Lucy Ashton was under the tree--Amy, like a sensible child, busily
employed at a little distance gathering flowers; the sun shining, the
bees humming, the birds chirruping.
"You made me wretched all yesterday," I said.
"Indeed! had the worthy Caleb no device to cheer the young master's
solitude?"
"Impossible, even for Caleb's ingenuity, to supply the want of society
as he contrives to hide the absence of silver plate. Ah, why did you not
come?"
"I don't recollect having promised to expose poor Amy again to the
assaults of a wild boar."
"Or yourself to the conversation of a person like me."
"Oh! I have told you, over and over again, I am delighted to have seen
you; and I like your conversation amazingly: you are very different
indeed from what I expected."
"In Heaven's name, what did you expect?" I said. "Who ever spoke of me
to you, that knew me?"
"Nobody that knew you; but you are a good deal spoken of,
notwithstanding. I was curious to see if they were correct."
"And what did they say? I will endeavour to correct them if they are
mistaken."
"They said you and your father moped so continually in the old house,
that you had grown (like Quasimodo) to have a resemblance to brick and
mortar yourselves. I expect to see you like a gable-end, with a couple
of mullioned windows for eyes, and a mouth. I was astonished to see you
so nearly human."
"Ah! you will humanize me still more if you laugh at me as you do; do
take pity on me, and don't let me settle down into a wall."
"With all my heart, for I have no turn for architecture; and, by all the
descriptions I hear of the old court, you don't seem to be Palladios."
"There may be other reasons besides a want of skill and inclination," I
said, with a sad feeling of the anti-architectural condition of our
exchequer.
"Oh! you mean poverty. Then, why don't you sell the old place?"
"It would kill my father to think of it."
"But it would not have so dreadful an effect on you? I know you could
get it sold if you like."
"An old impudent fellow of the name of Jeeks wishes to force us into a
sale. I will see him and all his race at the bottom of the Red Sea
first."
"Would you sell it then?" she said.
"No--but, fair Lucy Ashton, why do you ask?"
"Because if you parted with one brick of the old house, one blade of
grass of the old park, one leaf of one old tree in the old wood, our
acquaintance would end as rapidly as it began."
"Then it shall suffer no decay," I said, and took her hand, which she
held out to me with honest warmth; "and now let me find out, if I can,
who it is that gives me such admirable advice. I called on Mr Dobble
yesterday."
"He told you a great many things, by the by, did he?" she said.
"You know him, I see, and he knows _you_." As I said this, I looked with
the air of a man who has discovered a portentous secret; but she bore my
look with the same celestial open smile as ever.
"What a happy man he must be in knowing so first-rate a parishioner. Did
he boast much of our acquaintance?"
"He seemed to know more of your brothers and sisters," I said.
"Oh, which of them did he like best? How many did he say I had?"
This was a puzzler; for I was quite undecided whether to consider her a
daughter of the house of Juffles with fourteen children, or Poggs with
only two.
"Amy seemed a great favourite," I replied.
"But, my brothers--what did he say of my brothers?"
"He said--but perhaps it was in confidence--so I will not mention all he
told me. He spoke highly of the whole family of Mr Poggs."
"And very properly too. We are all pleasant people in this
neighbourhood; and, indeed, I wonder he can make any distinction in the
degrees of amiability between the Poggses, Juffleses, Higginsons,
Jeekses, Wilcoxes, and all the late and present occupiers of the
Rayleigh estates."
"Higginsons? Wilcoxes? he never mentioned them; but as to the Jeekses,
pray don't speak of those detestable wretches. I hope you despise young
Jeeks as heartily as I do."
"Not quite, perhaps."
"No?" I looked at her. Gracious powers! is it possible this beautiful
creature can be so blinded by the fortune of the wretched animal, as to
look upon him without disgust. "Are you intimate with him?" I enquired.
"Oh yes! we are all very social down here; no ceremony between
neighbours. He is a great sportsman."
"Oh, then, it must be your brothers that are his friends, not you!"
"I certainly don't go out shooting with him--in fact, I have no time. I
am engaged educating Amy so many hours, that I could not practise enough
to be able to hit a bonassus, like a celebrated marksman of my
acquaintance; far less a partridge."
