It may save the reader some time, and relieve him from the weary task
of twice listening to the same story, if we steal some passages from a
letter which, about this time, Jack Massingbred addressed to his former
correspondent. He wrote from the inn at Oughterard, and, although still
under the influence of the excitement of the late contest, expressed
himself with much of his constitutional calm and frankness. We shall not
recapitulate his narrative of the election, but proceed at once to what
followed on that description.
“I see, Harry, the dubious projection of your nether lip, I appreciate
the slow nod of your head, and I fancy I can hear the little half-sigh
of deprecation with which you hear all this. Worse again, I don't seek
to defend myself. I think my case a bad one; but still I feel there is
something to be said in mitigation. You need not trouble yourself to
draw up an indictment: I plead guilty--entirely guilty--to all you
can say. I _have_ broken with 'the gentlemen' to cast my lot with the
_canaille_. Why have n't we a good wholesome word of our own for a
home-made article? I _have_ deserted the ranks where, whatever fortune
befell, it was honor to fight; I have given up association with
the well-bred and the well-mannered, to rub shoulders with the
coarse-minded, the rough-hearted, and the vulgar. There is not a
reproach you can make me on this score that I have n't already addressed
to myself. I feel all the indignity of my situation,--I experience
all the insult of their companionship; but, as the lady detected in
possession of her lover's picture pleaded in her defence that it was not
like him, so I hope to arrest judgment against me by the honest avowal
that I detest and despise my party. I don't talk to _you_ about their
principles--still less do I say anything of my own--but merely advert
here to the miserable compromise a gentleman is driven to make with
every sentiment of his nature who once enlists under their flag. As
Travers told us one evening--you were of the party, and must remember
it--he was speaking of the Peninsular campaign, in which he served as
a volunteer--'So long as you were fighting,' said he, 'it was all very
well; the fellows were stout-hearted and full of spirit, and you felt
that you couldn't ask for better comrades; but when the struggle was
over--when it came to associating, living with them, hearing their
sentiments, sharing their opinions, hopes, fears, wishes, and so
on--then it became downright degradation!' Not, as he remarked, that
they were one jot more vicious or more corrupt than their betters,
but that every vice and every corruption amongst them seemed doubly
offensive by the contact with their coarse natures. Now, my friends, the
Liberals, are somewhat in the same category. They do their work right
well on the field of battle; they fight, swear, slander, and perjure
themselves just like gentlemen; or rather better of the two. They even
come down handsomely with their cash,--the last best evidence any man
can tender of his honesty in a cause; but then, Harry, the struggle
over, it is sorry work to become their companion and their friend!
Oh! if you had but seen the dinners I have eaten, and the women I have
handed down to them!--if you could have but heard the sentiments I have
cheered,--ay, and even uttered,--only listened to the projects we have
discussed, and the plans matured as we sat over our whiskey-punch,--you
'd say, 'Jack must have the ambition of the Evil One himself in his
heart, since he pays this price for the mere glimpse of the goal before
him!'
“Throughout the whole of your last letter I can detect a sense of
apprehension lest, 'with all my tact,' as you phrase it, these people
are not really duping we,--using me for a present purpose, with the
foregone resolve to get rid of me when it be accomplished. To be sure
they are, Harry. I never doubted it for a moment. The only question is,
which of us shall trip up the other! They desire to show the world that
the operation of the Relief Bill will not be of that exclusive character
its opponents proclaimed,--that a Catholic constituency would choose a
Protestant,--even prefer one,--as Mr. O'Connell said. The opportunity
was a good one to display this sentiment, and so they took me! Now, _my_
notion is, that every great measure can have only one real importance,
by throwing weight into the scale of one or other of the two great
Parliamentary parties. Do what you will,--agitate, write, speak,
pamphleteer, and libel,--but all resolves itself to some question of
a harm to one side and good to the other, the country the while being
wonderfully little the better or the worse for all the legislation.
