Painfully revolving a scene which had deeply affected her, Ellis, for
some time, had remained uninterrupted, when, opening her door to a
gentle tap, she was startled by the sight of Harleigh. The letter of
Elinor was in his hand, which he immediately presented to her, and
bowing without speaking, without looking at her, instantly disappeared.
Ellis was so confounded, first by his unexpected sight, and next by his
so speedily vanishing, that she lost the opportunity of returning the
bank notes. For some minutes she gazed pensively down the staircase;
slowly, then, she shut her door, internally uttering 'all is over:--he
is gone, and will pursue me no more.' Then casting up her eyes, which
filled with tears, 'may he,' she added, 'be happy!'
From this sadness she was roused, by feeling, from the thickness of the
packet, that it must contain some additional paper; eagerly opening it,
she found the following letter:
'I have acquainted Mrs Maple that Miss Joddrel has determined upon
living, for a while, alone, and that her manner of announcing that
determination, in her letter to you, is so peremptory, as to make
you deem it improper to be produced. This, as a mark of personal
respect, appeases her; and, upon this subject, I believe you will
be tormented no more. With regard to the unfortunate secret of
Elinor, I can but wish it as safe in her own discretion, as it will
remain in your honour.
'For myself, I must now practise that hardest lesson to the
stubborn mind of man, submission to undefined, and what appears to
be unnecessary evil. I must fly from this spot, and wait, where and
as I can, the restoration of Elinor to prudence and to common life.
I must trust that the less she is opposed, the less tenaciously
she will cling to the impracticable project, of ruling the mind
and will of another, by letting loose her own. When she hears that
I deny myself inhabiting the mansion which you inhabit, perhaps,
relieved from the apprehension of being deceived by others, she may
cease to deceive herself. She may then return to her friends,
contented to exist by the general laws of established society;
which, though they may be ameliorated, changed, or reformed, by
experience, wisely reflecting upon the past; by observation, keenly
marking the present; or by genius, creatively anticipating the
future, can never be wholly reversed, without risking a re-bound
that simply restores them to their original condition.
'I depart, therefore, without one more effort to see you. I yield
to the strange destiny that makes me adore in the dark; yet that
blazons to my view and knowledge the rarest excellencies, the most
resistless attractions: but to remain in the same house, yet
scarcely ever to behold you; or, in seeing you but for a moment, to
awaken a sensibility that electrifies every hope, only to inflict,
with the greater severity, the shock that strikes me back to
mystery and despondence--no, I will be gone! Her whom I cannot
soften, I will at least forbear to persecute.
'In this retreat, my only consolation for your happiness is in the
friendship, so honourable for both, that you have formed with Lady
Aurora Granville; my only reliance for your safety, is in the
interest of Mrs Maple to detain you under her roof, for the
improvement of Selina; and my only hope for myself, is, that when
Elinor becomes reasonable, you will no longer let her exclusively
occupy your humanity or your feeling.
'ALBERT HARLEIGH.'
* * * * *
The tone of remonstrance, if not of reproach, which was blended with the
serious attachment marked by Harleigh in this letter, deeply touched
Ellis; who was anxiously re-perusing it, when she received information,
through Selina, that Mr Harleigh had set out for London; whence he meant
to proceed to Bath, or, perhaps, to make the western tour.
The earnestness of Ireton that Selina should take some lessons upon the
harp, joined to the equal earnestness of Mrs Maple, to elude the
expensive professor at Brighthelmstone, confirmed the new orders that
Selina should begin a course of instruction with Ellis. The mistress and
the scholar were mutually well disposed, and Ellis was endeavouring to
give her pupil some idea of a beautiful Sonata, when Miss Arbe, entering
the house upon a morning visit, and catching the sound of a harp from
the dressing-room of Selina, so touched as Selina, she knew, could not
touch it, nimbly ran up stairs. Happy, then, to have surprised Miss
Ellis at the instrument, she would take no denial to hearing her play.
