Tell us, maiden, hast thou found him
Thus delicious, thus divine?
Doth such witchery breathe around him?
Is his spirit so benign?
Doth he shed o'er heart and brain
More of pleasure or of pain?
MOULTRIE.
Mary suffered Mrs. Gillespie to draw her arm affectionately within her
own, and the sisters then walked on a little way, in silence, which
Alice was the first to break.
"And that then was Eugene Trevor, Mary?" she said half interrogatively,
half in soliloquy.
"Yes, that was Eugene," was the answer, accompanied by a deep-drawn
sigh.
But there had been something in Mrs. Gillespie's tone which caused her
at the same moment to turn her eyes anxiously upon her face, as if to
discover what impression the "Eugene Trevor," thus significantly
emphasized, had made upon the speaker.
"Is he like what you expected?" she then timidly inquired.
"Yes--no--that is to say, not exactly," was the sister's rather
hesitating reply.
"He is looking ill now," Mary continued; "and you did not see him to
advantage. It was of course rather an embarrassing meeting for him,
under existing circumstances, he not knowing exactly how you might be
inclined to approve of our interview, just at present; but I should
think from it having been so perfectly accidental, no one could blame
him, or object to its having occurred."
"Not in the least, dear Mary, I am sure--if it was a meeting calculated
to raise and strengthen your spirits. And it _has_ made you happier, I
hope," looking rather doubtfully into Mary's pale and anxious
countenance, on which too the traces of tears were plainly visible.
"Oh, yes, Alice!" Mary faintly replied. "Seeing Eugene was, indeed, a
pleasure most welcome and unexpected; but then you know the parting
again for so long a time--and--and--" turning her head away with a sigh,
"altogether it might be called rather a painful pleasure."
"But then, Mary, six months will so soon pass away."
"Yes, certainly," hesitated Mary; but there was no very cheerful
security in her tone.
Mrs. Gillespie did not press her sister further on the subject just
then, for she plainly perceived that altogether it was one in which
truly as much of pain as pleasure was commingled. Of course she informed
her husband of the occurrence; and Mary too spoke of it as openly as was
possible, though the reserve she was forced in a great measure to
maintain respecting the substance of the interview, the more confirmed
her relations in their suspicions, as to its having been one of no very
satisfactory nature.
"And what, as far as you were able to judge, in so short a time, did
you think of your intended brother-in-law, my dear Alice?" the husband
inquired of his wife the evening after the meeting; "for I know you
consider yourself a first rate physiognomist."
"What do I think of him Robert?"--with a sigh--"poor Mary."
"Why, poor Mary, do you not like his appearance?"
"I should not much _like_ to trust my happiness, or that of any one I
loved, to his keeping."
"Indeed! he is very good-looking at any rate."
"Yes, handsome certainly--eyes, such as you perhaps have seldom, if ever
seen, and which, if they would only look you full in the face, are
certainly calculated to do a great deal of execution. But he did not
look so into mine; and there was something about his countenance
altogether which I cannot explain--something which, though I can fancy
it well calculated to make an impression--of some sort or another, over
one's mind--I confess on mine--to have been one, which is far from
_canny_. His looks too bespeak him, I am afraid, to be suffering rather
from the jading effects of London dissipation, than the gentler pains
and anxieties attendant on his situation, as a lover separated from the
object of his affection."
Mr. Gillespie looked concerned at this report, feeling a great interest
in his amiable young sister-in-law. And though he generally expressed
mistrust, with respect to his wife's too hasty reliance on her first
impressions, still he was often in the end forced to acknowledge their
frequent accuracy.
Yet at the same time, as the countenance of the lover did not in any way
alter the case with regard to Mary's position or circumstances, there
was nothing to be said or done by her friends whilst awaiting the issue
of affairs, but to observe with regret that though with the same meek
"patience, abnegation of self, and devotion to others," their sister
pursued the even tenor of her way, the cheerful serenity which before
had continued to shine forth in her countenance, and characterize her
bearing, had departed. Her mind had been evidently unsettled by the
_rencontre_ with Eugene Trevor--her heart's calm rest disturbed.
How was it indeed with Mary? Had the hints conveyed by Eugene during
their interview depressed her hopes, and re-awakened her misgivings as
to the happy issue of the year's probation? Or more bitter still--had
anything in that same interview occurred to give that first
disenchanting touch, which by degrees detracts from the perfect charm
which has hitherto robed our idol, and we see the image of goodness and
beauty, whose idol shape we worshipped, melting from our sight, and
though still it binds the fatal spell, and still it draws us on, the
spirit of our love is changed--a shadow has fallen upon it. We feel it
to be "of the earth earthy."
Had Mary received any startling impression, her feelings any
_boulversement_, by beholding Eugene Trevor for the first time so unlike
the Eugene she had hitherto loved--under the irritating disturbing
influences of opposition and reverse.
But from whatever cause they might proceed, certainly "the gloom and the
shadow" spread broader and deeper on her brow; and when on his return
from the Moors, Eugene Trevor, probably for the chance of another
interview, revisited the Scotch metropolis, he learnt, by particular
inquiry of a maid-servant he found standing by the door of Mr.
Gillespie's closed house, that the family had left Edinburgh, and gone
to the sea-side.
"Were they all well?" he inquired.
"All well, only the young lady, Mrs. Gillespie's sister, a little pale,
and pining for country air. So the young Maister Arthur had come, and
persuaded them to put up their gear, and take the bairns and all to the
sea; but the maister was expected home the morrow, if the gentleman
liked to step up and see him."
We may imagine that Trevor had no inclination to tarry for this purpose,
and that same day left Scotland _en route_ for Montrevor.