsh judgment, your cold contempt, your momentary
+and wretched victory over me!  Heaven is my witness, that my only
+sentiment is that of terror and woe!  Maltravers, in your earliest youth,
+did you form connection with one whom they called Alice Darvil?"
+
+"Alice! merciful Heaven! what of her?"
+
+"Did you never know that the Christian name of Evelyn's mother is Alice?"
+
+"I never asked, I never knew; but it is a common name," faltered
+Maltravers.
+
+"Listen to me," resumed Vargrave: "with Alice Darvil you lived in the
+neighbourhood of -----, did you not?"
+
+"Go on, go on!"
+
+"You took the name of Butler; by that name Alice Darvil was afterwards
+known in the town in which my uncle resided--there are gaps in the
+history that I cannot of my own knowledge fill up,--she taught music; my
+uncle became enamoured of her, but he was vain and worldly.  She removed
+into Devonshire, and he married her there, under the name of Cameron, by
+which name he hoped to conceal from the world the lowness of her origin,
+and the humble calling she had followed.  Hold! do not interrupt me.
+Alice had one daughter, as was supposed, by a former marriage; that
+daughter was the offspring of him whose name she bore--yes, of the false
+Butler!--that daughter is Evelyn Cameron!"
+
+"Liar! devil!" cried Maltravers, springing to his feet, as if a shot had
+pierced his heart.  "Proofs! proofs!"
+
+"Will these suffice?" said Vargrave, as he drew forth the letters of
+Winsley and Lady Vargrave.  Maltravers took them, but it was some moments
+before he could dare to read.  He supported himself with difficulty from
+falling to the ground; there was a gurgle in his throat like the sound of
+the death-rattle; at last he read, and dropped the letters from his hand.
+
+"Wait me here," he said very faintly, and moved mechanically to the door.
+
+"Hold!" said Lord Vargrave, laying his hand upon Ernest's arm.  "Listen
+to me for Evelyn's sake, for her mother's.  You are about to seek
+Evelyn,--be it so!  I know that you possess the god-like gift of
+self-control.  You will not suffer her to learn that her mother has done
+that which dishonours alike mother and child?  You will not consummate
+your wrong to Alice Darvil by robbing her of the fruit of a life of
+penitence and remorse?  You will not unveil her shame to her own
+daughter?  Convince yourself, and master yourself while you do so!"
+
+"Fear me not," said Maltravers, with a terrible smile; "I will not
+afflict my conscience with a double curse.  As I have sowed, so must I
+reap.  Wait me here!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+  .  .  .  MISERY
+  That gathers force each moment as it rolls,
+  And must, at last, o'erwhelm me.--LILLO: _Fatal Curiosity_.
+
+MALTRAVERS found Evelyn alone; she turned towards him with her usual
+sweet smile of welcome; but the smile vanished at once, as her eyes met
+his changed and working countenance; cold drops stood upon the rigid and
+marble brow, the lips writhed as if in bodily torture, the muscles of the
+face had fallen, and there was a wildness which appalled her in the fixed
+and feverish brightness of the eyes.
+
+"You are ill, Ernest,--dear Ernest, you are ill,--your look freezes me!"
+
+"Nay, Evelyn," said Maltravers, recovering himself by one of those
+efforts of which men who have _suffered without sympathy_ are alone
+capable,--"nay, I am better now; I have been ill--very ill--but I am
+better!"
+
+"Ill! and I not know of it?" She attempted to take his hand as she spoke.
+Maltravers recoiled.
+
+"It is fire! it burns!  Avaunt!" he cried, frantically.  "O Heaven!
+spare me, spare me!"
+
+Evelyn was not seriously alarmed; she gazed on him with the tenderest
+compassion.  Was this one of those moody and overwhelming paroxysms to
+which it had been whispered abroad that he was subject?  Strange as it
+may seem, despite her terror, he was dearer to her in that hour--as she
+believed, of gloom and darkness--than in all the glory of his majestic
+intellect, or all the blandishments of his soft address.
