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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9772.txt b/9772.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b57544f --- /dev/null +++ b/9772.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1835 @@ +Project Gutenberg EBook, Alice, or The Mysteries, by Lytton, Book X +#212 in our series by Edward Bulwer Lytton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + + +Title: Alice, or The Mysteries, Book X + +Author: Edward Bulwer Lytton + +Release Date: January 2006 [EBook #9772] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 15, 2003] + + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ALICE, BY LYTTON, BOOK X *** + + + + +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 X. + + "A dream!"--HOMER, I, 3. + + + +CHAPTER I. + + QUALIS ubi in lucem coluber + . . . Mala gramina pastus.*--VIRGIL. + + Pars minima est ipsa puella sui.**--OVID. + + * "As when a snake glides into light, having fed on pernicious + pastures." + + ** "The girl is the least part of himself." + +IT would be superfluous, and, perhaps, a sickening task, to detail at +length the mode and manner in which Vargrave coiled his snares round the +unfortunate girl whom his destiny had marked out for his prey. He was +right in foreseeing that, after the first amazement caused by the letter +of Maltravers, Evelyn would feel resentment crushed beneath her certainty +of his affection her incredulity at his self-accusations, and her secret +conviction that some reverse, some misfortune he was unwilling she should +share, was the occasion of his farewell and flight. Vargrave therefore +very soon communicated to Evelyn the tale he had suggested to Maltravers. +He reminded her of the habitual sorrow, the evidence of which was so +visible in Lady Vargrave; of her indifference to the pleasures of the +world; of her sensitive shrinking from all recurrence to her early fate. +"The secret of this," said he, "is in a youthful and most fervent +attachment; your mother loved a young stranger above her in rank, who +(his head being full of German romance) was then roaming about the +country on pedestrian and adventurous excursions, under the assumed name +of Butler. By him she was most ardently beloved in return. Her father, +perhaps, suspected the rank of her lover, and was fearful of her honour +being compromised. He was a strange man, that father! and I know not his +real character and motives; but he suddenly withdrew his daughter from +the suit and search of her lover,--they saw each other no more; her lover +mourned her as one dead. In process of time your mother was constrained +by her father to marry Mr. Cameron, and was left a widow with an only +child,--yourself: she was poor;--very poor! and her love and anxiety for +you at last induced her to listen to the addresses of my late uncle; for +your sake she married again; again death dissolved the tie! But still, +unceasingly and faithfully, she recalled that first love, the memory of +which darkened and embittered all her life, and still she lived upon the +hope to meet with the lost again. At last, and most recently, it was my +fate to discover that the object of this unconquerable affection +lived,--was still free in hand if not in heart: you behold the lover of +your mother in Ernest Maltravers! It devolved on me (an invidious--a +reluctant duty) to inform Maltravers of the identity of Lady Vargrave +with the Alice of his boyish passion; to prove to him her suffering, +patient, unsubdued affection; to convince him that the sole hope left to +her in life was that of one day or other beholding him once again. You +know Maltravers,--his high-wrought, sensitive, noble character; he +recoiled in terror from the thought of making his love to the daughter +the last and bitterest affliction to the mother he had so loved; knowing +too how completely that mother had entwined herself round your +affections, he shuddered at the pain and self-reproach that would be +yours when you should discover to whom you had been the rival, and whose +the fond hopes and dreams that your fatal beauty had destroyed. +Tortured, despairing, and half beside himself, he has fled from this +ill-omened passion, and in solitude he now seeks to subdue that passion. +Touched by the woe, the grief, of the Alice of his youth, it is his +intention, as soon as he can know you restored to happiness and content, +to hasten to your mother, and offer his future devotion as the fulfilment +of former vows. On you, and you alone, it depends to restore Maltravers +to the world,--on you alone it depends to bless the remaining years of +the mother who so dearly loves you!" + +It may be easily conceived with what sensations of wonder, compassion, +and dismay, Evelyn listened to this tale, the progress of which her +exclamations, her sobs, often interrupted. She would write instantly to +her mother, to Maltravers. Oh, how gladly she would relinquish his suit: +How cheerfully promise to rejoice in that desertion which brought +happiness to the mother she had so loved! + +"Nay," said Vargrave, "your mother must not know, till the intelligence +can be breathed by his lips, and softened by his protestations of +returning affection, that the mysterious object of her early romance is +that Maltravers whose vows have been so lately offered to her own child. +Would not such intelligence shock all pride, and destroy all hope? How +could she then consent to the sacrifice which Maltravers is prepared to +make? No! not till you are another's--not (to use the words of +Maltravers) till you are a happy and beloved wife--must your mother +receive the returning homage of Maltravers; not till then can she know +where that homage has been recently rendered; not till then can +Maltravers feel justified in the atonement he meditates. He is willing +to sacrifice himself; he trembles at the thought of sacrificing you! Say +nothing to your mother, till from her own lips she tells you that she has +learned all." + +Could Evelyn hesitate; could Evelyn doubt? To allay the fears, to fulfil +the prayers of the man whose conduct appeared so generous, to restore him +to peace and the world; above all, to pluck from the heart of that +beloved and gentle mother the rankling dart, to shed happiness over her +fate, to reunite her with the loved and lost,--what sacrifice too great +for this? + +Ah, why was Legard absent? Why did she believe him capricious, light, +and false? Why had she shut her softest thoughts from her soul? But +he--the true lover--was afar, and his true love unknown! and Vargrave, +the watchful serpent, was at hand. + +In a fatal hour, and in the transport of that enthusiasm which inspires +alike our more rash and our more sublime deeds, which makes us alike +dupes and martyrs,--the enthusiasm that tramples upon self, that forfeits +all things to a high-wrought zeal for others, Evelyn consented to become +the wife of Vargrave! Nor was she at first sensible of the +sacrifice,--sensible of anything but the glow of a noble spirit and an +approving conscience. Yes, thus, and thus alone, did she obey both +duties,--that, which she had well-nigh abandoned, to her dead benefactor, +and that to the living mother. Afterwards came a dread reaction; and +then, at last, that passive and sleep-like resignation, which is Despair +under a milder name. Yes,--such a lot had been predestined from the +first; in vain had she sought to fly it: Fate had overtaken her, and she +must submit to the decree! + +She was most anxious that the intelligence of the new bond might be +transmitted instantly to Maltravers. Vargrave promised, but took care +not to perform. He was too acute not to know that in so sudden a step +Evelyn's motives would be apparent, and his own suit indelicate and +ungenerous. He was desirous that Maltravers should learn nothing till +the vows had been spoken, and the indissoluble chain forged. Afraid to +leave Evelyn, even for a day, afraid to trust her in England to an +interview with her mother,--he remained at Paris, and hurried on all the +requisite preparations. He sent to Douce, who came in person, with the +deeds necessary for the transfer of the money for the purchase of Lisle +Court, which was now to be immediately completed. The money was to be +lodged in Mr. Douce's bank till the lawyers had completed their +operations; and in a few weeks, when Evelyn had attained the allotted +age, Vargrave trusted to see himself lord alike of the betrothed bride, +and the hereditary lands of the crushed Maltravers. He refrained from +stating to Evelyn who was the present proprietor of the estate to become +hers; he foresaw all the objections she would form;--and, indeed, she was +unable to think, to talk, of such matters. One favour she had asked, and +it had been granted,--that she was to be left unmolested to her solitude +till the fatal day. Shut up in her lonely room, condemned not to confide +her thoughts, to seek for sympathy even in her mother,--the poor girl in +vain endeavoured to keep up to the tenor of her first enthusiasm, and +reconcile herself to a step, which, however, she was heroine enough not +to retract or to repent, even while she recoiled from its contemplation. + +Lady Doltimore, amazed at what had passed,--at the flight of Maltravers, +the success of Lumley,--unable to account for it, to extort explanation +from Vargrave or from Evelyn, was distracted by the fear of some +villanous deceit which she could not fathom. To escape herself she +plunged yet more eagerly into the gay vortex. Vargrave, suspicious, and +fearful of trusting to what she might say in her nervous and excited +temper if removed from his watchful eye, deemed himself compelled to +hover round her. His manner, his conduct, were most guarded; but +Caroline herself, jealous, irritated, unsettled, evinced at times a right +both to familiarity and anger, which drew upon her and himself the sly +vigilance of slander. Meanwhile Lord Doltimore, though too cold and +proud openly to notice what passed around him, seemed disturbed and +anxious. His manner to Vargrave was distant; he shunned all +_tete-a-tetes_ with his wife. Little, however, of this did Lumley heed. +A few weeks more, and all would be well and safe. Vargrave did not +publish his engagement with Evelyn: he sought carefully to conceal it +till the very day was near at hand; but it was whispered abroad; some +laughed, some believed. Evelyn herself was seen nowhere. De Montaigne +had, at first, been indignantly incredulous at the report that Maltravers +had broken off a connection he had so desired from a motive so weak and +unworthy as that of mere family pride. A letter from Maltravers, who +confided to him and Vargrave alone the secret of his retreat, reluctantly +convinced him that the wise are but pompous fools; he was angry and +disgusted; and still more so when Valerie and Teresa (for female friends +stand by us right or wrong) hinted at excuses, or surmised that other +causes lurked behind the one alleged. But his thoughts were much drawn +from this subject by increasing anxiety for Cesarini, whose abode and +fate still remained an alarming mystery. + +It so happened that Lord Doltimore, who had always had a taste for the +antique, and who was greatly displeased with his own family-seat because +it was comfortable and modern, fell, from _ennui_, into a habit, +fashionable enough in Paris, of buying curiosities and cabinets,-- +high-back chairs and oak-carvings; and with this habit returned the +desire and the affection for Burleigh. Understanding from Lumley that +Maltravers had probably left his native land forever, he imagined it +extremely probable that the latter would now consent to the sale, +and he begged Vargrave to forward a letter from him to that effect. + +Vargrave made some excuse, for he felt that nothing could be more +indelicate than such an application forwarded through his hands at such a +time; and Doltimore, who had accidentally heard De Montaigne confess that +he knew the address of Maltravers, quietly sent his letter to the +Frenchman, and, without mentioning its contents, begged him to forward +it. De Montaigne did so. Now it is very strange how slight men and +slight incidents bear on the great events of life; but that simple letter +was instrumental to a new revolution in the strange history of +Maltravers. + + + +CHAPTER II. + + QUID frustra simulacra fugacia captas?-- + Quod petis est nusquam.*--OVID: _Met._ iii. 432. + + * "Why, in vain, do you catch at fleeting shadows? + That which you seek is nowhere." + +TO no clime dedicated to the indulgence of majestic griefs or to the soft +melancholy of regret--not to thy glaciers, or thy dark-blue lakes, +beautiful Switzerland, mother of many exiles; nor to thy fairer earth and +gentler heaven, sweet Italy,--fled the agonized Maltravers. Once, in his +wanderings, he had chanced to pass by a landscape so steeped in sullen +and desolate gloom, that it had made a powerful and uneffaced impression +upon his mind: it was amidst those swamps and morasses that formerly +surrounded the castle of Gil de Retz, the ambitious Lord, the dreaded +Necromancer, who perished at the stake, after a career of such power and +splendour as seemed almost to justify the dark belief in his +preternatural agencies.* + + * See, for description of this scenery, and the fate of De Retz, + the high-wrought and glowing romance by Mr. Ritchie called + "The Magician." + +Here, in a lonely and wretched inn, remote from other habitations, +Maltravers fixed himself. In gentler griefs there is a sort of luxury in +bodily discomfort; in his inexorable and unmitigated anguish, bodily +discomfort was not felt. There is a kind of magnetism in extreme woe, by +which the body itself seems laid asleep, and knows no distinction between +the bed of Damiens and the rose-couch of the Sybarite. He left his +carriage and servants at a post-house some miles distant. He came to +this dreary abode alone; and in that wintry season, and that most +disconsolate scene, his gloomy soul found something congenial, something +that did not mock him, in the frowns of the haggard and dismal Nature. +Vain would it be to describe what he then felt, what he then endured. +Suffice it that, through all, the diviner strength of man was not wholly +crushed, and that daily, nightly, hourly, he prayed to the Great +Comforter to assist him in wrestling against a guilty love. No man +struggles so honestly, so ardently as he did, utterly in vain; for in us +all, if we would but cherish it, there is a spirit that must rise at +last--a crowned, if bleeding conqueror--over Fate and all the Demons! + +One day after a prolonged silence from Vargrave, whose letters all +breathed comfort and assurance in Evelyn's progressive recovery of spirit +and hope, his messenger returned from the post-town with a letter in the +hand of De Montaigne. It contained, in a blank envelope (De Montaigne's +silence told him how much he had lost in the esteem of his friend), the +communication of Lord Doltimore. It ran thus:-- + + +MY DEAR SIR,--As I hear that your plans are likely to make you a long +resident on the Continent, may I again inquire if you would be induced to +dispose of Burleigh? I am willing to give more than its real value, and +would raise a mortgage on my own property sufficient to pay off, at once, +the whole purchase-money. Perhaps you may be the more induced to the +sale from the circumstance of having an example in the head of your +family, Colonel Maltravers, as I learn through Lord Vargrave, having +resolved to dispose of Lisle Court. Waiting your answer, + + I am, dear Sir, truly yours, + + DOLTIMORE. + + +"Ay," said Maltravers, bitterly, crushing the letter in his hand, "let +our name be blotted out from the land, and our hearths pass to the +stranger. How could I ever visit the place where I first saw _her_?" + +He resolved at once,--he would write to England, and place the matter in +the hands of agents. This was but a short-lived diversion to his +thoughts, and their cloudy darkness soon gathered round him again. + +What I am now about to relate may appear, to a hasty criticism, to savour +of the Supernatural; but it is easily accounted for by ordinary agencies, +and it is strictly to the letter of the truth. + +In his sleep that night a dream appeared to Maltravers. He thought he +was alone in the old library at Burleigh, and gazing on the portrait of +his mother; as he so gazed, he fancied that a cold and awful tremor +seized upon him, that he in vain endeavoured to withdraw his eyes from +the canvas--his sight was chained there by an irresistible spell. Then +it seemed to him that the portrait gradually changed,--the features the +same, but the bloom vanished into a white and ghastly hue; the colours of +the dress faded, their fashion grew more large and flowing, but heavy and +rigid as if cut in stone,--the robes of the grave. But on the face there +was a soft and melancholy smile, that took from its livid aspect the +natural horror; the lips moved, and, it seemed as if without a sound, the +released soul spoke to that which the earth yet owned. + +"Return," it said, "to thy native land, and thine own home. Leave not +the last relic of her who bore and yet watches over thee to stranger +hands. Thy good Angel shall meet thee at thy hearth!" + +The voice ceased. With a violent effort Maltravers broke the spell that +had forbidden his utterance. He called aloud, and the dream vanished: he +was broad awake, his hair erect, the cold dews on his brow. The pallet, +rather than bed on which he lay, was opposite to the window, and the +wintry moonlight streamed wan and spectral into the cheerless room. But +between himself and the light there seemed to stand a shape, a shadow, +that into which the portrait had changed in his dream,--that which had +accosted and chilled his soul. He sprang forward, "My mother! even in +the grave canst thou bless thy wretched son! Oh, leave me not--say that +thou--" The delusion vanished, and Maltravers fell back insensible. + +It was long in vain, when, in the healthful light of day, he revolved +this memorable dream, that Maltravers sought to convince himself that +dreams need no ministers from heaven or hell to bring the gliding +falsehoods along the paths of sleep; that the effect of that dream +itself, on his shattered nerves, his excited fancy, was the real and sole +raiser of the spectre he had thought to behold on waking. Long was it +before his judgment could gain the victory, and reason disown the empire +of a turbulent imagination; and even when at length reluctantly +convinced, the dream still haunted him, and he could not shake it from +his breast. He longed anxiously for the next night; it came, but it +brought neither dreams nor sleep, and the rain beat, and the winds +howled, against the casement. Another night, and the moon was again +bright; and he fell into a deep sleep; no vision disturbed or hallowed +it. He woke ashamed of his own expectation. But the event, such as it +was, by giving a new turn to his thoughts, had roused and relieved his +spirit, and misery sat upon him with a lighter load. Perhaps, too, to +that still haunting recollection was mainly owing a change in his former +purpose. He would still sell the old Hall; but he would first return, +and remove that holy portrait, with pious hands; he would garner up and +save all that had belonged to her whose death had been his birth. Ah, +never had she known for what trials the infant had been reserved! + + + +CHAPTER III. + + THE weary hours steal on + And flaky darkness breaks.--_Richard III._ + +ONCE more, suddenly and unlooked for, the lord of Burleigh appeared at +the gates of his deserted hall! and again the old housekeeper and her +satellites were thrown into dismay and consternation. Amidst blank and +welcomeless faces, Maltravers passed into his study: and as soon as the +logs burned and the bustle was over, and he was left alone, he took up +the light and passed into the adjoining library. It was then about nine +o'clock in the evening; the air of the room felt damp and chill, and the +light but faintly struggled against the mournful gloom of the dark +book-lined walls and sombre tapestry. He placed the candle on the table, +and drawing aside the curtain that veiled the portrait, gazed with deep +emotion, not unmixed with awe, upon the beautiful face whose eyes seemed +fixed upon him with mournful sweetness. There is something mystical +about those painted ghosts of ourselves, that survive our very dust! +Who, gazing upon them long and wistfully, does not half fancy that they +seem not insensible to his gaze, as if we looked our own life into them, +and the eyes that followed us where we moved were animated by a stranger +art than the mere trick of the limner's colours? + +With folded arms, rapt and motionless, Maltravers contemplated the form +that, by the upward rays of the flickering light, seemed to bend down +towards the desolate son. How had he ever loved the memory of his +mother! how often in his childish years had he stolen away, and shed wild +tears for the loss of that dearest of earthly ties, never to be +compensated, never to be replaced! How had he respected, how sympathized +with the very repugnance which his father had at first testified towards +him, as the innocent cause of her untimely death! He had never seen +her,--never felt her passionate kiss; and yet it seemed to him, as he +gazed, as if he had known her for years. That strange kind of inner and +spiritual memory which often recalls to us places and persons we have +never seen before, and which Platonists would resolve to the unquenched +and struggling consciousness of a former life, stirred within him, and +seemed to whisper, "You were united in the old time." "Yes!" he said, +half aloud, "we will never part again. Blessed be the delusion of the +dream that recalled to my heart the remembrance of thee, which, at least, +I can cherish without a sin. 