Oh, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
SHAKESPEARE.
Thus men go wrong with an ingenious skill,
Bend the straight rule to their own crooked will.
COWPER.
That same night, Arthur Seaham called on Eugene Trevor at the hotel, in
which he had easily ascertained the latter to be established.
He did not entertain much hope of finding him at home at that hour, but
purposed proceeding there to demand an interview the following day. He
was more fortunate than he expected.
He was told that Mr. Trevor was in the house, and it was not a little in
Eugene's favour (in the brother's eyes) that he found him seated in a
private room in the hotel, plunged in melancholy meditation, over the
remains of a solitary dinner.
He looked up a little startled and surprised, when the name of his
visitor was announced; but immediately arose, and shook hands cordially
with the young man, expressing his pleasure at seeing him again. Then
when the waiter, who staid to clear the table, had withdrawn and closed
the door, and Arthur, who had replied to his greeting with somewhat of
distant gravity, had seated himself silently on an opposite chair,
Trevor at once, with eyes a little averted, said:
"Seaham, I can well guess what business has brought you here to-night.
You come, of course, to speak upon the subject of your sister."
"I have come _to-night, from_ my sister," was the calm, but somewhat
emphasized reply.
"Indeed!" with a nervous uncertainty in his tone, which had not been
perceptible in his former utterance. "She, Mary, told you, I suppose, of
that most wretched meeting this afternoon."
"She did," Arthur Seaham again coldly replied; "and it was the nature of
that meeting which made her desirous to communicate with you, through
me, feeling herself unequal to treat the subject, as fully and
satisfactorily as she had wished, by letter."
He again paused; and Trevor fixed his eyes upon the young man's face in
anxious, agitated inquiry.
"You cannot suppose," Arthur continued, with an effort at calm
moderation in his tone, "that the interview to which you allude was
calculated much to raise my sister's spirits, or throw much light on her
present clouded and uncertain prospects."
Trevor bowed his head in moody assent.
"You are quite right," he muttered gloomily, a darkness gathering over
his brow; "and it is but natural that you, her brother, should require,
and demand, further explanation and satisfaction."
"_That_, I again repeat, is not the point which brought me here on _this
occasion_," Arthur rejoined. "I come, bound by a promise to my sister,
to speak and act this night, as in her name and person, therefore, you
can rest well assured," with a mingling of bitterness and tender feeling
in his tone, "that in her case no explanation or satisfaction is
required. No, rather, I have to assure you, that her trust and
confidence still remain unmoved, and only for your own sake does she now
desire and propose, that matters should be put on a more defined and
certain footing; either that she should not be suffered to stand any
longer in the way of your happiness or advantage, by the continuance of
your now vague and uncertain engagement, or----"
But Trevor, with much eager agitation, at this point interrupted him.
"Mary--your sister," he exclaimed, "she surely cannot, does not wish to
give me up?"
The brother looked steadily into the speaker's face, as if to ascertain
that the emotion, which by his tone and manner bespoke the excitement
this suggestion had caused, was truthfully imaged there; and on the
whole he was not dissatisfied by the inspection; at least, if the deep
glow first overspreading his brow, and then the ashy paleness
succeeding, could be interpreted as corresponding signs of feeling; and
he replied, though with something of suppressed bitterness:
"Her unselfish, womanly nature does not carry her so far. She is willing
to make any sacrifice of her own feelings, her happiness, her affections
if assured that it would tend to the removal of those--of course
unforeseen, difficulties and annoyances"--with some severe stress upon
the latter words, "which your engagement to her seems suddenly to have
been the means of scattering on your path. Or if not this," he hastily
added, as Trevor again made an effort to interrupt him, "or if not this,
at least she proposes that some definite period be assigned, during
which full opportunity and leisure be accorded you for the arrangement
or removal of the present obstacles to your marriage."
Trevor rose abruptly, and for, several minutes paced the apartment in
agitated silence. Then he returned to his seat, and with more calm
determination addressed his companion.
"Seaham!" he said, bending low his head as he spoke, with his downcast
eyes only at intervals raised from the ground, "Seaham, let me explain
to you a little the circumstances of my present position, and then you
will be better able to comprehend the embarrassing perplexity of my
affairs."
Arthur looked up hopefully--now at least some light was to be thrown on
the impenetrable mystery of the few last months.
"It is a painful subject," continued Trevor, speaking indeed as if with
difficulty; "but I must not shrink from breaking it now to you. You are
aware of the situation of my unfortunate brother?"
Seaham murmured assent.
"And therefore of the ambiguous position in which I at the same time
stand, with regard to my father's property--"
Arthur again assented, but observed, that Mr. de Burgh had certainly
given him reason to suppose, that he--Mr. Eugene Trevor's possession of
the Montrevor property after his father's death--at least, in trust for
his elder brother, was almost a decided arrangement, and that his
inheritance to the most considerable part of his father's large fortune
was certain; but whether or not this were the case, his sister's friends
had been perfectly satisfied that even as a younger son, he must be
amply provided for. Eugene hastened to interrupt Arthur Seaham by
saying:
"And believe me, when I declare, that till the day I parted from your
sister at Silverton, I never entertained a misgiving as to the
possibility of any such obstacle, as I then, to my dismay, found to
exist against the speedy completion of my marriage. The state of the
case is this: My father is, and has ever been, very peculiar in his
pecuniary views and arrangements. He has, as you were made to
understand, most surely, and decidedly favoured me, with regard to the
inheritance. I do stand in every possible respect in the position of an
elder son; but at the same time, he has more than nullified any present
advantage such an arrangement could procure for me, by having so
arranged his affairs, that during his lifetime I have, under the present
circumstances, no power to make any settlement on my wife."
