As Henry despaired of receiving his brother's approbation of his choice,
he never mentioned the event to him. But William, being told of it by a
third person, inquired of Henry, who confirmed the truth of the
intelligence, and acknowledged, that, in taking a wife, his sole view had
been to obtain a kind companion and friend, who would bear with his
failings and know how to esteem his few qualifications; therefore, he had
chosen one of his own rank in life, and who, having a taste for music,
and, as well as himself, an obligation to the art--
"And is it possible," cried the dean, "that what has been hinted to me is
true? Is it possible that you have married a public singer?"
"She is as good as myself," returned Henry. "I did not wish her to be
better, for fear she should despise me."
"As to despise," answered the dean, "Heaven forbid that we should despise
anyone, that would be acting unlike a Christian; but do you imagine I can
ever introduce her to my intended wife, who is a woman of family?"
Henry had received in his life many insults from his brother; but, as he
was not a vain man, he generally thought his brother in the right, and
consequently submitted with patience; but, though he had little
self-love, he had for his wife an unbounded affection. On the present
occasion, therefore, he began to raise his voice, and even (in the coarse
expression of clownish anger) to lift his hand; but the sudden and
affecting recollection of what he had done for the dean--of the pains,
the toils, the hopes, and the fears he had experienced when soliciting
his preferment--this recollection overpowered his speech, weakened his
arm, and deprived him of every active force, but that of flying out of
his brother's house (in which they then were) as swift as lightning,
while the dean sat proudly contemplating "that he had done his duty."
For several days Henry did not call, as was his custom, to see his
brother. William's marriage drew near, and he sent a formal card to
invite him on that day; but not having had the condescension to name his
sister-in-law in the invitation, Henry thought proper not to accept it,
and the joyful event was celebrated without his presence. But the ardour
of the bridegroom was not so vehement as to overcome every other
sensation--he missed his brother. That heartfelt cheerfulness with which
Henry had ever given him joy upon every happy occasion--even amidst all
the politer congratulations of his other friends--seemed to the dean
mournfully wanting. This derogation from his felicity he was resolved to
resent; and for a whole year these brothers, whom adversity had entwined
closely together, prosperity separated.
Though Henry, on his marriage, paid so much attention to his brother's
prejudices as to take his wife from her public employment, this had not
so entirely removed the scruples of William as to permit him to think her
a worthy companion for Lady Clementina, the daughter of a poor Scotch
earl, whom he had chosen merely that he might be proud of her family,
and, in return, suffer that family to be ashamed of _his_.
If Henry's wife were not fit company for Lady Clementina, it is to be
hoped that she was company for angels. She died within the first year of
her marriage, a faithful, an affectionate wife, and a mother.
When William heard of her death, he felt a sudden shock, and a kind of
fleeting thought glanced across his mind, that
"Had he known she had been so near her dissolution, she might have been
introduced to Lady Clementina, and he himself would have called her
sister."
That is (if he had defined his fleeting idea), "They would have had no
objection to have met this poor woman for the _last time_, and would have
descended to the familiarity of kindred, in order to have wished her a
good journey to the other world."
Or, is there in death something which so raises the abjectness of the
poor, that, on their approach to its sheltering abode, the arrogant
believer feels the equality he had before denied, and trembles?