'My good angel shall meet me at my hearth!' +so didst thou say in the solemn vision. Ah, does thy soul watch over me +still? How long shall it be before the barrier is broken! how long +before we meet, but not in dreams!" + +The door opened, the housekeeper looked in. "I beg pardon, sir, but I +thought your honour would excuse the liberty, though I know it is very +bold to--" + +"What is the matter? What do you want?" + +"Why, sir, poor Mrs. Elton is dying,--they say she cannot get over the +night; and as the carriage drove by the cottage window, the nurse told +her that the squire was returned; and she has sent up the nurse to +entreat to see your honour before she dies. I am sure I was most loth to +disturb you, sir, with such a message; and says I, the squire has only +just come off a journey--" + +"Who is Mrs. Elton?" + +"Don't your honour remember the poor woman that was run over, and you +were so good to, and brought into the house the day Miss Cameron--" + +"I remember,--say I will be with her in a few minutes. About to die!" +muttered Maltravers; "she is to be envied,--the prisoner is let loose, +the bark leaves the desert isle!" + +He took his hat and walked across the park, dimly lighted by the stars, +to the cottage of the sufferer. He reached her bedside, and took her +hand kindly. She seemed to rally at the sight of him; the nurse was +dismissed, they were left alone. Before morning, the spirit had left +that humble clay; and the mists of dawn were heavy on the grass as +Maltravers returned home. There were then on his countenance the traces +of recent and strong emotion, and his step was elastic, and his cheek +flushed. Hope once more broke within him, but mingled with doubt, and +faintly combated by reason. In another hour Maltravers was on his way to +Brook-Green. Impatient, restless, fevered, he urged on the horses, he +sowed the road with gold; and at length the wheels stopped before the +door of the village inn. He descended, asked the way to the curate's +house; and crossing the burial-ground, and passing under the shadow of +the old yew-tree, entered Aubrey's garden. The curate was at home, and +the conference that ensued was of deep and breathless interest to the +visitor. + +It is now time to place before the reader, in due order and connection, +the incidents of that story, the knowledge of which, at that period, +broke in detached and fragmentary portions on Maltravers. + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + I CANNA chuse, but ever will + Be luving to thy father still, + Whaireir he gae, whaireir he ryde, + My luve with him maun still abyde; + In weil or wae, whaireir he gae, + Mine heart can neir depart him frae. + Lady Anne Bothwell's Lament. + +IT may be remembered that in the earlier part of this continuation of the +history of Maltravers it was stated that Aubrey had in early life met +with the common lot of a disappointed affection. Eleanor Westbrook, a +young woman of his own humble rank, had won, and seemed to return, his +love; but of that love she was not worthy. Vain, volatile, and +ambitious, she forsook the poor student for a more brilliant marriage. +She accepted the hand of a merchant, who was caught by her beauty, and +who had the reputation of great wealth. They settled in London, and +Aubrey lost all traces of her. She gave birth to an only daughter: and +when that child had attained her fourteenth year, her husband suddenly, +and seemingly without cause, put an end to his existence. The cause, +however, was apparent before he was laid in his grave. He was involved +far beyond his fortune,--he had died to escape beggary and a jail. A +small annuity, not exceeding one hundred pounds, had been secured on the +widow. On this income she retired with her child into the country; and +chance, the vicinity of some distant connections, and the cheapness of +the place, concurred to fix her residence in the outskirts of the town of +C-----. Characters that in youth have been most volatile and most +worldly, often when bowed down and dejected by the adversity which they +are not fitted to encounter, become the most morbidly devout; they ever +require an excitement, and when earth denies, they seek it impatiently +from heaven. + +This was the case with Mrs. Westbrook; and this new turn of mind brought +her naturally into contact with the principal saint of the neighbourhood, +Mr. Richard Templeton. We have seen that that gentleman was not happy in +his first marriage; death had not then annulled the bond. He was of an +ardent and sensual temperament, and quietly, under the broad cloak of his +doctrines, he indulged his constitutional tendencies. Perhaps in this +respect he was not worse than nine men out of ten. But then he professed +to be better than nine hundred thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine men +out of a million! To a fault of temperament was added the craft of +hypocrisy, and the vulgar error became a dangerous vice. Upon Mary +Westbrook, the widow's daughter, he gazed with eyes that were far from +being the eyes of the spirit. Even at the age of fourteen she charmed +him; but when, after watching her ripening beauty expand, three years +were added to that age, Mr. Templeton was most deeply in love. Mary was +indeed lovely,--her disposition naturally good and gentle, but her +education worse than neglected. To the frivolities and meannesses of a +second-rate fashion, inculcated into her till her father's death, had now +succeeded the quackeries, the slavish subservience, the intolerant +bigotries, of a transcendental superstition. In a change so abrupt and +violent, the whole character of the poor girl was shaken; her principles +unsettled, vague, and unformed, and naturally of mediocre and even feeble +intellect, she clung to the first plank held out to her in "that wide sea +of wax" in which "she halted." Early taught to place the most implicit +faith in the dictates of Mr. Templeton, fastening her belief round him as +the vine winds its tendrils round the oak, yielding to his ascendency, +and pleased with his fostering and almost caressing manner, no confessor +in Papal Italy ever was more dangerous to village virtue than Richard +Templeton (who deemed himself the archetype of the only pure +Protestantism) to the morals and heart of Mary Westbrook. + +Mrs. Westbrook, whose constitution had been prematurely broken by long +participation in the excesses of London dissipation and by the reverse of +fortune which still preyed upon a spirit it had rather soured than +humbled, died when Mary was eighteen. Templeton became the sole friend, +comforter, and supporter of the daughter. + +In an evil hour (let us trust not from premeditated villany),--an hour +when the heart of one was softened by grief and gratitude, and the +conscience of the other laid asleep by passion, the virtue of Mary +Westbrook was betrayed. Her sorrow and remorse, his own fears of +detection and awakened self-reproach, occasioned Templeton the most +anxious and poignant regret. There had been a young woman in Mrs. +Westbrook's service, who had left it a short time before the widow died, +in consequence of her marriage. Her husband ill-used her; and glad to +escape from him and prove her gratitude to her employer's daughter, of +whom she had been extremely fond, she had returned to Miss Westbrook +after the funeral of her mother. The name of this woman was Sarah Miles. +Templeton saw that Sarah more than suspected his connection with Mary; it +was necessary to make a confidant,--he selected her. Miss Westbrook was +removed to a distant part of the country, and Templeton visited her +cautiously and rarely. Four months afterwards, Mrs. Templeton died, and +the husband was free to repair his wrong. Oh, how he then repented of +what had passed! but four months' delay, and all this sin and sorrow +might have been saved! He was now racked with perplexity and doubt: his +unfortunate victim was advanced in her pregnancy. It was necessary, if +he wished his child to be legitimate--still more if he wished to preserve +the honour of its mother--that he should not hesitate long in the +reparation to which duty and conscience urged him. But on the other +hand, he, the saint, the oracle, the immaculate example for all forms, +proprieties, and decorums, to scandalize the world by so rapid and +premature a hymen-- + + "Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears + Had left the flushing in his galled eyes, + To marry." + +No! he could not brave the sneer of the gossips, the triumph of his foes, +the dejection of his disciples, by so rank and rash a folly. But still +Mary pined so, he feared for her health--for his own unborn offspring. +There was a middle path,--a compromise between duty and the world; he +grasped at it as most men similarly situated would have done,--they were +married, but privately, and under feigned names: the secret was kept +close. Sarah Miles was the only witness acquainted with the real +condition and names of the parties. + +Reconciled to herself, the bride recovered health and spirits, Templeton +formed the most sanguine hopes. He resolved, as soon as the confinement +was over, to go abroad; Mary should follow; in a foreign land they should +be publicly married; they would remain some years on the Continent; when +he returned, his child's age could be put back a year. Oh, nothing could +be more clear and easy! + +Death shivered into atoms all the plans of Mr. Templeton. Mary suffered +most severely in childbirth, and died a few weeks afterwards. Templeton +at first was inconsolable, but worldly thoughts were great comforters. +He had done all that conscience could do to atone a sin, and he was freed +from a most embarrassing dilemma, and from a temporary banishment utterly +uncongenial and unpalatable to his habits and ideas. But now he had a +child,--a legitimate child, successor to his name, his wealth; a +first-born child,--the only one ever sprung from him, the prop and hope +of advancing years! On this child he doted with all that paternal +passion which the hardest and coldest men often feel the most for their +own flesh and blood--for fatherly love is sometimes but a transfer of +self-love from one fund to another. + +Yet this child--this darling that he longed to show to the whole +world--it was absolutely necessary, for the present, that he should +conceal and disown. It had happened that Sarah's husband died of his own +excesses a few weeks before the birth of Templeton's child, she having +herself just recovered from her confinement; Sarah was therefore free +forever from her husband's vigilance and control. To her care the +destined heiress was committed, and her own child put out to nurse. And +this was the woman and this the child who had excited so much benevolent +curiosity in the breasts of the worthy clergyman and the three old maids +of C-----.