The boy pointed silently towards one of the cedars. Dalibard mused an instant, and then, slowly descending the steps, took his noiseless way over the smooth turf towards the tree. Its boughs drooped low and spread wide; and not till he was within a few paces of the spot could his eye perceive two forms seated on a bench under the dark green canopy. He then paused and contemplated them.
The one was a young man whose simple dress and subdued air strongly contrasted the artificial graces and the modish languor of Mr. Vernon; but though wholly without that nameless distinction which sometimes characterizes those conscious of pure race and habituated to the atmosphere of courts, he had at least Natures stamp of aristocracy in a form eminently noble, and features of manly, but surpassing beauty, which were not rendered less engaging by an expression of modest timidity. He seemed to be listening with thoughtful respect to his companion, a young female by his side, who was speaking to him with an earnestness visible in her gestures and her animated countenance. And though there was much to notice in the various persons scattered over the scene, not one, perhaps,not the graceful Vernon, not the thoughtful scholar, nor his fair-haired, hard-lipped son, not even the handsome listener she addressed,no, not one there would so have arrested the eye, whether of a physiognomist or a casual observer, as that young girl, Sir Miles St. Johns favourite niece and presumptive heiress.
But as at that moment the expression of her face differed from that habitual to it, we defer its description.
Do not, such were her words to her companion,do not alarm yourself by exaggerating the difficulties; do not even contemplate them: those be my care. Mainwaring, when I loved you; when, seeing that your diffidence or your pride forbade you to be the first to speak, I overstepped the modesty or the dissimulation of my sex; when I said, Forget that I am the reputed heiress of Laughton, see in me but the faults and merits of the human being, of the wild unregulated girl, see in me but Lucretia Clavering (here her cheeks blushed, and her voice sank into a lower and more tremulous whisper) and love her if you can!when I went thus far, do not think I had not measured all the difficulties in the way of our union, and felt that I could surmount them.
But, answered Mainwaring, hesitatingly, can you conceive it possible that your uncle ever will consent? Is not pridethe pride of familyalmost the leading attribute of his character? Did he not discard your motherhis own sisterfrom his house and heart for no other offence but a second marriage which he deemed beneath her? Has he ever even consented to see, much less to receive, your half-sister, the child of that marriage? Is not his very affection for you interwoven with his pride in you, with his belief in your ambition? Has he not summoned your cousin, Mr. Vernon, for the obvious purpose of favouring a suit which he considers worthy of you, and which, if successful, will unite the two branches of his ancient house? How is it possible that he can ever hear without a scorn and indignation which would be fatal to your fortunes that your heart has presumed to choose, in William Mainwaring, a man without ancestry or career?
Not without career, interrupted Lucretia, proudly. Do you think if you were master of Laughton that your career would not be more brilliant than that of yon indolent, luxurious coxcomb? Do you think that I could have been poor-hearted enough to love you if I had not recognized in you energies and talents that correspond with my own ambition? For I am ambitious, as you know, and therefore my mind, as well as my heart, went with my love for you.
Ah, Lucretia, but can Sir Miles St. John see my future rise in my present obscurity?
I do not say that he can, or will; but if you love me, we can wait. Do not fear the rivalry of Mr. Vernon. I shall know how to free myself from so tame a peril. We can wait,my uncle is old; his habits preclude the chance of a much longer life; he has already had severe attacks. We are young, dear Mainwaring: what is a year or two to those who hope? Mainwarings face fell, and a displeasing chill passed through his veins. Could this young creature, her uncles petted and trusted darling, she who should be the soother of his infirmities, the prop of his age, the sincerest mourner at his grave, weigh coldly thus the chances of his death, and point at once to the altar and the tomb?
He was saved from the embarrassment of reply by Dalibards approach.
More than half an hour absent, said the scholar, in his own language, with a smile; and drawing out his watch, he placed it before their eyes. Do you not think that all will miss you? Do you suppose, Miss Clavering, that your uncle has not ere this asked for his fair niece? Come, and forestall him. He offered his arm to Lucretia as he spoke. She hesitated a moment, and then, turning to Mainwaring, held out her hand. He pressed it, though scarcely with a lovers warmth; and as she walked back to the terrace with Dalibard, the young man struck slowly into the opposite direction, and passing by a gate over a foot-bridge that led from the ha-ha into the park, bent his way towards a lake which gleamed below at some distance, half-concealed by groves of venerable trees rich with the prodigal boughs of summer. Meanwhile, as they passed towards the house, Dalibard, still using his native tongue, thus accosted his pupil:
You must pardon me if I think more of your interests than you do; and pardon me no less if I encroach on your secrets and alarm your pride. This young man,can you be guilty of the folly of more than a passing caprice for his society, of more than the amusement of playing with his vanity? Even if that be all, beware of entangling yourself in your own meshes.
