We left Colonel Charles Manners standing at the library door, with his
hand upon the great brazen ball, embossed with sundry figures, which
served as the handle to the lock. It may be remembered that Colonel
Manners, being somewhat troubled with the internal contention between
feeling for his friend's uneasiness and wonder for its cause, was
seeking an empty room to let those two emotions calm themselves; but
when he turned the above brazen ball, and the door opened to his will,
he found that he had been mistaken in looking for solitude there; for
the first things he saw were, a very beautiful face and a pair of
bright gay eyes looking up at him from the other side of the little
table on the left hand, with the hat and feathers, which it was then
customary for ladies to wear in riding, thrown somewhat back from the
forehead, so as to show the whole countenance of Isadore Falkland,
raising her face with a look of half-laughing vexation, as if asking,
"Who is about to disturb me now, when I came here in search of
solitude?"
The interpretation of the expression was so self-evident that Colonel
Manners paused with a smile; and Isadore, finding that her face had
told the truth somewhat too plainly, laughed, and begged him to come
in. "Nay, Miss Falkland," said Manners, "I will not disturb you. Your
look, I can assure you, said, _Not at home!_ as plain as those words
ever were spoken." And he took a step back, as if to withdraw.
"The servant made a mistake, then," replied Isadore; "I did not bid
him say, 'Not at home' to Colonel Manners. But the truth is, I am
endeavouring to compose my mind."
"Indeed!" he exclaimed, in some surprise; "I am very sorry to hear
that any thing has occurred to agitate it."
"And can you say so, Colonel Manners?" asked Isadore laughing, "when
you, yourself, were art and part in the deed?"
Manners was still more surprised; but, as he saw that the agitation of
which Miss Falkland complained was of no very serious nature, it only
affected him so far as to bring him two steps farther into the room.
"If I am one of the culprits," he said, approaching nearer the table,
where Isadore sat enjoying his astonishment,--for hers was one of
those light and happy hearts that can win a drop of honey from every
flower, however small,--"if I am one of the culprits, I claim the
right of an Englishman to hear the charge fairly read, Miss Falkland.
Otherwise I refuse to plead."
"Well, then, Colonel Manners," she replied, "you stand arraigned of
having galloped as fast, when riding with two ladies, as if you had
been at the head of your regiment; and of being art and part with
Edward de Vaux in shaking the little brains possessed by one Isadore
Falkland out of their proper place. The truth is," she added more
seriously, "that after riding very fast, my ideas, which are never in
a very composed and tranquil state, get into such a whirl, that I am
always obliged to come and read some good book for a quarter of an
hour ere I dare venture into rational society. Do you feel the same,
Colonel Manners?"
"Not exactly," answered Manners smiling, "but I rather fancy that I am
more accustomed to galloping than you are, Miss Falkland; and that had
you been as much used to that exercise as I have been, during eighteen
years' service, you would find your ideas quite as clear, after the
longest gallop that ever was ridden, as they were before you set out."
By this time Colonel Manners had so far carried on his approaches that
he was in the midst of the library, the door shut behind him; and a
sofa in the window--not very far from Miss Falkland's left hand, with
two or three books upon a console hard by--within one step of his
position. What Isadore rejoined to his reply matters little. It was
just sufficient to seat him on the sofa, with a book in his hand,
which he had not the slightest intention of reading; and a
conversation began, which, though it had no particular tendency, and
was of no particular import, stretched itself over full three quarters
of an hour. It was, however, one of those conversations which are the
most pleasant that it is possible to imagine--one of those
conversations, when an intelligent man and an intelligent woman sit
down, without the intention of talking about any thing in particular,
and end by talking of every thing under the sun. They must, however,
feel convinced, like Isadore and Colonel Manners, that there is not
the slightest chance on earth of their falling in love with each
other; for the least drop of love, or any thing like it, changes the
whole essence of the thing, and it is no longer conversation. But
Isadore and Colonel Manners never dreamt of such a thing; and went on,
letting subject run into subject, and thought follow thought, as they
liked--not like a regiment of infantry, indeed, advancing in single
file, one behind the other, with measured step and stiff demeanour,
but like a bevy of rosy children rushing from a school-room door,
sometimes one at a time, sometimes two or three linked hand in hand
together, sometimes half a dozen in a crowd tumbling over one
another's shoulders. Thus ran on their ideas, gaily, lightly, of every
variety of face and complexion, without ceremony and without
restraint. It is true it required some activity to keep up the game
with spirit, for both were rapid; and Isadore, when she could not
easily express herself in one way, often took another, more fanciful
and flowery, so that had not Manners's wit been as agile as her own he
might often have been left behind.