+
+"What has happened to you?" she said, approaching him again; "have you
+seen Lord Vargrave?  I know that he has arrived, for his servant has been
+here to say so; has he uttered anything to distress you? or has--" (she
+added falteringly and timidly)--"has poor Evelyn offended you?  Speak to
+me,--only speak!"
+
+Maltravers turned, and his face was now calm and serene save by its
+extreme and almost ghastly paleness, no trace of the hell within him
+could be discovered.
+
+"Pardon me," said he, gently, "I know not this morning what I say or do;
+think not of it, think not of me,--it will pass away when I hear your
+voice."
+
+"Shall I sing to you the words I spoke of last night?  See, I have them
+ready; I know them by heart, but I thought you might like to read them,
+they are so full of simple but deep feeling."
+
+Maltravers took the song from her hands, and bent over the paper; at
+first, the letters seemed dim and indistinct, for there was a mist before
+his eyes; but at last a chord of memory was struck,--he recalled the
+words: they were some of those he had composed for Alice in the first
+days of their delicious intercourse,--links of the golden chain, in which
+he had sought to bind the spirit of knowledge to that of love.
+
+"And from whom," said he, in a faint voice, as he calmly put down the
+verses,--"from whom did your mother learn these words?"
+
+"I know not; some dear friend, years ago, composed and gave them to her.
+It must have been one very dear to her, to judge by the effect they still
+produce."
+
+"Think you," said Maltravers, in a hollow voice, "think you IT WAS YOUR
+FATHER?"
+
+"My father!  She never speaks of him!  I have been early taught to shun
+all allusion to his memory.  My father!--it is probable; yes, it may have
+been my father; whom else could she have loved so fondly?"
+
+There was a long silence; Evelyn was the first to break it.
+
+"I have heard from my mother to-day, Ernest; her letter alarms me,--I
+scarce know why!"
+
+"Ah! and how--"
+
+"It is hurried and incoherent,--almost wild: she says she has learned
+some intelligence that has unsettled and unstrung her mind; she has
+requested me to inquire if any one I am acquainted with has heard of, or
+met abroad, some person of the name of Butler.  You start!--have you
+known one of that name?"
+
+"I!--did your mother never allude to that name before?"
+
+"Never!--and yet, once I remember--"
+
+"What?"
+
+That I was reading an account in the papers of the sudden death of some
+Mr. Butler; and her agitation made a powerful and strange impression upon
+me,--in fact, she fainted, and seemed almost delirious when she
+recovered; she would not rest till I had completed the account, and when
+I came to the particulars of his age, etc. (he was old, I think) she
+clasped her hands, and wept; but they seemed tears of joy.  The name is
+so common--whom of that name have you known?"
+
+"It is no matter.  Is that your mother's letter; is that her
+handwriting?"
+
+"Yes;" and Evelyn gave the letter to Maltravers.  He glanced over the
+characters; he had once or twice seen Lady Vargrave's handwriting before,
+and had recognized no likeness between that handwriting and such early
+specimens of Alice's art as he had witnessed so many years ago; but now,
+"trifles light as air" had grown "confirmation strong as proof of Holy
+Writ,"--he thought he detected Alice in every line of the hurried and
+blotted scroll; and when his eye rested on the words, "Your affectionate
+MOTHER, _Alice_!" his blood curdled in his veins.
+
+"It is strange!" said he, still struggling for self-composure; "strange
+that I never thought of asking her name before!  Alice! her name is
+Alice?"
+
+"A sweet name, is it not?  It accords so well with her simple
+character--how you would love her!"
+
+As she said this, Evelyn turned to Maltravers with enthusiasm, and again
+she was startled by his aspect; for again it was haggard, distorted, and
+convulsed.
+
+"Oh, if you love me," she cried, "do send immediately for advice!  And
+yet; is it illness, Ernest, or is it some grief that you hide from me?"
+
+"It is illness, Evelyn," said Maltravers, rising: and his knees knocked
+together.  "I am not fit even for your companionship,--I will go home."
+
+"And send instantly for advice?"
+
+"Ay; it waits me there already."
+
+"Thank Heaven! and you will write to me one little word--to relieve me?
+I am so uneasy!"
+
+"I will write to you."
+
+"This evening?"
+
+"Ay!"
+
+"Now go,--I will not detain you."
