"She went to the ball, and she danced with the handsome prince."
That week of gaiety, so unusual to Oakby, was fraught with great
results. The dim and beautiful dream of the future which had grown with
Cheriton Lester's growth became a definite purpose. Ruth Seyton was his
first love, almost his first fancy. Whatever other sentiments and
flirtations had come across him, had been as light as air; he had loved
Ruth ever since he had taught her to ride, and since she had tried to
teach him to dance. He had always found her ready to talk to him of the
thoughts and aspirations which found no sympathy at home, and still more
ready to tease him about them. She was part of the dear and sacred home
affections, the long accustomed life which held so powerful a sway over
him, and she was besides a wonderful and beautiful thing, peculiar to
himself, and belonging to none of the others.
He had not seen her since the season when he had met her in town with
Virginia; he did not know very much really about her, but she was kind
and gracious to him, and he walked about in a dream of bliss which made
every commonplace duty and gaiety delightful. Ruth was mixed up in it
all, it was all in her honour; and though Cheriton's memory at this time
was not to be depended on, he had spirits for any amount of the hard
work of preparation, and a laugh for every disagreeable.
He regarded his tongue as tied till after he had taken his degree in the
summer--he hoped with credit; after which his prospects at the bar with
Judge Cheriton's interest, were somewhat less obscure than those of most
young men. He had inherited some small fortune from his mother, and
though he could not consider himself a brilliant match for Miss Seyton,
he would then feel himself justified in putting his claims forward.
Many spoke with admiration of the entire absence of jealousy which made
him take the second place so easily; but Cheriton hardly deserved the
praise, he had no room in his mind to think of himself at all.
His cousin Rupert was a more recent acquaintance of Ruth's, though
matters had gone much further between them. His attentions had not been
encouraged by her grandmother, as, though his fortune was far superior
to anything Cheriton possessed, his affairs were supposed to be
considerably involved, and this was so far true, that it would have been
very inconvenient to him to lay them open to inquiry at present. He
hoped, however, in the course of a few months to be able so to arrange
them, as to make it possible to apply to Ruth Seyton's guardians for
their consent.
Rupert was a lively, pleasant fellow, with a considerable regard for his
Oakby cousins, though he had never considered it necessary to regulate
his life by the Oakby standard, or concerned himself greatly with its
main principles. His life in the army had of course been quite apart
from Cheriton's at school and college, and the latter did not care to
realise how far the elder cousin, once a model in his eyes, had grown
away from him. Nor did he regard him as a rival.
Ruth gave smiles and dances to himself, and he little guessed that while
he did his duty joyously in other directions, looking forward to his
next word with her, she had given his cousin a distinct promise, and
engaged to keep it secret till such time as he chose to ask for her
openly. Perhaps Rupert could not be expected to scruple at such a step,
when he knew how entirely Ruth had managed her affairs for herself in
all her intercourse with him.
And as for Ruth she rejoiced in the chance of making a sacrifice to
prove her love; and whether the sacrifice was of other people's
feelings, her own ease and comfort, or of any little trifling scruples
of conscience, ought, she considered, to be equally unimportant. "Love
must still be lord of all," but the love that loves honour more was in
her eyes weak and unworthy. Faults in the hero only proved the strength
of his manhood; faults in herself were all condoned by her love.
Ruth was clever enough to put into words the inspiring principles of a
great many books that she read, and a great deal of talk that she heard,
and vehement enough to act up to it. Rupert, who had no desire to be at
all unlike other people, had little notion of the glamour of enthusiasm
with which Ruth plighted him her troth at Oakby.
The Lesters had expended much abuse on the morning of their ball on the
blackness of the oak-panels, which no amount of wax candles would
overcome but what was lost in gaiety was gained in picturesqueness, and
the Oakby ball, with its handsome hosts and its distinguished company,
was long quoted as the prettiest in the neighbourhood. Perhaps it owed
no little of its charm to the one in whose honour it was given. Alvar
in society was neither silent nor languid; he was a splendid dancer, and
played the host with a foreign grace that enchanted the ladies, old and
young. At the dinner-party the night before he had been silent and
stately, evidently fearing to commit himself before the country
gentlemen and county grandees, who were such strange specimens of
humanity to him; but with their daughters it was different, and those
were happy maidens who danced with the stranger. He was of course duly
instructed whom he was thus to honour, but he found time to exercise his
own choice, and Virginia was conscious that he paid her marked
attention.
