One of the best receipts for happiness in this world is, to make the
utmost of small pleasures, and the very least of small vexations, which
was the plan on which Marion invariably lived; and it often seemed as
if all the duties of affection and friendship were written with a
sunbeam on her mind. She now resolved, with characteristic kindness and
good sense, that as her presence at St. John's Lodge could do no good
to her sister, it should at least do no harm; therefore she determined
if possible to obtain leave of absence for a few weeks from home, and
to explain in writing to Agnes, her own opinion of Captain De
Crespigny's conduct, and the reasons on which it was grounded; being
convinced that in all the important affairs of life, perfect frankness
between friends is, however painful, an imperative duty, and that no
one, on any occasion where he has to act or to feel, should be left in
the dark as to his own actual position.
With a somewhat tremulous voice, and heightened color, Marion proceeded
next morning into her brother's private sitting-room, where, surrounded
by a perfect armory of rifles, double-barrelled guns and pistols, she
found him selecting his weapons for a pigeon-match to "come off" that
day, between himself and Captain De Crespigny, of whose arrival he was
in momentary expectation; and he seemed by no means inclined at first
to lend her much of his notice.
"I came to mention, Patrick, that if you have no objection, it is my
wish to spend a fortnight now, with uncle Arthur," said Marion. "We
have met very seldom of late, and Henry De Lancey is going off soon to
join the army. Did you hear that a commission in the same corps as
Captain De Crespigny, has been sent to him lately by his unknown
friends. The regiment is going soon, I am told, to Canada, but he is to
join the depot for some months at Portsmouth."
"Well! but what does all this matter to you! I shall not give my
consent if you ask me till midnight!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, peevishly;
for he felt by no means disposed that his house should lose the
attraction of Marion's resplendent beauty. "If Sir Arthur in his
dotage, chooses to make himself ridiculous about this anonymous youth,
is that any reason why the whole family should go wild about him?
Besides, Marion, you confessed long ago, that Mr. Granville visits at
our uncle's; and I am determined that you shall learn to know your own
value better than to take him! What has he to offer you but that
trumpery little cottage, like a Tunbridge-ware work-box, a kitchen
garden stocked with cabbages, or gooseberry bushes, and to live upon
brown bread and water. But I begin to suspect, Marion, that you are one
of the very few people in this world who like their own way; therefore
it is my duty to keep you here out of danger."
"I wish to escape a danger, rather than to encounter one," replied
Marion, with an ingenuous blush. "You know, Patrick, that I consider
Agnes almost engaged to Captain De Crespigny. It would be a very great
disappointment to me, and I think to yourself, if, after all that has
passed, he become merely general in his attentions--showing no
preference to one of us more than for another. You always wish me to be
in the room when he calls,--and--and----"
"Oh! I understand!" exclaimed Sir Patrick, fixing his hawk's eyes on
Marion, and trying to conceal a smile beneath a look of stern
interrogation. "Agnes is jealous!"
"No! not in the very least! I trust she has no reason--that she never
can have any. It seems like vanity in me to mention the subject even to
my own brother in confidence, but I will be perfectly honest. You know,
Patrick, I saw no society at school. I am not at all aware what is
customary; but your friend often says things to me that I am sure he
would not like Agnes to hear."
"You are young and green in this old world, Marion, if you fancy that
Agnes is ever to catch such a will-o'-the-wisp as De Crespigny. _Il
s'aime, et n'a point de rival._ He plays with hearts as if they were
shuttlecocks; and indeed some hearts are little better. It is an absurd
affair of vanity on both sides, and the sooner the thing goes off the
better. I know you are a perfect coward in giving pain, and that Agnes
considers herself sole proprietor of De Crespigny's attentions; but who
made her so? That bubble will burst ere long; and if he is inclined to
try a little harmless flirtation with you, what occasion is there to go
off in a tangent about that, I should like to know! I must insist,
Marion, on your doing all that is possible to make this dull,
out-of-the-way house of mine, agreeable to my friends, for it is
impracticable to exist here without society, which is the best weapon
to kill time with. I shall take it as a mark of your sisterly kindness,
to receive De Crespigny as all other young ladies receive him
everywhere. If he only opened his mouth wide enough, I know at least a
dozen girls who would jump down his throat, and '_il faut jouer le jeu,
selon les regles de la societe dans laquelle vous etes force de
vivre_.' My deepest resentment shall rest on either Agnes or you,
Marion, if my most intimate companion be banished from our society,
either by the one liking him too much, or the other too little."
