It was in the month of June, the early part, when May-flowers still
bloom, and the blossoming trees are not yet in full matronly beauty, but
in their bridal robes, with wreaths of flowers, like robes of dazzling
whiteness, that Minnie and her two companions walked on (for she loved
one and liked the other), her heart giving the rein to all her wild
Arab-colt thoughts of nobility and liberty. _She_ had nothing to
conceal; all was pure and beautiful in her mind, sunny and hopeful. They
were going to visit one of Aunt Dorcas's pensioners, and on Minnie's
pretty arm hung a basket of charitable gifts, truly such, for they were
appropriate to the wants of those for whom they were destined. Gifts of
thought and consideration, not merely donations from a full purse or
plentiful larder. On they journeyed, until a lane appeared before them;
the girl turned down it.
"Stop, Miss Dalzell," cried Skaife hastily; "we had better cross the
path-field."
"'Tis longer round," she rejoined; "aunt Dorcas will be tired, and this
is a favourite walk of mine," and she moved on.
"You should obey your pastors and masters," he answered, smiling, and
yet he seemed embarrassed; "and, as one of the former, I don't
_command_, but may I ask you to cross the path-field, it looks so
inviting with its tall grass; and see, there's a pet of yours--a lark
rising upwards to allure you."
"Aunty, will it be too far for you? No? then we will oblige our pastor."
Skaife looked delighted as he assisted Aunt Dorcas over the stile.
Minnie was over like a sportive thistledown blown by roving breeze;
scarcely had she stepped on the other side of the stile when a little
girl followed her, passed, and stopped beside Mr. Skaife.
"Oh, if you please, good sir," she said, "my mother saw you passing at
the end of the lane, and bade me run after you with this book; you left
it at poor sick Mary Burns's," and the child tendered a book. Both Aunt
Dorcas and Minnie stopped, Mr. Skaife was colouring and confused. "Thank
you," he answered, hurriedly taking it; "that will do." He endeavoured
to pass on.
"And if you please, sir," continued the child, "mother bid me say, that
after you left Mary Burns at three this morning, she was so much
comforted by your kind words and reading, that she slept for hours, and
when she awoke promised mother never to try and kill herself again."
"What is this, dear?" asked Minnie, placing a hand on the child's
shoulder.
"Nothing, never mind, Miss Dalzell," said he; "let us continue our
walk."
"No," answered she; "I am curious, I wish to know. What was it, dear?"
"If you please, miss, poor Mary Burns tried to drown herself yesterday,
and Mr. Skaife jumped into the water and saved her, and he sat by her
all the day yesterday, and came again in the evening, and remained until
three this morning, comforting and praying to her, and----"
"It was only my duty," he replied, now perfectly calm, and in a cold
tone.
"_Now_ I understand," said Aunt Dorcas, "why you declined dining with us
yesterday;" she felt how much he self-sacrificed in not spending the
privileged hours of dinner near her niece, especially as he was seldom
invited by her brother.
"Oh, Mr. Skaife!" cried Minnie, her eyes swimming, as she held out her
ungloved hand and grasped his; "forgive me. I have been a wicked,
wrong-judging girl. I said you did not possess the sacred fire necessary
for your calling; forgive me, you are following an example in meekness,
not arrogantly dictating one--forgive me!"
Skaife could scarcely speak as he pressed her hand.
