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AIRY FAIRY LILIAN
BY
"THE DUCHESS"
AUTHOR OF "PORTIA," "MOLLY BAWN," ETC., ETC.
NEW YORK
INTERNATIONAL BOOK COMPANY
3, 4, 5 AND 6 MISSION PLACE
AIRY FAIRY LILIAN.
CHAPTER I.
"Home, sweet Home."
--_Old English Song._
Down the broad oak staircase--through the silent hall--into the
drawing-room runs Lilian, singing as she goes.
The room is deserted; through the half-closed blinds the glad sunshine
is rushing, turning to gold all on which its soft touch lingers, and
rendering the large, dull, handsome apartment almost comfortable.
Outside everything is bright, and warm, and genial, as should be in the
heart of summer; within there is only gloom,--and Lilian clad in her
mourning robes. The contrast is dispiriting: there life, here death, or
at least the knowledge of it. There joy, here the signs and trappings of
woe.
The black gown and funereal trimmings hardly harmonize with the girl's
flower-like face and the gay song that trembles on her lips. But, alas!
for how short a time does our first keen sorrow last! how swiftly are
our dead forgotten! how seldom does grief kill! When eight long months
have flown by across her father's grave Lilian finds, sometimes to her
dismay, that the hours she grieves for him form but a short part of her
day.
Not that her sorrow for him, even at its freshest, was very deep; it was
of the subdued and horrified rather than the passionate, despairing
kind. And though in truth she mourned and wept for him until her pretty
eyes could hold no longer tears, still there was a mildness about her
grief more suggestive of tender melancholy than any very poignant
anguish.
From her the dead father could scarcely be more separated than had been
the living. Naturally of a rather sedentary disposition, Archibald
Chesney, on the death of the wife whom he adored, had become that most
uninteresting and selfish of all things, a confirmed bookworm. He went
in for study, of the abstruse and heavy order, with an ardor worthy of a
better cause. His library was virtually his home; he had neither
affections nor desires beyond. Devoting himself exclusively to his
books, he suffered them to take entire possession of what he chose to
call his heart.
At times he absolutely forgot the existence of his little three-year-old
daughter; and if ever the remembrance of her did cross his mind it was
but to think of her as an incubus,--as another misfortune heaped upon
his luckless shoulders,--and to wonder, with a sigh, what he was to do
with her in the future.
The child, deprived of a tender mother at so early an age, was flung,
therefore, upon the tender mercies of her nurses, who alternately petted
and injudiciously reproved her, until at length she bade fair to be as
utterly spoilt as a child can be.
She had one companion, a boy-cousin about a year older than herself. He
too was lonely and orphaned, so that the two children, making common
cause, clung closely to each other, and shared, both in infancy and in
early youth, their joys and sorrows. The Park had been the boy's home
ever since his parents' death, Mr. Chesney accepting him as his ward,
but never afterward troubling himself about his welfare. Indeed, he had
no objection whatever to fill the Park with relations, so long as they
left him undisturbed to follow his own devices.
Not that the education of these children was neglected. They had all
tuition that was necessary; and Lilian, having a talent for music,
learned to sing and play the piano very charmingly. She could ride, too,
and sit her horse _a merveille_, and had a passion for reading,--perhaps
inherited. But, as novels were her principal literature, and as she had
no one to regulate her choice of them, it is a matter of opinion whether
she derived much benefit from them. At least she received little harm,
as at seventeen she was as fresh-minded and pure-hearted a child as one
might care to know.
The County, knowing her to be an heiress,--though not a large
one,--called systematically on her every three months. Twice she had
been taken to a ball by an enterprising mother with a large family of
unpromising sons. But as she reached her eighteenth year her father
died, and her old home, the Park, being strictly entailed on heirs male,
passed from her into the hands of a distant cousin utterly unknown. This
young man, another Archibald Chesney, was abroad at the time of his
kinsman's death,--in Egypt, or Hong-Kong, or Jamaica,--no one exactly
knew which--until after much search he was finally discovered to be in
Halifax.
From thence he had written to the effect that, as he probably should not
return to his native land for another six months, he hoped his cousin
(if it pleased her) would continue to reside at the Park--where all the
old servants were to be kept on--until his return.
