AN UNLOOKED-FOR LOVER.
"And yet this tough, impracticable heart
Is governed by a dainty-fingered girl."
--ROWE.
"There is a pleasure in being mad,
Which none but madmen know."
--DRYDEN.
Judge Lawless was pacing up and down the floor of his study with rapid,
excited strides, his brows knit, his face flushed, his hands clenched,
his teeth set, his whole look, attitude, and bearing, speaking of
deepest, intensest excitement. When in profound or troubled thought, he
had a habit (many have) of talking to himself unconsciously; and now he
muttered, between his teeth:
"I am going mad--I am mad--bewitched--bewildered! To think that I, at my
years, should fall in love like a boy of eighteen. I, who fancied I had
outlived all such rubbish. But, oh that girl! that glorious girl! that
angel of beauty! that transcendently radiant creature! that lovely,
bewildering enchanting, intoxicating Erminie! Good heavens! how the very
thought of her sets my head whirling! that electric Erminie! with her
angel-smile and irradiated face! Who could help loving her? Not I,
certainly, and yet it is only one short week since her return home. Oh,
that I could win her to love me! Oh, to possess that love-angel! Oh,
Erminie! Erminie!" And breathing out his very soul in the syllables of
her name, he sunk into a chair, and leaned his throbbing head on his
hand.
Judge Lawless had all his life computed himself as a grave,
self-possessed, dignified gentleman; excessively proud, excessively
unbending, and so calm and unimpassioned that it seemed a matter of
doubt whether he was made of common flesh and blood or cast-iron. But
now, at the mature age of five-and-forty, all his pride and dignity blew
away, like a whiff of down on a blast, at the first glimpse of Erminie
Germaine's fair, sunshiny, blooming young face; and here he was, now,
making a downright fool of himself--as many another old gentlemen has
done, is doing, and will continue to do, while the world goes round.
Forgetting that he was nearly treble her age, forgetting his high
position in the world and her lowly one, forgetting he was far more
likely to be some day her father-in-law than her husband, forgetting
everything, in a word, but that her beauty had turned his brain, Judge
Lawless sat down to reflect on the best course to pursue in the present
somewhat unsatisfactory state of affairs.
Judge Lawless was, as I told you, a grave, calm-pulsed gentleman, who
considered himself as good, not to say considerably better, than any
other man in the world, and held in the profoundest contempt the little
corner of the world in which he lived, and its quiet, hum-drum
inhabitants. Therefore, he heard Pet boisterously relating the arrival
of Mr. and Miss Germaine with the greatest indifference, and without the
remotest idea of ever giving either of them another thought beyond a
cool caution to Pet not to associate too freely with people of "that
set"; but when, the next morning, riding past the Old Barrens Cottage on
his way to Judestown, a vision met his eyes of such dazzling beauty that
involuntarily he stood stock-still to gaze, Judge Lawless found that the
only one in the world worth thinking of was one of "that set." There
stood Erminie at the gate, in her trim, spotless muslin morning-dress,
with her snowy linen collar and cuffs, looking as fresh, and pure, and
fair, as the beautiful form they draped. The morning sunshine flashed in
her shining, waving, thick, soft hair, gilded the roses on her cheeks,
kindled a brighter light in the large, soft, violet eyes, and lay like a
friend's kiss on the full and rounded lips. Judge Lawless was
spellbound, enchanted, bewildered, bedeviled, to use his own phrase. In
all his life he had never seen so dazzling a beauty--in all his life he
had never expected to see anyone half so lovely again; and there he
stood, gazing upon her like a man in a dream, quite unconscious that the
young lady, whoever she was, might think this prolonged stare very
strange, to say the least of it. But she did not think it very strange
at all. She recognized him, of course; and thinking he was merely trying
to identify her, she pushed open the gate, and came out to him with a
blush and a smile, and, being always a little awed and afraid of his
stately grandeur, held out her hand to him with a girlish timidity quite
charming.
"I suppose you have forgotten me, sir," she said, lifting the
irresistible violet eyes to his face. "I am Erminie Germaine."
"Little Erminie? Why, how pret--a--I mean, how well you are looking!" he
said, taking the hand she offered, and holding it a much longer time
than was strictly necessary. "Who would ever think! Why don't you come
over to Heath Hill some time, Miss Germaine?"
"I have promised Miss Lawless to go and spend the day with her soon,"
said Erminie, embarrassed by his too-ardent gaze, and striving to
withdraw her hand. "I hope she is well?"
"Who? Eh? Oh, yes! she's well. Come over to-morrow, Miss Germaine. I
shall be very glad to see you."
"I thank you, sir; I shall be most happy to do so," replied Erminie,
growing more and more embarrassed by his open, admiring gazes, and again
trying to withdraw her hand.