You do in truth offend me, said Lucretia, with calm haughtiness, and you have not the right thus to speak to me.
Not the right, repeated the Provencal, mournfully, not the right! Then, indeed, I am mistaken in my pupil. Do you consider that I would have lowered my pride to remain here as a dependent; that, conscious of attainments, and perhaps of abilities, that should win their way, even in exile, to distinction, I would have frittered away my life in these rustic shades,if I had not formed in you a deep and absorbing interest? In that interest I ground my right to warn and counsel you. I saw, or fancied I saw, in you a mind congenial to my own; a mind above the frivolities of your sex,a mind, in short, with the grasp and energy of a mans. You were then but a child, you are scarcely yet a woman; yet have I not given to your intellect the strong food on which the statesmen of Florence fed their pupil-princes, or the noble Jesuits the noble men who were destined to extend the secret empire of the imperishable Loyola?
You gave me the taste for a knowledge rare in my sex, I own, answered Lucretia, with a slight tone of regret in her voice: and in the knowledge you have communicated I felt a charm that at times seems to me to be only fatal. You have confounded in my mind evil and good, or rather, you have left both good and evil as dead ashes, as the dust and cinder of a crucible. You have made intellect the only conscience. Of late, I wish that my tutor had been a village priest!
Of late, since you have listened to the pastorals of that meek Corydon!
Dare you despise him? And for what? That he is good and honest?
I despise him, not because he is good and honest, but because he is of the common herd of men, without aim or character. And it is for this youth that you will sacrifice your fortunes, your ambition, the station you were born to fill and have been reared to improve,this youth in whom there is nothing but the lap-dogs merit, sleekness and beauty! Ay, frown,the frown betrays you; you love him!
You must pardon me if I think more of your interests than you do; and pardon me no less if I encroach on your secrets and alarm your pride. This young man,can you be guilty of the folly of more than a passing caprice for his society, of more than the amusement of playing with his vanity? Even if that be all, beware of entangling yourself in your own meshes.
You do in truth offend me, said Lucretia, with calm haughtiness, and you have not the right thus to speak to me.
Not the right, repeated the Provencal, mournfully, not the right! Then, indeed, I am mistaken in my pupil. Do you consider that I would have lowered my pride to remain here as a dependent; that, conscious of attainments, and perhaps of abilities, that should win their way, even in exile, to distinction, I would have frittered away my life in these rustic shades,if I had not formed in you a deep and absorbing interest? In that interest I ground my right to warn and counsel you. I saw, or fancied I saw, in you a mind congenial to my own; a mind above the frivolities of your sex,a mind, in short, with the grasp and energy of a mans. You were then but a child, you are scarcely yet a woman; yet have I not given to your intellect the strong food on which the statesmen of Florence fed their pupil-princes, or the noble Jesuits the noble men who were destined to extend the secret empire of the imperishable Loyola?
You gave me the taste for a knowledge rare in my sex, I own, answered Lucretia, with a slight tone of regret in her voice: and in the knowledge you have communicated I felt a charm that at times seems to me to be only fatal. You have confounded in my mind evil and good, or rather, you have left both good and evil as dead ashes, as the dust and cinder of a crucible. You have made intellect the only conscience. Of late, I wish that my tutor had been a village priest!
Of late, since you have listened to the pastorals of that meek Corydon!
Dare you despise him? And for what? That he is good and honest?
I despise him, not because he is good and honest, but because he is of the common herd of men, without aim or character. And it is for this youth that you will sacrifice your fortunes, your ambition, the station you were born to fill and have been reared to improve,this youth in whom there is nothing but the lap-dogs merit, sleekness and beauty! Ay, frown,the frown betrays you; you love him!
And if I do? said Lucretia, raising her tall form to its utmost height, and haughtily facing her inquisitor,and, if I do, what then? Is he unworthy of me? Converse with him, and you will find that the noble form conceals as high a spirit. He wants but wealth: I can give it to him. If his temper is gentle, I can prompt and guide it to fame and power. He at least has education and eloquence and mind. What has Mr. Vernon?