+
+He walked slowly to the door, but when he reached it he turned, and
+catching her anxious gaze, he opened his arms; overpowered with strange
+fear and affectionate sympathy, she burst into passionate tears; and
+surprised out of the timidity and reserve which had hitherto
+characterized her pure and meek attachment to him, she fell on his
+breast, and sobbed aloud.  Maltravers raised his hands, and, placing them
+solemnly on her young head, his lips muttered as if in prayer.  He
+paused, and strained her to his heart; but he shunned that parting kiss,
+which, hitherto, he had so fondly sought.  That embrace was one of agony,
+and not of rapture; and yet Evelyn dreamed not that he designed it for
+the last!
+
+
+
+Maltravers re-entered the room in which he had left Lord Vargrave, who
+still awaited his return.
+
+He walked up to Lumley, and held out his hand.  "You have saved me from a
+dreadful crime,--from an everlasting remorse.  I thank you!"
+
+Hardened and frigid as his nature was, Lumley was touched; the movement
+of Maltravers took him by surprise.  "It has been a dreadful duty,
+Ernest," said he, pressing the hand he held; "but to come, too, from
+_me_,--your rival!"
+
+"Proceed, proceed, I pray you; explain all this--yet explanation! what do
+I want to know?  Evelyn is my daughter,--Alice's child!  For Heaven's
+sake, give me hope; say it is not so; say that she is Alice's child, but
+not _mine_!  Father! father!--and they call it a holy name--it is a
+horrible one!"
+
+"Compose yourself, my dear friend: recollect what you have escaped!  You
+will recover this shock.  Time, travel--"
+
+"Peace, man,--peace!  Now then I am calm!  When Alice left me she had no
+child.  I knew not that she bore within her the pledge of our ill-omened
+and erring love.  Verily, the sins of my youth have arisen against me;
+and the curse has come home to roost!"
+
+"I cannot explain to you all details."
+
+"But why not have told me of this?  Why not have warned me; why not have
+said to me, when my heart could have been satisfied by so sweet a tie,
+'Thou hast a daughter: thou art not desolate'?  Why reserve the knowledge
+of the blessing until it has turned to poison?  Fiend that you are! you
+have waited this hour to gloat over the agony from which a word from you
+a year, nay, a month ago--a little month ago--might have saved me and
+her!"
+
+Maltravers, as he spoke, approached Vargrave, with eyes sparkling with
+fierce passion, his hand clenched, his form dilated, the veins on his
+forehead swelled like cords.  Lumley, brave as he was, recoiled.
+
+"I knew not of this secret," said he, deprecatingly, "till a few days
+before I came hither; and I came hither at once to disclose it to you.
+Will you listen to me?  I knew that my uncle had married a person much
+beneath him in rank; but he was guarded and cautious, and I knew no more,
+except that by a first husband that lady had one daughter,--Evelyn.  A
+chain of accidents suddenly acquainted me with the rest."
+
+Here Vargrave pretty faithfully repeated what he had learned from the
+brewer at C-----, and from Mr. Onslow; but when he came to the tacit
+confirmation of all his suspicions received from Mrs. Leslie, he greatly
+exaggerated and greatly distorted the account.  "Judge, then," concluded
+Lumley, "of the horror with which I heard that you had declared an
+attachment to Evelyn, and that it was returned.  Ill as I was, I hastened
+hither: you know the rest.  Are you satisfied?"
+
+"I will go to Alice!  I will learn from her own lips--yet, how can I meet
+her again?  How say to her, 'I have taken from thee thy last hope,--I
+have broken thy child's heart'?"
+
+"Forgive me, but I should confess to you, that, from all I can learn from
+Mrs. Leslie, Lady Vargrave has but one prayer, one hope in life,--that
+she may never again meet with her betrayer.  You may, indeed, in her own
+letter perceive how much she is terrified by the thought of your
+discovering her.  She has, at length, recovered peace of mind and
+tranquillity of conscience.  She shrinks with dread from the prospect of
+ever again encountering one once so dear, now associated in her mind with
+recollections of guilt and sorrow.  More than this, she is sensitively
+alive to the fear of shame, to the dread of detection.  If ever her
+daughter were to know her sin, it would be to her as a death-blow.  Yet
+in her nervous state of health, her ever-quick and uncontrollable
+feelings, if you were to meet her, she would disguise nothing, conceal
+nothing.  The veil would be torn aside: the menials in her own house
+would tell the tale, and curiosity circulate, and scandal blacken the
+story of her early errors.  No, Maltravers, at least wait awhile before
+you see her; wait till her mind can be prepared for such an interview,
+till precautions can be taken, till you yourself are in a calmer state of
+mind."
