If the vigour of Harley's address had taken by surprise both friend and
foe, not one in that assembly--not even the conscience-stricken Egerton--
felt its effect so deeply as the assailed and startled Leonard. He was
at first perfectly stunned by sarcasms which he so ill deserved; nor was
it till after the assembly had broken up, that Leonard could even
conjecture the cause which had provoked the taunt and barbed its dart.
Evidently Harley had learned (but learned only in order to misconceive
and to wrong) Leonard's confession of love to Helen Digby. And now those
implied accusations of disregard to the duties of common life not only
galled the young man's heart, but outraged his honour. He felt the
generous indignation of manhood. He must see Lord L'Estrange at once,
and vindicate himself,--vindicate Helen; for thus to accuse one was
tacitly to asperse the other.
Extricating himself from his own enthusiastic partisans, Leonard went
straight on foot towards Lansmere House. The Park palings touched close
upon the town, with a shall turnstile for foot passengers. And as
Leonard, availing himself of this entrance, had advanced some hundred
yards or so through the park, suddenly, in the midst of that very copse
in which Avenel had appointed to meet Leslie, he found himself face to
face with Helen Digby herself.
Helen started, with a faint cry. But Leonard, absorbed in his own desire
to justify both, hailed the sight, and did not pause to account for his
appearance, nor to soothe her agitation.
"Miss Digby!" he exclaimed, throwing into his voice and manner that
respect which often so cruelly divides the past familiarity from the
present alienation, "Miss Digby, I rejoice to see you,--rejoice to ask
your permission to relieve myself from a charge that in truth wounds even
you, while levelled but at me. Lord L'Estrange has just implied, in
public, that I--I--who owe him so much, who have honoured him so truly,
that even the just resentment I now feel half seems to me the ingratitude
with which he charges me, has implied that--ah! Miss Digby, I can
scarcely command words to say what it so humiliates me to have heard.
But you know how false is all accusation that either of us could deceive
our common benefactor. Suffer me to repeat to your guardian what I
presumed to say to you when we last met, what you answered, and state
how I left your presence."
"Oh, Leonard! yes; clear yourself in his eyes. Go! Unjust that he is,
ungenerous Lord L'Estrange!"
"Helen Digby!" cried a voice, close at hand. "Of whom do you speak
thus?"
At the sound of that voice Helen and Leonard both turned, and beheld
Violante standing before them, her young beauty rendered almost sublime
by the noble anger that lit her eyes, glowed in her cheeks, animated her
stately form.
"Is it you who thus speak of Lord L'Estrange? You, Helen Digby,--you!"
From behind Violante now emerged Mr. Dale. "Softly, children," he said;
and placing one hand on Violante's shoulder, he extended the other to
Leonard. "What is this? Come hither to me, Leonard, and explain."
Leonard walked aside with the parson, and in a few sentences gave vent to
his swelling heart.
The parson shared in Leonard's resentment; and having soon drawn from him
all that had passed in his memorable interview with Helen, exclaimed,--
"Enough! Do not yet seek Lord L'Estrange yourself; I am going to see
him,--I am here at his request. His summons, indeed, was for to-morrow;
but the squire having written me a hurried line, requesting me to meet
him at Lansmere tomorrow and proceed with him afterwards in search of
poor Frank, I thought I might have little time for communications with
Lord L'Estrange, unless I forestalled his invitation and came to-day.
Well that I did so! I only arrived an hour since, found he was gone to
the town-hall, and joined the young ladies in the Park. Miss Digby,
thinking it natural that I might wish to say something in private to my
old young friend Violante, walked a few paces in advance. Thus,
fortunately, I chanced to be here, to receive your account, and I trust
to remove misunderstanding. Lord L'Estrange must now be returned. I
will go back to the house. You, meanwhile, return to the town, I beseech
you. I will come to you afterwards at your inn. Your very appearance in
these grounds, even the brief words that have passed between Helen and
you, might only widen the breach between yourself and your benefactor. I
cannot bear to anticipate this. Go back, I entreat you. I will explain
all, and Lord L'Estrange shall right you! That is,--that must be his
intention!"
