Marion and Sir Arthur were engaged next morning to meet the Granvilles
at breakfast in the private parlor of Mrs. Crawford, and they had
advanced considerably in the consumption of their muffin and first cup
of tea, when a very plainly dressed young lady glided into the room
with a timid, agitated step, and giving a slight nod to the party,
silently seated herself beside Marion, who, in compassion to her
apparent shyness, averted her eyes. She seemed recently recovered from
an illness, being thin and emaciated to excess, while it appeared as if
her hair had been entirely shaved off, as she wore a cap fitting close
to her face, and neither curl nor braid to vary the almost spectral
whiteness of her whole aspect. Marion ventured a second glance at the
interesting invalid, and observed a smile quivering about her mouth,
which she seemed vainly endeavoring to suppress, and a sly glance
towards herself, which enlightened her in a moment, for, with an
exclamation of joy, she sprang from her seat and was instantly
embraced, with laughing delight, by her old friend Caroline, whom she
had lately learned to know as Miss Howard, the heiress of countless
thousands,--not the more, nor the less dear to her on that account, but
still the beloved companion of all her early frolics and school
enjoyments.
"I wished to try your powers of recognition, and Sir Arthur's," said
Caroline, with tears of laughing and almost hysterical joy. "I am
changed--greatly changed, so that my best friends could scarcely
recognise me, and if my enemies were also deceived it would be well.
Dear Marion! I am still pursued and persecuted by that wretched madman,
the terror of our school days, the horror of all my subsequent life! My
aunt finds her nerves so shattered with the whole affair, that our kind
friends here have undertaken me for a week or two, and it is thought
that, amidst the crowd collected at Harrowgate, I may be in comparative
safety. My life has been rendered almost a burden to me in the country,
where not a corner of the earth seemed safe from that wretched
creature's intrusions, and it is thought that he must bribe some of our
servants to betray all my plans; yet, among them all, I scarcely know
whom to suspect or whom to trust! Remember, dear Marion, that here I am
to be treated as some humble cousin of Mr. Crawford's, and on no
account let your brother, or a living soul in the house, suspect that
you ever saw me before. Agnes also must keep my secret, and Mrs.
O'Donoghoe, who has heard nothing of my real history, agrees to be my
_chaperon_."
"Then you should adopt her name, for Patrick always calls the widow,
'Mrs. I-don't-know-who.'"
The most agreeable conversations are those of which there is generally
least to be repeated, and that which followed round the cheerful
breakfast-table at Mr. Crawford's, was carried tranquilly on, in a
pleasing animated tone, on subjects of immediate interest as well as of
permanent importance, showing, in the most prepossessing colors,
characters, and feelings, inspired by the finest impulses which adorn
the heart and mind of a Christian. Amidst the enlightened discussions
and unreserved vivacity of a conversation, displaying the ease and
fascination of high life, without its flippancy, frivolity, and
pretension, those who have lived to discover that what is called the
gay world, is sometimes but a dull world after all, might there have
learned for what important purposes the power of speech and the power
of thought have been given, if rightly used and enjoyed. There was the
joyous relaxation of happy hearts and well-ordered minds, without the
effervescence of empty affectation, or the flash of bewildering
excitement, which Marion had lately been accustomed to find among those
who seemed little better employed than Domitian of old, in catching
flies, and who prefer living upon exaggerated trifles, to enjoying that
calm, rational and intellectual intercourse which is registered in the
heart for ever.
With feelings of deep and animated pleasure, Marion gathered from Mr.
Granville a rich harvest of sound opinions, amiable sentiments, and
original ideas, while, with the free-masonry of real attachment, many a
sentence, which seemed addressed by him to the whole company, attained
its full meaning only in her heart. Richard was very seldom, as Agnes
expressed it, "tuned up to nonsense pitch." He wasted none of his hours
on the mere flummeries of conversation, but the frequent sparkling of
his wit shone the brighter for its occasional gravity; and never had
Marion seen him in a more buoyant and happy frame than now, when
developing the thoughts and affections of a mind and heart cultivated
to the highest tone of refinement, fortified by the strongest
principles of religion, and imbued with a supreme regard for all that
is noble, generous, or graceful in the conduct and characters.