We used to have a Constitution in England: we have now only got a
Parliament, and to be anything in the nation a man must make himself
felt there! This, 'if I have the stuff in me,' as old Sherry said, I
mean to do--_et nous verrons!_
“The fatigues of this new life are very great. I 'm up before it is well
day, writing and revising newspaper articles, answering letters, and
replying to 'queries.' I have my whole mornings taken up in audiences of
my constituents, swallowing pledges, and recording promises; and
later on I go to dinner, 'with what appetite I may,' to some one of my
faithful supporters,--some corn-chandler who spouts 'foreign politics,'
or a grocer who ought to be Colonial Secretary! But still I 'm thankful
for all this bustle and occupation: it averts reflection, it raises a
barrier against thought, and muffles the clapper of that small hand-bell
in the human heart men call their conscience! They say few men would
have courage for either a battle or a wedding if it were not for the din
of the trumpets and the joy-bells; and I'm convinced that noise--mere
noise--has no small share in determining the actions of mankind!
“And now, Harry, for a confession. I 'm heartily sorry for the whole of
this business, and were it to be done again, nothing would tempt me to
play the same part in it. I was leading the jolliest life imaginable at
Cro' Martin. I had made the place and the people my own. It was a kind
of existence that suited me,--sufficient of occupation, and enough of
leisure. There were oddities to laugh at, eccentricities to quiz, an old
lawyer to sharpen one's wits upon, and a governess--such a governess--to
flirt with! Don't mistake me, Harry; it was not one of those
hand-pressing, downcast-gazing, low-speaking cases in which you are such
a proficient. It was far more like the approaches one might be supposed
to make to a young tigress in a cage,--a creature with whom a mistake
would be your ruin, and whom you always caressed with a sense of
impending peril.
“I told you how ably she aided me in this contest,--how she labored to
obtain information--secret information--for me as to every voter in the
borough. What prompted her to this course I cannot fathom. She does not
appear to bear any grudge against the Martins,--she had been but a few
weeks amongst them,--and is, all things considered, well treated and
well received. As little was it any special favor towards myself.
Indeed, on that head she will not permit me to fall into any error. I
cannot suppose that with her foreign education and foreign habits she
cares a jot for the small schemes and intriguings of home politics,--so
what can it possibly mean? Help me to the solution of this riddle, and
I 'll be more deeply your debtor than I can well say. Brought up as she
has been,--and as I have told you in my last letter,--nothing would be
more natural than her adoption of every prejudice of the class by whom
she has been so singularly distinguished; and in this light I have
always viewed her. Under the calm reserve of a most polished manner you
can still detect a shrinking horror of all the vulgar association of
the rank she came from. Her quiet deference, haughtier by far than the
domination of those above her; the humility that no flatteries ever
breached; a self-possession that never seemed so strong as when
resisting the blandishments of praise,--these are strange gifts in a
young girl with beauty enough to turn half the heads of half the fools
we know of, and more than enough to make crazy that of him who writes
this.
“I tried twenty things to resist this tendency on my part. I laughed at
myself for the absurdity it would lead to. I ridiculed to my own heart
all the extravagance of such a project. I even wrote a paragraph for the
'Times' announcing the marriage of Jack Massingbred with Kate Henderson,
the only daughter of Paul Henderson, the Land Steward, and pasted it
above my chimney to shock and outrage me. I did more. I made love to
Miss Martin--as an alterative, as the doctors would call it--but I fell
at a stone wall, got laughed at, and cured of my passion; and, lastly, I
climbed that lofty tree of my family, and sat high among the branches
of defunct barons and baronets, to get a bird's-eye view of the small
mushrooms that grow on the earth beneath, but hang me, Harry, if the
agarics did n't seem better company, and I was glad to get down amongst
them again, meaning thereby to sit beside that one dear specimen of the
class I allude to!
“I see that you are curious to know how all these late events have
modified my relations with my father, and really I cannot answer your
inquiry. It is more than likely that my obtaining a seat in Parliament
will embarrass rather than serve him with his party, since he will be
expected to control a vote over which he can exert no influence.
“As yet, nothing has occurred to draw us any closer, and my only
communications to him have been certain recommendatory letters, which
my constituents here have somewhat peremptorily demanded at my hands.