"And you educate Amy? and yet you have brothers? and don't despise young
Jeeks? and know every body?"
"And like them all," she added.
"All equally?" I enquired.
"With a difference, as a body may say."
"And Amy is your sister?"
"We call ourselves so."
"Then, by Heavens, you are Miss Poggs!"
"Well, is that any thing to swear about? There have been Misses Poggs in
the world before, I suppose."
"But you talked of educating her; devoting your time to her."
"So I do."
"Then you are the governess in Mr Juffles' family."
"Why not? You don't think worse of a person for being able to give a
little information to a little girl of seven years old, do you?"
"Think worse of her? Ah, Lucy Ashton! I could not think worse of you, if
you were able to teach the Head of a college."
"You could not think _worse_ of me? Do you mean worse of me than you
think already? In that case I must retire."
"No, no; don't go! I have not found out yet who you are."
"I thought you had found out I was two. You can't surely be wrong in
both."
"I suspect I am. You spoke of your brothers. Now, I make a guess you
have seven. I could tell you their names."
"You mistake your role, or rather confuse it. You are the master of
Ravenswood, not Frank Osbaldistone. I am not Di Vernon."
"You are a puzzle; an Urganda the unknown."
"That means that you are the Bel Tenebroso. You will perhaps be
disenchanted soon."
"Only if you leave the country."
"Why, won't you have the Poggses, Jeekses, Juffleses, though I find
another situation? you can make their acquaintance whenever you please.
You will be re-enchanted again, I assure you."
"By Heavens, I believe you are making a fool of me all this time! You
are the third Miss Juffles yourself."
"Swearing again? What would Mr Dobble say, by the by? I never denied
that I was either the third or fourth Miss Juffles. Are you happy now?"
she said with a smile.
"I can't be any thing else so near to Lucy Ashton."
"Oh, cry you mercy; you are back again at Wolf's Crag! And I assure you,
I like you better in the character of its inhabitant than as the
Inquisitor-general and particular too--which you have acted all to-day.
Let there be a truce between us in question and answer, and all will be
delightful. We have hitherto been like Mrs Marcet's chemistry, all
_whys_ and _becauses_."
The truce was signed, and an hour passed away, composed of sixty minutes
of enjoyment, as if it had all been one second; and I felt that there
was only one woman in the whole world that could ever keep me from being
wretched; and that was a beautiful young girl in a straw bonnet--name,
parentage, and every thing about her, totally unknown.
At the end of the time she took Amy's hand and left me. I did not follow
her--I had promised I would not; but I had exacted a promise in return,
that she would meet me again. And so she did again and again. I never
asked who she was; I did not even care to know. Five weeks passed on,
and I was as irrecoverably in love as if I had known she was a duchess,
with fortune enough to buy back the whole estate.
All this time my father was very kind in his manner; and was constantly
dwelling on the advantages of a wealthy match. My heart bled for him
when I reflected how bitter would be his disappointment when he found
out the dreadful truth, that every woman in existence was hateful to me
except one poor penniless girl; at the best, one of fourteen children,
and perhaps a governess without a _sou_. But I would not destroy his
dreams before there was occasion--and sat silent and unresisting, as he
poured forth his matrimonial schemes for my aggrandizement.
But Lucy at last was unpunctual in her visits to the Wilderness. One day
I had waited from an early hour, and had strained my eyes to catch the
first glimpse of her glorious figure as she tripped among the trees. I
had at last sat down beneath the accustomed oak, and was fancying all
manner of reasons for her not making her appearance, when all of a
sudden I heard a rustle at my side, and, starting up, saw before me the
pragmatical visage of young Mr Jeeks.
"Servant, sir," he squeaked in his shrill unmusical tones, "Oho! this is
the philosophy of it--is it?"
"What do you mean, sir, and what do you want here? Are you aware that
this forms as yet no part of your father's land."
"It will soon, p'r'aps--but I want just to say a few words. I hope not
to lose my temper, as I unfortunately did last time I dropped in to see
you and your governor; for why should gentlemen quarrel? It ain't
philosophic."
