LADY HURSTMONCEUX'S REVELATION.
For life, I prize it,
As I weigh grief which I would spare; for honor,
'Tis a derivative from me to mine,
And only that I stand for.
--_Shakspeare_.
That same evening, while our party was assembled at tea in their
private parlor, at the "Highlander," a letter was brought to Judge
Merlin.
It was a formidable-looking letter, with a black border an inch wide
running around the envelope, and sealed with a great round of black
wax, impressed with an earl's coronet. The judge opened it and read
it and passed it to Ishmael.
It proved to be a letter from the Earl of Hurstmonceux and addressed
to Judge Merlin. I have not space to give the contents of this
letter word for word.
It set forth, in effect, that under the recent distressing
circumstances it would be too painful to the Earl of Hurstmonceux to
meet Judge Merlin in a personal interview, but that the earl wished
to make an act of restitution, and so, if Judge Merlin would
dispatch his solicitor to London to the chambers of the Messrs.
Hudson, in Burton Street, Piccadilly, those gentlemen, who were the
solicitors of his lordship, would be prepared to restore to Lady
Vincent the fortune she had brought in marriage to her husband, the
late Lord Vincent.
"You will go to London and attend to this matter for me, Ishmael?"
inquired the Judge, as he received the letter back, after the young
man had read it.
"Why, certainly, Judge Merlin. Who should act for you but myself?"
said Ishmael, with an affectionate smile.
"But it may be inconvenient for you to go just now?" suggested the
judge.
"Oh, no, not at all! In fact, judge, I was intending to go up to
London to join Mr. Brudenell there in a very few days. I was only
waiting for this trial to be concluded before setting out," smiled
Ishmael.
"Papa, what is it that you are talking about? What letter is that?"
inquired Claudia, while Lady Hurstmonceux looked the question she
forbore to ask.
For all answer the judge placed the letter in the hands of his
daughter, and then, turning to the countess, said:
"It is a communication from Lord Hurstmonceux, referring us to his
solicitors in London, whom he has instructed to make restitution of
the whole of my daughter's fortune."
"The Earl of Hurstmonceux is an honorable man. But he has been
singularly unfortunate in his family. His brother and his sons, who
seem to have taken more after their uncle than their father, have
all turned out badly and given him much trouble," said the countess.
"His brother? I know of course the career of his sons; but I did not
know anything about his brother," said Judge Merlin.
"He was the Honorable Dromlie Dugald, Captain in the Tenth
Highlanders, a man whose society was avoided by all good women. And
yet I had cause to know him well," answered the countess, as a cloud
passed over her beautiful face.
"You, Berenice!" said Claudia, looking up in surprise; for it was
passing strange to hear that pure and noble woman acknowledge an
acquaintance with a man of whom she had just said that every good
woman avoided his society.
"I!" repeated the counters solemnly.
There was certainly fate in the next words she spoke:
"This Captain Dugald was a near relative and great favorite with my
first husband, the old Earl of Hurstmonceux; chiefly, I think, for
the exuberant gayety of temper and disposition of the young man,
that always kept the old one amused. But after the earl married me
he turned a cold shoulder to the captain, and complimented me by
being jealous of him. This occasioned gossip, in which my good name
suffered some injustice."
The countess paused, and turned her beautiful eyes appealingly to
Ishmael, saying:
"When you shall become one of the lawgivers of your native country,
young gentleman, I hope that the crime of slander will be made a
felony, indictable before your criminal courts."
"If I had the remodeling of the laws," said Ishmael earnestly,
"slander should be made felonious and punishable as theft is."
"But, dear Berenice, the gossip of which you speak could have done
you no lasting injury," said Claudia.
"'No lasting injury.' Well, no eternal injury, I hope, if you mean
that," sighed the countess.
"No, I mean to say that a woman like yourself lives down calumny."
"Ah! but in the living it down, how much of heartwasting."
The countess dropped her head upon her hand for a moment, while all
her long black ringlets fell around and veiled her pale and
thoughtful face. Then, looking up, she said:
"I think I will tell you all about it. Something, I know not what,
impels me to speak tonight, in this little circle of select friends,
on a theme on which I have been silent for years. Claudia, my
dearest, if the jealousy of my old husband and the gossip of my
envious rivals had been all, that would not have hurt me so much.
But there was worse to come. The wretch, denied admittance to our
house, pursued me with his attentions elsewhere; whenever and
wherever I walked or rode out he would be sure to join me. I have
said such was his evil reputation, that his society would have
brought reproach to any woman, under any circumstances; judge you,
then, what it must have brought upon me, the young wife of an old
man!"
"Had you no male relative to chastise the villain and send him about
his business?" inquired the judge.