It did please his cousin; and in her old home she still reigned as
queen, until after eight months she received a letter from her father's
lawyer warning her of Archibald Chesney's actual arrival in London.
This letter failed in its object. Lilian either would not or could not
bring herself to name the day that should part her forever from all the
old haunts and pleasant nooks she loved so well. She was not brave
enough to take her "Bradshaw" and look up the earliest train that ought
to convey her away from the Park. Indeed, so utterly wanting in decency
and decorum did she appear at this particular epoch of her existence
that the heart of her only aunt--her father's sister--was stirred to its
depths. So much so that, after mature deliberation (for old people as
well as great ones move slowly), she finally packed up the venerable
hair-trunk that had seen the rise and fall of several monarchs, and
marched all the way from Edinburgh to this Midland English shire, to try
what firm expostulation could do in the matter of bringing her niece to
see the error of her ways.
For a whole week it did very little.
Lilian was independent in more ways than one. She had considerable
spirit and five hundred pounds a year in her own right. Not only did she
object to leave the Park, but she regarded with horror the prospect of
going to reside with the guardians appointed to receive her by her
father. Not that this idea need have filled her with dismay. Sir Guy
Chetwoode, the actual guardian, was a young man not likely to trouble
himself overmuch about any ward; while his mother, Lady Chetwoode, was
that most gracious of all things, a beautiful and lovable old lady.
Why Mr. Chesney had chosen so young a man to look after his daughter's
interests must forever remain a mystery,--perhaps because he happened to
be the eldest son of his oldest friend, long since dead. Sir Guy
accepted the charge because he thought it uncivil to refuse, and chiefly
because he believed it likely Miss Chesney would marry before her
father's death. But events proved the fallacy of human thought. When
Archibald Chesney's demise appeared in the _Times_ Sir Guy made a little
face and took meekly a good deal of "chaffing" at his brother's hands;
while Lady Chetwoode sat down, and, with a faint sinking at her heart,
wrote a kindly letter to the orphan, offering her a home at Chetwoode.
To this letter Lilian had sent a polite reply, thanking "dear Lady
Chetwoode" for her kindness, and telling her she had no intention of
quitting the Park just at present. Later on she would be only too happy
to accept, etc., etc.
Now, however, standing in her own drawing-room, Lilian feels, with a
pang, the game is almost played out; she must leave. Aunt Priscilla's
arguments, detestable though they be, are unhappily quite unanswerable.
To her own heart she confesses this much, and the little gay French song
dies on her lips, and the smile fades from her eyes, and a very dejected
and forlorn expression comes and grows upon her pretty face.
It is more than pretty, it is lovely,--the fair, sweet childish face,
framed in by its yellow hair; her great velvety eyes, now misty through
vain longing, are blue as the skies above her; her nose is pure Greek;
her forehead, low, but broad, is partly shrouded by little wandering
threads of gold that every now and then break loose from bondage, while
her lashes, long and dark, curl upward from her eyes, as though hating
to conceal the beauty of the exquisite azure within.
She is not tall, and she is very slender but not lean. She is willful,
quick-tempered, and impetuous, but large-hearted and lovable. There is a
certain haughtiness about her that contrasts curiously but pleasantly
with her youthful expression and laughing kissable mouth. She is
straight and lissome as a young ash-tree; her hands and feet are small
and well shaped; in a word, she is _chic_ from the crown of her fair
head down to her little arched instep.
Just now, perhaps, as she hears the honest sound of her aunt's footstep
in the hall, a slight pout takes possession of her lips and a flickering
frown adorns her brow. Aunt Priscilla is coming, and Aunt Priscilla
brings victory in her train, and it is not every one can accept defeat
with grace.
She hastily pulls up one of the blinds; and as old Miss Chesney opens
the door and advances up the room, young Miss Chesney rather turns her
shoulder to her and stares moodily out of the window. But Aunt Priscilla
is not to be daunted.
"Well, Lilian," she says, in a hopeful tone, and with an amount of faith
admirable under the circumstances, "I trust you have been thinking it
over favorably, and that----"
"Thinking what over?" asks Lilian; which interruption is a mean
subterfuge.
"----And that the night has induced you to see your situation in its
proper light."