"IS--must be his intention--when he has just so wronged me!"
"Yes, yes," faltered the poor parson, mindful of his promise to
L'Estrange not to reveal his own interview with that nobleman, and yet
not knowing otherwise how to explain or to soothe; but still believing
Leonard to be Harley's son, and remembering all that Harley had so
pointedly said of atonement, in apparent remorse for crime, Mr. Dale was
wholly at a loss himself to understand why Harley should have thus
prefaced atonement by an insult. Anxious, however, to prevent a meeting
between Harley and Leonard while both were under the influence of such
feelings towards each other, he made an effort over himself, and so well
argued in favour of his own diplomacy, that Leonard reluctantly consented
to wait for Mr. Dale's report.
"As to reparation or excuse," said he, proudly, "it must rest with Lord
L'Estrange. I ask it not. Tell him only this,--that if the instant I
heard that she whom I loved and held sacred for so many years was
affianced to him, I resigned even the very wish to call her mine--if that
were desertion of man's duties, I am guilty. If to have prayed night and
day that she who would have blessed my lonely and toilsome life may give
some charm to his, not bestowed by his wealth and his greatness--if that
were ingratitude, I am ungrateful; let him still condemn me. I pass out
of his sphere,--a thing that has crossed it a moment, and is gone. But
Helen he must not blame, suspect; even by a thought. One word more. In
this election, this strife for objects wholly foreign to all my habits,
unsuited to my poverty, at war with aspirations so long devoted to fairer
goals, though by obscurer paths, I obeyed but his will or whim,--at a
moment too when my whole soul sickened for repose and solitude. I had
forced myself at last to take interest in what I had before loathed.
But in every hope for the future, every stimulant to ambition, Lord
L'Estrange's esteem still stood before me. Now, what do I here longer?
All of his conduct, save his contempt for myself, is an enigma. And
sinless he repeat a wish, which I would fain still regard as a law, I
retire from the contest he has embittered; I renounce the ambition he has
poisoned; and, mindful of those humble duties which he implies that I
disdain, I return to my own home."
The parson nodded assent to each of these sentences; and Leonard, passing
by Violante and Helen, with a salutation equally distant to both,
retraced his steps towards the town.
Meanwhile Violante and Helen had also been in close conference, and that
conference had suddenly endeared each to the other; for Helen, taken by
surprise, agitated, overpowered, had revealed to Violante that confession
of another attachment, which she had made to Lord L'Estrange, the rupture
of her engagement with the latter. Violante saw that Harley was free.
Harley, too, had promised to free herself. By a sudden flash of
conviction, recalling his words, looks, she felt that she was beloved,--
deemed that honour alone (while either was yet shackled) had forbidden
him to own that love. Violante stood a being transformed, "blushing
celestial rosy red," heaven at her heart, joy in her eyes,--she loved so
well, and she trusted so implicitly! Then from out the overflow of her
own hope and bliss she poured forth such sweet comfort to Helen, that
Helen's arm stole around her; cheek touched cheek,--they were as
sisters.
At another moment, Mr. Dale might have felt some amazement at the sudden
affection which had sprung up between these young persons; for in his
previous conversation with Violante, he had, as he thought, very
artfully, and in a pleasant vein, sounded the young Italian as to her
opinion of her fair friend's various good qualities, and Violante had
rather shrunk from the title of "friend;" and though she had the
magnanimity to speak with great praise of Helen, the praise did not sound
cordial. But the good man was at this moment occupied in preparing his
thoughts for his interview with Harley; he joined the two girls in
silence, and, linking an arm of each within his own, walked slowly
towards the house. As he approached the terrace he observed Riccabocca
and Randal pacing the gravel walk side by side.
Violante, pressing his arm, whispered, "Let us go round the other way; I
would speak with you a few minutes undisturbed."