+
+Maltravers fixed his piercing eyes on Lumley while he thus spoke, and
+listened in deep attention.
+
+"It matters not," said he, after a long pause, "whether these be your
+real reasons for wishing to defer or prevent a meeting between Alice and
+myself.  The affliction that has come upon me bursts with too clear and
+scorching a blaze of light for me to see any chance of escape or
+mitigation.  Even if Evelyn were the daughter of Alice by another, she
+would be forever separated from me.  The mother and the child! there is a
+kind of incest even in that thought!  But such an alleviation of my
+anguish is forbidden to my reason.  No, poor Alice, I will not disturb
+the repose thou hast won at last!  Thou shalt never have the grief to
+know that our error has brought upon thy lover so black a doom!  All is
+over! the world never shall find me again.  Nothing is left for me but
+the desert and the grave!"
+
+"Speak not so, Ernest," said Lord Vargrave, soothingly; "a little while,
+and you will recover this blow: your control over passion has, even in
+youth, inspired me with admiration and surprise; and now, in calmer
+years, and with such incentives to self-mastery, your triumph will come
+sooner than you think.  Evelyn, too, is so young; she has not known you
+long; perhaps her love, after all, is that caused by some mystic, but
+innocent working of nature, and she would rejoice to call you 'father.'
+Happy years are yet in store for you."
+
+Maltravers did not listen to these vain and hollow consolations.  With
+his head drooping on his bosom, his whole form unnerved, the large tears
+rolling unheeded down his cheeks, he seemed the very picture of a
+broken-hearted man, whom fate never again could raise from despair.  He,
+who had, for years, so cased himself in pride, on whose very front was
+engraved the victory over passion and misfortune, whose step had trod the
+earth in the royalty of the conqueror; the veriest slave that crawls bore
+not a spirit more humbled, fallen, or subdued!  He who had looked with
+haughty eyes on the infirmities of others, who had disdained to serve his
+race because of their human follies and partial frailties,--_he_, even
+_he_, the Pharisee of Genius,--had but escaped by a chance, and by the
+hand of the man he suspected and despised, from a crime at which nature
+herself recoils,--which all law, social and divine, stigmatizes as
+inexpiable, which the sternest imagination of the very heathen had
+invented as the gloomiest catastrophe that can befall the wisdom and the
+pride of mortals!  But one step farther, and the fabulous OEdipus had not
+been more accursed!
+
+Such thoughts as these, unformed, confused, but strong enough to bow him
+to the dust, passed through the mind of this wretched man.  He had been
+familiar with grief, he had been dull to enjoyment; sad and bitter
+memories had consumed his manhood: but pride had been left him still; and
+he had dared in his secret heart to say, "I can defy Fate!"  Now the bolt
+had fallen; Pride was shattered into fragments, Self-abasement was his
+companion, Shame sat upon his prostrate soul.  The Future had no hope
+left in store.  Nothing was left for him but to die!
+
+Lord Vargrave gazed at him in real pain, in sincere compassion; for his
+nature, wily, deceitful, perfidious though it was, had cruelty only so
+far as was necessary to the unrelenting execution of his schemes.  No
+pity could swerve him from a purpose; but he had enough of the man within
+him to feel pity not the less, even for his own victim!  At length
+Maltravers lifted his head, and waved his hand gently to Lord Vargrave.