"Now," she said almost gaily, to remove his embarrassment, "let me
follow up this wholesome lesson to myself by an exercise of charity: we
will go and see Mary Burns; come, dear aunt;" and once more she was at
the other side of the stile, and half-way down the lane with the child,
before they overtook her. Minnie and her aunt entered the humble bedroom
of poverty, alone. Mr. Skaife left them at the door of the cottage to
pay a visit in the neighbourhood. From a neighbour sitting there, to
take care of the paralytic mother of Mary Burns, they learned that the
unfortunate girl had been driven to attempt the dreadful act of the
previous day, on account of the cruel desertion of one who had led her
from the path of right; he led her into darkness, and left her there to
fight her way through shadows to the end of a dreary maze, without a
word to cheer, or a thread to guide her footsteps. There was no one to
tell her of a far off light, which with much seeking and sorrow she
assuredly would find. Nothing but despair around her, she flew to death,
a sad thing to meet in our unrepented sin! It was to this poor wounded
heart that Mr. Skaife brought life and balm. Though humbled and
sorrowing, the girl was hopeful now; she did not, however, allude to the
one whose desertion had maddened her. Aunt Dorcas forbore questioning
her too closely, seeing her evident desire to withhold her seducer's
name; and poor Minnie sat and wept. She had learned two lessons that
day: not to judge too hastily from a calm exterior, as in the case of
Mr. Skaife's warm heart, and that there are sorrows in this world
leading often to suicide or madness, hybrids of opposite
things--confidence and deceit. They quitted the cottage, promising to
see the unhappy girl shortly, and as Minnie bade her cheer up and not
despond, she leaned over the low pallet of misery, leaving a better gift
in the sight of Heaven than the purse she hid beneath the pillow--a
sister's tear over a fallen sister; for are we not all one large family?
and of children, too, ever learning something new--Earth our school,
Heaven our home--with glad faces to rejoice over our coming thither,
when our weary lessons here shall be over! Mr. Skaife joined them
outside, and, by mutual consent, none alluded to poor Mary Burns; but
Minnie turned smilingly to the young curate, and spoke more kindly than
she had ever done before, as he walked beside her, her aunt leaning upon
his arm. However, they parted from him before arriving at Gatestone, and
the aunt and niece entered the old hall together, to receive a double
fire of indignant reproaches from Sylvia and Juvenal, though the latter
was one who appeared ever more inclined to weep than scold; he became
whining and lacrymose when injured in any way; he did not stand up
boldly to fight his enemy; there was something decidedly currish in his
disposition. "I do think," he began, "that I am hardly treated as master
here; no one obeys or consults me; Dorcas goes out without saying where
she's going, taking Minnie with her; and Sylvia blames me for
supineness;--how can I help it?--and Marmaduke Burton blames me too, and
threatens never to come again."
"Well, that wouldn't much signify," said Sylvia, bluntly. "I don't like
Mr. Burton; he's cunning and sarcastic; you would do much better to
attach yourself to Mr. Dalby, he _is_ a charming man."
"I don't like Dalby," hazarded the wretched man in his thin voice; "he
has a significant manner of talking which makes me quite uncomfortable;
I always fancy some one is going to law with me, or that I shall be
forced into an unavoidable lawsuit."
"Talking of that," said Dorcas, hoping to change the current a little,
as all was more or less directed against herself and niece for their
escapade, "does Mr. Burton say any thing more about his threatened suit
with his cousin, Miles Tremenhere?"
"Dear me, no!" answered Sylvia; "Mr. Dalby says that affair is quite at
an end; this illegitimate cousin has wisely left the country; they never
hear even of him."
"I sincerely pity him," replied Dorcas; "it was a sad affair, and his
father was much to blame, leaving him so long in ignorance of the truth;
it was most painful."
"What's that, aunty?" asked Minnie.
"Well, dear! the manor-house belonged some eight years since to a Mr.
Tremenhere, a cousin of the squire's, as they call him; this Tremenhere
had an only son, a very fine, noble-hearted young man, beloved indeed by
almost all, though very haughty to those he disliked. He attained his
twenty-first year; the rejoicings were great at the manor-house; you
were at school at the time; a month passed, and the father died;
scarcely was he in his grave, when Marmaduke Burton arrived, a distant
cousin of Miles's (the son), and disputed the property with him. After a
tedious and painful investigation and suit, as no proof could be
produced of Mr. Tremenhere's marriage with Miles's mother, whom he was
said to have married at Gibraltar, Miles lost the fortune, manor, all,
and quitted the country."
"Poor Mr. Tremenhere!" said Minnie, much affected; "what a dreadful
thing for him! and where is he, aunt?"
"No one knows, I believe, except it may be one or two persons, tenants
of his father's, who have boldly opposed Mr. Burton in every way for his
treachery, and upheld Miles Tremenhere."
"Oh, that was nobly done!" cried the girl enthusiastically.
"What do you mean by treachery?" exclaimed Juvenal and Sylvia in a
breath; both joined together in one common cause against Dorcas, who
indeed was only kin by name.