The elegance and feeling of her performance, engaged, alike, the ready
envy, and the unwilling admiration of Miss Arbe; who, a self-conceived
paragon in all the fine arts, thought superior merit in a _diletanti_ a
species of personal affront. She had already felt as an injury to her
theatrical fame, the praise which had reached her ears of Ellis as Lady
Townly; and a new rivalry seemed now to menace her supremacy as chief of
lady performers: but when she gathered, through Selina, who knew not
even of the existence of such an art as that of holding the tongue, that
they were now practising together, her supercilious air was changed into
one of rapture, and she was seized with a strong desire to profit, also,
from such striking talents. A profusion of compliments and civilities,
ended, therefore, in an earnest invitation to cultivate so charming an
acquaintance.
Mrs Maple, while this was passing, came uneasily into the room, meaning
to make a sign to Ellis to glide away unnoticed. But when she found that
Ellis was become the principal object with the fastidious Miss Arbe, and
heard this wish of intimacy, she was utterly confounded that another
person of consequence should countenance, and through her means, this
itinerant Incognita. Yet to obviate the mischief by an avowal similar to
that which she had been forced to make to Mrs Howel, she thought an
insupportable degradation; and Miss Arbe, with the politest declarations
that she should call again the next day, purposely to entitle herself to
a visit in return from Miss Ellis, was already gone, before Mrs Maple
had sufficiently recovered from her confusion, to devise any impediment
to the proposal.
All then that occurred to her, was her usually violent, but short
measure, of sending Ellis suddenly from the house, and excusing her
disappearance, by asserting that her own friends had summoned her away:
for Mrs Maple, like at least half the world, though delicate with
respect to her character for truth in public, had palliations always
ready for any breach of it, in favour of convenience, in private.
Ellis attempted not any opposition. The sufferings annexed to an asylum
thus perpetually embittered by reproach and suspicion, had long made her
languish to change it for almost any other; and her whole thoughts
turned once more upon a journey to London, and an interview with Lady
Aurora Granville.
Selina warmly protested that this separation should only augment her
attachment to her favourite; by whose side she stayed, prattling,
weeping, or practising the harp, till she was called away to Mrs Maple;
from whom, however, she soon returned, relating, with uplifted hands,
that all below was again in the utmost confusion, through a letter, just
arrived, from Mrs Howel, stating the following particulars. That upon
her communicating to Lord Denmeath the strange transaction, in which she
must forever blush to have been, however innocently, involved, his
lordship, very properly, had forbidden Lady Aurora to keep any sort of
correspondence with so palpable an adventurer. But the excess of grief
produced by this prohibition, had astonished and concerned both his
lordship and herself: and their joint alarm had been cruelly augmented,
by a letter from Mrs Greaves, the housekeeper, with intelligence that
Lord Melbury had been shut up nearly two hours with this suspicious
young woman, on the day that Mrs Howel had quitted Brighthelmstone;
during which time, his lordship had suffered no one to come into the
room, though she, Greaves, in accidentally passing by one of the
windows, saw his lordship demean himself so far as to be speaking to her
upon his knees. Lord Denmeath, treating this account as an impertinent
piece of scandal, requested to have it shewn to his nephew; but how
unspeakable was their consternation when Lord Melbury undauntedly
avowed, that the charge was true; and added, that he was glad of the
opportunity thus afforded him, to declare that Miss Ellis was the most
virtuous and dignified, as well as the most beautiful and amiable of her
sex: she had rejected, he said, a suit which he should always take shame
to himself for having made; and rejected it in a manner so impressive of
real purity, that he should for ever hold it his duty to do her honour
by every means in his power. The wrath expressed by Lord Denmeath, and
the tears shed by Lady Aurora, during this scene, were dreadful. Lord
Denmeath saw that there was no time to be lost in guarding against the
most eminent danger: he desired, therefore, that the young woman might
be induced, if possible, to quit the country without delay; and his
lordship was willing not only to pay for her voyage back, but to give
security that she should receive a very considerable sum of money, the
instant that he should be assured of her safe landing upon the
continent. Mrs Howel begged that Mrs Maple would endeavour to bring this
plan to bear; and, at all events, not lose sight of the young person,
till she should be, some how or other, secured from Lord Melbury. The
rest of the letter contained injunctions, that Mrs Maple would not let
this disgraceful affair transpire in the neighbourhood; with sundry
scornful admonitions, that she would herself be more guarded, in future,
whom she recommended to her friends.
