Ah, Zelica! there was a time, when bliss
Shone o'er thy heart from every look of his;
When but to see him, hear him breathe the air
In which he dwelt was thy soul's fondest prayer;
When round him hung such a perpetual spell,
Whate'er he did, none ever did so well.
Too happy days! when, if he touch'd a flower
Or gem of thine, 'twas sacred from that hour.
LALLA ROOKH.
Mary Seaham sat alone that same evening by the hotel room fire,
expecting Eugene Trevor.
She had told him to come late, because by that time, she knew that her
brother, with Judge Elliott's party, would have gone to the county ball
held that night in the town; and that the important interview with him,
who still deemed himself her lover, might take place without
interruption.
Mary had not told her brother of the appointment she had made; so
fearful was she that any obstacle should occur to impede or prevent the
anxious purpose she had formed. Yet now that the carriage containing
Arthur, the radiant Carrie, and their chaperon had driven from the door,
and she knew that Eugene at any moment, might be announced, her heart
began to fail her, and she almost repented of what she had undertaken.
What was she going to do or say--what part pursue?
A dark and bewildered maze seemed to lie before her, and she sat there,
pale and trembling at every sound, something grasped convulsively in her
hand, her eyes fixed with a dark and anxious gaze upon the flickering
fire-flame.
Times indeed were changed, since in serene and quiet happiness, Mary had
so often waited at Silverton for her lover's approach. No one could have
imaged forth an intended love-tryste from her aspect now. Yet the
critical moment came. Eugene entered--the door closed behind him, and
once more they were alone together. Mary having resumed her seat, with
blanched lips and beating heart--he standing on the hearth-rug looking
down upon her like as he had done on that memorable occasion of the
first declaration of his love--that beginning of so much happiness--but
greater misery to Mary. Alas! was this to be its end?
He began to speak hurriedly of the length of time since they had met, of
the strange circumstances of their _rencontre_ that day; Mary listening
as to a voice speaking in a dream, and assenting mechanically, till
finally, as he alluded more particularly to the circumstances of the
case, mentioning the name of Mabel Marryott and the astounding facts
which had transpired concerning that old--he had almost said _faithful_
but he substituted long-established servant of the family. Then the pure
blood mounted for a moment to Mary's brow, leaving something like a
stern and calm resolution on her countenance; whilst to Eugene Trevor's
somewhat complacent communication, as to what he had done for the
daughter, the measures he had taken to secure her from further trouble
and delay in the accomplishment of her emigration, she listened grave
and unmoved, as if she deemed his proceedings in this respect had been
but what was strictly due to the innocent sufferer of so much iniquity.
Yes, darker and darker seemed to grow the picture before Mary's eyes
that house and home presented, of which she had once contemplated with
such innocent satisfaction and happy anticipation becoming the mistress.
Sin after sin, more or less strange and terrible to her startled spirit,
rose up to scare and to repel her; so much so, that to think that one to
whom she had been devoted, should have amalgamated himself even in a
passive character with the influence of such a foul and infected
atmosphere, was horrible to her feelings, and most 'blessed' indeed in
comparison--'when men shall revile you and cast you out of their
company'--appeared to her the persecuted in such a case.
Was it that some outward manifestation of these inward impressions
revealed themselves upon her countenance, that Eugene regarded her with
that keen and scrutinizing expression, as for a moment her eyes were,
with a careworn abstracted look, cast downwards upon the ground.
"Now, Mary, let me hear something of yourself," he suddenly exclaimed,
breaking off his former topic of discourse; "what have you been doing
since I saw you last?"
Mary did not return the question; she did not ask "What have _you_ been
doing?" but as she looked up into her lover's face, what was it that
made it impossible to return the smile, the glance, with which he
awaited the reply? What was it that made her turn away her eyes with a
pang--almost a shudder at her heart? Alas! what new impression did she
receive from looking on that face, which had been to her the beloved
dream, the haunting vision of her youth.
Was it come to this. Had absence changed her heart? Had it become
strange, untrue, towards her early love? Did she turn her eyes away from
her lover's face because his cheek was haggard, his brow sunken, and his
eye lost the brightness of those days when
"The sunshine of her life was in those eyes."