To Sir Arthur, the social circle imparted feelings of inestimable
happiness. He had long considered human life as having nothing left for
him now, but the one great opportunity to prepare for eternity, not to
be trifled away in its smallest details; and he had remarked to Marion
the evening before, after spending an hour in the public saloon, "I
tire more of that Vanity Fair in the next room, than I would of
breaking stones on the road! I should become an idiot before long, if I
lived the sort of butterfly-life they do here, in a whirl of exhausting
and frivolous amusement."
The respectful deference paid by Mr. Granville to his age, his
infirmities, and his high character, was in itself most gratifying to
Sir Arthur; but more than all, he now saw his beloved Marion,
surrounded by those who loved and valued her, the happiest of the
happy. Inspired by the desire of pleasing, and unchecked by any fear of
being misunderstood or misrepresented, there was now a spirit and
originality in her expressions, and a native eloquence in what she
said, enlivened and assisted by a sunlight brilliancy sparkling in her
eyes, and beaming in her whole countenance, which was beautiful to
behold, while her partial and affectionate uncle thought there was
poetry in her look, and music in every tone of her voice.
Their discussions diverged after a time to the scenery and remarkable
places around Harrowgate, while Mr. Granville, deeply read in
antiquity, described with picturesque and most felicitous effect, all
that seemed best worth visiting in the neighborhood, enlivening his
animated sketches with many amusing remarks and original anecdotes, and
giving to everything he treated upon, some new and unexpected interest,
while Mr. Crawford varied the subject by an entertaining comparison of
what he had seen and known abroad, particularly as connected with the
Roman Catholics of Italy and France.
The convent which existed near Harrowgate having come under
consideration, Mr. Crawford described at great length what he had seen
there during a visit which he had paid to it many years before, and
recounted several almost traditionary anecdotes of former times, in
which the names of Lord Doncaster and the Abbe Mordaunt, became almost
insensibly blended, very much to their discredit, while Marion
reflected with wonder and regret that such men were frequently now the
chosen attendants of her own young and beautiful sister. There was
degradation even in their looks, and still more in their conversation;
but she hoped, trusted, and believed that the Abbe's influence would be
terminated when Agnes discovered that his attentions were not really
likely to influence those of Captain De Crespigny.
Mr. Crawford mentioned with peculiar and melancholy interest the very
beautiful niece of the Abbe Mordaunt, whom it was evident that he had
intimately known, and very greatly admired, while he awakened the
keenest interest in Marion and Miss Howard, by alluding to an abortive
attempt he had made at Beaujolie Castle, to take a last leave of Miss
Mordaunt, after she had been beguiled into forsaking the faith of her
fathers, and was supposed to be on the point of retiring within the
walls of a convent.
Marion could not but smile at the description given by Mr. Crawford, of
his first and last visit to Lord Doncaster, when he had called at
Beaujolie Castle sixteen years before, at which time the aged peer,
though leading a life of retirement, made it by no means a life of
solitude, as the vices of his early years enslaved him then as they
enslaved him still, and the libertine of fifty years then, was a
libertine now, when tottering on the brink of death. It became evident
that the proprietor of Beaujolie Castle, though a great lord, was by no
means in any respect a great man, being penurious in everything except
the indulgence of his own vices and superstition.
"It makes me shiver yet," said Mr. Crawford, "to remember the large
cold hall, paved with a curious mosaic of black and white marble, and
the chilling, uninhabited room into which I was first ushered. Your
uncle, Lord Doncaster, Miss Howard, never at that time associated with
any living individual of his own rank in life. Those who do not
cultivate good society, are always in bad; and it was supposed that he
had strong reasons against admitting any one to his residence. The
drawing-room was like a lantern with windows on every side, the floor
so polished that it might have taken fire from the perpetual friction,
and a scanty Turkish carpet served but to cover half the slippery
floor."
"I always wish, in such a room, to be rough-shod," said Sir Arthur, "or
to wear skates."
"You will remember, Miss Howard, that no foot was ever allowed by your
uncle to tread on its icy surface," continued Mr. Crawford, smiling.