+
+"All is now explained," said he, in a feeble voice; "our interview is
+over.  I must be alone; I have yet to collect my reason, to commune
+calmly and deliberately with myself; I have to write to her--to invent,
+to lie,--I, who believed I could never, never utter, even to an enemy,
+what was false! And I must not soften the blow to her.  I must not utter
+a word of love,--love, it is incest!  I must endeavour brutally to crush
+out the very affection I created!  She must hate me!--oh, _teach_ her to
+hate me!  Blacken my name, traduce my motives,--let her believe them
+levity or perfidy, what you will.  So will she forget me the sooner; so
+will she the easier bear the sorrow which the father brings upon the
+child.  And _she_ has not sinned!  O Heaven, the sin was mine!  Let my
+punishment be a sacrifice that Thou wilt accept for her!"
+
+Lord Vargrave attempted again to console; but this time the words died
+upon his lips.  His arts failed him.  Maltravers turned impatiently away
+and pointed to the door.
+
+"I will see you again," said he, "before I quit Paris; leave your address
+below."
+
+Vargrave was not, perhaps, unwilling to terminate a scene so painful: he
+muttered a few incoherent words, and abruptly withdrew.  He heard the
+door locked behind him as he departed.  Ernest Maltravers was
+alone!--what a solitude!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+  PITY me not, but lend thy serious hearing
+  To what I shall unfold.--_Hamlet_.
+
+
+LETTER FROM ERNEST MALTRAVERS TO EVELYN CAMERON.
+
+
+EVELYN!
+
+All that you have read of faithlessness and perfidy will seem tame to you
+when compared with that conduct which you are doomed to meet from me.  We
+must part, and for ever.  We have seen each other for the last time.  It
+is bootless even to ask the cause.  Believe that I am fickle, false,
+heartless,--that a whim has changed me, if you will.  My resolve is
+unalterable.  We meet no more even as friends.  I do not ask you either
+to forgive or to remember me.  Look on me as one wholly unworthy even of
+resentment!  Do not think that I write this in madness or in fever or
+excitement.  Judge me not by my seeming illness this morning.  I invent
+no excuse, no extenuation, for my broken faith and perjured vows.
+Calmly, coldly, and deliberately I write; and thus writing, I renounce
+your love.
+
+This language is wanton cruelty,--it is fiendish insult,--is it not,
+Evelyn?  Am I not a villain?  Are you not grateful for your escape?  Do
+you not look on the past with a shudder at the precipice on which you
+stood?
+
+I have done with this subject,--I turn to another.  We are parted,
+Evelyn, and forever.  Do not fancy,--I repeat, do not fancy that there is
+any error, any strange infatuation on my mind, that there is any
+possibility that the sentence can be annulled.  It were almost easier to
+call the dead from the grave than bring us again together, as we were and
+as we hoped to be.  Now that you are convinced of that truth, learn, as
+soon as you have recovered the first shock of knowing how much wickedness
+there is on earth,--learn to turn to the future for happier and more
+suitable ties than those you could have formed with me.  You are very
+young; in youth our first impressions are lively but evanescent,--you
+will wonder hereafter at having fancied you loved me.  Another and a
+fairer image will replace mine.  This is what I desire and pray for.  _As
+soon as I learn that you love another, that you are wedded to another, I
+will re-appear in the world; till then, I am a wanderer and an exile.
+Your hand alone can efface from my brow the brand of Cain!_  When I am
+gone, Lord Vargrave will probably renew his suit.  I would rather you
+married one of your own years,--one whom you could love fondly, one who
+would chase away every remembrance of the wretch who now forsakes you.
+But perhaps I have mistaken Lord Vargrave's character; perhaps he may be
+worthier of you than I deemed (_I_ who set up for the censor of other
+men!); perhaps he may both win and deserve your affection.
+
+Evelyn, farewell!  God, who tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, will
+watch over you!
+
+          ERNEST MALTRAVERS.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+  OUR acts our angels are, or good or ill,
+  The fatal shadows that walk by us still.--JOHN FLETCHER.
+
+THE next morning came; the carriage was at the door of Maltravers, to
+bear him away he cared not whither.  Where could he fly from memory?  He
+had just despatched the letter to Evelyn,--a letter studiously written
+for the object of destroying all the affection to which he had so fondly
+looked as the last charm of life.  He was now only waiting for Vargrave,
+to whom he had sent, and who hastened to obey the summons.