Berenice smiled sadly and shook her head.
"My husband and my father were both very old men," she said; "I had
but one resource--to confine myself to the house and deny myself to
visitors. We were then living in our town house in Edinboro'. There
my old husband died, and there I spent the year of my widowhood.
There my father came to me, and also my kinsman Isaacs."
"Isaacs!" impulsively exclaimed Ishmael, as his thoughts flew back
to his Hebrew fellow-passenger.
"Yes; did you know him?"
"I knew a Jew of that name; most probably the same; but I beg your
pardon, dear lady; pray proceed with your narrative."
"I mentioned my kinsman Isaacs, because I always suspected him to be
a party to a stratagem formed by Captain Dugald at that time to get
me into his power. Captain Dugald scarcely let the first six months
of my widowhood pass by before he began to lay siege to my house;
not to me personally; for I always denied myself to him. But he came
on visits to my kinsman Isaacs, with whom he had struck up a great
intimacy. He had much at stake, you see, for in the first place he
did me the honor to approve of me personally, and in the second
place he highly approved of my large fortune. So he persevered with
all the zeal of a lover and all the tact of a fortune-hunter.
Several times, through the connivance of my kinsman, he contrived to
surprise me into an interview, and upon each occasion he urged his
suit; but of course, in vain. Captain Dugald was what is called a
'dare-devil,' and I think he rather gloried in that name. He acted
upon the maxim that 'all stratagems are fair in love as in war.' And
he resorted to a stratagem to get me into his power, and reduce me
to the alternative of marrying him or losing my good name forever."
"Good Heaven! he did not attempt to carry you off by violence,"
exclaimed Claudia.
The countess laughed.
"Oh, no, my dear! Such things are never attempted in this age of the
world. Captain Dugald was far too astute to break the laws. I will
tell you just how it was, as it came to my knowledge. My town house
fronted immediately on Prince's Street. You know what a thoroughfare
that is? My bedroom and dressing room were on the second floor--the
bedroom being at the back, and the dressing room in front, with
three large windows overlooking the street. Large double doors
connected the bedroom with the dressing room. I am thus particular
in describing the locality that you may better understand the
villainy of the stratagem," said the countess, looking around upon
her friends.
They nodded assent, and she resumed:
"From some peculiar sensitiveness of temperament, I can never sleep
unless every ray of light is shut out from my chamber. Thus, at
bedtime I have all my windows closed, their shutters fastened and
their curtains drawn, lest the first dawn of morning should awaken
me prematurely. Another constitutional idiosyncrasy of mine is the
necessity of a great deal of air. Therefore I always had the doors
between my bedroom and my dressing room left open."
"After all, that is like my own need; I require a great deal of air
also," said Claudia.
"Well, now to my story. On a certain spring morning, in the
beginning of the second year of my widowhood, I was awakened very
early by a glare of light in my bedroom. On looking up, I saw
through the open doors connecting my bedroom with my dressing room
that the three front windows of the dressing room, overlooking the
street, were open, and all the morning sunlight was pouring in. My
first emotion was anger with my maid for opening them so soon to
wake me up. I got out of bed, slipped on a dressing-gown and went
into the front room. Now judge what my feelings must have been to
see there Captain Dugald in his shirt-sleeves, standing before one
of the front windows deliberately brushing his hair, in the full
view of all the passengers of the street below."
"Great Heaven!" exclaimed Claudia.
"I could not speak," continued the countess. "I could only stand and
gaze at the man in speechless amazement. But he was not dismayed. He
burst into a loud laugh, and laughed himself out of breath--for he
was a great laugher. When he found his tongue, he said to me:
"'You had as well give in now, my lady. The fortress is sapped, the
mine is exploded. The city is taken. Hundreds of people, passing up
and down the street before this house, have looked up at these
windows and seen me standing here half-dressed. And they have formed
their opinions, and made their comments, and circulated their news
accordingly; and so, if our marriage be not published this morning,
you may judge what the consequences will be--to yourself.'"
"What a villain!" said Judge Merlin.