"But, Patrick! if you think Agnes lays too much stress on Captain De
Crespigny's very marked attentions, and lover-like language, why do you
not warn her against becoming really attached to him?"
"Pshaw! nonsense! She will come to her senses soon, if she has any
senses to come to. Agnes' hopes are all certainties; and she expects by
shutting her own eyes, that everybody else shall become blind; but she
or any one might see with half an eye, that De Crespigny cares no more
for her than the poker does for the tongs. Agnes has been given to
expecting impossibilities from childhood, when she used to be angry at
her wax doll for not answering her when spoken to. If she did not
flatter herself so egregiously, the flattery of De Crespigny would do
her no harm. His love affairs flame up and go out again like a
lucifer-match box."
"Yet, Patrick," replied Marion, trying to steady her voice, and to look
excessively firm, "I must make a point of going for one week to uncle
Arthur. If Agnes is to be disappointed, let me not have any part of the
blame, either from her, or from myself."
"My good Marion! what trash you talk! It puts my mustachios out of curl
to hear you! Agnes is no more engaged to De Crespigny than I am to Mrs.
Penfold! There is no necessity on that score for your becoming a
porcupine, and setting up your quills at my friend. _Il n'a fait, que
remplir son role de jeune homme._ Agnes thinks every partner at a ball
would gladly become a partner for life, and if any one of them were to
mention the ring of Saturn, she would consider it a proposal; but her
lovers all drop off like nine pins at last. Many a time she has seen
the 'decline and fall' of her empire already, and it will be the same
thing now in De Crespigny's case. 'Old birds are not caught with
chaff.'"
"You mean that the chaff is Captain De Crespigny, of course," replied
Marion, with reproachful gravity. "But the subject might have been
illustrated with a more graceful allusion to Agnes' lovers."
"As for Agnes' lovers, no one can tell who they are; yet depend upon
it, De Crespigny is not in the number. As usual, she is always flirting
with the wrong man! Agnes has about as much chance of him as the man in
the moon!" continued Sir Patrick, with increasing vehemence. "She might
as well attempt to overtake last year! Open the door of your
understanding, Marion, and listen to me: De Crespigny will no more
propose to her than you will to the Archbishop of Canterbury! Anybody
may see he is merely amusing himself!"
"Then he deserves to be hanged!" replied Marion, indignantly. "Surely,
Patrick, you should not have allowed this to continue so long, and to
go so far, under your own eyes, unless you really believed that Captain
De Crespigny was as much attached to Agnes as she is certainly to him."
"Or at least to his future title and estates! My dear friend, one would
suppose you had swallowed a whole circulating library this morning! Are
you a believer in broken hearts? My good Marion, they were exploded
long ago, like ghosts and witchcraft! Nobody now dies of love except on
the stage. You do not actually suppose Agnes will expire with the
disappointment! She knows better. Why, Marion, you must expect to go
through half-a-dozen such affairs before you get safe into the harbor
of matrimony."
"I hope not! My heart would not stand quite so much breakage," replied
Marion, coloring and laughing, while she added, in a lower tone,
"besides which it is already in very safe keeping. I have given it
away, you know, Patrick, once for all."