I gave them freely, for, after all, application is an easier task than
refusing, and besides, Harry, it is very difficult to persuade your
election friends that you cannot be a patriot and a patron at the same
time, and that, in the luxurious pastime of badgering a government, a
man surrenders some of the pretensions to place. I gave them, therefore,
all the letters they asked for; and if the Chief Secretary but answer
one half of my appeals, Galway--or at least that small portion of it
called Oughter-ard--will have no cause of complaint on the score of its
claims to office.
“You are, I perceive, astonished that I continue to remain here. So am
I, Harry. The place is detestable in almost every way. I am beset with
entreaties, persecuted with vulgar attentions, bored to death by the
insolent familiarity of people I cannot--do all that I will--grow
intimate with; and yet I stay on, pretexting this, that, and t' other to
myself, and shrinking even to my own heart to avow the real reason of my
delay!
“I want once again, if only for a few moments, to see her. I want to
try if by any ingenuity I could discover the mystery of her conduct with
regard to myself; and I want also, if there should be the need to do
so, to justify to her eyes many things which I have been forced by
circumstances to do in this contest.
“I have not the slightest suspicion as to how she views all that has
occurred here. Two notes which I addressed to her, very respectful,
businesslike epistles, have not been answered, though I entreated for a
few words to acknowledge their receipt. The Martins, since the election,
seem to have quarantined the whole town and neighborhood. They suffer
none of their people to enter here. They have sent eight miles further
off to market, and even changed the post-town for their letters. Their
policy is, so far, shortsighted, as it has called into an exaggerated
importance all that small fry--like the Nelligans--who have hitherto
been crushed under the greater wealth of the rich proprietor. But I am
again drifting into that tiresome tideway of politics which I have sworn
to myself to avoid, if only for a few days; in pursuance of which wise
resolve I shall betake myself to the mountains, under the pretext of
shooting. A gun is an idler's passport, and a game-bag and a shot-pouch
are sufficient to throw a dignity over vagabondism. You will therefore
divine that I am not bent on snipe slaughter, but simply a good excuse
to be alone!
“I mean to go to-morrow, and shall first turn my steps towards the
coast, which, so far as I have seen, is singularly bold and picturesque.
If nothing occurs to alter my determination, I 'll leave this unclosed
till I can tell you that I have come back here, which in all probability
will be by the end of the week.
“Once more here, my dear Harry, I sit down to add a few lines to this
already over-lengthy epistle. Wishing to give you some notion of the
scenery, I set out with all the appliances of a sketcher, and have
really contrived to jot down some spots which, for general wildness
and grandeur, it would be difficult to surpass within the bounds of
our country. Nor is it alone the forms that are so striking, although
I could show you outlines here perfectly Alpine in their fantastic
extravagance; but the colors are finer than anything I have seen north
of the Alps,--heaths and lichens grouped over rugged masses of rock,
with shades of purple and gold such as no diadem ever equalled. The
sunsets, too, were gorgeous! You remember how struck we both were at the
moment when the dome and aisle of St. Peter's burst into light, and
from the darkness of midnight every column and every statue became
illuminated in a second; but a thousand times beyond this in grandeur
of effect was the moment of the sun's decline below the horizon. The
instant before, the great sullen sea was rolling and heaving with its
leaden blue surface, slightly traced here and there with foam, but no
sooner had the sun touched the horizon, than a flood of purple glory
spread over the whole ocean, so that it became like a sea of molten gold
and amber. The dark cliffs and rugged crags, the wave-beaten rocks, and
the rude wild islands, darksome and dismal but a moment back, were
now all glittering and glowing, every pinnacle and every peak in deep
carbuncle red. How suggestive to him who would describe an
enchanted land or region of magic splendor! and what a hint for your
scene-painter, who, with all his devices of Bengal and blue light,
with every trick that chemistry and optics could aid in, never fancied
anything so splendid or so gorgeous.
“I have half filled a sketch-book for you, and more than half filled my
game-bag with mosses and ferns, and such-like gear, which, knowing your
weakness, I have gathered, but, not understanding their virtues, may,
for aught I know, be the commonest things in creation. I can only vouch
for their being very beautiful, and very unlike anything else I ever
saw before; fragments of marble, too, and specimens of Irish jasper
and onyx, are amidst my rubbish, or my treasures, whichever you shall
pronounce them to be.
