"Behold! the red stars silently descend
High Cromla's head of clouds is grey."
"Towards Temora's groves rolls the lofty car
Of Cormac."
We next find our hero, wrapped in a large boat cloak of blue camlet,
lined with scarlet plush, and seated on the top of a mail coach; which,
with more regard to expedition than to comfort, travels night and day
towards the north. His anticipations were all of unmixed delight.
With what fixed attention would his darling Julia, and even the
restless Frances, listen to all he had to recount!
How much gratified would both Mrs. Montgomery and Mr. Jackson be,
to find, that by endeavouring to follow their wise counsels, he had
obtained the approbation of those best entitled to judge of his
conduct. And this, to Edmund, was no trifling source of happiness.
Then, what an important personage must his promotion render him in the
eyes of every one! What joy would Mrs. Smyth evince, on seeing him
return safe, and grown to be a man too! for such, at little more than
nineteen, he already thought himself. Even one glimpse of the gleeful
countenance of the old bargeman, who had the care of the pleasure-boat
on the lake, appeared in the far perspective of busy fancy. Or,
perhaps, this was a sort of vision; for it was one of the last things
he could remember to have seen pass in review before his mind's eye,
when, over night, he had begun to nod on his perilous throne. The hour
was early, the morning bright, when the mail set him down where the
road turns off to Lodore House.
He almost ran the rest of the way, and quite breathless entered the
dear haven of all his wishes, not by the common approach, but, as had
ever been the custom of his childhood, by one of the glass doors which
open on the lawn.
Breakfast was laid; the urn and hot rolls, evidently but just brought
in, were smoking on the table: yet, a general stillness prevailed, and
the room seemed without inhabitant. Edmund's heart, which had been
beating with violence, stopped suddenly: he drew a longer breath, and
felt even a kind of relief; for the intensity of expectation had arisen
to almost a painful height while he crossed the green and stepped over
the threshold.
Advancing a few paces into the apartment he cast an eager look all
round; and, in a far window, descried his darling little Julia sitting
alone; her eyes fixed on a book--her lips moving, apparently learning
a task. She looked up, and, not quite recognising the intruder, the
first expression of her countenance was alarm. He spoke. Her colour
mounted till a universal glow spread itself over neck, face, and arms;
not from bashfulness, for she was not quite thirteen, therefore too
young for such a feeling; but from that extreme emotion peculiar to the
enthusiasm of her temper.
Edmund forgot to throw off his boat-cloak, and enveloped the elastic
fairy form of his little favourite in its uncouth folds; while she
clung round his neck and sobbed for a considerable time before she
could speak to tell him how glad she was to see him, and how much she
loved him still--though he had staid such a long, long time away!
Mrs. Montgomery, preceded by Frances performing pirouettes, now
entered. They had heard nothing of Edmund's arrival: the old lady,
therefore, was much overcome. She embraced him, and wept over him;
for his idea was ever associated in her feelings with that of her
lost child. Frances, after a momentary pause, sprung into his arms,
exclaiming,
"It's brother Edmund! it's brother Edmund!"
Our hero, meanwhile, swinging about in his boat-cloak, looked rather an
unwieldy monster amongst them.
"My dear boy," said Mrs. Montgomery, "why don't you take off that great
frightful muffle? I want to see what you are like!"
Edmund looked down at himself, laughed, and flung off the cloak,
declaring he had quite forgotten it. Mrs. Montgomery now contemplated,
with visible pleasure, his figure, become, from its height and
proportions, almost manly, without losing any of that air of elegance,
which, from childhood, had been animate grace of Edmund's: then,
pointing to an ottoman close beside her chair, she bade him sit down;
and, putting on her spectacles, for the shedding of many tears had
dimmed her sight, she kindly stroked back the hair from his forehead,
and examined his features. Julia stood close at her other side,
holding her other hand. Frances was off to publish the joyful tidings
to good Mrs. Smyth and the rest of the household; by singing at every
bound, "News! news! news!--Brother Edmund is come! brother Edmund is
come!--News! news! news!"
After dropping a few large tears in silence, Mrs. Montgomery said,
mournfully,
"My poor child was quite right. She always prophesied how handsome you
would be, when I used to say you were all eyes and eyelashes. Now,
I am sure, they are just in good proportion. She used to admire the
forehead, too; and the form of the mouth; and the sweetness of the
expression. Yes, yes! she was certainly right."
And she looked at him as though he had been a picture, without the
slightest compassion for his blushes.
Edmund, willing to turn the conversation from himself, said,
"Pray, ma'am, is it not generally thought that Julia will be very
beautiful? Did you ever see any thing like the brilliancy of her
colour?"
"Yes, it is very bright," said the old lady, "a sign of health, I hope."
"And as to her smile," proceeded Edmund, "I have always thought it the
sweetest thing in nature! even in her nurse's arms I can remember being
delighted with it; when the darling used to stretch out its little
hands to come to me!"
And he looked, as he spoke, into the full, uplifted, liquid eyes of
his little, listening favourite, with a thrill of tenderness, but too
prophetic of the future.
"There! look how she blushes!" he continued, collecting the quantity of
fair hair which hung around her neck, and playfully strewing it again
over her shoulders.
"I think her beautiful, of course, my dear," answered Mrs. Montgomery;
"but I am partial, you know: and so indeed are you. You began to love
her, I believe, on the very evening she was born! I shall never forget
how carefully you supported the baby's head on your little arm as you
sat on this very table, I think it was, and asked leave to kiss her."
"And was my presumptuous request granted, ma'am?" asked Edmund,
laughing, and drawing little Julia kindly towards him, as though he
had some thought of repeating the presumption of which he spoke; but
she now began to twist her head away, blush, and look half angry: for
little girls of her age, though, as we before observed, too young to be
bashful, are very apt to be furiously modest.
"Certainly, my dear," replied Mrs. Montgomery: "you were but six years
of age, you know, and poor Julia there, not an hour old at the time."
Her voice here faltered, her tears began to flow again, and her head
shook a little; an infirmity she was able to suppress, except when
much moved. Julia, who knew the symptom well, stole her arms round
her grandmamma's neck, and tried all the little coaxing ways which
she had long found the most effectual on such occasions of mournful
recollection.