Ah, no! she felt that this was not the case. Had she but read signs of
grief, of sickness, written there, and her heart would have gone forth
to soothe and sympathize with all the truth and fervour of the past.
But no, it was none of these which had laid their signet there. Alas for
her enlightened eyes! she felt it was not sorrow--not sickness--but
sin; that no cloud had settled on his brow which she could have dared
the fond attempt to pierce; and agony to think that it should have come
to this; that she should be seated at his side, and feel it were not
possible that she could lay her weary head upon that lover's arm, place
her hand in his, with the love and confidence with which she had even
yearned towards another.
But this had been the vague and passing reflection of a second. With
scarcely perceptible pause she had softly replied:
"I have done little, Eugene, which would count for much in your varied
and busy existence. The most important feature in my own consideration
has been an excursion to Italy, which I took last summer with my
brother."
Mary's voice trembled nervously as she uttered these last words, for she
felt that now had come an opportunity she must not neglect, for leading
on to the critical subject on which she had to speak: and, as if to
support her desperate purpose, unclasped the little trinket-case she had
all this time still held concealed in the palm of her delicate hand.
"To Italy! oh, indeed;" was Eugene's reply. "I was very nearly going
there at the same time; it was just a chance that I did not. My father's
illness, a constant tie upon my movements, prevented me at the last
moment; how delightful it would have been if we had met."
Mary made no reply, but looked down still with that peculiar expression
which could not but strike Eugene as ominous of something of an
important and peculiar nature.
"And you were charmed, I suppose;" he proceeded, perusing her
countenance with increasing interest and attention; "so much so that I
fear you would scarcely have considered my society as an addition to
your enjoyment; you have learnt to live too well without me, I am
afraid, Mary."
That low and flattering tone of other days thrilled Mary's heart, and
flushed her cheek with emotions as of old; but gently removing the hand
which for an instant she passively yielded to his pressure, she did not
raise her eyes as once she would have done, in tender rebuke at the
unjust assumption--she did not say how wearisome and dark had life
become without him--how void, wasted and incomplete!--but hurriedly, as
if she feared the working of the olden spell, and the consequent melting
away of her sterner resolution, she started forward upon the anxious
theme weighing on her heart.
"I met with a strange adventure at Tivoli, Eugene; it was about that I
wished most particularly to speak to you. One morning, as I was walking
out early, I found this ring upon the ground;" and as she spoke she
produced the signet from the case, and held it towards him. "You may
imagine how surprised I was to see your initials, and your crest; I
scarcely knew indeed what to think, till walking on a little further I
overtook--Mr. Temple!"
Her listener, who had at first taken the ring wonderingly from her hand;
as she proceeded, raised it to the light, and then abruptly, as if for
the purpose of closer examination, he started up and approached the
candle.
He uttered not a word, but had his face not been turned away, it might
have been seen to have changed to an ashy hue.
"I was surprised," Mary proceeded, "for though the initials were thus
accounted for, the crest being yours seemed too unlikely a coincidence;
indeed I had previously cherished a vague but wild idea that it might
possibly belong to your brother, and that his long-wished for recovery
was at hand."
She paused, but no comment on her words, no reply, but an almost
fiercely impatient interrogative: "Well?" as he turned his countenance,
but not his eyes, round upon her, proceeded from his lips.
"Well, you see I was disappointed," her mild voice resumed more firmly,
now that she had launched upon the critical theme beyond recall. "At
least," she added, with a wistful earnest glance, "I found, as I said
before, that it had been dropped by Mr. Temple. Oh, Eugene! how came it
in his possession--that ring, that impression which I remember to have
seen upon a letter--that fatal letter which seemed to have been the
beginning of so much sorrow and annoyance. Oh! what is this mysterious
connection subsisting between you and Mr. Temple? tell me--tell me
truly--faithfully--what is it that makes this signet with your arms,
your crest, his also?"
Eugene Trevor burst into a forced and insulting laugh.
