IN 1802 Lady B. was living at M— Park. She was a proud, handsome,
worldly woman about fifty-five years old, a widow with no children, but
she had a favourite nephew who was at the Park for the larger part of the
year and was the heir to her property. She had been gay in her youth,
was the leader of society in her county, and when she passed middle life
still followed the hounds. She was a good landlord, respected and even
beloved by her tenantry, and a staunch Tory in politics. The new
evangelical school of Newton and Romaine she detested bitterly, as much
in fact as she detested Popery. The nephew, however, came under Newton’s
influence and was converted. His aunt was in despair. She could not
conquer her affection for him, but she almost raved when she reflected
that the inheritor of her estates was a pious Methodist, as she called
him. She had a good-looking, confidential maid who had lived with her
for years. In one of her fits she told this maid that she would give
half of what she possessed if her nephew were like other young men. ‘I
don’t want him to be a sot or to gamble away my money,’ she cried, ‘but
there’s not much else I should mind if he were but a man.’
A few days afterwards she spoke to her maid again. ‘Look you here,
Jarvis, I shall go distracted. This morning he began to speak to me
about my soul—the brave boy that he used to be, talking of my soul to
_me_! Listen to what I tell you and be reasonable. I know perfectly
well, and so do you, that before he took up with this sickening cant he
was in love with you and you were in love with him. I saw it all and
said nothing. I understand there’s no more flirting now. Ah, well, his
blood is red yet; I’ve not forgotten what five-and-twenty is, and he’ll
come if you whistle. You can’t marry him, of course, but you can and
shall live comfortably afterwards for all that, and when he has done what
all other young fellows do there will be an end to the prayer-meetings.’
The girl was a little staggered, but after a time her mistress’s
suggestion ceased to shock her, for the nephew was a handsome fellow
capable of raising passion in a woman. What the aunt had said was really
true. She now threw the girl in his way. She was sent to him with
messages when he was alone, and one evening when he had gone over to a
prayer-meeting in the town about two miles away, she was directed to go
there on an errand, to contrive to be late, and to return with him. She
had half an hour to spare and was curious to know what the prayer-meeting
was like. She stood close to the inner door, which was slightly ajar,
and heard her master praying earnestly. He rose and spoke to the little
congregation for five minutes. When he had finished she started for
home, and he came up with her before she had passed the last house. It
was nearly dark, but he recognised her by a light from a window, and
asked her what she was doing in the town at that hour. She excused
herself by unexpected detention, and they went on together. About half a
mile further at the top of the hill was the stile of the pathway that was
a short cut to the park. From that point there was an extensive view
over the plain eastwards, and the rising moon was just emerging from a
line of silvered clouds. They were both struck with the beauty of the
spectacle and stood still gazing at it.
Suddenly she dropped on her knees and with violent sobbing called upon
God to help her. He lifted her up, and when she was calmer she told him
everything. They went on their way in silence. Now comes the remarkable
part of the story. It was he who would have been the tempter and she had
saved him. When they reached the Park he found his aunt ill, and in a
fortnight she was dead. In less than two years nephew and maid were
married. His strict evangelicalism relaxed a little, but they were both
faithful to their Friend. Lovers also they were to the last, and they
died in the same month after each of them had passed seventy-five years.
I fancy I read a long while ago somewhere in Wesley’s _Journal_ that an
attempt was made to ruin him or one of his friends with a woman, but I
think she was a bad woman. If there is anything of the kind in the
_Journal_ it shows that Lady B’s plot is not incredible.