The moments flew rapidly till, as we have said, three quarters of an
hour had passed, as it were a minute; and neither Colonel Manners nor
Isadore Falkland would have known that it had passed at all, had not a
clock struck in the hall hard by, and Isadore suddenly thought that
_somebody_--that great bugbear _somebody_--might deem it strange that
she sat talking to Colonel Manners alone in the library, while the
rest of the family were probably in the drawing-room. She now
remembered, also, that she had still her riding-habit to change; and
having by this time quite forgotten that Colonel Manners was an ugly
man, she made the alteration of her dress an excuse to leave him,
though, to speak truth, she broke off their conversation with regret,
and felt inclined to look upon the moments she had thus spent as one
of the pleasantest things she had yet met with in the garland of
time--that garland which begins in buds and blossoms, and ends in
blighted flowers and withered leaves.
Manners, for his part,--though he had from the first thought her a
very beautiful girl, and a very charming one, too,--had by this time
determined that she was possessed of many a more admirable quality of
mind and grace of person than he had even believed before; and an
involuntary sigh, which broke from his lips when she left him taught
him, to feel that it was as well, upon the whole, that he was so soon
to take his departure. It was a part of his policy never to encourage
regrets in regard to a state of life which he had made up his mind
could not be his; and he found that to live long in the same house
with Isadore Falkland might cultivate those regrets much more than was
desirable.
When she was gone, he thought for a moment over what had just passed,
gave another moment to memories of the long gone, spent two or three
more in trifling with the book he held in his hand, and then, after
changing his boots in his own room, proceeded to the drawing-room.
Mrs. Falkland was now there alone, but it was not long before Isadore
again appeared; and, in a few minutes after, De Vaux, as we have
before shown, entered the room for a single instant to enquire for
Marian. Neither his aunt nor his cousin perceived that any thing had
occurred to disturb his equanimity; but the eyes of his friend,
quickened perhaps by what he already knew, discovered without
difficulty that the pain which had been given him by the letter he had
himself delivered was not at all diminished by reflection; and
although he felt that he could ask no questions, he was not a little
anxious for the result.
Some time passed, ere it was necessary to dress for dinner, Without
any thing of importance, either in word or deed, occurring in the
drawing-room, except inasmuch as Mrs. Falkland informed Colonel
Manners that a lady was to dine with them on that day who had also
enjoyed the advantage of his mother's acquaintance in her youth.
Isadore pronounced her a foolish, tiresome woman; and Manners, on
hearing her name, said he had met her some years before, but did not
venture to dissent from Miss Falkland's opinion.
Mrs. Falkland smiled, and tacitly acknowledged that her own judgment
of the good lady's qualities was not very different, by saying that
she had merely invited her because she knew that she would feel hurt
were she to hear that Colonel Manners had been long at Morley House
without her having seen him. "And I never wish to hurt people's
feelings, Colonel Manners," she added, "unless when it is very
necessary indeed."
"It is never worth while, my dear madam," replied Manners; "and I
believe that, with a little sacrifice of our comfort, without any
sacrifice of sincerity, we can always avoid it, however disagreeable
people may be."
Manners was in the drawing-room amongst the first after dressing, and
he looked with some degree of anxiety for the appearance of De Vaux,
in order to see whether the tidings he had received still continued to
affect him so strongly. But when De Vaux came in his manner had wholly
changed. His conversation with Marian had had the effect which such a
conversation might be expected to have. The recollection of it, too,
as a whole, while he had been dressing, had done as much as the
conversation itself. It had shown him a sweet and consoling result,
unmingled with any of the painful feelings, to which all he had
himself been called upon to communicate, had given rise in his own
breast. The gipsy's letter, and the suspicions which it called up, had
shaken and agitated him, had taken away the foundations from the hopes
and expectations of his whole life; but that which had past between
him and her he loved had re-established all, and fixed the hopes of
future happiness on a surer and a nobler basis than ever. He trod with
a firmer, ay, and with a prouder, step, than when he had fancied
himself the heir of broad lands and lordships; and when Marian herself
soon after entered the room, his face lighted up with a happy glow,
like the top of some high hill when it receives the first rays of the
morning sun. Marian herself, too, blushed as she appeared, for all the
display of her heart's inmost feelings, which she had that morning
made to her lover's eyes, had left a consciousness about her heart--a
slight but tremulous agitation, which brought the warm blood glowing
into her cheek. There was nothing like unhappiness, however, left in
the countenance of either; and Manners became satisfied, that whatever
had been the contents of the gipsy's letter, the evil effects thereof
were passing away.