"Good Heavens, Mary! why not ask that question of Temple himself? how in
the world am I to tell whether it might have been begged, borrowed, or
stolen by the clerical impostor? Stolen most likely--as I can pretty
plainly perceive," fixing on her face a keen and cynical look of
scrutiny; "he has managed to steal something else besides. Yes," he
continued, "I begin to understand now the secret of the cold looks and
measured words with which, after so long a separation, I am received by
you, Mary. I see what this excursion to Italy has done for me. It is _I_
who ought to ask questions, I think. You saw a great deal of Temple, I
conclude, after the first adventure?"
Though Eugene endeavoured to assume a tone of irritated suspicion
natural to a man whose jealousy was not unreasonably awakened, there was
a look of dark and eager anxiety in his countenance which could not be
concealed.
"Yes," Mary continued in a tolerably firm voice, though she had turned a
little pale at her lover's implied accusation, "circumstances certainly
did throw us together--circumstances neither of his seeking or my own."
A fierce fiery expression shot from Eugene's eye.
"Oh, they did!" he exclaimed, taking refuge in the passionate burst of
rage in which his feelings found vent. "I thought so; and this is his
most honourable, most virtuous mode of proceeding, insinuating himself
into your society, inveigling your affections by his heroic sanctity,
and poisoning your ear by base and interested insinuations against
myself--if he wishes to circulate his malicious lies, why not speak them
out plainly like a man--not send you to attack me in this manner with
that accursed ring?" dashing the signet forcibly to the ground.
"Eugene!" interposed Mary, "these reflections on the most honourable and
upright of men are unfounded and unjust. There was nothing in the nature
of our intercourse with which the most jealous could find fault. He, Mr.
Temple, was in a manner forced into joining my brother and myself during
a short excursion, by an old friend, Mr. Wynne, with whom he was
travelling, and at last parted from us abruptly. As to the rest it is I
alone on whom your displeasure need fall; it was by my anxious
importunity alone--which he tried in vain to evade--that I drew from him
all that I learnt on a subject on which it has become necessary to the
peace and quiet of my spirit, that I should be more clearly enlightened.
He told me that his lips were sealed upon the points on which I
questioned him; but that some mystery does exist--some mystery
respecting your brother, Eugene, some mystery in which you yourself, and
indeed he Mr. Temple, are strangely, closely confused--is most certain.
And then he gave me back that ring, and referred me to you for a true
and faithful relation of all I so anxiously desired to ascertain; or for
your sake, as well as my own, to bid you farewell for ever. Oh, Eugene!
disperse then, I implore you, this dark, bewildering cloud, for I
cannot, cannot walk on any more groping in this darkness. Think of me
what you please--wrong my motives if you will, but only show me the
truth whatever it may be; or, Eugene," she added, faintly, her voice
melted into a tone of mingled compassion and concern, "I must indeed put
an end at once to my ceaseless perplexity, by bidding you farewell for
ever."
Eugene Trevor was calm now, though still livid with the passion into
which he had excited himself. He sat down, close to Mary's side, and
there was a dogged air of resolution expressed in his countenance.
"I am willing to tell anything that you may wish to ask," he said
sarcastically, "to tear off any part of this delightful veil of mystery
in which you have been pleased to invest my deeds and actions, for the
benefit of your romantic imagination. So pray begin your catechism."
"Your brother?" was the faint and faltering interrogatory, which came
from Mary's lips.
Eugene Trevor's assumed calmness vanished; he started up, and approached
the fire-place, murmuring hoarsely:
"Well, what of him?"
"Where is he? Who is he? How is it that he does not return or appear in
England--in the world? What has he to do with Mr. Temple? For that some
mysterious link does exist between those two; I have for sometime had
suspicions which I can no longer quell, or put aside as imaginary and
vain--by night as well as by day I have been haunted by wild, strange
dreams that Mr. Temple and your brother are the same."
She paused aghast, for she had risen and approached Eugene in her
excitement, and now stood gazing as Adah might have gazed upon the face
of her husband Cain, when for the first time his countenance was
revealed to her in all its undisguised hatred and wrathfulness of
expression.
"Eugene!" she murmured, her voice melting into a tone of mingled
surprize, compassion and concern. "Eugene!" and she laid her hand
soothingly on his arm.