"Pshaw! Marion, none of your sentimental vagaries! Your attachment is,
of course, to be a _chef d'oeuvre d'amour_; but nothing lasts for ever
now. If there were no disappointments in such a love-in-a-cottage
affair as yours, what would become of poets and novel readers! Agnes
understands the game of life better than you do. In her estimation, it
is like a rubber at whist, where hearts are trumps, and the prize a
good establishment in common with the first partner who offers. De
Crespigny knows all this, and cannot be expected to place any great
value on a second-hand heart, much the worse for wear. The intimacy
between them has chiefly arisen from our relationship, he being her
cousin only once removed."
"I wish he were removed altogether. Captain De Crespigny ought to
suffer all the bitterness of disappointment himself, when his
insatiable vanity inflicts it so heartlessly on others."
"Suppose you take that method of revenging Agnes," replied Sir Patrick,
with a penetrating look. "He is the best catch going, and very civil to
you. De Crespigny's attentions are an honor to any one, and would be
quite a feather in your cap."
"So he seems to think; but I have no desire for such feathers. I make
it a rule," said Marion, archly, "never to refuse any gentleman till he
has proposed; but the honor of making him miserable for life never can
be mine, though he so well deserves it. I suppose, being a Roman
Catholic, he has bought an indulgence for deceit, or I should rather
say falsehood."
"What old-fashioned bread-and-butter ideas you have, Marion! Everybody
has been ill-used by somebody, and nobody minds it now. Agnes will
continue incurably heart-broken, til some new lover pays his devoirs,
and then you will understand her better, Marion. _On garde long temps
son premier amant quand on n'en pas un second._"
"I judge of her by myself; and if once so cruelly deceived as she is,
Patrick, my heart could never venture on any second attachment--never!
Once awakened from such a dream, I neither could nor would attempt to
dream it over again. My ideas of mutual attachment are not borrowed
from novels or poems, because I never had time to read one at Mrs.
Penfold's, but from conceiving what it might be to have a companion for
life, from whom no thought should be concealed, and all my happiness
derived. Who could ever place such trust in Captain De Crespigny, if he
has really, as I may say, swindled Agnes out of her time, thoughts, and
affections, without intending amply to repay them with his own? I am
rapidly disliking him, Patrick; and the longer we talk, the more
anxious I become for your leave to be out of his way entirely. Depend
upon it, I shall be excessively rude to your friend the next time we
meet. So, pray, let me go to-morrow."
Hearing a slight noise, Marion looked round, and she would have felt it
rather a relief at the moment if the floor could have opened under her
feet, when, with a gasp of consternation, she beheld Captain De
Crespigny standing in an attitude of perplexity and irresolution near
the door, evidently, for once in his life, feeling almost awkward, and
very nearly abashed, though a moment afterwards he regained his usual
matchless intrepidity of countenance and manner; when Sir Patrick
advanced, with extended hand, to welcome him, saying,
"Ah! De Crespigny! is that you?"
"The same and no other," replied he, bending his riding-whip till it
nearly broke; but assuming an Irish accent to conceal his annoyance.
"The top of the morning to you both. How is every inch of you?"
"Very tolerable, indeed! It always does me good to be astonished, and
certainly your apparition came rather unexpectedly. It made my
mustachios perfectly stand upon end; and Marion will not require a
stroke of electricity for some time after this! She seems rapidly
petrifying into stone!"
"Miss Marion Dunbar! if my presence be unwelcome, I wish it were
possible to dissolve away in the likeness of a sigh!" said he, with a
comic smile. "Shall I invite myself to sit down, or will any one else
do so?"
"If you are so exceedingly ceremonious, perhaps Marion ought to reach
you a chair," replied Sir Patrick, while his face became perfectly
crimsoned with trying to suppress a burst of laughter, when he observed
the graceful timidity of Marion's manner, contrasted with the easy
assurance of Captain De Crespigny's, who looked at her with undisguised
admiration. "I had been inwardly betting with myself for the last half
hour that you would drop in exactly as you did. Here is an undeniably
fine day, so that ends all discussion of the weather, and now for our
pigeon-match."