"Under what circumstances?" quietly demanded the embryo lawyer.
"That brings me again to that one most painful point. If the present
state of my unfortunate brother was clearly ascertained, then, perhaps,
proceedings, from which our feelings in the first instance shrunk, might
be taken, which would effectually do away with the ambiguity of my
present circumstances and position."
"And why cannot the fact you mention be ascertained?" persisted Arthur,
though in a tone of the most delicate consideration.
"Because," answered Trevor, with a hesitation and embarrassment of
manner, which passed well for painful emotion, "because, for the last
few years, my brother has entirely eluded the _surveillance_ of his
friends and guardians. No clue can be found, no trace of him discovered.
Every search and enquiry has been--and still is in prosecution; some
doubts even are entertained as to his death." He paused; then passing
his hand over his brow, as if to prevent further discussion of a subject
against which his feelings sensitively shrank, he finally added: "My
lawyer will confirm what I have said, concerning the exertions I have
made on this point, if you like to refer to him," and he mentioned the
name and address of the family man of business.
Arthur Seaham mused in silence for several minutes; then said:
"I am therefore to understand, that during the life time of your father,
or till your brother's destination is ascertained, no further steps can
be taken with regard to your marriage. One circumstance rather surprises
me, that your father, aware as he must have been of the restraint thus
imposed upon your powers of making a settlement upon your wife, allowed
you to involve yourself so far in a matrimonial engagement. Nay, seemed
in a certain degree to favour, and encourage your design."
"That" Trevor replied, "I fear is only to be understood by those, who
are as well acquainted with the peculiar points of my father's
disposition as myself. The quiet manner in which he took the
intelligence of my intended marriage, I own surprised me at the time,
knowing his extreme aversion to any measure, or proceeding, calculated
in the least degree, to touch upon his ruling passion, or as I may now
term it in his present stage of existence--his ruling weakness; that is
to say, any measure that would in the least degree disturb, or infringe
upon the close and arbitrary arrangements of his financial
affairs--arrangements which it is the one business of his existence to
maintain inviolate and undisturbed. I now discover how little cause I
had to thank him for his seemingly easy acquiescence in my intended
marriage, and that he has treated me," he added in a subdued and injured
tone, "far from well or kindly in the matter."
"And you are entirely dependant on his--as it seems most tyrannical
pleasure?" demanded Seaham, an angry flush mounting to his brow; the
position in which the cruel, sordid, cunning of the old man's conduct
had placed his sister, making the most impression on his feelings.
"Most unfortunately so!" was Trevor's reply; "it has been the aim, and
purpose, of my father's existence to render his children, and all those
with whom he had to do, as much as possible dependant on his most
arbitrary and capricious will. You would not think this perhaps, to
behold him now--to all appearance, that meek and mild old man. But so
it is; see him as I have lately seen him, on what was supposed to be his
dying bed, and you would then have full proof and specimen before your
eyes of the ruling passion strong in death."
"From all this then--I am to conclude," said Arthur Seaham, "that one of
the two arrangements suggested by my sister are the only alternatives;
either," and he looked again steadily into Eugene's face, "that you give
up at once all further engagement."
"To that!" interrupted Trevor, starting from his seat in sudden
excitement, "to that, tell your sister," he exclaimed passionately, "I
cannot, _will not consent_. Remind her of the promise she once made to
me upon the subject, and tell her, that on my part, no power on earth
shall compel me to give her up. No," he murmured, his eye gleaming
around from beneath his now darkened brow, as if seeking to address with
dark defiance some hidden foe, "no threats, no vengeful malice shall
ever force me to do that."
Seaham regarded him with surprise, but thought to himself: "This man
certainly loves my sister with a strength and sincerity not to be
mistaken," and then with rather softened feeling, he said:
"But you will agree perhaps to her other proposition?"
"I do--I must," with eager energy, "there is as you observed, no other
alternative. Say, some months--perhaps a year. In that time much may be
effected."
Trevor leant his elbow upon the mantelpiece, and pressed his brow upon
his hand, in unquiet thought. Seaham rose.
"A year then," he repeated, "for a year, I may tell my sister you agree
to the necessity of postponing matters. During that time," he added with
marked significance, "I shall be constantly to be found in London."
"And your sister?" Trevor eagerly demanded.
"Mary will very shortly proceed to Scotland, where she may probably
remain some time with my sister who lives in Edinburgh."
"What, so far?" Trevor exclaimed impatiently.
"I cannot see," the brother replied with some _hauteur_, "that a greater
vicinity under present circumstances, would be either necessary or
desireable. Interviews for instance, such as the one by which my
sister's feelings were so distressed to-day, can be neither for her
happiness or advantage."
Trevor had no more to say. He shook hands with Arthur, who appeared to
have no further desire to remain. Like one subdued and exhausted in mind
and body, almost silently he suffered the young man to take his leave.
Seaham merely repeated that he should be found, or could be referred to
at any time at the Temple, and in a few moments had quitted the hotel.