He turned his eyes, flashing defiance upon her.
"Well," he cried, "and if they were, pray, what of that?"
"If--if" she cried, returning his gaze unshrinkingly, "then--then your
brother, Eugene, should not _now_--never should have been a banished
exile from his home and heritage. They have wronged him basely, who
ever, on the plea of madness, deprived such a man of honour, hope and
happiness. Farewell indeed, Eugene, if this _could_ be the case.
Farewell, at least, till you have repaired your grievous error, and
restored Eustace Trevor to all which has been wrongfully, deceitfully
taken from him."
She turned away, but Eugene Trevor seized her hand.
"Stop, Mary," he said in a low voice of subdued and concentrated rage.
"Stop, if you please, and hear _me_. You may remember, you said, a
little time ago, farewell, _if_ I did not reveal to you all you desired
to know. I have told you nothing yet, though you seem indeed too ready
to conclude every thing of the blackest and most preposterous
description against me. But although you are so eager for any excuse to
rid yourself of me, for ever; though the heart you once swore would
scarcely have been torn from me, were I proved to be the greatest
villain upon earth, has shown itself a very woman's in its weakness, its
feebleness, its inconstancy. Yes, Mary, villain as you may wish to
consider me, _I_ preserve at least the virtue of _constancy_. I love you
as much as ever, Mary. I will not give you up. What," he exclaimed,
fixing his eyes upon her pale and startled countenance, and advancing
towards her as she sunk down upon a sofa, "do you own yourself, false
and faithless, enough to wish that I should do so? Do you now love this
Eustace, this Temple, whatever he may please to call himself?"
"Eugene!" gasped Mary's blanched lips.
"Answer me, Mary, or rather prove it. I see indeed that our marriage has
been deferred too long; promise me, _swear_, that it shall take place
secretly; there is nothing now that should impede it. I can manage my
father now, that that woman will be out of the way. You know, Mary--you
cannot wonder that I should have considered her presence as an objection
to your entrance into my father's house; the obstacle will now be
removed."
But Mary shrank back with shuddering repugnance at the suggestion thus
presented to her delicate imagination. _She_ invited to take the place
of Mabel Marryott--_she_ to have room made for her within her lover's
home, by the removal of such a being.
"Mary, you are not--you cannot own yourself so faithless and so false as
to love that other man."
"No--Eugene--no. What right have you to entertain such a suspicion? but
you--you have not told me what I required."
"But I _will_ tell you, Mary--I will tell you everything. I will
redeem--I will atone for all that I may have done--I will lay my fate in
your hands--I will yield my future conduct, my every action, to your
guidance and direction. As your husband, I shall be content to give up
all, whatsoever your wishes may cost me. But I will wait no longer; say
you will be my wife, Mary: and I swear to fulfil whatever you may impose
upon me."
He had passed his arm with a kind of reckless excitement round her
waist, and now held her tightly towards him, so that her heart beat
wildly against his own, though she shrank trembling from the close
embrace, and still he repeated, with a voice which sounded to her ear
more like hatred than affection:
"Say--promise me, you will marry me in a week, Mary, publicly or in
secret, as you will; you are your own mistress, no one can prevent you.
Speak, say that one word, Mary, and you shall hear everything as truly
as if I stood before the judgment-seat of God."
But Mary's lips could not utter a reply, her breath seemed choked, a
mist was before her eyes, though the once most beloved face on earth
was bending down upon her, so near that his very breath fanned her
cheek. She saw it, but as in a frightful dream changed into the face of
a demon, and she felt that breath to be upon her brow like a burning and
a blighting flame. Yet in the strange terror, the perplexity of feeling
which had come over her, a kind of fascination, which something in that
dark, lurid glance fixed so steadfastly upon her, seemed to enthral her
senses. She might perhaps, had it been possible, have forced her lips to
give the required promise. But though they moved, they uttered no sound.
She grew paler and paler, more and more heavily she pressed against the
retaining arm which encircled her, till finally her head lay back on the
cushion of the couch; and Eugene Trevor started at perceiving her closed
eyes and ghastly countenance, released her from his hold, for she had
fainted!