Bear up,
Yet still bear up. No bark did e'er,
By stooping to the storm of fear,
Escape the tempest's wrath.
BEAUMONT.
He doth tell me where to borrow
Comfort in the midst of sorrow.
WITHERS.
It was the eve of the opening assize day, and even in the quiet little
town of ---- might be observed that aspect of bustle and excitement
generally prevailing on such occasions.
In a private apartment of the hotel honoured by the presence of the
judge himself, sat a young man bending with the intensest interest and
attention over the books and papers which lay upon the table before him.
It was Arthur Seaham, whose brave and strenuous exertions had been
crowned with honourable success. He had been called to the bar, and was
about to start forward with hopeful confidence on his new career, it
being his first case with which we find him so zealously engaged.
Happy young man! Many might have envied you at that moment. Young in
heart, sanguine and resolute in spirit, with every good and honourable
motive to urge you on to exertion--a life of action and reality is
before you.
"Life that shall send a challenge to the end,
And when it comes, say--Welcome, friend!"
"_L'action avec un but_"--the auspicious banner under which you launch
forth upon your new career.
For some hours the young barrister continued unremitting at his task,
and would perhaps have remained so many more, had not another voice than
that which had probably during this time been sounding in his
ears--suddenly broke the spell, and flushed his cheek--kindled his eye
with a very different inspiration to that which had previously illumined
it.
A clear musical laugh which, to Arthur's ear, sounded more like the
ringing waters of Tivoli than anything he had ever since heard.
Then the door opening, admitted what might have appeared (to pursue the
same strain of analogy) a wandering sunbeam from the skies of golden
Italy, in the person of Carrie Elliott, the judge's lovely daughter.
"I am disturbing you, I know, Mr. Seaham," she exclaimed blushingly,
advancing; "but it is your sister's fault. She says it is quite time
that you should be disturbed; did you not, Miss Seaham?" turning to her
companion.
Mary, who, with a faint and gentle smile, very different in its
character to that which played so brightly on the features of the other,
acquiesced in the truth of the assertion. But Arthur did not look very
angry at the interruption, and was soon standing by the window entering
with a very unbusiness-like spirit into conversation with his lively
visitor, who, this being her father's first circuit in a judicial
capacity, had been, much to her amusement and delight, suffered to
accompany him on this occasion.
To this circumstance had Mary also been indebted for the opportunity
thus afforded her of witnessing her brother's first start in his
profession; for having been of late thrown somewhat intimately into the
society of the judge's family, it had finally been arranged that the two
young ladies should have the benefit of each other's society, on an
occasion of such especial interest to them both.
"But do tell me something about your case, Mr. Seaham. Is it not a very
interesting story? a poor young woman accused of forgery?"
"Yes," Seaham replied, glancing at his sister; "at least an attempt to
exchange bank-notes, which on discovery were found to be forged. It is,
indeed, an interesting case; and having full internal evidence that she
is innocent, I am doubly concerned in her acquittal. That fact at least
is in my favour, for I am afraid I shall be never able to plead _con
amore_ under contrary circumstances. The fact is, this poor woman has
been for years toiling hard to amass a sufficient sum to carry her to
America to her betrothed husband. When still far from the desired point,
sickness and other causes having often interrupted her exertions and
retarded her success, she finds her lover, impatient at the delay,
beginning to entertain injurious ideas of her constancy and truth. In
this distressing emergency, it happened (this is her own statement of
the case) that some friend came forward, and made up in those same
forged notes the requisite amount; that she received them in perfect
ignorance of their real character; but refusing absolutely to give up
the name of the guilty donor, she was imprisoned, and now stands
arraigned for at least connivance in the delinquency."
"Poor creature!" murmured Mary, "is this then the end of all her
deferred hope--and wearing, wasting anxiety of mind and body! Oh!
Arthur, in such a cause you must surely be successful; how much you will
have to say to soften the hearts of her judges, and lead them to look
upon the case with lenity and pity!"
"Really, Mary!" exclaimed her brother, smiling with affectionate
interest at the sudden energy with which the subject of discussion had
animated his sister; the thrilling pathos of her tone--the brilliancy
which lighted up her languid eye--the earnest spirit shining with almost
sublimity from her anxious countenance, all which he had but a moment
ago observed as affording so sad a contrast to the beaming brightness of
her fair companion; "I really believe you would do more for my client in
the way of eloquence than I should, if by eloquence the cause is to be
gained. Do you not think so, Miss Elliott?"
"Miss Elliott has not yet tested your powers in that way," Mary rejoined
with a smile, whilst Carrie only laughed and blushed.
"As for my eloquence," she added with a sigh, "it could only spring from
the sympathetic feeling which one woman must have for the sufferings and
the trials of another; at least"--in a low tone she added, "she must be
very young or very happy," glancing at Miss Elliott, "if she be found
wanting in that most powerful of inspirations."