“I got through--don't fancy that the phrase denotes weariness or
_ennui_--I got through four days in these pursuits, and then I took
boat, and for three more I paddled about the coast, dipping in amongst
the cliffs and creeks and caves of this wonderful coast, gathering
shells and seaweed, and shooting curlews and eating lobsters, and, in
fact, to all intents and purposes, suffering a 'sea change' over myself
and my spirit as unearthlike as well may be imagined; and at last I
bethought me of my new openiug career, and all that I ought to be doing
in preparation of St. Stephen's, and so I turned my steps landward and
towards 'my borough.' I like to say 'my borough;' it sounds feudal and
insolent and old Torylike; it smacks of the day when people received
their representative thankfully, as an alms, and your great proprietor
created his nominee as the consul ennobled his horse!
“Revolving very high thoughts, reciting Edmund Burke's grandest
perorations, and picturing very vividly before me the stunning triumphs
of my own eloquence in the House, I plodded along, this time at least
wonderfully indifferent to the scenery, and totally oblivious of where
I was, when suddenly I perceived the great trees of Cro' Martin demesne
shadowing the road I travelled, and saw that I was actually within a
mile or so of the Castle! You, Harry, have contrived, some way or other,
to have had a very rose-colored existence. I never heard that you had
been jilted by a mistress, 'cut' by a once friend, or coldly received by
the rich relative from whom you derived all your expectations. I am not
even aware that the horse you backed ever went wrong, or that the bill
you endorsed for another ever came back protested. In fact, you are what
the world loves best, cherishes most, and lavishes all its blandishments
on,--a devilish lucky fellow! Lucky in a capital fortune, abundance of
good gifts, good looks, and an iron constitution,--one of those natures
that can defy duns, blue-devils, and dyspepsia! Being, therefore, all
this, well received everywhere, good company where pheasants are to be
shot, Burgundy to be drunk, or young ladies to be married,--for you are
a good shot, a good wine-taster, and a good _parti_,--with such gifts, I
say, it will be very difficult to evoke your sympathy on the score of a
misfortune which no effort of your imagination could compass. In fact,
to ask you to feel what I did, as I found myself walking along _outside_
of those grounds _within_ which, but a few days back, I was the
cherished visitor, and in sight of that smoke which denoted a hearth
beside which I was never to sit again, and from which I was banished
with something not very unlike disgrace! No sophistry I could summon was
sufficient to assuage the poignancy of this sentiment. I feel certain
that I could stand any amount of open public abuse, any known or unknown
quantity of what is genteelly called 'slanging,' but I own to you
that the bare thought of how my name might at that moment be mentioned
beneath that roof, or even the very reserve that saved it from mention,
caused me unutterable bitterness, and it was in a state of deep
humiliation of spirit that I took the very first path that led across
the fields and away from Cro' Martin.
“They tell me that a light heart makes easy work of a day's journey.
Take my word for it, that to get over the ground without a thought of
the road, there's nothing like a regular knock-down affliction. I walked
eight hours, and at a good pace, too, without so much as a few minutes'
halt, so overwhelmed was I with sensations that would not admit of my
remembering anything else. My first moment of consciousness--for really
it was such--came on as I found myself breasting a steep stony ascent,
on the brow of which stood the bleak residence of my friend Mr.
Magennis, of Barnagheela. I have already told you of my visit to
his house, so that I need not inflict you with any new detail of the
locality, but I confess, little as it promised to cheer or rally the
spirits, I was well pleased to find myself so near a roof under which I
might take refuge. I knocked vigorously at the door, but none answered
my summons. I repeated my demand for admittance still more loudly, and
at last went round to the back of the house, which I found as rigidly
barred as the front. While still hesitating what course to take, I
spied Joan Landy--you remember the girl I spoke of in a former
letter--ascending the hill at a brisk pace. In a moment I was beside
her. Poor thing, she seemed overjoyed at our meeting, and warmly
welcomed me to her house. 'Tom is away,' said she, 'in Dublin, they tell
me, but he 'll be back in a day or two, and there 's nobody he 'd be so
glad to see as yourself when he comes.' In the world, Harry,--that is,
in your world and mine,--such a proposition as Joan's would have its
share of embarrassments. Construe it how one might, there would be at
least some awkwardness in accepting such hospitality. So I certainly
felt it, and, as we walked along, rather turned the conversation towards
herself, and whither she had been.