Mr. Dale, supposing that Violante wished to dispense with the presence of
Helen, said to the latter, "My dear young lady, perhaps you will excuse
me to Dr. Riccabocca,--who is beckoning to me, and no doubt very much
surprised to see me here,--while I finish what I was saying to Violante
when we were interrupted."
Helen left them, and Violante led the parson round through the shrubbery,
towards the side door in another wing of the house.
"What have you to say to me?" asked Mr. Dale, surprised that she remained
silent.
"You will see Lord L'Estrange. Be sure that you convince him of
Leonard's honour. A doubt of treachery so grieves his noble heart that
perhaps it may disturb his judgment."
"You seem to think very highly of the heart of this Lord L'Estrange,
child!" said the parson, in some surprise. Violante blushed, but went on
firmly, and with serious earnestness: "Some words which he-that is, Lord
L'Estrange--said to me very lately, make me so glad that you are here,--
that you will see him; for I know how good you are, and how wise, dear,
dear Mr. Dale! He spoke as one who had received some grievous wrong,
which had abruptly soured all his views of life. He spoke of retirement,
solitude,--he on whom his country has so many claims. I know not what he
can mean, unless it be that his--his marriage with Helen Digby is broken
off."
"Broken off! Is that so?"
"I have it from herself. You may well be astonished that she could even
think of another after having known him!" The parson fixed his eyes very
gravely on the young enthusiast. But though her cheek glowed, there was
in her expression of face so much artless, open innocence, that Mr. Dale
contented himself with a slight shake of the head, and a dry remark,--
"I think it quite natural that Helen Digby should prefer Leonard
Fairfield. A good girl, not misled by vanity and ambition,--temptations
of which it behoves us all to beware; nor least, perhaps, young ladies
suddenly brought in contact with wealth and rank. As to this nobleman's
merits, I know not yet whether to allow or to deny them; I reserve my
judgment till after our interview. This is all you have to say to me?"
Violante paused a moment. "I cannot think," she said, half smiling,--
"I cannot think that the change that has occurred in him,--for changed he
is,--that his obscure hints as to injury received, and justice to be
done, are caused merely by his disappointment with regard to Helen. But
you can learn that; learn if he be so very much disappointed. Nay, I
think not!"
She slipped her slight hand from the parson's arm, and darted away
through the evergreens. Half concealed amidst the laurels, she turned
back, and Mr. Dale caught her eye, half arch, half melancholy; its light
came soft through a tear.
"I don't half like this," muttered the parson; "I shall give Dr.
Riccabocca a caution." So muttering, he pushed open the side door, and
finding a servant, begged admittance to Lord L'Estrange.
Harley at that moment was closeted with Levy, and his countenance was
composed and fearfully stern. "So, so, by this time to-morrow," said he,
"Mr. Egerton will be tricked out of his election by Mr. Randal Leslie!
good! By this time to-morrow his ambition will be blasted by the
treachery of his friends! good! By this time to-morrow the bailiffs will
seize his person,--ruined, beggared, pauper, and captive,--all because he
has trusted and been deceived! good! And if he blame you, prudent Baron
Levy, if he accuse smooth Mr. Randal Leslie, forget not to say, 'We were
both but the blind agents of your friend Harley L'Estrange. Ask him why
you are so miserable a dupe.'"
"And might I now ask your Lordship for one word of explanation?"
"No, sir!--it is enough that I have spared you. But you were never my
friend; I have no revenge against a man whose hand I never even touched."
The baron scowled, but there was a power about his tyrant that cowed him
into actual terror. He resumed, after a pause, "And though Mr. Leslie is
to be member for Lansmere,--thanks to you,--you still desire that I
should--"
"Do exactly as I have said. My plans now never vary a hair's breadth."
The groom of the chambers entered.
"My Lord, the Reverend Mr. Dale wishes to know if you can receive him."
"Mr. Dale! he should have come to-morrow. Say that I did not expect him
to-day; that I am unfortunately engaged till dinner, which will be
earlier than usual. Show him into his room; he will have but little time
to change his dress. By the way, Mr. Egerton dines in his own
apartment."