Mrs Maple, now, peremptorily sent word to Ellis, that she must
immediately make up her mind to leaving the kingdom. But Ellis, without
hesitation, answered that she had no such design. Commands and menaces,
though amply employed, were fruitless to obtain any change in her
resolution. She was, therefore, positively ordered to seek for charity
in some other house.
Ellis, no longer wishing to stay, occupied her mind almost exclusively
with the thoughts of her young friends. The tender attachment shewn to
her by Lady Aurora, and the honourable testimony borne her by Lord
Melbury, cheered her spirits, and warmed her heart, with a trust in
their regard, that, defying the inflexibility of Mrs Howel, the
authority of Lord Denmeath, and the violence of Mrs Maple, filled her
with soft, consolatory ideas, that sweetened her night's rest, even in
her uncertainty where she should find, or where seek repose on the night
that would follow.
But this brighter side of her prospects, which soothed her on its first
view, lost its gay colouring upon farther examination: that Lady Aurora
should be forbidden to see, forbidden to write to her, was shocking to
her feelings, and blighting to her happiness: and even though the tender
nature, and strong partiality, of that youthful friend, might privately
yield to the pleadings of an oppressed and chosen favourite, Ellis,
while glowing with the hope that the interest which she had excited
would be lastingly cherished, revolted from every plan that was
clandestine.
Mrs Maple, who, in common with all those whose tempers are violent in
the same proportion that their judgment is feeble, had issued forth her
mandates, without examining whether they could be obeyed; and had
uttered her threats, without considering whether she could put them into
execution; no sooner learnt, from Selina, that Ellis was tranquilly
preparing to depart, than she repented the step which she had taken, and
passed the night in suggesting how it might be retrieved, to spare
herself the discredit, in the neighbourhood, of a breach with Mrs Howel.
The next morning, therefore, the willing Selina was instructed to
hasten to Ellis, with a message from Mrs Maple, graciously permitting
one more lesson upon the harp.
Destitute as Ellis felt, she would have resisted such a mockery of
benevolence, but from gratitude at the pleasure which it procured to
Selina.
Again, according to her promise, arrived Miss Arbe, and again hearing
the sound of the harp, tript lightly up stairs to the dressing-room of
Selina; where she paid her compliments immediately to Ellis, whom she
courteously solicited to take an airing with her to Brighthelmstone, and
thence to accompany her home for the day.
Anxious to strengthen her weak resources, by forming some new
connection, Ellis was listening to this proposal, when a footman brought
her a letter.
Concluding that it came from abroad, she received it with strong
emotion, and evident alarm; but no sooner had she looked at the
direction, than the brightest bloom glowed upon her cheeks, her eyes
were suffused with tears of pleasure, and she pressed, involuntarily, to
her heart, the writing of Lady Aurora Granville.
The little coronet seal, with the cypher A. G., had been observed not
alone by Miss Arbe, but by Mrs Maple, who, curiously, had followed the
footman into the room.
Miss Arbe, now, renewed her invitation with redoubled earnestness; and
Mrs Maple felt almost insane, from excess of wrath and embarrassment,
when, suddenly, and most unexpectedly, Ellis accepted the offer;
gratefully embracing Selina, and taking of herself a grave, but
respectful leave.
From the window Mrs Maple, then, saw this unknown Wanderer enter the
carriage first.
For some time, she remained almost stupified by so unlooked for an
event; and she could only quiet her conscience, for having been
accessary, though so unintentionally, to procuring this favour and
popularity for such an adventurer, by devoutly resolving, that no
entreaties, and no representation, should ever in future, dupe her out
of her own good sense, into other people's fantastical conceits of
charity.