But the judge, quite unconsciously, held the little snowflake fast, and
seemed inclined to commit petty larceny by keeping it altogether, while
he gazed and gazed in the sweet, blushing face, with its waving hair and
drooping eyes, and fell desperately and more desperately in love every
moment.
"Won't you come in, Judge Lawless?" said Erminie, at last, confused by
her situation, fearing to offend him, yet wishing to get away.
"Come in? Oh, yes--to be sure!" exclaimed the judge, with alacrity. "I
was just thinking--a--of going in to see your grandmother. I hope she is
quite well."
And the judge, who had never entered the cottage before, nor dreamed in
the most remote way of ever doing so, actually got off his horse, tied
him to a stake, and followed the surprised Erminie into the house. And
then, forgetting Ketura, and his business in Judestown, and all other
sublunary things, in the presence of this enchanting maiden, there he
remained for three mortal hours, until the unlooked-for entrance of Ray,
who had been over the moor gunning, and now returned with a well-filled
game-bag, looking happy, handsome, and with a powerful appetite. As his
eye fell upon their strange guest, he started, colored slightly, and
then bowed with cold hauteur. Judge Lawless returned it with one no less
stiff; for though in love with the sister, it by no means followed he
was very passionately enamored of the brother. And then discovering, to
his horror, that the whole morning was gone, he rode off, followed by
the haunting vision of a sweet young face, with waving, floating hair,
and dark, lustrous, violet eyes.
And from that hour may be dated the "decline and fall" of Judge Lawless.
His business was given up for visits to the cottage; his family concerns
were neglected for day-dreams that, however excusable in youths with
faintly-sprouting mustaches, were quite absurd in a dark, dignified,
"potent, grave, and reverend seigneur" like Judge Adolphus Lawless. But
when love comes in at the door, sense flies out at the window, to change
the adage a little, and especially where gentlemen on the disagreeable
side of forty are concerned. So Judge Lawless was deaf, blind and dumb
to that awful bugbear, "They say," and might have been seen at the
cottage morning, noon, and night, to the utter amazement and complete
astonishment of all who knew him, and to none more so than to his
blue-eyed inflammation of the heart herself. Erminie was at a
loss--completely at a loss, and so was Ray. Neither of them dreamed--no
one dreamed--that the pompous, haughty Prince Grandison of a Judge
Lawless could have fallen in love at all, much less with the little,
obscure cottage-girl, Erminie Germaine--tainted, as she was, by that
greatest of all crimes, poverty. Obscure, I said; let me retract that
word. Erminie Germaine--beautiful Erminie--was known and celebrated far
beyond Old Barrens Cottage for her beauty, and goodness, and gentleness,
and all the other qualities that make some women a little lower than the
angels. But no one thought that on a heart of flint like his--or,
rather, no heart at all--the Venus de Medicis herself, should she step
out alive from her pedestal, could make the slightest impression; and
therefore, though our Erminie was every bit as good-looking as that
scantily-draped lady of whom the world raves, though she had grown to be
another Helen for whom another Troy might have been lost, no one set his
visits to the cottage down to her, but rather to eccentricity, to some
scheme, to some inexplicable notion, to anything at all but to the real
cause.
And so Judge Lawless was in love, and unsuspected. And as he sat there
in his library, with his head in his hand, thinking and pondering, and
revolving, and wondering, on the best method of bringing matters to a
crisis, and astonishing his friends, his intention was to raise Miss
Germaine to the dignity of his wife. Judge Lawless was severely moral;
but how to propose--that was the trying horn of the dilemma. Judge
Lawless was not accustomed to proposing; he had not attempted it for the
last five-and-twenty years, and then the lady had saved him the trouble.
Mrs. Lawless had been a wild young heiress, who fell violently in love
with the "sweet" curling hair and "divine" whiskers of the handsome
young lawyer, and not being troubled with that disagreeable disease
incident to most very young ladies, yclept bashfulness, had, like a girl
of honor, come to the point at once, and, in a very composed, upright,
and downright way, tendered him her hand and fortune. The ambitious
young lawyer, nothing loth, took her at her word, and, one fine
moonlight night, a fourth-story window was opened, a rope-ladder put in
requisition; then a carriage; then a parson; then a ring, and "Adolphus
Lawless, barrister at law," as his shingle then announced him, was wooed
and won.
But this was quite another thing. He was in love now, which he hadn't
been the first time; and love makes the boldest warrior that ever clove
helmets and heads in battle as timid as a--I was going to say girl; but
I won't, for in such a case, they are not timid at all--but as a
newly-fledged gosling. Not that he feared a refusal. Judge Lawless drew
himself up until his pantaloon-straps cracked, and looked indignantly in
the glass at himself for entertaining such an idea an instant. But he
didn't know the formula--that was it. Things had changed so since he was
a _garçon_, and the manner of popping the question might have changed
with the rest. It would never do to make himself ridiculous; though, as
the thought crossed his mind, he drew himself up again to the full
extent of his six feet, odd inches, and felt indignant at the notion of
his being ridiculous under any circumstances whatever.