The Lady Barbara Simpson at length arrived with her husband in her
train, and was most tiresomely pleased to see Colonel Manners. She was
a worthy dame in the plenitude of ten lustres, in corporeal qualities
heavy, and in intellectual ones certainly not light. Vulgarity is,
unfortunately, to be found in every rank,--_unfortunately_, because,
where found in high rank, in which every means and appliance is at
hand to remedy it, its appearance argues vulgarity of mind, to which
the coarseness of the peasant is comparatively grace. Now Lady Barbara
Simpson was of the vulgar great; and, though the blood of all the
Howards might have flowed in her veins, the pure and honourable stream
would have been choked up by the mental mud of her nature. In her
youth, no sum or labour had been spared to ornament her mind with
those accomplishments and graces which are common in her class; and as
music and drawing, and a knowledge of languages, are things which, to
a certain degree, may be hung on like a necklace or a bracelet, the
mind of Lady Barbara was perfectly well dressed before her parents had
done with her education. But nothing could make the mind itself any
thing but what it was; and the load of accomplishments, which masters
of all kinds strove hard to bestow, rested upon it, like jewels on an
ugly person, fine things seen to a disadvantage. The want of
consideration for other people's feelings, or rather the want of that
peculiar delicacy of sensation called _tact_, which teaches rapidly to
understand what other people's feelings are, she fancied a positive,
instead of a negative, quality, and called it in her own mind ease and
good-humour; and thus, though she certainly was a good-tempered woman,
her coarseness of feeling and comprehension rendered her ten times
more annoying to every one near her than if she had been as malevolent
as Tisiphone.
During dinner, Manners felt as if he were sitting next to somebody
clothed in hair-cloth, which caught his dress at every turn, and
scrubbed him whenever he touched it; and his comfort was not greatly
increased by finding himself an object of great attention and
patronage to Lady Barbara. Opposite to him sat Isadore Falkland; and,
though it was certainly a great relief to look in so fair a face, yet
there was in it an expression of amused pity for Lady Barbara's martyr
that was a little teasing. Her Ladyship first descanted
enthusiastically upon the beauty of Colonel Manners's mother and
called upon Mrs. Falkland to vouch how very lovely she was. Mrs.
Falkland assented as briefly as possible; and Lady Barbara then took
wine with Colonel Manners, and declared that there was not the
slightest resemblance between him and his mother, examining every
feature in his face as she did so to make herself sure of the fact.
At this point of the proceedings Manners was more amused than annoyed;
for his own ugliness was no secret to himself, and he therefore knew
well that it could be no secret to others. He laughed then at her
Ladyship's scrutiny, and replied, "I was once considered very like my
mother, Lady Barbara; but whatever resemblance I did possess was
carried away by my enemy the small-pox."
"Oh yes," she cried in return, "a dreadful disease that! Shocking the
ravages it sometimes makes! I see you must have had it very bad."
"Very bad, indeed, Lady Barbara," replied Colonel Manners with a
laughing glance towards Miss Falkland; "and, what is worse, I had it
at that period of life when one has just learned to value good looks,
without having learned to despise them."
"Oh, terrible!" exclaimed Lady Barbara, really commiserating him; "it
must have made a terrible change in you, indeed. Dear me, what a
pity!"
Marian de Vaux was pained for Colonel Manners, and she now interposed
with a few words, endeavouring to change the subject; but Lady Barbara
was like a hollow square of infantry, and could _faire face partout_,
so that poor Marian only drew the fire on herself. Lady Barbara
answered her question, and then added, "And so I hear you are going to
be married in a fortnight, Miss De Vaux. Well, I wish you happy, with
all my heart; though marriage is always a great risk, God knows; is it
not, Mr. Simpson?"
"It is, indeed, my dear," replied Mr. Simpson, a quiet little man with
much sterling good sense concealed under an insignificant exterior,
and with a certain degree of subacid fun in his nature, which was
habitually brought forth by the absurdities of his wife,--"it is,
indeed, my dear;" and he finished with an audible and perhaps not
unintentional sigh, which gave point to his reply.
"But, for all that, it is a very good, and a very proper state, too,"
rejoined Lady Barbara, "and a very happy one, after all."
"I am glad you find it so, my dear," said Mr. Simpson; but Lady
Barbara went on, as usual, without attending to her husband.
"I would advise all young people to marry," she said, "but not too
young though,"--she herself had married at thirty-five--"not too young
though, for then they only have such large families they do not know
what to do with them. But now at a proper age every one ought to
marry. Now, Colonel Manners, why are not you married? You ought to
have been married before this."