* Alarmed at Sarah's account of the scrutiny of the parson, and +at his own rencontre with that hawk-eyed pastor, Templeton lost no time +in changing the abode of the nurse; and to her new residence had the +banker bent his way, with rod and angle, on that evening which witnessed +his adventure with Luke Darvil.** When Mr. Templeton first met Alice, his +own child was only about thirteen or fourteen months old,--but little +older than Alice's. If the beauty of Mrs. Leslie's _protege_ first +excited his coarser nature, her maternal tenderness, her anxious care for +her little one, struck a congenial chord in the father's heart. It +connected him with her by a mute and unceasing sympathy. Templeton had +felt so deeply the alarm and pain of illicit love, he had been (as he +profanely believed) saved from the brink of public shame by so signal an +interference of grace, that he resolved no more to hazard his good name +and his peace of mind upon such perilous rocks. The dearest desire at +his heart was to have his daughter under his roof,--to fondle, to play +with her, to watch her growth, to win her affection. This, at present, +seemed impossible. But if he were to marry,--marry a widow, to whom he +might confide all, or a portion, of the truth; if that child could be +passed off as hers--ah, that was the best plan! And Templeton wanted a +wife! Years were creeping on him, and the day would come when a wife +would be useful as a nurse. But Alice was supposed to be a widow; and +Alice was so meek, so docile, so motherly. If she could be induced to +remove from C-----, either part with her own child or call it her +niece,--and adopt his. Such, from time to time, were Templeton's +thoughts, as he visited Alice, and found, with every visit, fresh +evidence of her tender and beautiful disposition; such the objects which, +in the First Part of this work, we intimated were different from those of +mere admiration for her beauty.*** But again, worldly doubts and +fears--the dislike of so unsuitable an alliance, the worse than lowness +of Alice's origin, the dread of discovery for her early error--held him +back, wavering and irresolute. To say truth, too, her innocence and +purity of thought kept him at a certain distance. He was acute enough to +see that he--even he, the great Richard Templeton--might be refused by +the faithful Alice. + + * See "Ernest Maltravers," book iv., p. 164. + + ** "Ernest Maltravers," book iv., p. 181. + + *** "Our banker always seemed more struck by Alice's moral + feelings than even by her physical beauty. Her love for her + child, for instance, impressed him powerfully," etc. "His + feelings altogether for Alice, the designs he entertained + towards her, were of a very complicated nature, and it will + be long, perhaps, before the reader can thoroughly comprehend + them."--See "Ernest Maltravers," book iv., p. 178. + +At last Darvil was dead; he breathed more freely, he revolved more +seriously his projects; and at this time, Sarah, wooed by her first +lover, wished to marry again; his secret would pass from her breast to +her second husband's, and thence how far would it travel? Added to this, +Sarah's conscience grew uneasy; the brand ought to be effaced from the +memory of the dead mother, the legitimacy of the child proclaimed; she +became importunate, she wearied and she alarmed the pious man. He +therefore resolved to rid himself of the only witness to his marriage +whose testimony he had cause to fear,--of the presence of the only one +acquainted with his sin and the real name of the husband of Mary +Westbrook. He consented to Sarah's marriage with William Elton, and +offered a liberal dowry on the condition that she should yield to the +wish of Elton himself, an adventurous young man, who desired to try his +fortunes in the New World. His daughter he must remove elsewhere. + +While this was going on, Alice's child, long delicate and drooping, +became seriously ill. Symptoms of decline appeared; the physician +recommended a milder air, and Devonshire was suggested. Nothing could +equal the generous, the fatherly kindness which Templeton evinced on this +most painful occasion. He insisted on providing Alice with the means to +undertake the journey with ease and comfort; and poor Alice, with a heart +heavy with gratitude and sorrow, consented for her child's sake to all he +offered. + +Now the banker began to perceive that all his hopes and wishes were in +good train. He foresaw that the child of Alice was doomed!--that was one +obstacle out of the way. Alice herself was to be removed from the sphere +of her humble calling. In a distant county she might appear of better +station, and under another name. Conformably to these views, he +suggested to her that, in proportion to the seeming wealth and +respectability of patients, did doctors attend to their complaints. He +proposed that Alice should depart privately to a town many miles off; +that there he would provide for her a carriage, and engage a servant; +that he would do this for her as for a relation, and that she should take +that relation's name. To this, Alice rapt in her child, and submissive +to all that might be for the child's benefit, passively consented. It +was arranged then as proposed, and under the name of Cameron, which, as +at once a common yet a well-sounding name, occurred to his invention, +Alice departed with her sick charge and a female attendant (who knew +nothing of her previous calling or story), on the road to Devonshire. +Templeton himself resolved to follow her thither in a few days; and it +was fixed that they should meet at Exeter. + +It was on this melancholy journey that occurred that memorable day when +Alice once more beheld Maltravers; and, as she believed, uttering the +vows of love to another.* The indisposition of her child had delayed her +some hours at the inn: the poor sufferer had fallen asleep; and Alice had +stolen from its couch for a little while, when her eyes rested on the +father. Oh, how then she longed, she burned to tell him of the new +sanctity, that, by a human life, had been added to their early love! And +when, crushed and sick at heart, she turned away, and believed herself +forgotten and replaced, it was the pride of the mother rather than of the +mistress that supported her. She, meek creature, felt not the injury to +herself; but _his_ child,--the sufferer, perhaps the dying one,--_there_, +_there_ was the wrong! No! she would not hazard the chance of a +cold--great Heaven! perchance an _incredulous_--look upon the hushed, +pale face above. But little time was left for thought, for explanation, +for discovery. She saw him--unconscious of the ties so near, and thus +lost--depart as a stranger from the spot; and henceforth was gone the +sweet hope of living for the future. Nothing was left her but the pledge +of that which had been. Mournful, despondent, half broken-hearted, she +resumed her journey. At Exeter she was joined, as agreed, by Mr. +Templeton; and with him came a fair, a blooming, and healthful girl to +contrast her own drooping charge. Though but a few weeks older, you +would have supposed the little stranger by a year the senior of Alice's +child: the one was so well grown, so advanced; the other so backward, so +nipped in the sickly bud. + + * See "Ernest Maltravers," book v., p. 221. + +"You can repay me for all, for more than I have done; more than I ever +can do for you and yours," said Templeton, "by taking this young stranger +also under your care. It is the child of one dear, most dear to me; an +orphan; I know not with whom else to place it. Let it for the present be +supposed your own,--the elder child." + +Alice could refuse nothing to her benefactor; but her heart did not open +at first to the beautiful girl, whose sparkling eyes and rosy cheeks +mocked the languid looks and faded hues of her own darling. But the +sufferer seemed to hail a playmate; it smiled, it put forth its poor, +thin hands; it uttered its inarticulate cry of pleasure, and Alice burst +into tears, and clasped them _both_ to her heart. + +Mr. Templeton took care not to rest under the same roof with her he now +seriously intended to make his wife; but he followed Alice to the +seaside, and visited her daily. Her infant rallied; it was tenacious of +the upper air; it clung to life so fondly; poor child, it could not +foresee what a bitter thing to some of us life is! And now it was that +Templeton, learning from Alice her adventure with her absent lover, +learning that all hope in that quarter was gone, seized the occasion, and +pressed his suit. Alice at the hour was overflowing with gratitude; in +her child's reviving looks she read all her obligations to her +benefactor. But still, at the word _love_, at the name of _marriage_, +her heart recoiled; and the lost, the faithless, came back to his fatal +throne. In choked and broken accents, she startled the banker with the +refusal--the faltering, tearful, but resolute refusal--of his suit. + +But Templeton brought new engines to work: he wooed her through her +child; he painted all the brilliant prospects that would open to the +infant by her marriage with him. He would cherish, rear, provide for it +as his own. This shook her resolves; but this did not prevail. He had +recourse to a more generous appeal: he told her so much of his history +with Mary Westbrook as commenced with his hasty and indecorous +marriage,--attributing the haste to love! made her comprehend his +scruples in owning the child of a union the world would be certain to +ridicule or condemn; he expatiated on the inestimable blessings she could +afford him, by delivering him from all embarrassment, and restoring his +daughter, though under a borrowed name, to her father's roof. At this +Alice mused; at this she seemed irresolute. She had long seen how +inexpressibly dear to