CONCLUSION
‘There let Hymen oft appear
In saffron robe, with taper clear,
And pomp, and feast, and revelry,
And mask, and antique pageantry;
Such sights as useful poets dream
On summer eves, by haunted stream.’
ON the morning of a fine day, late in September, the Beechcroft bells
were ringing merrily, and a wedding procession was entering the gate of
the churchyard.
In the afternoon there was a great feast on the top of the hill, attended
by all the Mohuns, who were forced, to Lily’s great satisfaction, to give
it there, as there was no space in the grounds at the New Court. All was
wonderfully suitable to old times, inasmuch as the Baron was actually
persuaded to sit for five minutes under the yew-tree where ‘Mohun’s
chair’ ought to have been, and the cricketers were of all ranks, from the
Marquis of Rotherwood to little Dick Grey.
The wedding had been hurried on, and the wedding tour was shortened, in
order that Mrs. William Mohun might be installed as mistress of the New
Court before Eleanor’s departure, which took place early in October; and
shortly after Mrs. Ridley, who had come on a visit to Beechcroft, to take
leave of her brother, returned to the north, taking with her the little
Harry. He was nearly a year old, and it gave great pain to his young
aunts to part with him, now that he had endeared himself to them by many
engaging ways, but Lily felt herself too unequal to the task of training
him up to make any objection, and there were many promises that he should
not be a stranger to his grandfather’s home.
Mrs. and Miss Aylmer had been about a month settled at a superior sort of
cottage, near the New Court, with Mrs. Eden for their servant. Lord
Rotherwood had fitted out the second son, who sailed for India with Mr.
and Mrs. Hawkesworth, had sent Devereux to school, and was lying in wait
to see what could be done for the two others, and Jane was congratulated
far more than she wished, on having been the means of discovering such an
excellent governess. Jane was now a regular inhabitant of the
schoolroom, as much tied down to lessons and schoolroom hours as her two
little sisters, with the prospect of so continuing for two years, if not
for three. She made one attempt to be pert to Miss Aylmer; but something
in the manner of her governess quite baffled her, and she was obliged to
be more obedient than she had ever been. The mischief which Emily and
Lilias had done to her, by throwing off their allegiance to Eleanor, and
thus unconsciously leading her to set her at nought, was, at her age, not
to be so easily repaired; yet with no opportunity for gossiping, and with
involuntary respect for her governess, there were hopes that she would
lose the habit of her two great faults. There certainly was an
improvement in her general tone and manner, which made Mr. Devereux hope
that he might soon resume with her the preparation for confirmation which
had been cut short the year before.
Phyllis and Adeline had been possessed by Reginald with a great dread of
governesses; and they were agreeably surprised in Miss Aylmer, whom they
found neither cross nor strict, and always willing to forward their
amusements, and let them go out with their papa and sisters whenever they
were asked. Phyllis, without much annoyance to one so obedient, was
trained into more civilisation, and Ada’s more serious faults were duly
watched and guarded against. The removal of Esther was a great advantage
to Ada; an older and more steady person was taken in her place; while to
the great relief of Mr. Mohun and Lilias, Rachel Harvey took Esther to
her brother’s farmhouse, where she promised to watch and teach her, and
hoped in time to make her a good servant.
Of Emily there is little to say. She ate, drank, and slept, talked
agreeably, read idle books, and looked nice in the drawing-room, wasting
time, throwing away talents, weakening the powers of her mind, and laying
up a store of sad reflections for herself against the time when she must
awake from her selfish apathy.
As to Lilias Mohun, the heroine of this tale, the history of the
formation of her character has been told, and all that remains to be said
of her is, that the memory of her faults and her sorrows did not fleet
away like a morning cloud, though followed by many happy and prosperous
days, and though the effects of many were repaired. Agnes’s death,
Esther’s theft, Ada’s accident, the schism in the parish, and her own
numerous mistakes, were constantly recalled, and never without a thought
of the danger of being wise above her elders, and taking mere feeling for
Christian charity.