The reader knows that she was upon dangerous ground: but Manners was
too good a politician to show that he was touched; and therefore he
determined in reply to put that as a jest which had a good deal of
serious earnest in it. "Oh, my dear madam," he answered, "you forget I
am too ugly; I should never find a wife now."
"Oh, nonsense, nonsense!" she answered; "ugliness has nothing to do
with it; many a woman will marry the ugliest man in the world sooner
than not marry at all; and besides, you ought to have a good fortune,
Colonel Manners; and that is a great thing. But, I can tell you, you
will certainly never find a wife, as you say, unless you ask some
one."
The draught was bitter enough; but Manners was indomitable, and
answered still gayly, "Nay, nay, Lady Barbara, I am so diffident of
my own merits, and so completely convinced that no one will ever fall
in love with my beautiful countenance, that I shall certainly never
marry till some lady asks me. It would require that proof, at least,
to convince me that I had any chance of being loved."
"And if any lady were to ask you," continued the unmerciful Lady
Barbara, "would you really marry her after all, Colonel Manners?"
"I believe I may answer that it would depend upon circumstances,"
replied Colonel Manners, with a grave smile; "as, unfortunately for my
happiness, your ladyship's marriage has put you out of the question."
"Oh, do not let me be in the way in the least degree," rejoined Mr.
Simpson from the other side of the table.
De Vaux was fairly driven to a laugh; and Lady Barbara, beginning to
find out that there was an error somewhere, paused for a moment, and
went on with her dinner.
However skilfully and courageously a man may struggle against his own
feelings on those points where they have intrenched themselves by long
habit and possession, yet, when forced by circumstance to treat as a
matter of common conversation subjects that are habitually painful to
him, there are slight traits--each almost imperceptible, but making
something in the aggregate--which will betray what is going on within;
sometimes to the eyes of another man, and almost always to those of a
woman. A degree of bitterness will mingle with his gaiety; a sigh will
sometimes tread upon the heels of a smile; and a deeper gravity will
follow the transient, superficial laugh, and distinguish the true from
the assumed. Women, by a more refined nature, by a necessity of
concealing their own feelings under various disguises, and by the
habit of judging others by slight indications, are rendered infinitely
more capable of penetrating the veil with which we are often obliged
to cover our deeper sentiments. Both Marian de Vaux and Isadore
Falkland were at once in Colonel Manners's secret, and comprehended,
without difficulty, how much was jest and how much was earnest in his
replies to Lady Barbara. Both felt for him, too, and both were sorry
for him; and as Marian, in consequence of her generous interposition
in his favour, already suffered somewhat too much by her Ladyship's
answers touching matrimony, to dare the field again, Isadore entered
upon the campaign with greater power, and did her best to effect a
diversion. In this she was tolerably successful, though Colonel
Manners did not entirely escape; and the ladies retired sooner than
usual, in consequence of Mrs. Falkland's desire to support her
daughter.
De Vaux, anxious for the following morning, in order that all his
doubts might be brought to a conclusion, would willingly have followed
the ladies as soon as possible: but, alas! those were days of hard
drinking; and Mr. Simpson, though by no means given to excess any more
than Manners or De Vaux, had his own peculiar method of consoling
himself for his lady's tiresomeness during the day, by sitting long in
the evening, with the sparkling decanters and the social biscuits, by
which he was sure neither to be annoyed nor contradicted. He drank his
wine slowly, and with real enjoyment, pausing over every sip as a
miser over every guinea, playing with the stalk of his wineglass,
saying little smart things, if he had any one to hear him, and if he
had not, gazing in the fire and diversifying pleasant thoughts by
discovering landscapes and faces therein.
De Vaux, without any want of charity, wished every glass his last, and
Colonel Manners wished himself in the drawing-room; but the _leges
conviviales_ of those days were far more strict than in these
degenerate times; and as the party was so small, both felt themselves
obliged to sit ceremoniously at table, till suddenly Mr. Simpson
perceived that neither of his companions had touched wine for half an
hour, and kindly took the hint. It was now near ten o'clock: Lady
Barbara had far to go, and was compassionate towards the four bright
bays that were ordered at that hour; and thus Colonel Manners was
spared the execution of all the man[oe]uvres he had planned to get out
of her way in the drawing-room. The carriage was announced: De Vaux
handed her down-stairs; and a glad sound it was when the wheels rolled
away from the door.