Templeton was the child confided to her care; how +he grew pale if the slightest ailment reached her; how he chafed at the +very wind if it visited her cheek too roughly; and she now said to him +simply,-- + +"Is your child, in truth, your dearest object in life? Is it with her, +and her alone, that your dearest hopes are connected?" + +"It is,--it is indeed!" said the banker, honestly surprised out of his +gallantry; "at least," he added, recovering his self-possession, "as much +so as is compatible with my affection for you." + +"And only if I marry you, and adopt her as my own, do you think that your +secret may be safely kept, and all your wishes with respect to her be +fulfilled?" + +"Only so." + +"And for that reason, chiefly, nay entirely, you condescend to forget +what I have been, and seek my hand? Well, if that were all, I owe you +too much; my poor babe tells me too loudly what I owe you to draw back +from anything that can give you so blessed an enjoyment. Ah, one's +child! one's own child, under one's own roof, it _is_ such a blessing! +But then, if I marry you, it can be only to secure to you that object; to +be as a mother to your child; but wife only in name to you! I am not so +lost as to despise myself. I know now, though I knew it not at first, +that I have been guilty; nothing can excuse that guilt but fidelity to +_him_! Oh, yes! I never, never can be unfaithful to my babe's father! +As for all else, dispose of me as you will." And Alice, who from very +innocence had uttered all this without a blush, now clasped her hands +passionately, and left Templeton speechless with mortification and +surprise. + +When he recovered himself, he affected not to understand her; but Alice +was not satisfied, and all further conversation ceased. He began slowly, +and at last, and after repeated conferences and urgings, to comprehend +how strange and stubborn in some points was the humble creature whom his +proposals so highly honoured. Though his daughter was indeed his first +object in life; though for her he was willing to make a _mesalliance_, +the extent of which it would be incumbent on him studiously to +conceal,--yet still, the beauty of Alice awoke an earthlier sentiment +that he was not disposed to conquer. He was quite willing to make +promises, and talk generously; but when it came to an oath,--a solemn, a +binding oath--and this Alice rigidly exacted,--he was startled, and drew +back. Though hypocritical, he was, as we have before said, a most +sincere believer. He might creep through a promise with unbruised +conscience; but he was not one who could have dared to violate an oath, +and lay the load of perjury on his soul. Perhaps, after all, the union +never would have taken place, but Templeton fell ill; that soft and +relaxing air did not agree with him; a low but dangerous fever seized +him, and the worldly man trembled at the aspect of Death. It was in this +illness that Alice nursed him with a daughter's vigilance and care; and +when at length he recovered, impressed with her zeal and kindness, +softened by illness, afraid of the approach of solitary age,--and feeling +more than ever his duties to his motherless child, he threw himself at +Alice's feet, and solemnly vowed all that she required. + +It was during this residence in Devonshire, and especially during his +illness, that Templeton made and cultivated the acquaintance of Mr. +Aubrey. The good clergyman prayed with him by his sick-bed; and when +Templeton's danger was at its height, he sought to relieve his conscience +by a confession of his wrongs to Mary Westbrook. The name startled +Aubrey; and when he learned that the lovely child who had so often sat on +his knee, and smiled in his face, was the granddaughter of his first and +only love, he had a new interest in her welfare, a new reason to urge +Templeton to reparation, a new motive to desire to procure for the infant +years of Eleanor's grandchild the gentle care of the young mother, whose +own bereavement he sorrowfully foretold. Perhaps the advice and +exhortations of Aubrey went far towards assisting the conscience of Mr. +Templeton, and reconciling him to the sacrifice he made to his affection +for his daughter. Be that as it may, he married Alice, and Aubrey +solemnized and blessed the chill and barren union. + +But now came a new and inexpressible affliction; the child of Alice had +rallied but for a time. The dread disease had but dallied with its prey; +it came on with rapid and sudden force; and within a month from the day +that saw Alice the bride of Templeton, the last hope was gone, and the +mother was bereft and childless! + +The blow that stunned Alice was not, after the first natural shock of +sympathy, an unwelcome event to the banker. Now _his_ child would be +Alice's sole care; now there could be no gossip, no suspicion why, in +life and after death, he should prefer one child, supposed not his own, +to the other. + +He hastened to remove Alice from the scene of her affliction. He +dismissed the solitary attendant who had accompanied her on her journey; +he bore his wife to London, and finally settled, as we have seen, at a +villa in its vicinity. And there, more and more, day by day, centred his +love upon the supposed daughter of Mrs. Templeton, his darling and his +heiress, the beautiful Evelyn Cameron. + +For the first year or two, Templeton evinced some alarming disposition to +escape from the oath he had imposed upon himself; but on the slightest +hint there was a sternness in the wife, in all else so respectful, so +submissive, that repressed and awed him. She even threatened--and at one +time was with difficulty prevented carrying the threat into effect--to +leave his roof forever, if there were the slightest question of the +sanctity of his vow. Templeton trembled; such a separation would excite +gossip, curiosity, scandal, a noise in the world, public talk, possible +discovery. Besides, Alice was necessary to Evelyn, necessary to his own +comfort; something to scold in health, something to rely upon in illness. +Gradually then, but sullenly, he reconciled himself to his lot; and as +years and infirmities grew upon him, he was contented at least to have +secured a faithful friend and an anxious nurse. Still a marriage of this +sort was not blessed: Templeton's vanity was wounded; his temper, always +harsh, was soured; he avenged his affront by a thousand petty tyrannies; +and, without a murmur, Alice perhaps in those years of rank and opulence +suffered more than in all her wanderings, with love at her heart and her +infant in her arms. + +Evelyn was to be the heiress to the wealth of the banker. But the +_title_ of the new peer!--if he could unite wealth and title, and set the +coronet on that young brow! This had led him to seek the alliance with +Lumley. And on his death-bed, it was not the secret of Alice, but that +of Mary Westbrook and his daughter, which he had revealed to his dismayed +and astonished nephew, in excuse for the apparently unjust alienation of +his property, and as the cause of the alliance he had sought. + +While her husband, if husband he might be called, lived, Alice had seemed +to bury in her bosom her regret--deep, mighty, passionate, as it was--for +her lost child, the child of the unforgotten lover, to whom, through such +trials, and amid such new ties, she had been faithful from first to last. +But when once more free, her heart flew back to the far and lowly grave. +Hence her yearly visits to Brook-Green; hence her purchase of the +cottage, hallowed by memories of the dead. There, on that lawn, had she +borne forth the fragile form, to breathe the soft noontide air; there, in +that chamber, had she watched and hoped, and prayed and despaired; there, +in that quiet burial-ground, rested the beloved dust! But Alice, even in +her holiest feelings, was not selfish: she forbore to gratify the first +wish of her heart till Evelyn's education was sufficiently advanced to +enable her to quit the neighbourhood; and then, to the delight of Aubrey +(who saw in Evelyn a fairer, and nobler, and purer Eleanor), she came to +the solitary spot, which, in all the earth, was the _least_ solitary to +her! + +And now the image of the lover of her youth--which during her marriage +she had _sought_, at least, to banish--returned to her, and at times +inspired her with the only hopes that the grave had not yet transferred +to heaven! In relating her tale to Aubrey or in conversing with Mrs. +Leslie, whose friendship she still maintained, she found that both +concurred in thinking that this obscure and wandering Butler, so skilled +in an art in which eminence in man is generally professional, must be of +mediocre or perhaps humble station. Ah! now that she was free and rich, +if she were to meet him again, and his love was not all gone, and he +would believe in _her_ strange and constant truth; now, _his_ infidelity +could be forgiven,--forgotten in the benefits it might be hers to bestow! +And how, poor Alice, in that remote village, was chance to throw him in +your way? She knew not: but something often whispered to her, "Again you +shall meet those eyes; again you shall hear that voice; and you shall +tell him, weeping on his breast, how you loved his child!" And would he +not have forgotten her; would he not have formed new ties?