"You speak as though I were the under house-maid," says Lilian with a
faint sense of humor. "And yet the word suits me. Surely there never yet
was a situation as mine. I wish my horrid cousin had been drowned
in----. No, Aunt Priscilla, the night has not reformed me. On the
contrary, it has demoralized me, through a dream. I dreamt I went to
Chetwoode, and, lo! the very first night I slept beneath its roof the
ceiling in my room gave way, and, falling, crushed me to fine powder.
After such a ghastly warning do you still advise me to pack up and be
off? If you do," says Lilian, solemnly, "my blood be on your head."
"Dreams go by contraries," quotes Miss Priscilla, sententiously. "I
don't believe in them. Besides, from all I have heard of the Chetwoodes
they are far too well regulated a family to have anything amiss with
their ceilings."
"Oh, how _you do_ add fuel to the fire that is consuming me!" exclaims
Lilian, with a groan. "A well-regulated family!--what can be more awful?
Ever since I have been old enough to reason I have looked with righteous
horror upon a well-regulated family. Aunt Priscilla, if you don't change
your tune I vow and protest I shall decide upon remaining here until my
cousin takes me by the shoulders and places me upon the gravel outside."
"I thought, Lilian," says her aunt, severely, "you promised me yesterday
to think seriously of what I have now been saying to you for a whole
week without cessation."
"Well, so I am thinking," with a sigh. "It is the amount of thinking I
have been doing for a whole week without cessation that is gradually
turning my hair gray."
"It would be all very well," says Miss Priscilla, impatiently, "if I
could remain with you; but I cannot. I must return to my duties." These
duties consisted of persecuting poor little children every Sunday by
compelling them to attend her Scriptural class (so she called it) and
answer such questions from the Old Testament as would have driven any
experienced divinity student out of his mind; and on week-days of
causing much sorrow (and more bad language) to be disseminated among the
women of the district by reason of her lectures on their dirt. "And your
cousin is in London, and naturally will wish to take possession in
person."
"How I wish poor papa had left the Park to me!" says Lilian,
discontentedly, and somewhat irrelevantly.
"My dear child, I have explained to you at least a dozen times that such
a gift was not in his power. It goes--that is, the Park,--to a male
heir, and----"
"Yes, I know," petulantly. "Well, then I wish it _had_ been in his power
to leave it to me."
"And how about writing to Lady Chetwoode?" says Aunt Priscilla, giving
up the argument in despair. (She is a wise woman.) "The sooner you do so
the better."
"I hate strangers," says Lilian, mournfully. "They make me unhappy. Why
can't I remain where I am? George or Archibald, or whatever his name is,
might just as well let me have a room here. I'm sure the place is large
enough. He need not grudge me one or two apartments. The left wing, for
instance."
"Lilian," says Miss Chesney, rising from her chair, "how old are you? Is
it possible that at eighteen you have yet to learn the meaning of the
word 'propriety'? You--a _young girl_--to remain here alone with a
_young man_!"
"He need never see me," says Lilian, quite unmoved by this burst of
eloquence. "I should take very good care of that, as I know I shall
detest him."
"I decline to listen to you," says Miss Priscilla, raising her hands to
her ears. "You must be lost to all sense of decorum even to imagine such
a thing. You and he in one house, how should you avoid meeting?"
"Well, even if we did meet," says Lilian, with a small rippling laugh
impossible to quell, "I dare say he wouldn't bite me."
"No,"--sternly,--"he would probably do worse. He would make love to you.
Some instinct warns me," says Miss Priscilla, with the liveliest horror,
gazing upon the exquisite, glowing face before her, "that within five
days he would be making _violent_ love to you."
"You strengthen my desire to stay," says Lilian, somewhat frivolously,
"I should so like to say 'No' to him!"
"Lilian, you make me shudder," says Miss Priscilla, earnestly. "When I
was your age, even younger, I had a full sense of the horror of allowing
any man to mention my name lightly. I kept all men at arm's length, I
suffered no jesting or foolish talking from them. And mark the result,"
says Miss Chesney, with pride: "I defy any one to say a word of me but
what is admirable and replete with modesty."
"Did any one ever propose to you, auntie?" asks Miss Lilian with a
naughty laugh.