There are many people whose disagreeableness is of that peculiar kind
that one can compensate the annoyance it occasions at the time by
laughing at it with one's friends when it is over: but, unfortunately,
Lady Barbara's was of so extensive and tenacious a quality that it
outlasted her presence; and Mrs. Falkland, Isadore, and Marian, all
found that they could not talk of it in Colonel Manners's presence
without being as disagreeable as herself. As Marian, too, had no
inclination to converse upon the risks of matrimony and large
families, she was cut off from mentioning her share in the annoyance;
and after a quarter of an hour spent in determining, in general terms,
that Lady Barbara Simpson was a very disagreeable person, the family
returned to its usual course. Marian was a little anxious about
Edward's proposed excursion of the next morning; De Vaux himself was
thoughtful in regard to the conduct he was to pursue towards the
gipsy; and, as if by mutual consent, the whole party separated sooner
than usual.
We have not, however, done with the events of that night, and,
consequently, we shall follow De Vaux to his room, where he rang his
bell; and on the appearance of his servant, suffered him to give him
his dressing-gown and slippers. "You need not wait, William," he said,
when this operation was concluded; "I have something to write--give me
that desk."
The man obeyed and retired, and De Vaux proceeded to put down some
notes in regard to what he was to demand of the gipsy, and what was to
be the exact course he was to pursue, in order--without admitting any
fact till it was proved, or committing himself in any way--to arrive
both at the most accurate knowledge of his real situation, and the
most incontestable proofs of whatever was affirmed by the man he went
to visit.
When he had done this, he thought of going to bed; but his head ached
a good deal, with all the agitation he had gone through during the
day, crowned by the conversation of Lady Barbara Simpson during
dinner, and the tedium of Mr. Simpson after it; and approaching one of
the windows, he drew the curtain, opened the shutters, and looked out.
It was still moonlight, as when he had handed her ladyship to her
carriage; and throwing up the heavy sash, he leaned out, enjoying the
cool air. The moon was just at her highest noon, and the sky was
beautifully clear, except inasmuch as, every now and then, there
floated across a light white cloud, which the wind seemed playfully to
cast round the planet, like a veil, as she walked on in soft and
modest splendour, among the bright eyes of all the crowd of stars. The
river, gleaming like melted silver, appeared at the extremity of the
park, with the line of its banks, broken here and there by majestic
elms; and even beyond the grounds, glimpses of its windings might be
caught among the distant fields and plantations. The little wooded
promontory that flanked the park, with the higher hill, starting up
from the isthmus over which the road passed, rose grandly up, like two
towering steps, towards the glittering heavens; and beyond the sloping
fields and their hedgerow elms, with many an undulating line, lay soft
and obscure, in the sheeny moonlight, as far as a spot where, half-way
up the higher hill in front, the extreme horizontal line of the
distant country cut upon the sky. Scarce a sound was to be heard as De
Vaux gazed forth, but the whispering of the light breeze among the
tree tops, and the sweet plaintive belling of the deer in the park
below.
"If I had known that these people would have gone so soon," he
thought, "I would have made my visit to the gipsies' encampment
to-night instead of to-morrow. The gipsies sit up, carousing by their
fires, I believe, for full one-half of the night; and I might have set
my mind at rest about this business without waiting so long."
The thought of going even then now struck him; and he paused for a few
minutes to consider whether he ought to do so or not. "I shall not
sleep, even if I go to bed," he thought. "With all these things
weighing on my mind, slumber is not very likely to visit me. A couple
of hours will be enough to obtain all the information that I want; and
returning home, I may sleep in certainty to-night, and to-morrow have
to tell Marian that my apprehensions were groundless, or that our lot,
as far as station and fortune go, must be lower than we at one time
expected. I shall then have time, too, to sleep over my information,
and to lay out my plan of action for to-morrow deliberately. I wonder
if any of the servants are up yet?"
The fears that Marian had expressed for his safety crossed his mind
for a moment; but they crossed it merely as apprehensions, which might
have given her some pain, if she knew that he was venturing to the
gipsies' encampment at midnight. No doubt of his own security ever
entered his thoughts; for, although De Vaux's imagination was a very
active one, it was not fertile in images of personal danger. In short,
he was constitutionally brave; and, like his father, did not know what
corporal fear is. "I shall only have to tell Marian," he again
thought, "that I have been, and that all she was alarmed about is
over."
He gave one more look to the moonlight and then closed his window. His
boots were speedily drawn on; his dressing-gown exchanged for a
military coat; his sword buckled to his side; and, in conformity with
his promise to Marian, a brace of loaded pistols placed in his bosom.
Thus equipped, he opened his door and descended the staircase. All was
quiet; the lamp in the hall was still glimmering, though somewhat
faintly; the servants were all evidently in bed; and turning the key
in the glass door at the end of the lobby, De Vaux opened it
cautiously, and stepped out upon the lawn.