--could he read +the loveliness of unchangeable affection in that pale and pensive face! +Alas, when we love intensely, it is difficult to make us fancy that there +is no love in return! + +The reader is acquainted with the adventures of Mrs. Elton, the sole +confidant of the secret union of Templeton and Evelyn's mother. By a +singular fatality, it was the selfish and characteristic recklessness of +Vargrave that had, in fixing her home at Burleigh, ministered to the +revelation of his own villanous deceit. On returning to England she had +inquired for Mr. Templeton; she had learned that he had married again, +had been raised to the peerage under the title of Lord Vargrave, and was +gathered to his fathers. She had no claim on his widow or his family. +But the unfortunate child who should have inherited his property, she +could only suppose her dead. + +When she first saw Evelyn, she was startled by her likeness to her +unfortunate mother. But the unfamiliar name of Cameron, the intelligence +received from Maltravers that Evelyn's mother still lived, dispelled her +suspicions; and though at times the resemblance haunted her, she doubted +and inquired no more. In fact, her own infirmities grew upon her, and +pain usurped her thoughts. + +Now it so happened that the news of the engagement of Maltravers to Miss +Cameron became known to the county but a little time before he +arrived,--for news travels slow from the Continent to our +provinces,--and, of course, excited all the comment of the villagers. +Her nurse repeated the tale to Mrs. Elton, who instantly remembered the +name, and recalled the resemblance of Miss Cameron to the unfortunate +Mary Westbrook. + +"And," said the gossiping nurse, "she was engaged, they say, to a great +lord, and gave him up for the squire,--a great lord in the court, who had +been staying at Parson Merton's, Lord Vargrave!" + +"Lord Vargrave!" exclaimed Mrs. Elton, remembering the title to which Mr. +Templeton had been raised. + +"Yes; they do say as how the late lord left Miss Cameron all his +money--such a heap of it--though she was not his child, over the head of +his nevy, the present lord, on the understanding like that they were to +be married when she came of age. But she would not take to him after she +had seen the squire. And, to be sure, the squire is the finest-looking +gentleman in the county." + +"Stop! stop!" said Mrs. Elton, feebly; "the late lord left all his +fortune to Miss Cameron,--not his child! I guess the riddle! I +understand it all! my foster-child!" she murmured, turning away; "how +could I have mistaken that likeness?" + +The agitation of the discovery she supposed she had made, her joy at the +thought that the child she had loved as her own was alive and possessed +of its rights, expedited the progress of Mrs. Elton's disease; and +Maltravers arrived just in time to learn her confession (which she +naturally wished to make to one who was at once her benefactor, and +supposed to be the destined husband of her foster-child), and to be +agitated with hope, with joy, at her solemn conviction of the truth of +her surmises. If Evelyn were not his daughter--even if not to be his +bride--what a weight from his soul! He hastened to Brook-Green; and +dreading to rush at once to the presence of Alice, he recalled Aubrey to +his recollection. In the interview he sought, all, or at least much, was +cleared up. He saw at once the premeditated and well-planned villany of +Vargrave. And Alice, her tale--her sufferings--her indomitable +love!--how should he meet _her_? + + + +CHAPTER V. + + YET once more, O ye laurels! and once more, + Ye myrtles!--LYCIDAS. + +WHILE Maltravers was yet agitated and excited by the disclosures of the +curate, to whom, as a matter of course, he had divulged his own identity +with the mysterious Butler, Aubrey, turning his eyes to the casement, saw +the form of Lady Vargrave slowly approaching towards the house. + +"Will you withdraw to the inner room?" said he; "she is coming; you are +not yet prepared to meet her!--nay, would it be well?" + +"Yes, yes; I am prepared. We must be alone. I will await her here." + +"But--" + +"Nay, I implore you!" + +The curate, without another word, retired into the inner apartment, and +Maltravers sinking in a chair breathlessly awaited the entrance of Lady +Vargrave. He soon heard the light step without; the door, which opened +at once on the old-fashioned parlour, was gently unclosed, and Lady +Vargrave was in the room! In the position he had taken, only the outline +of Ernest's form was seen by Alice, and the daylight came dim through the +cottage casement; and seeing some one seated in the curate's accustomed +chair, she could but believe that it was Aubrey himself. + +"Do not let me interrupt you," said that sweet, low voice, whose music +had been dumb for so many years to Maltravers, "but I have a letter from +France, from a stranger. It alarms me so; it is about Evelyn;" and, as +if to imply that she meditated a longer visit than ordinary, Lady +Vargrave removed her bonnet, and placed it on the table. Surprised that +the curate had not answered, had not come forward to welcome her, she +then approached; Maltravers rose, and they stood before each other face +to face. And how lovely still was Alice! lovelier he thought even than +of old! And those eyes, so divinely blue, so dovelike and soft, yet +with some spiritual and unfathomable mystery in their clear depth, were +once more fixed upon him. Alice seemed turned to stone; she moved not, +she spoke not, she scarcely breathed; she gazed spellbound, as if her +senses--as if life itself--had deserted her. + +"Alice!" murmured Maltravers,--"Alice, we meet at last!" + +His voice restored memory, consciousness, youth, at once to her! She +uttered a loud cry of unspeakable joy, of rapture! She sprang +forward--reserve, fear, time, change, all forgotten; she threw herself +into his arms, she clasped him to her heart again and again!--the +faithful dog that has found its master expresses not his transport more +uncontrollably, more wildly. It was something fearful--the excess of her +ecstasy! She kissed his hands, his clothes; she laughed, she wept; and +at last, as words came, she laid her head on his breast, and said +passionately, "I have been true to thee! I have been true to thee!--or +this hour would have killed me!" Then, as if alarmed by his silence, she +looked up into his face, and as his burning tears fell upon her cheek, +she said again and with more hurried vehemence, "I _have_ been +faithful,--do you not believe me?" + +"I do, I do, noble, unequalled Alice! Why, why were you so long lost to +me? Why now does your love so shame my own?" + +At these words, Alice appeared to awaken from her first oblivion of all +that had chanced since they met; she blushed deeply, and drew herself +gently and bashfully from his embrace. "Ah," she said, in altered and +humbled accents, "you have loved another! Perhaps you have no love left +for me! Is it so; is it? No, no; those eyes--you love me--you love me +still!" + +And again she clung to him, as if it were heaven to believe all things, +and death to doubt. Then, after a pause, she drew him gently with both +her hands towards the light, and gazed upon him fondly, proudly, as if to +trace, line by line, and feature by feature, the countenance which had +been to her sweet thoughts as the sunlight to the flowers. "Changed, +changed," she muttered; "but still the same,--still beautiful, still +divine!" She stopped. A sudden thought struck her: his garments were +worn and soiled by travel, and that princely crest, fallen and dejected, +no longer towered in proud defiance above the sons of men. "You are not +rich," she exclaimed eagerly,--"say you are not rich! I am rich enough +for both; it is all yours,--all yours; I did not betray you for it; there +is no shame in it. Oh, we shall be so happy! Thou art come back to thy +poor Alice! thou knowest how she loved thee!" + +There was in Alice's manner, her wild joy, something so different from +her ordinary self, that none who could have seen her--quiet, pensive, +subdued--would have fancied her the same being. All that Society and its +woes had taught were gone; and Nature once more claimed her fairest +child. The very years seemed to have fallen from her brow, and she +looked scarcely older than when she had stood with him beneath the +moonlight by the violet banks far away. Suddenly, her colour faded; the +smile passed from the dimpled lips; a sad and solemn aspect succeeded to +that expression of passionate joy. "Come," she said, in a whisper, +"come, follow;" and still clasping his hand, she drew him to the door. +Silent and wonderingly he followed her across the lawn, through the +moss-grown gate, and into the lonely burial-ground. She moved on with a +noiseless and gliding step,--so pale, so hushed, so breathless, that even +in the noonday you might have half fancied the fair shape was not owned +by earth. She paused where the yew-tree cast its gloomy shadow; and the +small and tombless mound, separated from the rest, was before them. She +pointed to it, and falling on her knees beside it, murmured, "Hush, it +sleeps below,--thy child!" She covered her face with both her hands, and +her form shook convulsively. + +Beside that form and before that grave knelt Maltravers. There vanished +the last remnant of his stoic pride; and there--Evelyn herself +forgotten--there did he pray to Heaven for pardon to himself, and +blessings on the heart he had betrayed. There solemnly did he vow, the +remainder of his years, to guard from all future ill the faithful and +childless mother. + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + WILL Fortune never come with both hands full, + But write her fair words still in foulest letters? + _Henry IV._ Part ii. + +I PASS over those explanations, that record of Alice's eventful history, +which Maltravers learned from her own lips, to confirm and add to the +narrative of the curate, the purport of which is already known to the +reader. + +It was many hours before Alice was sufficiently composed to remember the +object for which she had sought the curate. But she had laid the letter +which she had brought, and which explained all, on the table at the +vicarage; and when Maltravers, having at last induced Alice, who seemed +afraid to lose sight of him for an instant, to retire to her room, and +seek some short repose, returned towards the vicarage, he met Aubrey in +the garden. The old man had taken the friend's acknowledged license to +read the letter evidently meant for his eye; and, alarmed and anxious, he +now eagerly sought a consultation with Maltravers. The letter, written +in English, as familiar to the writer as her own tongue, was from Madame +de Ventadour. It had been evidently dictated by the kindest feelings. +After apologizing briefly for her interference, she stated that Lord +Vargrave's marriage with Miss Cameron was now a matter of public +notoriety; that it would take place in a few days; that it was observed +with suspicion that Miss Cameron appeared nowhere; that she seemed almost +a prisoner in her room; that certain expressions which had dropped from +Lady Doltimore had alarmed her greatly. According to these expressions, +it would seem that Lady Vargrave was not apprised of the approaching +event; that, considering Miss Cameron's recent engagement to Mr. +Maltravers suddenly (and, as Valerie thought, unaccountably) broken off +on the arrival of Lord Vargrave; considering her extreme youth, her +brilliant fortune; and, Madame de Ventadour delicately hinted, +considering also Lord Vargrave's character for unscrupulous determination +in the furtherance of any object on which he was bent,--considering all +this, Madame de Ventadour had ventured to address Miss Cameron's mother, +and to guard her against the possibility of design or deceit. Her best +apology for her intrusion must be her deep interest in Miss Cameron, and +her long friendship for one to whom Miss Cameron had been