“'I 'm not more than half an hour out of the house,' said she, 'for I
only went down the boreen to show the short cut by Kell Mills to a young
lady that was here.'
“'A visitor, Mrs. Joan?'
“'Yes. But to be sure you know her yourself, for you came with her the
day she walked part of the way back with me from Cro' Martin.'
“'Miss Henderson?'
“'Maybe that's her name. She only told me to call her Kate.'
“'Was she here alone?--did she come on foot?--which way is she gone?'
cried I, hurrying question after question. Perhaps the tone of my last
was most urgent, for it was to that she replied, by pointing to a
glen between two furze-clad hills, and saying, 'That's the road she 's
taking, till she crosses the ford at Coomavaragh.'
“'And she is alone?'
“'That she is; sorra a one with her, and she has five good miles before
her.'
“I never waited for more. If I did say good-bye to poor Joan, I really
forget; but I dashed down the mountain at speed, and hurried onward in
the direction she had pointed out. In an instant all my fatigue of the
day was forgotten, and as I went along I remembered nothing, thought of
nothing, but the object of my pursuit.
“You who have so often bantered me on the score of my languor--that
'elegant lassitude,' as you used to call it, which no zeal ever warmed,
nor any ardor ever could excite--would have been somewhat astonished
had you seen the reckless, headlong pace at which I went,--vaulting
over gates, clearing fences, and dashing through swamps, without ever a
moment's hesitation. Picture to yourself, then, my splashed and heated
condition as, after a two-miles' chase in this fashion, I at length
overtook her, just as she was in search of a safe spot to ford the
river. Startled by the noise behind her, she turned suddenly round, and
in an instant we stood face to face. I 'd have given much to have seen
some show of confusion, even embarrassment in her looks, but there was
not the slightest. No, Harry, had we met in a drawing-room, her manner
could not have been more composed, as she said,--'Good-morning, Mr.
Massingbred. Have you had much sport?' 'My chase was after _you_, Miss
Henderson,' said I, hurriedly. 'I just reached Barnagheela as Mistress
Joan returned, and having learned which road you took, followed you in
all haste.'
“'Indeed!' exclaimed she, and in a voice wherein there were blended a
vast variety of meanings.
“'Yes,' I resumed, 'for an opportunity of meeting you alone--of speaking
with you even for a few moments--I have delayed my departure this week
back. I wrote to you twice.'
“'Yes; I got your letters.'
“'But did not deign to answer them.'
“' I did not write to you, because, situated as _I_ was, and regarded as
_you_ were at Cro' Martin, there would have been a species of treason
in maintaining anything like correspondence, just as I feel there is
somewhat akin to it in our intercourse at this moment.'
“'And have the events occurring lately changed _your_ feeling with
regard to me?' asked I, half reproachfully.
“'I don't exactly know to what former condition you refer, Mr.
Massingbred,' said she, calmly. 'If to the counsels which you were
gracious enough to receive at hands humble and inexperienced as
mine, they were given, as you remember, when you were the chosen
representative of the family at Cro' Martin, and continued only so long
as you remained such.'
“'Then I have deceived myself, Miss Henderson,' broke I in. 'I had
fancied that there was a personal good-will in the aid you tendered me.
I even flattered myself that I owed my success entirely and solely to
your efforts.'
“'You are jesting, Mr. Massingbred,' said she, with a saucy smile; 'no
one better than yourself knows how to rely upon his own abilities.'
“'At least, confess that it was you who first suggested to me that they
were worth cultivating; that it was _you_ who pointed out a road to
me in life, and even promised me your friendship as the price of my
worthily adopting it!'
“'I remember the conversation you allude to. It was on this very road it
occurred.'