"Any match you please in this house. I have been sitting for the last
ten minutes tuning your sister's guitar, and she sent me here for the
strings. How much her dog Darling has improved in the tone and
expression of his barking."
"Agnes is perfectly dog mad since you gave her that pert ill-tempered
little animal. As Lord Byron said, 'nobody need want a friend who can
get a dog.' She wears a lock of his hair set in gold--has got a supply
of sheets and towels for him, marked with his name--helps him before
any of us at dinner--teaches him to bark Toryism--and says dogs have
all the good qualities of mankind, with none of the evil. I wish those
who preach sermons against cruelty to animals, would also say a little
against over-indulging them, especially in the case of lap-dogs."
"It is an amiable weakness," observed Captain De Crespigny, in a tone
that sounded very like contempt. "I suppose your sister would scarcely
be outdone by Queen Henrietta Maria, who rushed through a shower of
bullets to save her favorite lap-dog. I envy the whole canine race.
They have, like ourselves, fox-hunting and grouse-shooting for
amusement; and moreover, they are such favorites with the ladies!
Horses are slaves and drudges from youth to age, bearing a yoke from
which nothing can deliver them except death; but dogs generally meet
with some return for their attachment, and are always believed to be
sincere in what they profess. What do you say, Miss Marion Dunbar? Have
I not reason to envy your estimation of Darling?"
Marion colored to the very temples, embarrassed by the consciousness
of all that Captain De Crespigny had evidently overheard, and after
saying a few inaudible words, she would have hastened out of the room;
but on looking round, Sir Patrick, who privately thought that on the
present occasion there might be one too many, had strolled off to the
drawing-room, and as Captain De Crespigny continued speaking, she could
not, without actual rudeness, withdraw. A blush is one of the most
beautiful phenomena in nature, and so thought Captain De Crespigny,
when he perceived Marion's color flitting like an aurora borealis,
while for a moment she remained completely abashed, and then, with a
look of apprehensive timidity, re-seated herself.
"Excuse me, Miss Dunbar!" said he, in a tone of unwonted gravity and
respect, while his usual self-confident audacity seemed entirely to
have forsaken him. "I became inadvertently a listener to-day, when my
name was mentioned by you in terms of which I must entreat an
explanation. You will think me perhaps rather too much of the
free-and-easy school, if I take this liberty; but the value I place
upon your good opinion and cousinly regard is such, that I shall
neither eat nor sleep till you have enlightened me respecting the
offences for which I am to be thus condemned unheard."
"Pray forget all that was said! I am unaccustomed to--to conceal my
thoughts!" replied Marion, trying to look particularly firm; but seeing
that Captain De Crespigny still waited with an obvious resolution to
obtain something more explicit, she felt herself urged on to say what,
under ordinary circumstances, she would have sunk into the earth rather
than utter; therefore assuming a certain haughty dignity of manner
quite unusual with her, she added, "If I did not almost consider you a
brother, I should not remain in the room now; but I do most sincerely
regret that your name occurred in our conversation at all, and
particularly in a way for which I ought to apologise."
"As for my name, Miss Dunbar!" replied Captain De Crespigny, in a
rallying tone, "make any use of it you please. Take it yourself, or
give it to your dog, and I shall feel honored; but pardon me for being
desirous that you, more than any other person in the world, should
understand how perfectly unfounded is the idea of my being engaged
to--to any lady."
"From all that has passed, Captain De Crespigny, and from what I have
myself heard you say, I could scarcely have believed it possible that
there could be any mistake," replied Marion, indignantly. "I shall
never pardon myself for having betrayed such unfounded expectations;
but let it be understood, that I spoke only my own thoughts, in which
no other person is implicated."
"And the misapprehension was most natural--perhaps unavoidable, Miss
Dunbar, considering how little you are yet accustomed to the
_persiflage_ of every-day society," replied Captain De Crespigny,
looking perfectly irresistible. "But allow me the privilege of a
cousin, to give you some little knowledge of the world as it is."
