We came to Italy. I felt
A yearning for its sunny sky;
My very spirit seem'd to melt
As swept its first warm breezes by.
WILLIS.
An early morning in Italy! Who that from experience has not enjoyed--can
realise the conception, much less describe, the luxurious delight of the
first hours of a summer morning in that radiant climate.
"It was the morn of such a day, as must have risen on Eden first," that
Mary Seaham went forth from the little inn near Tivoli, to join her
brother who had preceded her some little time to make arrangements
respecting their intended excursion of the day.
She waited--but when he did not come, could no longer resist the
tempting aspect of the scenery without, to stroll onwards from the house
towards the merry waters which danced on their musical way not far
distant from the spot; and as she proceeded through the fragrant
air--beneath the transparent sky, the sigh she heaved could have been
caused but by the burden of enjoyment now weighing upon her senses; for
all human care--all sadness, all unrest, all passionate yearnings or
pensive remembrances--in short, all unconnected with "the mere and
breathing charm of life," seemed in that thrilling hour, annihilated and
forgotten.
But something glittering on the ground, near a flower she had stooped to
pick, suddenly attracted her attention. She took it up and examined it
more closely. It was a massive signet ring. What was Mary's astonishment
to see engraved upon the seal, the initials "E. T." with the Trevor coat
of arms.
Her first thought was of Eugene--could it be that he by some strange
coincidence was near? or that he had purposely followed her to Italy?
and her heart beat fast, and her cheek glowed at the suggestion. Yet she
had never remembered observing such a ring on Eugene's finger, and
then--another indefinite recollection of having somewhere before seen
that same impression on some letter, certainly not _from_ her lover,
occurred to her.
Yes--and suddenly the breakfast-table at Silverton, and that letter--the
letter to Eugene which she had ever since suspected must have been the
turning-point of her previous perfect felicity, but which she had always
supposed must have been from Eugene's father. That large red seal the
little Louisa had displayed before her eyes. All was now before her. But
how then came it lying here upon this foreign soil?
Was it forbidden her to lose, even for a moment, the thrilling
consciousness of the fate which bound her, that there should be now
thrown across her very path, this startling reminder?
Standing fixed to the spot--turning the signet over and over in her
hand, an uncertain, half-bewildered expression on her sweet face--a
sudden idea which crimsoned it to the very temples, then leaving it
paler than before--suddenly lit up her countenance.
How, indeed, came it lying there? "E. T." Surely from the old man's
finger it had not dropped; and if not from Eugene's, might it, could it
have been from that of the lost, unhappy, wandering brother, Eustace's?
With what object, what intent, she scarcely knew herself--but impulse
moved her, with beating heart and trembling step, to pursue the path
which she had taken, only remembering the while, that last night, after
she was in bed, there had been an arrival at the inn. Two gentlemen from
Rome, the _cameriera_ who called her in the morning told her, had roused
the house up at a very late hour; and that one of these belated
travellers had nevertheless already pressed the dewy turf before
her--that it might be him who was the loser, was perhaps, the paramount
idea which now possessed her as she hurried on over this fair Italian
ground as light in limb--alas! less light at heart as when bounding
over the breezy wilds of her native land.
She had not been wrong in her conjecture. A sudden turn in the lovely
vale she had entered presented to her view, at no great distance from
the spot she had attained, a broken fountain, the silvery sound of whose
ringing waters faintly reached her ear; and near this, half concealed by
the branches of a leaning tree, she discerned the figure of a man,
standing watching its light and sparkling play.
A few half irresolute steps brought her nearer and nearer still--a few
more, and she stood attracted as if by an irresistible spell almost
close behind the object of her search. His face had been turned away,
but the light rustling of her garments when she drew so near, attracted
his attention.
He looked round, and there stood Mary with parted lips and crimsoned
brow--that look of strange, deep, and eager scrutiny directed towards
him.
Never did the face of mortal man undergo such immediate change, as did
the calm, noble countenance which at the same time revealed itself to
the intruder; never were two simple words uttered with such thrilling
fervency of tone, as was the ejaculation which broke from the stranger's
lips.
"Miss Seaham," he exclaimed; and in accents scarce less earnest in its
emotion, Mary's trembling lips faltered Mr. Temple's name.
Yes, it was indeed Edward Temple, upon whom she gazed with ill-defined
ideas--and feelings of bewilderment and perplexity--her high-wrought
expectations unable all at once to sink themselves to the level of
natural composure--pale, agitated, and trembling, without further
greeting or explanation,
"She showed the ring."
"I found it," she said with almost hysterical incoherency, "and thought
perhaps--but your's it cannot be--and yet it is strange--the initials
are the same--but--can it really be, that your crest--your arms also are
similar?"