"But pathways of green baize were laid along the floor in every
possible direction, where it could be supposed that any reasonable
person might desire to walk. A broad line stretched from the door to
the fire-place, and tributary streams of baize branched off towards the
sofa in one direction, and the writing-table in another, while directly
leading towards an invisible door in the book-case, was a still
narrower stripe, which it required some skill to keep upon rigidly."
"Were no sign-posts raised to point out the proper direction for
travellers?" asked Marion. "Nor threats of prosecution held up in case
of a trespass?"
"No! but I certainly did commit one unawares, for while examining the
invisible door, it accidentally flew open, when a lady whom I could not
distinctly see, hastily concealed herself, and beside her stood,
without exception, the most beautiful boy I ever beheld, bright and
radiant like a cherub. When I called him forward, he laughingly
disappeared, and no sooner did I leave that room, than the door was
hastily locked inside."
"It sounds like the prettiest romance imaginable!" exclaimed Marion,
eagerly. "In that old house, and among so many ancient portraits, what
could be more picturesque?"
"A poor relation of Lord Doncaster was at this time the talk of all
Yorkshire for her beauty," added Mr. Crawford. "Young De Crespigny,
then almost a boy, had come home, I remember hearing, and admired her
only too much; but whether she married, or what became of her, perhaps
you will tell me, Miss Howard, as I never heard?"
"Then you are not informed of all that has occurred in the world during
your natural life, though you seem very nearly so!" replied Caroline.
"Whenever I hear a story told, I like to put a hat on its head, a stick
in its hand, and to send it travelling rapidly round the world; but the
mystery relating to Mary Anstruther was, like that of poor Miss
Mordaunt, and of others in the same house, carefully hushed up, and my
uncle's family soon after moved to Scotland. Louis De Crespigny was,
even then, I am told, formed to gain and to keep the heart of any girl,
with a perfect consciousness of his own powers, and very little scruple
in using them!"
"He still has a very deep sense of his own supernatural merits,"
observed Marion, "and finds many admirers to agree with him, though I
think his uncle must have been still handsomer once. The features of
both are very peculiar!"
"I often think," said Caroline, coloring and hesitating, "that Sir
Arthur's young friend, Henry De Lancey, looks as if the whole family of
Doncaster had been distilled into one. He has the hair dark as
midnight, for which my uncle was so celebrated; that remarkable
drooping eyelid, too, as if his eye-lashes were too heavy to be lifted
with ease, and the magnificent outline of his profile."
"You are right," exclaimed Sir Arthur, in a deep, low, musing tone.
"The madman, Howard or Anstruther, who acted so long as my clerk, and
still persecutes you, once hinted something of the kind, in an
unguarded moment. I have been ever since on the watch to strengthen the
clue, but in vain. If I could but live to see that mystery solved!"
"You shall!" said Caroline playfully. "What should hinder you? I must
make it my business now, to ferret out more respecting the story of
that Miss Mordaunt, which has faded into oblivion, like the thousand
other wonders of the past.
Of course, she lived until she died; but where,
Or when, I never heard; nor you nor I need care."
"But I do care," said Sir Arthur, earnestly. "It seems to me, as if
there were here some scattered links of the chain by which we might
discover Henry's origin. Truth has been too long already at the bottom
of a well; but we must invent some diving-bell to bring her up! It
would give me satisfaction, whatever his connexions are, to identify
them!"
"May he live to wonder at his own good fortune!" said Caroline, gaily.
"People must exist twenty years in the world, as I have done, before
they can find out what a strange place it is, and what extraordinary
changes occur here sometimes."
Pleasure has a time-piece of its own, which certainly does not adhere
to the ordinary measure, for hours and minutes most perversely run on,
always fastest when it would be most agreeable that their course should
be delayed. Marion seemed to awaken from a dream of enjoyment, when Sir
Arthur struck his repeater at last, and found he had remained till
nearly the hour of luncheon; but, before the party dispersed, they
agreed to meet often with closed doors, in the same sociable way; and,
exchanging a thousand pleasing plans and anticipations of coming
enjoyment together during the following few weeks, they then separated.