Why waste more words? She had found her fate, and softened with home
troubles, attracted by the superiority of the Lesters, and dazzled with
the charm of a manner and appearance never seen before, yet suiting all
her girlish dreams of heroic perfection, she was giving her heart away
to the last man whose previous training or present character was likely
really to accord with her own.
Though she had never been an acknowledged beauty, she could often look
beautiful, and the subtle excitement of half-conscious triumph was not
wanting to complete the charm.
"There never had been such a pleasant ball," said Cheriton the next
morning, as he was forced to hurry away to Oxford without a chance of
discussing its delights.
"It is indeed possible to dance in England," said Alvar.
"I think we made it out very well," said Rupert, with a smile under his
moustaches.
"There are balls--and balls," said Ruth to her cousin. "You don't
always have black oak, or black Spanish eyes, eh, Queenie? or some other
things?"
And Virginia blushed and said nothing.
Nettie, after all, had rejoiced in the partners of which her white frock
and plaited hair had not defrauded her (she never should forgive her
hair for coming down in Rupert's very sight in the last waltz). Jack
had not been so miserable as he expected; and Alvar found that it was
possible to enjoy life in England, and that the position awaiting him
there was not to be despised, even in the face of parting from his
beloved Cheriton.
Rupert by no means considered Alvar as an amusing companion, nor Oakby
in the dull season an amusing place, but it suited him now to spend his
leave there, and suited him also to be intimate at Elderthwaite.
Consequently he encouraged Alvar to make excuses for going there, and
certainly in finding some interests to supply Cheriton's place. He
cultivated Dick Seyton, who was of an age to appreciate a grown-up man's
attentions, so that altogether there was more intercourse between the
two houses than had taken place since the days of Roland.
Ruth was paying a long visit at Elderthwaite. One of her aunts--her
grandmother's youngest and favourite child--was in bad health, and Lady
Charlton was glad to spend some time with her and to be free from the
necessity of chaperoning her granddaughter. The arrangement suited Ruth
exactly. She could make Elderthwaite her head-quarters, pay several
visits among friends in the north, and find opportunities of meeting
Rupert, whose regiment was stationed at York, and who was consequently
within reach of many north-country gaieties.
For the present no gaieties were needed by either to enliven the wintry
woods of Elderthwaite; they were as fairy land to the little brown
maiden who, among their bare stems and withered ferns found, as she
believed, the very flower of life, and had no memory for the bewitching
smiles, the soft, half-sentimental laughter, the many dances, and the
preference hardly disguised which were the food of Cheriton's memory,
and gave him an object which lightened every uncongenial task. These
little wiles had effectually prevented every one from guessing the real
state of the case. Rupert's difficulty was that he never could be sure
how far Alvar was unsuspicious. There was a certain blankness in his
way of receiving remarks, calculated to prevent suspicion, which might
proceed from entire innocence, or from secret observation which he did
not choose to betray. But he was always willing to accompany Rupert to
Elderthwaite, and in Cheriton's absence found Virginia by far his most
congenial companion.
The amount of confidence already existing between Ruth and her cousin
really rendered the latter unsuspicious, and ready to further
intercourse with Rupert, believing Ruth to be in a doubtful state of
mind, half encouraging, and half avoiding his attentions. And Ruth was
very cautious; she never allowed Rupert to monopolise her during his
ostensible visits, and if any one at Elderthwaite guessed at their
stolen interviews, it was certainly not Virginia.
The scheme of the Sunday class had answered pretty well. Virginia knew
how to teach, and though her pupils were rough, the novelty of her grace
and gentleness made some impression on them.
The parson did not interfere with her, and it never occurred to her that
he was within hearing, till one Sunday, as she tried to tell them the
simplest facts in language sufficiently plain to be understood, and
sufficiently striking to be interesting, and felt, by the noise on the
back benches, that she was entirely failing to do so, a head appeared at
the dining-room door, and a stentorian voice exclaimed,--
"Bless my soul, you young ruffians; is this the way to behave to Miss
Seyton? If any lad can't show respect to a lady in my house, out he'll
go, and, by George he won't come in again."
This unwonted address produced an astonished silence; but it frightened
the teacher so much more than her class, that her only resource was to
call on the more advanced ones with great solemnity "to say their hymn
to the vicar."