so lately +betrothed. If Lady Vargrave were aware of the new engagement, and had +sanctioned it, of course her intrusion was unseasonable and superfluous; +but if ascribed to its real motive, would not be the less forgiven. + +It was easy for Maltravers to see in this letter how generous and zealous +had been that friendship for himself which could have induced the woman +of the world to undertake so officious a task. But of this he thought +not, as he hurried over the lines, and shuddered at Evelyn's urgent +danger. + +"This intelligence," said Aubrey, "must be, indeed, a surprise to Lady +Vargrave. For we have not heard a word from Evelyn or Lord Vargrave to +announce such a marriage; and she (and myself till this day) believed +that the engagement between Evelyn and Mr. -----, I mean," said Aubrey +with confusion,--"I mean yourself, was still in force. Lord Vargrave's +villany is apparent; we must act immediately. What is to be done?" + +"I will return to Paris to-morrow; I will defeat his machination, expose +his falsehood!" + +"You may need a proxy for Lady Vargrave, an authority for Evelyn; one +whom Lord Vargrave knows to possess the secret of her birth, her rights: +I will go with you. We must speak to Lady Vargrave." + +Maltravers turned sharply round. "And Alice knows not who I am; that +I--I am, or was, a few weeks ago, the suitor of another; and that other +the child she has reared as her own! Unhappy Alice! in the very hour of +her joy at my return, is she to writhe beneath this new affliction?" + +"Shall I break it to her?" said Aubrey, pityingly. + +"No, no; these lips must inflict the last wrong!" Maltravers walked away, +and the curate saw him no more till night. + +In the interval, and late in the evening, Maltravers rejoined Alice. + +The fire burned clear on the hearth, the curtains were drawn, the +pleasant but simple drawing-room of the cottage smiled its welcome as +Maltravers entered, and Alice sprang up to greet him! It was as if the +old days of the music-lesson and the meerschaum had come back. + +"This is yours," said Alice, tenderly, as he looked round the apartment. +"Now--now I know what a blessed thing riches are! Ah, you are looking on +that picture; it is of her who supplied your daughter's place,--she is so +beautiful, so good, you will love her as a daughter. Oh, that +letter--that--that letter--I forgot it till now--it is at the vicarage--I +must go there immediately, and you will come too,--you will advise us." + +"Alice, I have read the letter,--I know all. Alice, sit down and hear +me,--it is you who have to learn from me. In our young days I was +accustomed to tell you stories in winter nights like these,--stories of +love like our own, of sorrows which, at that time, we only knew by +hearsay. I have one now for your ear, truer and sadder than they were. +Two children, for they were then little more--children in ignorance of +the world, children in freshness of heart, children almost in years--were +thrown together by strange vicissitudes, more than eighteen years ago. +They were of different sexes,--they loved and they erred. But the error +was solely with the boy; for what was innocence in her was but passion in +him. He loved her dearly; but at that age her qualities were half +developed. He knew her beautiful, simple, tender; but he knew not all +the virtue, the faith, and the nobleness that Heaven had planted in her +soul. They parted,--they knew not each other's fate. He sought her +anxiously, but in vain; and sorrow and remorse long consumed him, and her +memory threw a shadow over his existence. But again--for his love had +not the exalted holiness of hers (_she_ was true!)--he sought to renew in +others the charm he had lost with her. In vain,--long, long in vain. +Alice, you know to whom the tale refers. Nay, listen yet. I have heard +from the old man yonder that you were witness to a scene many years ago +which deceived you into the belief that you beheld a rival. It was not +so: that lady yet lives,--then, as now, a friend to me; nothing more. I +grant that, at one time, my fancy allured me to her, but my heart was +still true to thee." + +"Bless you for those words!" murmured Alice; and she crept more closely +to him. + +He went on. "Circumstances, which at some calmer occasion you shall +hear, again nearly connected my fate by marriage to another. I had then +seen you at a distance, unseen by you,--seen you apparently surrounded by +respectability and opulence; and I blessed Heaven that your lot, at +least, was not that of penury and want." (Here Maltravers related where +he had caught that brief glimpse of Alice,*--how he had sought for her +again and again in vain.) "From that hour," he continued, "seeing you in +circumstances of which I could not have dared to dream, I felt more +reconciled to the past; yet, when on the verge of marriage with +another--beautiful, gifted, generous as she was--a thought, a memory half +acknowledged, dimly traced, chained back my sentiments; and admiration, +esteem, and gratitude were not love! Death--a death melancholy and +tragic--forbade this union; and I went forth in the world, a pilgrim and +a wanderer. Years rolled away, and I thought I had conquered the desire +for love,--a desire that had haunted me since I lost thee. But, suddenly +and recently, a being, beautiful as yourself--sweet, guileless, and young +as you were when we met--woke in me a new and a strange sentiment. I +will not conceal it from you: Alice, at last I loved another! Yet, +singular as it may seem to you, it was a certain resemblance to yourself, +not in feature, but in the tones of the voice, the nameless grace of +gesture and manner, the very music of your once happy laugh,--those +traits of resemblance which I can now account for, and which children +catch not from their parents only, but from those they most see, and, +loving most, most imitate in their tender years,--all these, I say, made +perhaps a chief attraction, that drew me towards--Alice, are you prepared +for it?--drew me towards Evelyn Cameron. Know me in my real character, +by my true name: I am that Maltravers to whom the hand of Evelyn was a +few weeks ago betrothed!" + + * See "Ernest Maltravers," book v., p. 228. + +He paused, and ventured to look up at Alice; she was exceedingly pale, +and her hands were tightly clasped together, but she neither wept nor +spoke. The worst was over; he continued more rapidly, and with less +constrained an effort: "By the art, the duplicity, the falsehood of Lord +Vargrave, I was taught in a sudden hour to believe that Evelyn was our +daughter, that you recoiled from the prospect of beholding once more the +author of so many miseries. I need not tell you, Alice, of the horror +that succeeded to love. I pass over the tortures I endured. By a train +of incidents to be related to you hereafter, I was led to suspect the +truth of Vargrave's tale. I came hither; I have learned all from Aubrey. +I regret no more the falsehood that so racked me for the time; I regret +no more the rupture of my bond with Evelyn; I regret nothing that brings +me at last free and unshackled to thy feet, and acquaints me with thy +sublime faith and ineffable love. Here then--here beneath your own +roof--here he, at once your earliest friend and foe, kneels to you for +pardon and for hope! He woos you as his wife, his companion to the +grave! Forget all his errors, and be to him, under a holier name, all +that you were to him of old!" + +"And you are then Evelyn's suitor,--you are he whom she loves? I see it +all--all!" Alice rose, and, before he was even aware of her purpose, or +conscious of what she felt, she had vanished from the room. + +Long, and with the bitterest feelings, he awaited her return; she came +not. At last he wrote a hurried note, imploring her to join him again, +to relieve his suspense; to believe his sincerity; to accept his vows. +He sent it to her own room, to which she had hastened to bury her +emotions. In a few minutes there came to him this answer, written in +pencil, blotted with tears. + + +"I thank you, I understand your heart; but forgive me--I cannot see you +yet. She is so beautiful and good, she is worthy of you. I shall soon +be reconciled. God bless you,--bless you both!" + + +The door of the vicarage was opened abruptly, and Maltravers entered with +a hasty but heavy tread. + +"Go to her, go to that angel; go, I beseech you! Tell her that she +wrongs me, if she thinks I can ever wed another, ever have an object in +life, but to atone to, to merit her. Go, plead for me." + +Aubrey, who soon gathered from Maltravers what had passed, departed to +the cottage. It was near midnight before he returned. Maltravers met +him in the churchyard, beside the yew-tree. "Well, well, what message do +you bring?" + +"She wishes that we should both set off for Paris to-morrow. Not a day +is to be lost,--we must save Evelyn from this snare." + +"Evelyn! Yes, Evelyn shall be saved; but the rest--the rest--why do you +turn away?" + +"'You are not the poor artist, the wandering adventurer; you are the +high-born, the wealthy, the renowned Maltravers: Alice has nothing to +confer on you. You have won the love of Evelyn,--Alice cannot doom the +child confided to her care to hopeless affection; you love Evelyn,--Alice +cannot compare herself to the young and educated and beautiful creature, +whose love is a priceless treasure. Alice prays you not to grieve for +her; she will soon be content and happy in your happiness.' This is the +message." + +"And what said you,--did you not tell her such words would break my +heart?" + +"No matter what I said; I mistrust myself when I advise her. Her +feelings are truer than all our wisdom!" + +Maltravers made no answer, and the curate saw him gliding rapidly away by +the starlit graves towards the village. + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + THINK you I can a resolution fetch + From flowery tenderness?