The steel strikes fire from the unyielding flint:
So love has struck from out that flinty heart
The electric spark, which all but deifies
The human clay.--S.M.
About two years after Algernon Hurdlestone left the Hall, a widow lady
and her daughter came to reside at Ashton, and hired a small cottage,
pleasantly situated at the back of the park.
Mrs. Wildegrave's husband had been engaged in the rebellion of 1745; and
his estates, in consequence, were confiscated, and he paid with his life
the forfeit of his rashness. His widow and child, after many years of
sorrow and destitution, and living as dependents upon the charity of
poor relatives, were enabled to break through this painful bondage, and
procure a home for themselves.
An uncle of Mrs. Wildegrave's, who had been more than suspected of
favoring the cause of the unhappy prince, died, and settled upon his
niece all the property he had to bestow, which barely afforded her an
income of fifty pounds a year. This was but a scanty pittance, it is
true; but it was better than the hard-earned bread of dependence, and
sufficient for the wants of two females.
Mrs. Wildegrave, whose health had been for some years in a declining
state, thought that the air of her native place might have a beneficial
effect upon her shattered constitution; and as years had fled away since
the wreck of all her hopes, she no longer felt the painful degradation
of returning to the place in which she had once held a distinguished
situation, and had been regarded as its chief ornament and pride.
Her people, save a younger brother of her husband's, who held a
lucrative situation in India, had all been gathered to their fathers.
The familiar faces that had smiled upon her in youth and prosperity, in
poverty and disgrace, remembered her no more. The mind of the poor
forsaken widow had risen superior to the praise or contempt of the
world, and she now valued its regard at the price which it deserved. But
she had an intense longing to behold once more the woods and fields
where she had rambled in her happy childhood; to wander by the pleasant
streams, and sit under the favorite trees; to see the primrose and
violet gemming the mossy banks of the dear hedge-rows, to hear the birds
sing among the hawthorn blossoms; and, surrounded by the
fondly-remembered sights and sounds of beauty, to recall the sweet
dreams of youth.
Did no warning voice whisper to her that she had made a rash
choice?--that the bitterness of party hatred outlives all other
hate?--that the man who had persecuted her young enthusiastic husband to
the death was not likely to prove a kind neighbor to his widow? Mrs.
Wildegrave forgot all this, and only hoped that Squire Hurdlestone had
outlived his hostility to her family. Sixteen years had elapsed since
Captain Wildegrave had perished on the scaffold. The world had forgotten
his name, and the nature of his offence. It was not possible for a mere
political opponent to retain his animosity to the dead. But she had
formed a very incorrect estimate of Squire Hurdlestone's powers of
hating.
The arrival of Captain Wildegrave's widow in his immediate vicinity
greatly enraged the old Squire; but as he possessed no power of
denouncing women as traitors, he was obliged to content himself by
pouring forth, on every occasion, the most ill-natured invectives
against his poor unprotected neighbors.
He wondered at the impudence of the traitor Wildegrave's widow and
daughter daring to lift up their heads among a loyal community, where
her husband's conduct and his shameful death were but too well known.
Alas! he know not how the lonely heart will pine for the old familiar
haunts--how the sight of inanimate objects which have been loved in
childhood will freshen into living greenness its desolate wastes. The
sordid lover of gold, the eager aspirant for this world's trifling
distinctions, feels nothing, knows nothing, of this.
Elinor Wildegrave, the only child of these unhappy parents, had just
completed her seventeenth year, and might have formed a perfect model of
youthful innocence and beauty. Her personal endowments were so
remarkable, that they soon became the subject of conversation, alike in
the halls of the wealthy and in the humble abodes of the poor. The
village-gossips were not backward in mating the young heiress of sorrow
with the richest and noblest in the land. Elinor was not unconscious of
her personal attractions, but a natural delicacy of mind made her shrink
from general admiration. Her mother's scanty income did not enable them
to hire servants; and the work of the house devolved upon Elinor, who
was too dutiful a child to suffer her ailing mother to assist her in
these domestic labors. The lighter employments of sewing and knitting,
her mother shared; and they were glad to increase their slender means by
taking in plain work; which so completely occupied the young girl's
time, that she was rarely seen abroad, excepting on Sundays, when she
accompanied her mother to the parish church; and then, the loveliness
which attracted such attention was always partially concealed by a large
veil. Mark Hurdlestone's valet happened to meet the young lady returning
home through the park without this envious appendage, and was so struck
with her beauty, that he gave his young master an eloquent description
of the angel he had seen.