"Astonishment had struck me dumb in the first instance; and anger
kept me silent," continued the countess. "I know what I ought to
have done. I know that I ought to have summoned the police and given
the man in charge on the spot, as a common burglar and housebreaker:
only you see I did not think of it at the time. I only rang the
bell, and then, without waiting the arrival of my servant, I opened
the door and pointed silently to it. He made no motion to go; on the
contrary, he began to defend his act, to plead his cause, and to
urge his suit. He said 'that all stratagems were fair in love and
war'; that it was now absolutely necessary for my fair name that we
should be immediately married; that the bride he had won by fraud
should be worn with faithfulness. But, with an unmoved countenance,
I only pointed to the door, until my servant came in answer to the
bell. Then I told that servant to show Captain Dugald out, and if he
refused to go to summon assistance and eject him. Seeing that I was
determined to be rid of him, he put on his coat, and, laughing at my
discomfiture, took his departure. Then I instituted inquiries; but
failed to gain any information respecting his means of entrance and
concealment in my apartments. I strongly suspected my kinsman Isaacs
of being the accomplice of Captain Dugald; but I had no means of
ascertaining the fact by questioning him, as he went away that same
morning and never returned. The adventure, of course, did me some
harm at the time; but the unprincipled hero of it reaped no
advantage. He doubtless thought me another Lucretia, who would
sacrifice the reality to preserve the semblance of honor. He hoped
to find in me one who, in the base fear of being falsely condemned,
would marry a man I despised, and thus really deserve condemnation.
He was disappointed! From that hour I forbade him the house, and I
have never seen him since. A year later I married another," added
the countess, in a voice so subdued that, at the close of the
sentence, it gradually sank into silence.
Ishmael's beautiful eyes had been bent upon her all the time; now
his whole face lighted up with a smile as of a newly inspired,
benevolent hope.
"You were right-entirely right, Lady Hurstmonceux, in thus
vindicating the dignity of womanhood. And I do not believe that any
lasting blame, growing out of a misunderstanding of the
circumstances, could have attached to you," said Ishmael earnestly.
"No, indeed, there was not. And soon after that event I left
Edinboro' for the south coast of England, and at Brighton"--here the
voice of the countess sank almost to an inaudible whisper--"at
Brighton I met and married another. And now let us talk of something
else, Ishmael," she concluded, turning an affectionate glance upon
the sympathetic face of the young man. For there was a wonderful
depth of sympathy between this queenly woman of forty-five and this
princely young man of twenty-two. On her side there was the royal,
benignant, tender friendship with which such sovereign ladies regard
such young men; while, on his side, there was the loyal devotion
with which such young men worship such divinities. Such a friendship
is a blessing when it is understood; a curse when it is
misapprehended.
Ishmael turned the conversation to the subject of the act of
restitution proposed by the Earl of Hurstmonceux.
Ishmael now possessed the only clear, cool, and undisturbed
intelligence of the whole party, who were all more or less shaken by
the terrible events of the last few days. He had to think for them
all. He announced his intention of departing for London on the
ensuing Friday morning, and warned the judge that he should require
his final instructions for acting in concert with the solicitors of
the Earl of Hurstmonceux.
The judge promised that these should be ready, in writing, to place
in his hands at the moment of his departure.
"And while I am in London, had I not better see the agents of the
ocean steamers, and ascertain how soon we can obtain a passage home
for our whole party? The termination of these trials, and the
restitution of Lady Vincent's estate, really leave us nothing to do
here; and we know that Lady Vincent is pining for the repose of her
native home," said Ishmael.
"Certainly, certainly, Ishmael! The execution of Frisbie, the death
of the viscount, the conviction of Mrs. Dugald, and the act of the
Earl of Hurstmonceux, really, as you say, leave us free to go home.
I myself, as well as Claudia, pine for my home. And you, Ishmael,
though you have not said so, have sacrificed already too much of
your professional interests to our necessities. You should be at
your office. What on earth is becoming of your clients all this
time?"
"I dare say they are taken good care of, sir. Do not think of me.
Believe me, I have no interests dearer to my heart than the welfare
and happiness of my friends. Then I shall engage a passage for us
all, in the first available steamer?"
"I--I think so, Ishmael. There is nothing to keep us here longer
that I know of; we have nothing to do," said the judge hesitatingly.
"I have something yet to do, before I return home," smiled Ishmael,
with a quick and quickly withdrawn glance in the direction of the
countess; "but I shall do it before we go, or if not I can remain
behind for another steamer."
"No, no, Ishmael! You have stayed long with us; we will wait for
you. What do you say, Claudia?"
Claudia said nothing.
Ishmael replied:
"I shall endeavor to accomplish all that I propose in time to
accompany you, Judge Merlin. But if I should not be able to do so,
still I think that you had better all go by the first steamer in
which you can get a passage. You should, if possible, cross the
ocean before March sets in, if you would have anything like a
comfortable voyage."
"Heavens, yes! you are right, Ishmael. Our late voyage should teach
me a lesson. I must not expose Claudia to the chances of such
shipwreck as we suffered," said the judge gravely.
Ishmael turned and looked at Claudia. She had not once spoken since
her name had been introduced into the conversation. She had sat
there with her elbow on the table and her head bowed upon her hand,
in mournful silence. She was looking perfectly beautiful in her
widow's dress and cap--perfectly beautiful with that last divine,
perfecting touch that sorrow gives to beauty. Surely Ishmael thought
so as he looked at her. She lifted her drooping lids. Their eyes
met; hers were suffused with tears; his were full of earnest
sympathy.