"Well, I call it treacherous, mean, and wicked," she answered decidedly,
"his having been Miles's companion and playfellow from youth, and indeed
in the house but a few weeks before old Mr. Tremenhere's death; and
scarcely was the breath out of his body, when he put forth a legal claim
to the property as next heir, which claim had been prepared, as it was
proved, months before the old man's death." Minnie sat thoughtfully
listening, but her colour came and went, like the sun passing over a
landscape on a showery day.
"It is very evident," said Sylvia sarcastically, "why you mention this
_now_ before the child--to disgust her with Marmaduke Burton; it is kind
and sisterly towards your brother, who desires the match." Sylvia gained
two things in this speech--she never spoke unadvisedly. She pointed out
the squire's position more forcibly to her niece; and also, by a
counter-stroke, enlisted her unseeing brother on her side.
"Exactly so," whined he; "but that's always the way with Dorcas; she's
very cunning."
"I'm sure dear aunt is not that," cried Minnie, starting up, her face
glowing, and putting an arm round her neck.
"What business have you interfering?" exclaimed Sylvia; "you should
listen, and say nothing."
"Aunt Sylvia," said the girl, calmly reseating herself, "as it seems all
this discussion is about me, I am forced to speak, and say, too, that
I'd die rather than ever marry Mr. Burton!"
"That's your doing," rejoined Sylvia, nodding at her sister. "I'm sure
Juvenal has reason to be obliged to you; and as regards you, Minnie, I
sincerely wish you were married, for you are the cause of discussion and
dissension every day, not here alone, but between friends. There's
Marmaduke Burton and Mr. Dalby, who were inseparables until you returned
six months ago from school, and now they scarce speak civilly to one
another!"
"Were they friends?" asked Minnie, opening her eyes, "Oh, then--" she
did not finish the sentence, but the curling lip spoke what she meant.
"Can the child help that?" said Dorcas, deprecatingly. Sylvia felt as if
she had been an indiscreet general, and was on the point of retorting
with acrimony, when a step was heard on the gravel outside the window,
and one of the subjects of the recent debate walked in--the squire.
"Here I am again," he said, familiarly leaning on the window-sill; "came
round through the shrubbery. Oh! Miss Dalzell," and he moved his hat,
"this is indeed a pleasure; one seldom sees you."
Had love called up the blood from her heart to her cheek, a lover might
indeed have rejoiced in the glow; as it was, the bright flush, coloured
brow, cheek, all, and the lip curled, and eye fixed cold and stern,
shedding an icy hand of scorn over that young face, as she merely bowed
her head in reply. Marmaduke bit his lip, then turning to Dorcas, said,
blandly smiling, "And you too, Miss Dorcas, are a stranger; I trust I
see you well?"
"Quite so, I thank you," she quietly rejoined, "Minnie and I have been
strolling out together."
"Did you call upon Mrs. Lilly?" asked Sylvia. "I promised to do so: she
will think it unkind."
"No," replied her sister; "we did not go near the village."
"We went," said Minnie, raising her head boldly, "with Mr. Skaife, to
see a poor girl he saved from drowning herself yesterday." As she spoke,
somehow her eye fixed itself on the squire; her thought in doing so was,
to show him, at all events, no distaste on her part to the society of
another, however she might avoid _him_. Was it annoyance at this
decision of manner which made him turn so pale, and his voice tremble
slightly, as he inquired, "May I ask where?"
"It was poor Widow Burns's daughter," answered Dorcas; "it is a sad
affair, but, thank Heaven, Mr. Skaife saved the poor girl's life!"
"Shot! Shot!" called Burton, quitting the window on which he had been
leaning, and turning to seek his dog; "here, sir; come here; lie there!"
and the animal howled beneath the lash of his master's whip. When he
returned to the window he was calm as usual, cold and sinister in
appearance.
"Won't you come in, Burton?" asked Juvenal, going to the window, which
looked over the wide-spreading lawn, with its old, majestic trees in
clusters, and the cattle browsing beneath them; "won't you come in?"
"No, I thank you," he replied carelessly. "I merely strolled this way to
inquire about Miss Dalzell's health in person, as I have so seldom the
pleasure of finding her at home. Charity, that cold dame, has much to
answer for, in depriving us, as she does, of her society."