"Poor woman!" interposed Miss Elliott, who perhaps began to fear she
might be considered too uninspired in the eyes of the young barrister,
"she seems deemed throughout to suspicion. How dreadful to be suspected
wrongfully! But, as for that lover, I am sure he cannot deserve all the
trouble she has suffered on his account. I dare say, the faithlessness
was all on his side, for no person could suspect or doubt any one they
really loved. Do you not think so, Miss Seaham?" turning away her face
from Arthur to look at his sister with a pretty blush.
An expression of intense pain shot across Mary's countenance.
"I thought so once," was the almost gasping utterance which trembled on
her lips; but she paused, merely saying in a low tone, her eyes bent
mournfully on the ground, "at any rate, the one who doubts and suspects
is the greatest sufferer of the two. Yet there are circumstances, I
hope, in which, without faithlessness, our perfect trust and confidence
in another may--must indeed be shaken."
"Of course; otherwise the virtue becomes indeed a very weakness,"
rejoined Arthur with some moody significance of tone and manner.
"Now, I must go, for I suppose it is nearly time to dress for dinner,"
exclaimed Miss Elliott, who, though only partially acquainted with the
particulars of Mary's love affair, probably perceived that she had
inadvertantly struck upon some tender string; "I suppose, you will soon
be doing the same."
And away the gay-hearted creature glided, singing as she went.
"Now, Mary," Arthur cried, his eyes and ears disenchanted; "wait for me
just one minute." And down he sat for the space of several moments, and
his pen flew swift as thought over the parchment. Mary also sat
patiently, her eyes fixed with a look of affectionate interest on the
intelligent countenance of the writer.
At length, his task completed, the pen was thrown, with a gesture of
triumph and satisfaction upon the table, and "Now, Mary, it is
finished," was the exulting expression of his lips.
There was something in the congratulating smile which met his own, that
seemed to change the spirit of the young man's dream; for more
thoughtfully he gathered up his papers, whilst "love, fame, ambition,"
might have seemed at once annihilated from his thoughts, by the tone of
voice in which--glancing at Mary, who drew near to assist him--he
abruptly murmured:
"Mary, you are not looking well."
"Am I not?" with forced cheerfulness; "ah! I dare say you think so
to-day--by comparison."
"Nonsense!" knitting his brows; "I am _not_ speaking comparatively, but
quite positively. You have been looking less well every day for some
time. I am becoming impatient. I want to see you looking better, or I
should say, _happier_."
"As happy and bright I suppose as--" began Mary, attempting playfully to
divert the dreaded theme.
"Pshaw! as bright as no one. I am thinking only of you, Mary."
"But you should think of some one else, now Arthur, that you are a
steady, professional man."
"And now that I am this steady, professional man," taking the words out
of her mouth, "I feel that I am justified and competent to offer my
sister the settled home she once faithfully promised to share with me.
_She_ may have altered her wishes on the subject; mine remain unchanged.
Still, Mary, (whatever you may have taken into your silly little head,)
till your happiness is more definitely secure, you will remain the
paramount object of my interest and affection. My dear Mary," as his
sister putting her hand in his, and smiling gratefully in his face,
still shook her head, as if desiring and expecting for that dear
brother, less unselfish aims, and more smiling hopes to cheer him on his
promising career.
"God knows," he anxiously continued, "I speak from my heart when I say,
that should you give me any hope that I could in any degree succeed in
the promotion of your happiness, I should require no greater impetus to
any exertion I may be called upon to make, than your affectionate
interest in my success. Nay, do you not remember, even when we were
children, your encouragement was the greatest incentive to my boyish
ambition--how every mark of affection from you was more valuable to me
than any bestowed by my other sisters, although I loved them all so
well. In short, I declare to you, that the power of making me quite
happy lies in your own hands--far more than in any careless-hearted
beauty whom I might in a foolish moment take it into my head to ask to
be my wife--and find, after all, that she did not care a straw for me.
Therefore, dear Mary, only be persuaded to give up this, as I am sure
you must begin to feel it, most equivocal and inauspicious engagement,
and let us try if we cannot be happy together, in time perhaps--as happy
as if no such cloud had ever arisen--and who knows what more propitious
fate may not still be in store for you?
"Mary," he continued, as his sister shook her head despondingly, "only
consent to let final measures be taken, and I shall go forth to-morrow
with double energy and hope. After all! the pain is more in the idea
than in the reality, for the matter is becoming really a mere affair of
the imagination; for a year and a half you have not seen or heard of
him. But do not think I would make light of the sacrifice. The
destruction of a great hope, must be, under any circumstances, a trial
hard to be endured. But cheer up, dear Mary, there may be a brighter sun
yet to shine upon you. Will you think this over?"
"I will Arthur," she murmured faintly, "I promise you that your mind
shall very soon be set at rest on this subject."
She could promise this with a presentiment that the words were not
spoken without foundation--with a certain vague, unaccountable
presentiment, that some crisis was at hand in which her future fate
would surely be accomplished. But she was little prepared for the
communication which her brother now gently broke to her--that the
opportunity was indeed, very soon to be afforded her, for that in the
forthcoming case for which he had just been preparing his brief, Eugene
Trevor would have to appear to give his evidence.