“'Well, and have I done anything as yet to forfeit the reward you spoke
of?'
“'All this is beside the real question, Mr. Massingbred,' said she,
hurriedly. 'What you are really curious to learn is, why it is that I,
being such as I am, should have displayed so much zeal in a cause which
could not but have been opposed to the interests of those who are my
patrons. That you have not divined the reason is a proof to me that I
could not make you understand it. I don't want to talk riddles,--enough
that I say it was a caprice.'
“'And yet you talked seriously, persuasively to me, of my future road
in life; you made me think that you saw in me the qualities that win
success.'
“'You have a wonderful memory for trifles, sir, since you can recall so
readily what I said to you.'
“'But it was not a trifle to me,' said I.
“'Perhaps not, Mr. Massingbred, since it referred to yourself. I don't
mean this for impertinence!'
“'I am glad that you say so!' cried I, eagerly. 'I am but too happy
to catch at anything which may tend to convince me that you would not
willingly hurt my feelings.'
“For several minutes neither of us uttered a word; at last I said,
'Should I be asking too much, if I begged Miss Henderson to tell me
whether she is dissatisfied with anything I may have done in this
contest? There may be matters in which I have been misrepresented;
others of which I could make some explanation.'
“'Are you quite satisfied with it yourself, sir?' said she, interrupting
me.
“'No,' said I; 'so little am I so, that were it all to do over again, I
'd not embark in it. The whole affair, from beginning to end, is a false
position.'
“'Ignoble associates--low companionships--very underbred acquaintances,'
said she, in a tone of scorn that seemed far more directed at _me_ than
the others. I believe I showed how I felt it. I know that my cheek was
on fire for some seconds after.
“'The Martins, I take it, are outrageous with me?' said I, at last.
“'They never speak of you!' was the reply.
“'Not my Lady?'
“'No!'
“'Nor even Repton?'
“'Not once.'
“'That, at least, is more dignified; and if any accident should bring us
together in county business--'
“'Which is not likely.'
“'How so?' asked I.
“'They are going away soon.'
“'Going away--to leave Cro' Martin--and for any time?'
“'My Lady speaks of the Continent, and that, of course, implies a long
absence.'
“'And has this miserable election squabble led to this resolve? Is the
neighborhood to be deprived of its chief ornament--the people of their
best friend--just for the sake of a petty party triumph?'
“'It is fortunate Mr. Massingbred's constituents cannot hear him,' said
she, laughing.
“'But be serious, and tell me how far am I the cause of all this.'
“'The whole cause of it,--at least, so far as present events can
reveal.'
“'How they must abhor me!' said I, half involuntarily.
“'_Avec les circonstances atténuantes_,' said she, smiling again.
“'How so?--what do you mean?'
“'Why, that my Lady is thankful at heart for a good excuse to get
away,--such a pretext as Mr. Martin himself cannot oppose. Repton,
the Grand Vizier, counsels economy, and, like all untravelled people,
fancies France and Italy cheap to live in; and Miss Mary is, perhaps,
not sorry with the prospect of the uncontrolled management of the whole
estate.'
“'And is she to live here alone?'
“'Yes; she is to be sole mistress of Cro' Martin, and without even a
governess, since Miss Henderson is to accompany her Ladyship as private
secretary, minister of the household, and, in fact, any other capacity
you may please in flattery to assign her. And now, Mr. Massingbred,
that I have, not over-discreetly, perhaps, adventured to talk of family
arrangements to a stranger, will you frankly ac-knowledge that your
pride, or self-love, or any other quality of the same nature, is rather
gratified than otherwise at all the disturbance you have caused here?
Don't you really feel pleased to think that you have revolutionized a
little neighborhood, broken up a society, severed the ties that bound
proprietor and peasant, and, in fact, made a very pretty chaos, out of
which may come anything or everything?'
“'When you address such a question as this to me, you don't expect an
answer. Indeed, the query itself is its own reply,' said I.
“'Well said, sir, and with consummate temper, too. Certainly, Mr.
Massingbred, you possess one great element of success in public life.'
“'Which is--'
“'To bear with equanimity and cool forbearance the impertinences of
those you feel to be your inferiors.'