For all reply he gently took the ring from her outstretched hand, and in
silence seemed to examine it. Then without looking up, and in a low,
calm voice he said:
"You expected I conclude, to find the owner had been Eugene Trevor?"
"No, not Eugene," Mary quietly replied, restored to greater
self-possession, "but perhaps, I thought--it was a random idea--that
perhaps it might have been his brother Eustace."
The ring dropped suddenly from her listener's fingers, as she uttered
these last words.
"And what," he murmured, having stooped to raise it from the ground,
"and what interest can Miss Seaham take in that ill-starred, that
unhappy man; that outcast, alien brother, that her mistake should cause
disappointment, such as I so plainly perceive it to have occasioned
her?"
Mary probably attributed to wounded feeling the trembling pathos of the
speaker's voice, for with all the simple earnestness of her kindly
nature, she hastened in gentle soothing accents to reply:
"Mr. Temple--if disappointment was the first impulse of my
feelings--believe me, when I say, there is scarcely any one else," with
a weary sigh, the tears gathering in her eyes, "with whom a meeting so
unexpected, could just now have afforded me such unmixed pleasure."
For one short moment her hand was retained by the so-called Mr. Temple
in a trembling pressure, which appeared to speak all his heart's
grateful acknowledgement, whilst those dark eyes fixed themselves upon
her face with mournful earnestness of expression.
But the next moment, with a low-breathed sigh, which might have seemed
the echo of her own, he released her hand, and turned away his head.
"You are kind to say this," he murmured, "for myself, I can only declare
this meeting to be a happiness such as I had hardly expected ever to
taste again in this world. But," he anxiously inquired, "will you again
permit me to inquire the reason of the more than common--nay even,
taking into consideration his relationship--more than natural interest,
it would appear you feel in the unfortunate Eustace Trevor."
The earnest melancholy of his tone thrilled on Mary's heart.
"Mr. Temple," she said eagerly, "you speak with feeling on this subject,
can it, oh! can it be possible that you have ever seen, ever known
Eugene Trevor's brother? Oh, tell me if this is really the case, for you
say true--in more than common degree--quite independently of selfish
motives, connected with my own happiness--has my interest been excited
in his discovery. It has been most strongly awakened in the fate, and
history of one who has lately been brought before me in a light so
charming yet so sad. Oh! Mr. Temple, you do not deny the fact. Then,
tell me, only tell me where he can be found?"
Eustace Trevor had turned upon her the full light of his radiant
countenance, radiant with a new and strange delight, the nature of which
she could not comprehend; but as, with clasped hands and beseeching
countenance, she uttered this latter inquiry, it was answered by a
gesture, seeming to imply by her listener ignorance in the required
information.
"You, then, did not know him?" she resumed, with renewed disappointment
in her tone.
"I did know him--ah, too well!" was the murmured reply, his eyes, with a
strange and mysterious expression, fixed upon the ground.
Very pale suddenly grew Mary's cheek as she looked upon him thus. Her
lips parted, and her heart beat fast as from the shock of a strange and
sudden idea, which flashed across her senses. But she put by the
suggestion as the wild improbable coinage of her own high wrought
imagination. She remembered too what had struck her often vaguely
before, and also her brother's remark on a former occasion, with
reference to the same resemblance. But when she looked again, the
glowing illusion had faded, her companion was again calmly regarding
her, again asking--in what she esteemed a cold and careless tone of
voice--from whom it was, she had received the impression respecting
Eustace Trevor, to which she had just alluded.
"It was his friend, and my cousin--Louis de Burgh, who first spoke of
him to me in such warm and glowing terms; but he chiefly raised my
interest by the beautiful but melancholy picture he drew of his devoted
affection for his mother--that mother," she added in a low, sad tone,
"with whose unhappy history, I then for the first time was made
acquainted--indeed it caused his very affliction to become almost holy
in my eyes--by showing it to have been but the crisis of his high and
sacred grief. Mr. Temple," she continued with enthusiasm; "there seems
to me something, if I may so speak, almost God-like in the pure and
devoted love of a strong proud-hearted man towards his mother; and it
_is_ God-like, for was not the last earthly thought--the last earthly
care of Him who hung upon the cross, even in his mortal agony--for his
mother!"
The speaker's glistening eyes were raised above or she might have seen
tears indeed,
"Such as would not stain an angel's cheek,"
also irradiating the eyes of that "strong proud-hearted man," as she so
expressed herself--who was standing by her side.
But she could not have heard--for it was not breathed for mortal ear,
the deep and fervent cry: "My Mother!" which her innocent words, like
thrilling music by the winds, struck from the secret chords of that
manly tender heart.