"I should think what _gentlemen_ do, whether they quarrel or not, is a
matter in which you can have no personal experience. Say on, sir."
"I am just agoing to begin; and I only hope I shall not get exasperated,
and misbehave myself, as I certainly feel I did the last time we had a
talk."
"Go on; I don't think you'll get exasperated, whatever else may happen
to you."
"You think, p'r'aps, that your goings on, young Mr Rayleigh, ar'n't
known; but they are though."
"In what respect, sir? What do you allude to?"
"Petticoats--that's what I allude to; and I come just to give you a
friendly warning, that the seven young Juffleses are all six feet high."
"Your information is totally undesired."
"I know it is--it's uncommon unpleasant information; and, if I was you,
I would give up the chase. She's certainly a very pretty girl is Betsy
Juffles--but not fit for you or me, you know. She has no blood."
"As I don't know whom you allude to, of course I can give you no answer;
but, as you seem to be giving me advice, I will favour you with a very
decided piece of it in return; which is, to hold your tongue on any
subject connected with me, or the consequences to yourself will be such
as you will hardly like."
"Thank ye for your friendliness--I am rather fond of advice than
otherwise, though it's certainly one of the things that it's more
blessed to give than to receive; and I will just give you a hint that
may do you good--Betsy's a very good-natured girl, but fickle--very."
"Indeed!"
"Oh yes!--she is indeed--she made great advances to me once; but I
rather checked her. A very clever girl too--and speaks French; but she
has no philosophy. She went to the last assizes, and fell in with some
dragoon officers at a ball. She's all for the redcoats now, or at least
was till lately--but since then she"----
Here the little animal winked.
"Oh!" I said, willing to hear what the creature would say.
"I have scarcely spoke to her for a long time; but I hear some of her
proceedings," he continued.
"You do?--from whom, pray?"
"Why, it can't be supposed I never hear Amy talking about how often she
goes out with Betsy. I'm very much against Amy seeing her at all. Her
steady stupid sister would be a far safer companion than such a wild
sort of girl as Betsy Juffles."
"You say she once made advances to you," I said, with a horrid suspicion
at my heart that I had been an egregious fool.
"Didn't she? You should have seen her looks. She always sat a little
behind her mother's chair, so as to be out of the old lady's eye, and
did cast such preternatural glances across the room to me, and smiled,
and smirked, and sidled, and shook her curls--it was wonderful to
behold, but she had no philosophy, and I looked cold"----
"And chilled her?"
"Exactly. I could have tumbled her into the railway, and been off to
Gretna, by only holding up my finger--but I wouldn't. She bore it pretty
well, considering the disappointment; and first consoled herself by
flirting at a ball with a set of ensigns and cornets, and then took to
you."
"To me? I don't understand you, Mr Jeeks."
"You do!"
"You are an insolent jackanapes"----
"I'm not--come, I am trying to keep my temper; but p'r'aps you think
Betsy a good speck? Bah! she'll not have five hundred pounds; and your
bumptious old governor won't buy back many of the old acres with a
dribble like that."
This time I did not give him a minute's grace: my hand was on his collar
in a moment; I shook him till his teeth rattled audibly, like dice in a
box; I kicked him, pushed him, and, as the gratification grew with what
it fed on, at one dread reckoning I paid off the horror I experienced
from his account of the girl I had worshipped, and his insolent mention
of my father. I took a fiendish delight in prolonging his agonies.
Another minute's indulgence in the punishment would have raised the
tiger that lies sleeping, but always awakable, in every man's heart, and
I might have killed him outright; but luckily we got near the boundary
hedge. It was of strong old thorns, very thick and high, and very wide
at top. I seized my victim with both hands, and swung him on to the
summit of the hedge, where, after wriggling a short time in every
variety of ridiculous contortions, and squeaking as he sank deeper and
deeper among the thorns, he threw himself by a great effort to the other
side, and rolled into the ditch.
Some people seem to take naturally to a thrashing, as others do the
small-pox. In a few minutes I perceived him emerge from the ditch and
walk--though rather stiffly--across the field. "Thank Heaven," I said,
"if I have been a dupe I am not a murderer!"