"You would scarcely term her _cold_," answered Minnie, "had you
witnessed the gratitude of Mary Burns to-day, towards Mr. Skaife."
"'Pon my word!" rejoined he, in a cold, cynical tone, "your parson,
Formby (he addressed himself to Juvenal), is a _preux chevalier_;
something new in the colour of his cloth!"
"Is humanity new?--or his act unbecoming his calling?" quietly asked
Dorcas.
"I am scarcely competent to answer you. _I_ have a great dislike to
display: things quietly done, in my opinion, look most meritorious."
"Oh!----" Minnie began.
"Pray, let us change the subject," said Sylvia angrily. "I'm tired of
your charities and drowned persons. It always happens that the one who
saves, manages most cleverly for his deed to be known where he thinks it
will benefit him."
"For shame, Sylvia!" said Dorcas.
"Of course," rejoined Burton, with an uncertain, uneasy glance, "you had
a pathetic account of the cause; the poverty, the----"
"It was not _poverty_ alone," answered Dorcas; "but, with your
permission, we will drop the subject."
"'Tis best," he replied carelessly; "these people are tenants of mine,
and, I fear, bearing no very good name: we must get rid of them."
"Talking of that," asked Juvenal, "have you succeeded in ejecting that
fellow Weld?"
"No; I fear it will be impossible. His lease is good, and was only just
renewed for twenty-one years when----"
He paused: something withheld him from uttering the name of Tremenhere
that day: Minnie's speaking eyes were fixed upon him.
"Ah! yes; I see," rejoined Juvenal; "it is very annoying."
"The impertinence of a low fellow like that, must be galling," suggested
Sylvia.
"What is he guilty of?" asked Dorcas, who was nearly as much in the dark
about many things as Minnie herself, associating as little as possible
with the squire or Mr. Dalby.
"Why," answered her brother, "fancy the insolence of one of Burton's
tenants, whose grounds adjoin his own, who presumes to pass him without
even touching his hat; and had the audacity to try and raise a
subscription, to which he offered to give largely (for him--being only a
small farmer), to find out the impostor, Miles Tremenhere, and support
his claims in another suit to recover the manor-house!"
"Such audacity, indeed," chimed in Sylvia, "in a low farmer!"
"I wonder," said Minnie, looking up in seeming calmness, but the warm
heart beat, "whether the smooth-barked poplar has more sap in it than
the rough gnarled oak?"
"Good gracious, child!" answered Sylvia tartly; "what do _you_ know
about trees?"
"I was not thinking of _trees_, but _men_," rejoined the girl quietly.
"Then what did you say 'trees' for?" asked Juvenal, surprised.
"Because, uncle, they represented men to my thought. We know that
education and associations refine; but I wonder, whether the rougher
class of men was created nearer the slave or brute than the poplar of my
thought; whether men are slaves by birth, or to a superior force which
makes them such, and makes them bow even their free opinions in
subjection to a mightier, not better power."
"Minnie, dear!" cried Dorcas taking her hand, startled by her unusual
warmth.
"I see Miss Dalzell is rather ruffled to-day," said Burton, taking off
his hat; "so I will say adieu. Ladies, your servant; Miss Dalzell, I
kiss your hand, even though it smite me: Formby, will you give me a call
to-morrow?" and, without awaiting a reply, he whistled his dog, and
hurried away. It would be vain to attempt portraying all the
indignation lavished by Juvenal and Sylvia on their niece, who sat,
however, tolerably calm beneath the fire. She was used to these
discussions, and these perhaps, and the necessity of upholding her right
against being forced into an unhappy marriage, had made her more
thoughtful, and less girlish, with them than her age warranted; with
Dorcas, she was an innocent child, and this was her nature. With those
where she felt the necessity of calling her firmness into play, she
became almost a thoughtful woman; and while they discussed, Marmaduke
Burton's thin, tall, spare figure walked thoughtfully homewards, and the
narrow brow contracted still more over the small grey eye, which, with
the high Roman nose, gave him the appearance of a bird of prey. He was
only thirty, but looking some years older; he had assumed the dress of a
country squire with the assumption of that title, and one was as illegal
as the other, and sat as uneasily upon him. The top-boots seemed ashamed
of his thin legs, and shrunk from them. Those things generally grace the
jovial country gentleman, yeoman, or farmer; on Marmaduke Burton they
were as misplaced, as ringing a swine with gems, to give a homely
metaphor to a homely subject. There is one person at Gatestone to whom
we have not yet introduced our readers; let us hasten to repair the
omission. This personage is Mrs. Gillett, the housekeeper. All three,
Juvenal, Sylvia, and Dorcas, involuntarily bowed down to her opinion.