"You have done that already," replied Marion, coldly; "and I mean to be
as long as possible of learning more. It certainly does not improve
upon acquaintance."
"We have all much to complain of, undoubtedly! If the gossiping world
here had its own way, I should be married to as rapid a succession of
young ladies as the Sultan in the Arabian Nights. Reports grow here
like hops. Old women round a tea table make up their budget of scandal,
without giving due allowance to the altered customs of society, and my
name is for ever going about the world like a cricket-ball. Every
gentleman asks his partners to dance now, as nearly as possible in a
tone as if he were engaging a partner for life, and says all that words
can express, without attaching any permanent meaning to it, provided he
has never asked that one conclusive question, which I have never yet
ventured to put, though most anxious soon to do so, if I had the
slightest encouragement from one whom, above all others, I
admire,--Madam, will you marry me?"
Captain De Crespigny said these last words very much as if he meant
them now to be serious, and fixed his eyes--eyes accustomed to do
wonders--on Marion, who felt the color rushing painfully into her
cheek; but angry at herself for blushing, she turned away in silence,
while he added more energetically than before,
"I would not, for all the worlds upon earth, lose one iota of your good
opinion. That really is precious to me. Allow me, irritated as you
evidently are, in some degree to justify myself respecting my cousin
Agnes. Strike, but hear me. She knows the world, having already smiled
on hundreds of admirers, and blushed for dozens; therefore I am but one
in a crowd, who, like the kings in Macbeth, 'come like shadows and so
depart,' being scarcely missed in the rapid succession which follows;
and, to use a vulgar proverb, 'there are some ladies with whom one
shoulder of mutton very soon drives down another.'"
Captain Be Crespigny paused; and had Marion been less agitated, and
less anxious to terminate the interview, she could have smiled at this
unusual fit of humility, which made him willing, for once, to suppose
that his attentions could be insignificant; but seeing that she was now
about to make a hasty exit from the room, he rapidly continued, with a
slight relapse into his ordinary tone of conceit:
"I am vain enough to think that I deserve to be preferred for something
better than the mere accident of birth and fortune, with which the very
meanest of mankind may be endowed; but there are ladies--observe I name
nobody--who, if they were informed that a gentleman waited in the next
room ready to marry them, with double my income, rank, and property,
would ask no other question, but put on a veil, get up a fit of bridal
hysterics, and proceed to chapel. Such intimacies as mine with your
sister are like a tread-mill, always apparently getting on, but never
advancing, while neither of us ever dream of going a step beyond it.
Agnes is formed to be gazed at with wondering admiration--to make
conquests, but not to keep them. I would no more think of being
seriously in love with her, than with a piece of Dresden china in a
shop window. She should be shut up in a glass case, to be admired and
forgotten every day. It is not the mere symmetry of form or features
that could permanently interest me," continued Captain De Crespigny,
looking a million of things; but Marion's eyes were fixed on the door,
while her whole countenance was in a glow of indignant vexation, and he
continued to speak with increasing ardor. "There is beauty in an
icicle, and beauty in a sunbeam; but how different. Can you wonder--can
you blame me--that I see the disparity in mind as much as in appearance
between yourself and your sister. She is like an amusing book,
destitute of interest, to be taken up with pleasure, but laid aside
without regret. She might beguile a weary hour; but you would prevent
the possibility of any hour ever becoming so."
"Captain De Crespigny, I know not what the _persiflage_ of society
entitles you to say, and it would be well for the happiness of others
if they understood your ideas upon that subject as well," replied
Marion, with restored firmness--and never had she looked so tall. "You
forget the confidence that subsists between sisters, and that I am
aware you generally express very different feelings, which I must still
hope, for your credit, are the real truth, otherwise nothing you can
say shall ever convince me that Agnes is not extremely ill-treated. I
only wonder very much that she cares for you at all. I have been
betrayed into speaking on this subject--I shall regret having done so
as long as I live--but I must be true to my sister now, in saying what
I think of your conduct, that it has been most heartless and most
unjustifiable. Let me request you never again to speak to me as you
have done to-day."