--_Measure for Measure_. + +THEY were on the road to Dover. Maltravers leaned back in the corner of +the carriage with his hat over his brows, though the morning was yet too +dark for the curate to perceive more than the outline of his features. +Milestone after milestone glided by the wheels, and neither of the +travellers broke the silence. It was a cold, raw morning, and the mists +rose sullenly from the dank hedges and comfortless fields. + +Stern and self-accusing was the scrutiny of Maltravers into the recesses +of his conscience, and the blotted pages of the Past. That pale and +solitary mother, mourning over the grave of her--of his own--child, rose +again before his eyes, and seemed silently to ask him for an account of +the heart he had made barren, and of the youth to which his love had +brought the joylessness of age. With the image of Alice,--afar, alone, +whether in her wanderings, a beggar and an outcast, or in that hollow +prosperity, in which the very ease of the frame allowed more leisure to +the pinings of the heart,--with that image, pure, sorrowing, and faithful +from first to last, he compared his own wild and wasted youth, his resort +to fancy and to passion for excitement. He contrasted with her patient +resignation his own arrogant rebellion against the trials, the bitterness +of which his proud spirit had exaggerated; his contempt for the pursuits +and aims of others; the imperious indolence of his later life, and his +forgetfulness of the duties which Providence had fitted him to discharge. +His mind, once so rudely hurled from that complacent pedestal, from which +it had so long looked down on men, and said, "I am wiser and better than +you," became even too acutely sensitive to its own infirmities; and that +desire for Virtue, which he had ever deeply entertained, made itself more +distinctly and loudly heard amidst the ruins and the silence of his +pride. + +From the contemplation of the Past, he roused himself to face the Future. +Alice had refused his hand, Alice herself had ratified and blessed his +union with another! Evelyn, so madly loved,--Evelyn might still be his! +No law--from the violation of which, even in thought, Human Nature +recoils appalled and horror-stricken--forbade him to reclaim her hand, to +snatch her from the grasp of Vargrave, to woo again, and again to win +her! But did Maltravers welcome, did he embrace that thought? Let us do +him justice: he did not. He felt that Alice's resolution, in the first +hour of mortified affection, was not to be considered final; and even if +it were so, he felt yet more deeply that her love--the love that had +withstood so many trials--never could be subdued. Was he to make her +nobleness a curse? Was he to say, "Thou hast passed away in thy +generation, and I leave thee again to thy solitude for her whom thou hast +cherished as a child?" He started in dismay from the thought of this new +and last blow upon the shattered spirit; and then fresh and equally +sacred obstacles between Evelyn and himself broke slowly on his view. +Could Templeton rise from his grave, with what resentment, with what just +repugnance, would he have regarded in the betrayer of his wife (even +though wife but in name) the suitor to his child! + +These thoughts came in fast and fearful force upon Maltravers, and served +to strengthen his honour and his conscience. He felt that though, in +law, there was no shadow of connection between Evelyn and himself, yet +his tie with Alice had been of a nature that ought to separate him from +one who had regarded Alice as a mother. The load of horror, the agony of +shame, were indeed gone; but still a voice whispered as before, "Evelyn +is lost to thee forever!" But so shaken had already been her image in +the late storms and convulsion of his soul, that this thought was +preferable to the thought of sacrificing Alice. If _that_ were all--but +Evelyn might still love him; and justice to Alice might be misery to her! +He started from his revery with a vehement gesture, and groaned audibly. + +The curate turned to address to him some words of inquiry and surprise; +but the words were unheard, and he perceived, by the advancing daylight, +that the countenance of Maltravers was that of a man utterly rapt and +absorbed by some mastering and irresistible thought. Wisely, therefore, +he left his companion in peace, and returned to his own anxious and +engrossing meditations. + +The travellers did not rest till they arrived at Dover. The vessel +started early the following morning, and Aubrey, who was much fatigued, +retired to rest. Maltravers glanced at the clock upon the mantelpiece; it +was the hour of nine. For him there was no hope of sleep; and the +prospect of the slow night was that of dreary suspense and torturing +self-commune. + +As he turned restlessly in his seat, the waiter entered to say that there +was a gentleman who had caught a glimpse of him below on his arrival, and +who was anxious to speak with him. Before Maltravers could answer, the +gentleman himself entered, and Maltravers recognized Legard. + +"I beg your pardon," said the latter, in a tone of great agitation, "but +I was most anxious to see you for a few moments. I have just returned to +England--all places alike hateful to me! I read in the papers--an--an +announcement--which--which occasions me the greatest--I know not what I +would say,--but is it true? Read this paragraph;" and Legard placed "The +Courier" before Maltravers. + +The passage was as follows: + + +"It is whispered that Lord Vargrave, who is now at Paris, is to be +married in a few days to the beautiful and wealthy Miss Cameron, to whom +he has been long engaged." + + +"Is it possible?" exclaimed Legard, following the eyes of Maltravers, as +he glanced over the paragraph. "Were not _you_ the lover,--the accepted, +the happy lover of Miss Cameron? Speak, tell me, I implore you!--that it +was for you, who saved my life and redeemed my honour, and not for that +cold schemer, that I renounced all my hopes of earthly happiness, and +surrendered the dream of winning the heart and hand of the only woman I +ever loved!" + +A deep shade fell over the features of Maltravers. He gazed earnestly +and long upon the working countenance of Legard, and said, after a +pause,-- + +"You, too, loved her, then? I never knew it,--never guessed it; or, if +once I suspected, it was but for a moment; and--" + +"Yes," interrupted Legard, passionately, "Heaven is my witness how +fervently and truly I did love--I do still love Evelyn Cameron! But when +you confessed to me your affection--your hopes--I felt all that I owed +you; I felt that I never ought to become your rival. I left Paris +abruptly. What I have suffered I will not say; but it was some comfort +to think that I had acted as became one who owed you a debt never to be +cancelled nor repaid. I travelled from place to place, each equally +hateful and wearisome; at last, I scarce know why, I returned to England. +I have arrived this day; and now--but tell me, is it true?" + +"I believe it true," said Maltravers, in a hollow voice, "that Evelyn is +at this moment engaged to Lord Vargrave. I believe it equally true that +that engagement, founded upon false impressions, never will be fulfilled. +With that hope and that belief, I am on my road to Paris." + +"And she will be yours, still?" said Legard, turning away his face: +"well, that I can bear. May you be happy, sir!" + +"Stay, Legard," said Maltravers, in a voice of great feeling: "let us +understand each other better; you have renounced your passion to your +sense of honour." Maltravers paused thoughtfully. "It was noble in you, +it was more than just to me; I thank you and respect you. But, Legard, +was there aught in the manner, the bearing of Evelyn Cameron, that could +lead you to suppose that she would have returned your affection? True, +had we started on equal terms, I am not vain enough to be blind to your +advantages of youth and person; but I believed that the affections of +Evelyn were already mine, before we met at Paris." + +"It might be so," said Legard, gloomily; "nor is it for me to say that a +heart so pure and generous as Evelyn's could deceive yourself or me. Yet +I _had_ fancied, I _had_ hoped, while you stood aloof, that the +partiality with which she regarded you was that of admiration more than +love; that you had dazzled her imagination rather than won her heart. I +had hoped that I should win, that I was winning, my way to her affection! +But let this pass; I drop the subject forever--only, Maltravers, only do +me justice. You are a proud man, and your pride has often irritated and +stung me, in spite of my gratitude. Be more lenient to me than you have +been; think that, though I have my errors and my follies, I am still +capable of some conquests over myself. And most sincerely do I now wish +that Evelyn's love may be to you that blessing it would have been to me!" + +This was, indeed, a new triumph over the pride of Maltravers,--a new +humiliation. He had looked with a cold contempt on this man, because he +affected not to be above the herd; and this man had preceded him in the +very sacrifice he himself meditated. + +"Legard," said Maltravers, and a faint blush overspread his face, "you +rebuke me justly. I acknowledge my fault, and I ask you to forgive it. +From this night, whatever happens, I shall hold it an honour to be +admitted to your friendship; from this night, George Legard never shall +find in me the offences of arrogance and harshness." + +Legard wrung the hand held out to him warmly, but made no answer; his +heart was full, and he would not trust himself to speak. + +"You think, then," resumed Maltravers, in a more thoughtful tone,--"you +think that Evelyn could have loved you, had my pretensions not crossed +your own? And you think, also--pardon me, dear Legard--that you could +have acquired the steadiness of character, the firmness of purpose, which +one so fair, so young, so inexperienced and susceptible, so surrounded by +a thousand temptations, would need in a guardian and protector?" + +"Oh, do not judge of me by what I have been. I feel that Evelyn could +have reformed errors worse than mine; that her love would have elevated +dispositions yet more light and commonplace. You do not know what +miracles love works! But now, what is there left for me? What matters +it how frivolous and poor the occupations which can distract my thoughts, +and bring me forgetfulness? Forgive me; I have no right to obtrude all +this egotism on you." + +"Do not despond, Legard," said Maltravers, kindly; "there may be better +fortunes in store for you than you yet anticipate. I cannot say more +now; but will you remain at Dover a few days longer? Within a week you +shall hear from me. I will not raise hopes that it may not be mine to +realize. But if it be as you think it was, why little, indeed, would +rest with me. Nay, look not on me so wistfully," added Maltravers, with +a mournful smile; "and let the subject close for the present. You will +stay at Dover?" + +"I will; but--" + +"No buts, Legard; it is so settled." + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ALICE BY LYTTON, BOOK X *** +By Edward Bulwer Lytton + +****** This file should be named 9772.txt or 9772.zip ******* + +Produced by Dagny; and by David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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