"You shall not be exposed to shipwreck, Lady Vincent," he said, in a
voice rich with tenderness.
Slowly and mournfully she shook her head.
"There are other wrecks," she said:
"'And I beneath a rougher sea,
O'erwhelmed in deeper gulfs may be.'"
The last words were breathed in a scarcely audible voice, and her
head sank low upon her hand.
With a profound sigh, that seemed to come from the very depths of
his soul, Ishmael turned away. Passing near the Countess of
Hurstmonceux, he bent his head and murmured:
"Lady Vincent seems very weary."
The countess took the hint and rang for the bedroom candles, and
when they were brought, the party bade each other goodnight,
separated, and retired.
Early the next morning they set out for Edinboro', where they
arrived about midday.
The Countess of Hurstmonceux's servants, who had received
telegraphic orders from her ladyship, were waiting at the station
with carriages. The whole party entered these and drove to Cameron
Court, where they arrived in time for an early dinner.
After this, Ishmael and Judge Merlin were closeted in the library,
and engaged upon the preliminary measures for a final arrangement
with the Earl of Hurstmonceux's solicitors.
The judge, in his good opinion of the earl, would have trusted to a
simple, informal rendition of his daughter's fortune; but Ishmael,
the ever-watchful guardian of her interests, warned her father that
every legal form must be scrupulously observed in the restoration of
the property, lest in the event of the death of the Earl of
Hurstmonceux his brother and successor, the disreputable Captain
Dugald, should attempt to disturb her in its possession.
The judge acquiesced, and this business occupied the friends the
whole of that afternoon. In the evening they joined the ladies at
their tea-table, in the little drawing room. After tea, when the
service was removed, they gathered around the table in social
converse.
A servant brought in a small parcel that looked like a case of
jewelry done up in paper, and laid it before the countess.
She smiled, with a deprecating look, as she took it up and opened it
and passed it around to her friends for inspection. It was a
miniature of the countess herself, painted on ivory. It was a
faithful likeness, apparently very recently taken; for, on looking
at it, you seemed to see the beautiful countess herself on a
diminished scale, or through an inverted telescope.
"It has been making a visit," smiled the countess. "A poor young
artist in Edinboro' is getting up a 'Book of Beauty' on his own
account. He came here in person to beg the loan of one of my
portraits to engrave from. I gave him this, because it was the last
I had taken. I gave it to him because a refusal from me would have
wounded his feelings and discouraged his enterprise. Otherwise, I
assure you, I should not have let him have it for any such purpose
as he designed. For the idea of putting my portrait in a 'Book of
Beauty' is a rich absurdity."
"Pardon me; I do not see the absurdity at all," said Ishmael
earnestly, as in his turn he received the miniature and gazed with
admiration on its beautiful features.
"Young gentleman, I am forty-five," said the countess.
Ishmael gave a genuine start of surprise. He knew of course that she
must have been of that age, but he had forgotten the flight of time,
and the announcement startled him. He soon recovered himself,
however, and answered with his honest smile:
"Well, my lady, if you are still beautiful at forty-five, you cannot
help it, and you cannot prevent artistic eyes from seeing it. I, as
one of your friends, am glad and grateful for it. And I hope you
will remain as beautiful in form as in spirit even to the age of
seventy-five, or as long after that as you may live in this world."
"Thank you, Mr. Worth. I really do value praise from you, because I
know that it is sincere on your part, if not merited on mine," said
Lady Hurstmonceux.
Ishmael bowed low and in silence. Then he resumed his contemplation
of the picture. And presently he looked up and said:
"Lady Hurstmonceux, I am going to ask you a favor. Will you lend me
this picture for a week?"
The countess was a little surprised at the request. She looked up at
Ishmael before answering it.
Their eyes met. Some mutual intelligence passed in those meeting
glances. And she then answered:
"Yes, Mr. Worth. I will intrust it to you as long as you would like
to keep it; without reserve, and without even asking you what you
wish to do with it."
Again Ishmael bowed, and then he closed the case of the miniature
and deposited it in his breast-pocket.
"I hope that youth is not falling in love with his grandmother. I
have heard of such things in my life," thought the judge crossly
within himself, for the judge was growing jealous for Claudia. He
had apparently forgotten the existence of Bee.
As Ishmael was to leave Cameron Court at a very early hour of the
morning, before any of the family would be likely to be up to see
him off, he took leave of his friends upon this evening, and retired
early to his room to complete his preparations for the journey.