“'But it is not in this light I regard Miss Henderson, be assured,' said
I, with earnestness; 'and if I have not replied to her taunts, it is not
because I have not felt them.'
“I thought I detected a very faint flush on her cheek as I said this,
and certainly her features assumed a more serious expression than
before.
“'Will you let me speak to you of what is far nearer my heart?' said I,
in a low voice,--'far nearer than all this strife and war of politics?
And will you deign to believe that what I say is prompted by whatever I
know in myself of good or hopeful?'
“'Say on,--that is, if I ought to hear it,' said she, coldly.
“Deterred a second or two by her manner, I rallied quickly, and with an
ardor of which I cannot convey an impression, much less explain,--one
of those moments of rhapsody, _you 'd_ call it,--poured forth a warm
declaration of love. Aye, Harry, sincere, devoted love!--a passion
which, in mastering all the common promptings of mere worldly advantage
and self-interest, had really inspired me with noble thoughts and high
aspirations.
“A judge never listened to a pleading with more dignified patience than
she did to my appeal. She even waited when I had concluded, as it were
to allow of my continuing, had I been so minded; when, seeing that I had
closed my argument, she quietly turned about, and facing the road we
had just been travelling, pointed to the bleak, bare mountain on which
Barnagheela stood. 'It was yonder, then, that you caught up this lesson,
sir. The admirable success of Mr. Magennis's experiment has seduced
you!'
“'Good heavens! Kate,' cried I--
“'Sir,' said she, drawing herself proudly up, 'you are continuing the
parallel too far.'
“'But Miss Henderson cannot for a moment believe--'
“'I can believe a great deal, sir, of what even Mr. Massingbred would
class with the incredible; but, sir, there are certain situations in
life which exact deference, from the very fact of their humility. Mine
is one of these, and I am aware of it.'
“'Will you not understand me aright?' cried I, eagerly. 'In offering to
share my fortune in life with you--'
“'Pray, sir, let this stop here. Poor Joan, I have no doubt, felt all
the grandeur of _her_ elevation, and was grateful even in her misery.
But _I_ should not do so. I am one of those who think that the cruellest
share in a _mésalliance_ is that of the humbler victim. To brave such
a fate, there should be all the hopeful, sanguine sense of strong
affection; and, as a reserve to fall back on in reverses, there should
be an intense conviction of the superiority over others of him from whom
we accept our inferiority. Now, in my case, these two conditions are
wanting. I know you like frankness, and I am frank.'
“'Even to cruelty,' said I.
“'We are very near Cro' Martin, sir, and I think we ought to part,' said
she, calmly.
“'And is it thus you would have us separate? Have I nothing to hope from
time,--from the changes that may come over your opinions of me?'
“'Calculate rather on the alterations in your own sentiments, Mr.
Massingbred; and perhaps the day is not very distant when you will laugh
heartily at yourself for the folly of this same morning,--a folly which
might have cost you dearly, sir, for I might have said, Yes.'
“'Would that you had!'
“'Good-bye, sir,' said she, not noticing my interruption, 'and remember
that, if I should ever need it, I have a strong claim on your gratitude.
Good-bye!'
“She did not give me her hand at parting, but waved it coldly towards me
as she went. And so she passed the little wicket, and entered the
dark woods of the demesne, leaving me in a state wherein the sense of
bewilderment alone prevailed over all else.
“I have given you this narrative, Harry, as nearly as I can remember,
every step of it; but I do not ask you to understand it better than
I do, which means, not at all! Nor will I worry you with the
thousand-and-one attempts I have made to explain to myself what I still
confess to be inexplicable. I mean to leave this at once. Would that I
had never come here! Write to me soon; but no bantering, Harry. Not even
my friendship for _you_--oldest and best of all my friends--could stand
any levity on this theme. This girl knows me thoroughly, since she
comprehends that there is no so certain way to engage my affections as
to defy them!
“Write to me, I entreat. Address me at my father's, where I shall be,
probably, within a week. Were I to read over what I have just written,
the chances are I should burn the letter; and so, _sans adieu_,
“Yours ever,
“Jack Massingbred.”