"Have her I must, come what will!" he said, getting up again, and
resuming his 2:40 pace up and down the floor. "I am mad about that girl,
I believe. The world may laugh and sneer at the idea of my marrying
a--well, a pauper, in point of fact, when I could win, if I chose, the
highest in the land. Well, let them. If Judge Lawless cannot do as he
pleases, I should like to know who can. I have wealth enough to do us
both; the old admiral will leave his estate and bank-stock to Ranty and
Pet, and, h'm-m-m, ah!--Yes, have her I must--that's settled. And this
very afternoon shall I ride over, and let her know the honor in store
for her!"
And that very afternoon, true to his promise, Judge Lawless, arrayed in
a somber, dignified suit of black, with his hair and whiskers oiled and
scented to that extent that his fast mare, Wildfire, lifted up her head
and looked at him in grave astonishment, and inwardly resolved to keep a
wary eye on her master for the future, lest he should take to dandyism
in his old age, made his way to Old Barrens Cottage.
Arriving at the cottage, he fastened his mare, and rapped at the
cottage-door with his riding-whip, in a grand and important sort of way
befitting the occasion. Erminie herself opened it; and, at sight of her
beautiful, rounded form, the taper waist, the swelling bust, the white,
rounded throat, on which the graceful little head was poised with the
queenly air of a royal princess; the waving, sunshiny hair, the smiling
lips, the soft tender, violet eyes, Judge Lawless was twice, and
thrice, as deeply, and irretrievably, and desperately in love as ever.
He came in. Erminie was alone. How he thanked the gods for that! took a
seat, stood his cane in the corner, laid his hat on the table, drew out
a snowy cambric handkerchief, redolent of musk, _eau de cologne_, ottar
of roses, and bergamot, from one of those intensely mysterious pockets
gentlemen, for some inscrutable reason, wear in their coat-tails, blew
his nose, replaced his handkerchief, laid a hand on each knee, looked at
Erminie, and prepared her for what was coming by a loud "ahem!"
Erminie, whose rosy fingers were flying, as if by stress, on some
article of dress, did not look up; so all these significant
preparations, proper to be done, and which are always done, I believe,
whenever elderly men go to propose, were quite thrown away upon her.
"Ahem!" repeated the judge, with some severity, and yet looking with
longing eyes at the graceful form and sweet drooping face before him,
"Miss Erminie!"
She looked up inquiringly, with a smile.
"Ahem!" The stately judge was rather embarrassed. "Perhaps, Miss
Germaine, you are not in utter ignorance of--ahem--of the object of my
visits here. I have revolved the matter over in all its bearings, and
have come to the conclusion that--ahem!--that I am at perfect liberty to
please myself in this matter. The world may wonder--no doubt it will;
but I trust I have wisdom enough to direct my own actions; and though it
may stare, it cannot but admire the person I--ahem!--I have chosen!"
The judge made a dead halt, drew out his handkerchief again, until the
air would have reminded you of "Ceylon's spicy breezes," and shifted his
left leg over his right, and then his right one over his left. Erminie,
not understanding one word of this valedictory, had dropped her work,
and sat looking at him, with wide-open eyes.
"In short, therefore, Miss Germaine, we will, if you please, consider
the matter settled; and you will greatly oblige me by naming the
earliest possible day for the ceremony."
"The ceremony! What ceremony, sir?" said the puzzled Erminie, looking
prettier than ever in her perplexity.
"Why, our marriage, to be sure!"
"Our marriage?"
"Certainly, my love. The earlier the day, the sooner my happiness will
be complete!"
And the judge raised her hand to his lips, with the stately formality of
five-and-twenty years before, fearing to venture any further; for there
was a look in the sweet, wondering eyes that made him rather uneasy.
"Judge Lawless, excuse me. I do not know what you mean. I fear I have
misunderstood you," said Erminie, more perplexed than she ever was
before in the whole course of her life.
"Misunderstood me? Impossible, Miss Germaine! I have used the plainest
possible language, I think, in asking you to be my wife!"
"Your wife?"
"Yes, my wife! Why this surprise, dear girl? Why, Erminie! Good heavens,
Erminie! is it possible you really have not understood me all this time?
Why, dearest, fairest girl, I love you--I wish you to be my wife! Do you
understand now?"
He would have passed his arm around her waist; but, crimson with burning
blushes, she sprung to her feet, a vivid light in her beautiful eyes,
and raised her hand to wave him off.