But this was a theme Eustace Trevor's melting soul could not trust
itself to pursue; not indeed, without it were first allowed him to cast
away all subterfuge and disguise, and at the feet of that good, kind,
and gentle girl, open his whole bruised and desolate heart, to receive
that Heavenly balsam of pity and consolation, she had ready stored
within her breast for the faithful son of that wronged and sainted
mother!
And could this be done? Had he not for the sake of this same gentle
being, in some sort pledged himself to such an extent, that yielding to
the impulse would be baseness and dishonour.
Alas! as in all divergement from the direct and natural paths of human
action, in whatsoever spirit they may have been entered upon, the time
must come--circumstances must arise--when the line of duty becomes
bewilderingly shadowy and indistinct, even to the most conscientious and
true-hearted.
How few can steer their way unwavering through the straightened pathway
of a false position. It is not there, that like a stately ship he can
vigorously part the waves of circumstance or temptation,
"And bear his course aright.
Nor ought for tempest doth from it depart,
Nor ought for fairer weather's false delight."
Therefore, with an effort over his feelings which might have made him
appear unaffected by the sentiments his companion had so touchingly
expressed, he was forced merely to reply: "Yes, Louis de Burgh was his
friend; and it would be very gratifying to Eustace Trevor to know that
one friend at least in that world he has abandoned, retains him in such
affectionate remembrance. And his brother"--he added, with more
hesitating restraint in his tone, "did you never receive anything of the
same impression from him?"
"Eugene," Mary answered with some slight embarrassment, "rarely ever
enlarged upon a theme which of course had become connected in his mind
with painful feelings."
"_Painful indeed!_" was the other's significant rejoinder.
"Never but once," Mary continued, "did I venture to question him upon
the subject with any minuteness, and then he manifested such strong and
painful emotion that I never afterwards approached it willingly. But at
that time," she added with a sigh, "I had certainly heard very little of
his brother, but the dark and terrible malady with which he was
afflicted. Mr. Temple," she continued anxiously, "is not his complete
disappearance most mysterious and inexplicable? and does it not appear
to you almost impossible, that all the means which have been taken for
his recovery could have been so completely unattended by success,
supposing he were still alive?"
"But have any such means been taken?" her companion asked with some
marked curiosity.
"Oh yes!" she hastened to reply "on Eugene's part at least."
A peculiar smile played on her companion's lips. It did not fail to
strike Mary, and the incredulity it seemed to imply caused her feelings
now so peculiarly sensitive upon that point, to be immediately up in
arms.
"Mr. Temple, can you for a moment doubt this fact, he is Eugene's own
brother, and--" she added in a low voice, the crimson blood at the same
time mantling her cheeks, as the remembrance that she was addressing a
rejected lover, pressed more consciously upon her, "he had interests of
a different nature, closely connected with the assurance of his lost
brother's fate?"
Mr. Temple started with sudden excitement.
"Indeed!" he exclaimed, then averting his head, he added, as if the
utterance of each syllable was a separate pang. "Do you mean to say that
there is still a question of this marriage?"
"There is," she replied; "though of a very remote and undefined nature,
our engagement still subsists."
Having said this with no little embarrassment of manner, the same
feeling probably caused her to raise her arm from the fountain, over
which she had been unconsciously leaning, and by tacit consent they
turned away from the spot, silently beginning to retrace their steps.
They had not proceeded thus many yards, when Arthur Seaham appeared in
sight, accompanied by a second person, who Mary, with an exclamation of
delighted surprise, recognized as Mr. Wynne, concerning whom in the
absorbing interest of the last hour she had no time to seek information.
The good clergyman on his part, who had fallen in with her brother at
the hotel, was charmed beyond expression by this fortunate and
unexpected meeting with his own dear children, (so he called Mary and
Arthur;) and peculiar was the glance of interest which beamed from his
kindly eyes, as having gazed anxiously into Mary's face, he turned then
towards her companion, who nevertheless with his fine countenance only a
little paler than usual, was exchanging kind and cordial greetings with
young Seaham.
"Oh! Mary, Mary!" the good clergyman whispered, as he drew his fair
friend's arm within his own and walked on, the others following together
behind, "I have heard sad stories of you, little quiet one, since I saw
you last;--trampling noble flowers under your feet, and grasping at
thorns, which something in that sweet face of your's tells me have not
failed to do their wounding work. This comes of reading all that dreamy
poetry I used to warn you against. A good and pleasant thing it is in
its degree, but too much of it dazzles and deludes the senses, till at
length they come to be unable to discern darkness from light, good from
evil. Well! well!" he added, as Mary pretty well accustomed by this time
to indirect attacks of this nature, attempted no defence, but with a
faint melancholy smile, only drooped her head in silence and
resignation. "Ah! well, even now who knows! The Almighty never will
permit his little ones to walk on long in darkness, but in the end ever
leads them by secret ways into safe and quiet pastures."