Why, it would be rather difficult to define, except, perhaps, that as a
matron she acted powerfully and sustainingly on these spinster and
bachelor minds. Whatever occurred to any of them, was immediately laid
before Mrs. Gillett to decide upon; she was the repository of all their
secrets, and, strange to say, never betrayed one to the other; she heard
all, kept all, and _agreed_ with all--consequently her position was both
difficult and dangerous. Sometimes she met with an unforeseen rock, one
of those we not unfrequently may have been called upon to pass over on
the beach going to or from a boat at low tide, covered with seaweed,
wet, slippery, and full of holes, in which the sea water has lodged.
Well, over one like this Mrs. Gillett often had to pass; she slid right
and left, sometimes her shoes filled with water as she stepped into a
hole; at one moment she was _nearly_ falling into the sea, but somehow
Mrs. Gillett got safe to the end of the rock, dripping and uncomfortable
'tis true; but she gained her boat, and put out to sea, the oars at full
play, and the sail at the prow, like snow in the sun, all 'taut,' as
sailors say, and 'bellying out' gallantly before the wind. To sum up her
character in a few words, she was the essence of a thousand weathercocks
infused into one. Even Minnie owned a sort of deference for this busily
employed dame; but this was scarcely to be wondered at, it had grown up
with her, and been originally engrafted on her childish mind by means
common and pleasant to childhood--namely, sweetmeats and sugarplums.
Mrs. Gillett had the very snuggest housekeeper's room in the world,
looking into the extensive kitchen-gardens at the back of the hall, and
thither flocked her votaries. She was a woman of nearly sixty, but
robust and active; no modern fashion had disturbed her style of dress;
her 'gownd,' as she still termed it, was three-quarters high, the
gathers behind were set out by what old-fashioned ladies term 'a pad,'
that is, a thing like a quarter of a yard cut off a sand-bag at the
bottom of a door; the whitest muslin handkerchief in the world was
pinned across her well-conditioned bust, confined close to the throat by
a brooch set round with pearls, containing a lock of the defunct Mr.
Gillett's hair; her cap was of lace like snow, high-crowned, ribbonless,
but with broad lace strings pinned _exactly_ in the centre by another
brooch smaller than the first--a sort of a hoop, the first, as she told
every one, that she had ever possessed. Storr and Mortimer might not
admire it, but she did. A white apron completed this attire, not a
Frenchified thing with pockets, but a genuine old English one, gored and
sloped, perfectly tight all round. As she sat in her high-backed chair
giving audience to her visiters, she was a picture. She was the only
person who had advocated the cause of matrimony to Juvenal--it was
dreadful to her the idea of the old place passing away to another branch
of the family. When her bones had been more capable of locomotion, she
had visited all the neighbouring housekeepers for miles, on some pretext
or another, to find a wife for Juvenal--but in vain. His bent was not
matrimony for himself, and he cared but little who should inhabit
Gatestone after his death. His sisters were strangely indifferent, too;
they did not like the place especially, and, should they survive him,
proposed residing on a small property of their own near Scarborough.
Thus all their united energies were directed towards the settlement of
their niece. She was their plaything, just as her poor mother had been
eighteen years before. Mrs. Gillett's advice was perfectly conscientious
when given; she only thought of the immediate case before her, without
reference to any other prior claim which might have been made on her
attention. Unlike Lot's wife, she never looked back; consequently, had
all followed her counsel, a strange confusion would necessarily have
ensued, where _all_ were bent on the same thing--to marry Minnie, and
each to his or her favourite. She sat in state, her hands crossed over
her portly figure as she leaned back in her chair, and before her sat
Juvenal.