+
+When Lumley arrived, he was shocked at the alteration which a single
+night had effected in the appearance of Maltravers; but he was surprised
+and relieved to find him calm and self-possessed.
+
+"Vargrave," said Maltravers, "whatever our past coldness, henceforth I
+owe to you an eternal gratitude; and henceforth this awful secret makes
+between us an indissoluble bond.  If I have understood you rightly,
+neither Alice nor other living being than yourself know that in me,
+Ernest Maltravers, stands the guilty object of Alice's first love.  Let
+that secret still be kept; relieve Alice's mind from the apprehension of
+learning that the man who betrayed her yet lives: he will not live long!
+I leave time and method of explanation to your own judgment and
+acuteness.  Now for Evelyn."  Here Maltravers stated generally the tone
+of the letter he had written.  Vargrave listened thoughtfully.
+
+"Maltravers," said he, "it is right to try first the effect of your
+letter.  But if it fail, if it only serve to inflame the imagination and
+excite the interest, if Evelyn still continue to love you, if that love
+preys upon her, if it should undermine health and spirit, if it should
+destroy her?"
+
+Maltravers groaned.  Lumley proceeded: "I say this not to wound you, but
+to provide against all circumstances.  I too have spent the night in
+revolving what is best to be done in such a case; and this is the plan I
+have formed.  Let us, if need be, tell the truth to Evelyn, robbing the
+truth only of its shame.  Nay, nay, listen.  Why not say that under a
+borrowed name and in the romance of early youth you knew and loved Alice
+(though in innocence and honour)?  Your tender age, the difference of
+rank, forbade your union.  Her father, discovering your clandestine
+correspondence, suddenly removed her from the country, and destroyed all
+clew for your inquiries.  You lost sight of each other,--each was taught
+to believe the other dead.  Alice was compelled by her father to marry
+Mr. Cameron; and after his death, her poverty and her love for her only
+child induced her to accept my uncle.  You have now learned all,--have
+learned that Evelyn is the daughter of your first love, the daughter of
+one who adores you still, and whose life your remembrance has for so many
+years embittered.  Evelyn herself will at once comprehend all the
+scruples of a delicate mind; Evelyn herself will recoil from the thought
+of making the child the rival to the mother.  She will understand why you
+have flown from her; she will sympathize with your struggles; she will
+recall the constant melancholy of Alice; she will hope that the ancient
+love may be renewed, and efface all grief; Generosity and Duty alike will
+urge her to conquer her own affection!  And hereafter, when time has
+restored you both, father and child may meet with such sentiments as
+father and child may own!"
+
+Maltravers was silent for some minutes; at length he said abruptly, "And
+you really loved her, Vargrave,--you love her still?  Your dearest care
+must be her welfare."
+
+"It is! indeed, it is!"
+
+"Then I must trust to your discretion; I can have no other confidant; I
+myself am not fit to judge.  My mind is darkened--you may be right--I
+think so."
+
+"One word more,--she may discredit my tale, if unsupported.  Will you
+write one line to me to say that I am authorized to reveal the secret,
+and that it is known only to me?  I will not use it unless I should think
+it absolutely required."
+
+Hastily and mechanically Maltravers wrote a few words to the effect of
+what Lumley had suggested.  "I will inform you," he said to Vargrave as
+he gave him the paper, "of whatever spot may become my asylum; and you
+can communicate to me all that I dread and long to hear; but let no man
+know the refuge of despair!"
+
+There was positively a tear in Vargrave's cold eye,--the only tear that
+had glistened there for many years; he paused irresolute, then advanced,
+again halted, muttered to himself, and turned aside.
+
+"As for the world," Lumley resumed, after a pause, "your engagement has
+been public,--some public account of its breach must be invented.  You
+have always been considered a proud man; we will say that it was low
+birth on the side of both mother and father (the last only just
+discovered) that broke off the alliance!"
+
+Vargrave was talking to the deaf; what cared Maltravers for the world?
+He hastened from the room, threw himself into his carriage, and Vargrave
+was left to plot, to hope, and to aspire.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ALICE BY LYTTON, BOOK IX ***
+By Edward Bulwer Lytton
+
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