"No! not till the next opportunity. You should be angry often, Miss
Dunbar, for it becomes you, and is the only thing that can bring you to
the level of an ordinary mortal; therefore, let me detain you by the
right of cousinship, if by no other, even against your wishes, one
moment longer to propose terms of peace. I am going next week to do
penance at Beaujolie Park with my very long-lived and not very much
respected uncle, who insists on my escorting him to Harrowgate. He may,
perhaps, be unreasonable enough to detain me two months, during which
it would have amused me beyond measure could I act the invisible
gentleman and observe your sister; but what I cannot do myself you may
and must. If Agnes does not flirt in a young-lady-like manner with
every man she meets, then I make you a very safe promise, that the rest
of my life shall be devoted to her, and nothing you ever read in a
romance shall exceed my devotion and constancy; but you must be honest,
and if the day after my P.P.C. cards are left, you perceive her quite
as happy to see Captain Digby, or Lord Wigton, or Sir Anybody Anything,
as ever she was to see me, then I am to be honorably acquitted; and you
will consider me entitled," added Captain De Crespigny, with one of his
most expressive looks, "to seek for happiness where I could be sure of
finding it, if only fortunate enough to be thought deserving; but,
unless a preference be reciprocal, the expression of it is little
believed or valued."
"Captain De Crespigny," replied Marion, looking a thousand ways to
avoid meeting his eye, "whoever you may hereafter prefer, I can wish no
greater happiness to any one than I enjoy myself, being engaged to one
in whom I can place the most perfect reliance. My brother has probably
told you already, what I am always proud to acknowledge, that your old
friend Mr. Granville, is attached to me, and we await only Patrick's
consent to our marriage, having fortunately obtained my uncle's."
The color mounted in brilliant hues to Marion's cheek when she spoke,
for it was evidently a strong effort to do so at all, and her eyes were
fixed on the ground, or she would have been astonished and shocked at
the effect her words produced on Captain De Crespigny, who bit his lip
till the blood nearly sprung out, while his face became for a moment
pale as death; but, after fixing a long scrutinizing look on Marion's
countenance, to read its expressions, he said, in a voice so altered
from his usual tone of gay hilarity, that she could scarcely have
recognised it:
"Dunbar will never consent. Impossible! He knows your value better. It
cannot be. A parson with nothing but his pulpit! I never dreamed of
such a thing--never. A life of Sunday schools and clothing societies in
that bauble of a cottage. Pshaw! No girl ever ends by marrying the
first man she likes, and no more will you. I shall make you prefer me
in a month."
"Probably not, as I rather dislike you now," replied Marion,
suppressing a smile.
"That will wear off. It is best, as Mrs. Malaprop says, to begin with a
little aversion. You will at last like me beyond any one in the world."
"Extremes meet sometimes; but I must explain myself once for all now,
Captain De Crespigny, that no one may ever be led into a mistake. My
brother wishes us to be responsible for making this house, as far as we
can, agreeable to his friends, but only as Patrick's friend can I ever
now have pleasure in seeing you here, as, in another respect, I
heartily disapprove of your conduct, and I will not appear for one
moment to participate in the sort of farce you would carry on here with
myself,--and with others. Let us be on terms of cousinly civility for
the future, and never on more."
"Well, then, I am satisfied to be received on your terms," replied
Captain De Crespigny, with an exceedingly dissatisfied look. "Let me be
welcomed on your brother's account, until I can make myself welcome on
my own. As for constancy in this world, it is all very right and very
desirable, but, as I hope one of your admirers may soon discover,
"Rien n'est plus commun que le nom,
Rien n'est plus rare que la chose."