Mr. Vernon? I did not speak of him!
Lucretia gazed hard upon the Provencals countenance,gazed with that unpitying air of triumph with which a woman who detects a power over the heart she does not desire to conquer exults in defeating the reasons that heart appears to her to prompt. No, she said in a calm voice, to which the venom of secret irony gave stinging significance,no, you spoke not of Mr. Vernon; you thought that if I looked round, if I looked nearer, I might have a fairer choice.
You are cruel, you are unjust, said Dalibard, falteringly. If I once presumed for a moment, have I repeated my offence? But, he added hurriedly, in me,much as you appear to despise me,in me, at least, you would have risked none of the dangers that beset you if you seriously set your heart on Mainwaring.
You think my uncle would be proud to give my hand to M. Olivier Dalibard?
I think and I know, answered the Provencal, gravely, and disregarding the taunt, that if you had deigned to render mepoor exile that I am!the most enviable of men, you had still been the heiress of Laughton.
So you have said and urged, said Lucretia, with evident curiosity in her voice; yet how, and by what art,wise and subtle as you are,could you have won my uncles consent?
That is my secret, returned Dalibard, gloomily; and since the madness I indulged is forever over; since I have so schooled my heart that nothing, despite your sarcasm, save an affectionate interest which I may call paternal rests there,let us pass from this painful subject. Oh, my dear pupil, be warned in time; know love for what it really is, in the dark and complicated history of actual life,a brief enchantment, not to be disdained, but not to be considered the all-in all. Look round the world; contemplate all those who have married from passion: ten years afterwards, whither has the passion flown? With a few, indeed, where there is community of object and character, new excitements, new aims and hopes, spring up; and having first taken root in passion, the passion continues to shoot out in their fresh stems and fibres. But deceive yourself not; there is no such community between you and Mainwaring. What you call his goodness, you will learn hereafter to despise as feeble; and what in reality is your mental power he soon, too soon, will shudder at as unwomanly and hateful.
Hold! cried Lucretia, tremulously. Hold! and if he does, I shall owe his hate to you,to your lessons; to your deadly influence!
Lucretia, no; the seeds were in you. Can cultivation force from the soil that which it is against the nature of the soil to bear?
I will pluck out the weeds! I will transform myself!
Child, I defy you! said the scholar, with a smile that gave to his face the expression his son had conveyed to it. I have warned you, and my task is done. With that he bowed, and leaving her, was soon by the side of Sir Miles St. John; and the baronet and his librarian, a few moments after, entered the house and sat down to chess.
But during the dialogues we have sketched, we must not suppose that Sir Miles himself had been so wholly absorbed in the sensual gratification bestowed upon Europe by the immortal Raleigh as to neglect his guest and kinsman.
And so, Charley Vernon, it is not the fashion to smoke in Lunnon. Thus Sir Miles pronounced the word, according to the Euphuism of his youth, and which, even at that day, still lingered in courtly jargon.
No, sir. However, to console us, we have most other vices in full force.
I dont doubt it; they say the princes set exhaust life pretty quickly.
It certainly requires the fortune of an earl and the constitution of a prize-fighter to live with him.
Yet methinks, Master Charley, you have neither the one nor the other.
And therefore I see before me, and at no very great distance, the Bench anda consumption! answered Vernon, suppressing a slight yawn.
T is a pity, for you had a fine estate, properly managed; and in spite of your faults, you have the heart of a true gentleman. Come, come! and the old man spoke with tenderness, you are young enough yet to reform. A prudent marriage and a good wife will save both your health and your acres.
If you think so highly of marriage, my dear Sir Miles, it is a wonder you did not add to your precepts the value of your example.
Jackanapes! I had not your infirmities: I never was a spendthrift, and I have a constitution of iron! There was a pause. Charles, continued Sir Miles, musingly, there is many an earl with a less fortune than the conjoined estates of Vernon Grange and Laughton Hall. You must already have understood me: it is my intention to leave my estates to Lucretia; it is my wish, nevertheless, to think you will not be the worse for my will. Frankly, if you can like my niece, win her; settle here while I live, put the Grange to nurse, and recruit yourself by fresh air and field-sports. Zounds, Charles, I love you, and thats the truth! Give me your hand!