"You are mocking me, Judge Lawless! If you have had your amusement, we
will drop the subject."
"Mocking you, my beautiful Erminie! I swear to you I love you with all
my heart and soul! Only make me happy, by saying you will be my wife!"
The conviction that he was really serious, now for the first time dawned
upon Erminie's mind. The rosy tide flooded neck and brow again, and she
dropped her flushed face in her hands, as she remembered he was Ranty's
father.
"I am not surprised that you should wonder at my choice," said the
judge, complacently. "Of course the world expects I should marry a woman
of rank; but I like you, and am determined to please myself, let them
wonder as they will!"
Erminie's hands dropped from her face, crimson now, but not with
embarrassment; her eyes flashed with the fiery spirit of the old De
Courcys, as she drew herself up to her full height, and calmly said:
"I will spare you the humiliation, and your friends the trouble of
wondering at your choice. For the honor you have done me, I thank you,
even while I must decline it."
"Decline it!" The judge sat aghast.
Erminie compressed her lips, and silently bowed. She stood there like a
young queen, her proud little head erect, her fair cheeks scarlet, her
eyes darkening and darkening, until they seemed almost black.
"Decline it!" The judge, in his amazement, was a sight to see.
"Yes, sir."
"Miss Germaine, I--I'm thunderstruck! I--I'm confounded! I--I am
_utterly_ confounded! Miss Germaine, you do not mean it; you cannot mean
it! it's impossible you can mean it! Refuse me! Oh, it is utterly
impossible you can mean it!"
"On the contrary, wonderful as it seems, I must distinctly and
unequivocally decline the honor." And Erminie's look of calm
determination showed her resolution was not to be shaken. Judge Lawless
rose to his feet and confronted her. Indignation, humiliation, anger,
wounded pride, mortification, jealousy, and a dozen other disagreeable
feelings, flushing his face until its reflection fairly imparted a rosy
hue to his snow-white shirt bosom.
"Miss Germaine, am I to understand that you refuse to marry me?"
"Decidedly, sir."
"May I ask your reason for this refusal, Miss Germaine?"
"I recognize no right by which you are privileged to question me, Judge
Lawless, but because of the respect I own one so much my senior, I will
say that, first, I do not love you; second, even if I did, I would not
marry one who looks upon me as so far beneath him; and third--" She
paused, caught his eye fixed upon her, and colored more vividly than
before.
"Well, Miss Germaine, and _third_," he said, sarcastically.
"I will answer no more such questions, Judge Lawless," she said, with
proud indignation; "and I repeat it once again, I cannot be your wife."
"That remains to be seen, Miss Germaine. There are more ways than one of
winning a lady; I have tried one, and failed; now I shall have recourse
to another."
"Judge Lawless, is that meant as a threat?" said Erminie, her proud De
Courcy blood flushing in her cheeks and lighting up her eyes again.
He smiled slightly, but made no other reply, as he took his hat and cane
and prepared to go.
"Once again, Miss Erminie, before I go, I ask you if your mind is fully
made up to reject me?"
The darkening, streaming light of the violet eyes fixed full upon him
was his only answer, as she stood drawn up to her full height.
"Good-morning, then," he said, with a courteous smile. "I do not
despair, even yet. Time works wonders, you know, Miss Germaine. Give my
best regards to your excellent grandmother." And with a stately bow, _a
la_ Grandison, the judge left the cottage, and the light of the dark,
indignant, beautiful eyes.
But once on his horse, and galloping like mad over the heath, a change
wonderful to see came over the bland face of the judge. Dark and darker
it grew, thicker and thicker was his scowl, angrier and angrier became
his eyes, until his face looked like a human thunder-cloud.
"The proud, conceited, impertinent minx!" he burst out, "to refuse
me--me--me, Judge Lawless. Why, she must be mad! By heaven! she shall be
mine yet, if only to teach her a lesson. Black Bart is in Judestown. I
saw him yesterday; and he, with his fellow-smugglers, or pirates, or
freebooters, or whatever they are, shall aid me in this. It does not
sound well, to be sure, for a judge of the land to tacitly favor
smuggling, but then those contraband wines and brandies would tempt St.
Peter himself. They shall do a different kind of smuggling for me this
time. In the Hidden Cave Madame Erminie will be safe enough, and that
queen of the smugglers, or whatever she is, can take care of her. Refuse
me! by the hosts above, that girl shall repent her temerity! This very
day I will see Black Bart, and then--"
He compressed his lips tight, and his face assumed a look of dark, grim
determination, that showed his resolution was unalterable.
And meanwhile Erminie, with her fair face bowed in her hands, was
weeping the bitterest tears she had ever shed in her life.