"Certainly. I had many offers," replies Miss Priscilla, promptly,--which
is one of the few lies she allows herself; "I was persecuted by suitors
in my younger days; but I refused them all. And if you will take my
advice, Lilian," says this virgin, with much solemnity, "you will never,
_never_ put yourself into clutches of a _man_." She utters this last
word as though she would have said a tiger or a serpent, or anything
else ruthless and bloodthirsty. "But all this is beside the question."
"It is, rather," says Lilian, demurely. But, suddenly brightening,
"Between my dismal dreaming last night I thought of another plan."
"Another!" with open dismay.
"Yes,"--triumphantly,--"it occurred to me that this bugbear my cousin
might go abroad again. Like the Wandering Jew, he is always traveling;
and who knows but he may take a fancy to visit the South Pole, or
discover the Northwestern Passage, or go with Jules Verne to the centre
of the earth? If so, why should not I remain here and keep house for
him? What can be simpler?"
"Nothing,"--tritely,--"but unfortunately he is not going abroad again."
"No! How do you know that?"
"Through Mr. Shrude, the solicitor."
"Ah!" says Lilian, in a despairing tone, "how unhappy I am! Though I
might have known that wretched young man would be the last to do what is
his palpable duty." There is a pause. Lilian's head sinks upon her hand;
dejection shows itself in every feature. She sighs so heavily that Miss
Priscilla's spirits rise and she assures herself the game is won. Rash
hope.
Suddenly Lilian's countenance clears; she raises her head, and a faint
smile appears within her eyes.
"Aunt Priscilla, I have yet another plan," she says, cheerfully.
"Oh, my dear, I do hope not," says poor Miss Chesney, almost on the
verge of tears.
"Yes, and it emanated from you. Supposing I were to remain here, and he
did fall in love with me, and married me: what then? Would not that
solve the difficulty? Once the ceremony was performed he might go prying
about all over the known globe for all that I should care. I should have
my dear Park. I declare," says Lilian, waxing valiant, "had he but one
eye, or did he appear before me with a wooden leg (which I hold to be
the most contemptible of all things), nothing should induce me to refuse
him under the circumstances."
"And are you going to throw yourself upon your cousin's generosity and
actually ask him to take pity on you and make you his wife? Lilian, I
fancied you had some pride," says Miss Chesney, gravely.
"So I have," says Lilian, with a repentant sigh. "How I wish I hadn't!
No, I suppose it wouldn't do to marry him in that way, no matter how
badly I treated him afterward to make up for it. Well, my last hope is
dead."
"And a good thing too. Now, had you not better sit down and write to
Lady Chetwoode or your guardian, naming an early date for going to them?
Though what your father could have meant by selecting so young a man as
a guardian is more than I can imagine."
"Because he wished me to live with Lady Chetwoode, who was evidently an
old flame; and because Sir Guy, from all I hear, is a sort of Admirable
Crichton--something as prosy as the Heir of Redclyffe, as dull as Sir
Galahad. A goody-goody old-young man. For my part, I would have
preferred a hoary-headed gentleman, with just a little spice of
wickedness about him."
"Lilian, don't be flippant," in a tone of horror. "I tremble when I
reflect on the dangers that must attend your unbridled tongue."
"Well, but, Aunt Priscilla,"--plaintively,--"one doesn't relish the
thought of spending day after day with a man who will think it his duty
to find fault every time I give way to my sentiments, and probably grow
pale with disgust whenever I laugh aloud. Shan't I lead him a life!"
says the younger Miss Chesney, viciously, tapping the back of one small
hand vigorously against the palm of the other. "With the hope of giving
that young man something to cavil at, I shall sustain myself."
"Child," says Miss Priscilla, "let me recommend a course of severe study
to you as the best means of subduing your evil inclinations."
"I shall take your advice," says the incorrigible Lilian; "I shall study
Sir Guy. I expect that will be the severest course of study I have ever
undergone."
"Get your paper and write," says Miss Priscilla, who, against her will,
is smiling grimly.
"I suppose, indeed, I must," says Lilian, seating herself at her
davenport with all the airs of a finished martyr. "'Needs must,' you
know, Aunt Priscilla. I dare say you recollect the rest of that rather
vulgar proverb. I shall seal my fate this instant by writing to Lady
Chetwoode. But, oh!" turning on her chair to regard her aunt with an
expression of the keenest reproach, "how I wish you had not called them
a 'well-regulated family!'"