"Believe me, sir, she is a mate for the King. If I were but a gentleman
of fortune like you, I should feel proud to lay it at her feet."
Mark heard him with indifference. He had never felt the least tender
emotion towards woman, whom he regarded as an inferior being, only
formed to administer to the wants, and contribute to the pleasures, of
man.
"Miss Wildegrave," he said, "might be a fine girl. But he could see no
beauty in a woman whose father had died upon the scaffold, and who had
no fortune. She and her mother were outcasts, who could no longer be
received into genteel society."
The valet, with more taste than his master, shrugged up his shoulders,
and answered with a significant smile: "Ah, sir! if we could but
exchange situations."
A few days after this conversation, Mark Hurdlestone met Elinor
Wildegrave by accident, and became deeply enamoured with the lovely
orphan.
In spite of his blunt speech and misanthropic manners, the young heir of
Oak Hall, at that period, was not wholly destitute of the art of
pleasing. He was sensible and well-read. His figure was commanding, and
his carriage good. His stern features were set off by the ruddy glow of
health; and the brilliancy of his lip and eye, the dazzling whiteness of
his small even teeth, and the rich masses of raven hair that curled in
profusion round his high forehead, atoned in some measure for the
disagreeable expression which at all times pervaded his remarkable
countenance.
"The young Squire is certainly very handsome," said Elinor Wildegrave to
her mother, the morning after their first meeting. "But there is
something about him which I cannot like. His face is as stern and as
cold as a marble statue's. I should think it would be impossible for
that man to shed a tear, or be capable of feeling the least tender
emotion."
"My dear Elinor, you judge too much by externals. These taciturn people
are often possessed of the keenest sensibility."
"Ah! dearest mother, believe it not. 'From the abundance of the heart,
the mouth speaketh.' I love not these silent people. The heart that is
worn on the sleeve is better, and more to be trusted, than the heart
that is concealed in a marble shell."
The human countenance never lies. If read aright, it always presents the
real index of the mind. The first impression it makes upon a stranger is
always the correct one. Pleasing manners and affable smiles may tend to
weaken, nay, even to efface these first impressions, but they will
invariably return, and experience will attest their truth.
In her first estimate of the Squire's character, formed from his
physiognomy, Elinor was correct, for it was some time before she could
reconcile herself to his harsh countenance; but her dislike gradually
wore away, and she received his passing civilities with the pleasure
which a young girl of her age invariably feels, when regarded with
admiration by one so much her superior in rank and fortune.
His retired habits, which at the age of twenty-four his neighbors
attributed more to pride than avarice, though in truth they arose from a
mixture of both, invested him with a sort of mysterious interest. Elinor
felt her vanity flattered by the belief that her charms had touched a
heart hitherto invulnerable to female beauty. She was, indeed, his first
love, and his last.
Elinor was too romantic to think of uniting herself to a man whom she
could not love, for the sake of his wealth; and she prudently and
honorably shunned the advances of her taciturn admirer. She knew that
his father had been her father's implacable enemy; that all intimacy
between the families had been strictly prohibited at the Hall; and when
the heir of that noble demesne made their cottage a resting-place after
the fatigues of hunting, and requested a draught of milk from her hands
to allay his thirst, or a bunch of roses from her little flower plot to
adorn his waistcoat, Elinor answered his demands with secret mistrust
and terror; although, with the coquetry so natural to her sex, she could
not hate him for the amiable weakness of regarding her with admiration.
Alas, poor Elinor! why sacrifice to this heartless vanity the peace and
integrity of your mind; and for the sake of winning a smile, to which
you attach no real value, unseal for ever the fountain of tears?
Avarice for a long time struggled with Mark Hurdlestone's growing
passion for Elinor Wildegrave; nor could he prevail upon himself to ask
the penniless daughter of an executed traitor to become his wife. He was
too proud to brave the sneers of the world; too prudent to combat with
his father's disappointed hopes and fierce anger. His fortune he knew
would be large--but when is avarice satisfied? and he abandoned the
first generous impulse he had ever felt, with the first sigh he had ever
breathed.
He contented himself with wandering, day after day around the widow's
dwelling, in the hope of catching a passing glance of the object of his
idolatry, without incurring the danger of a personal interview, which
might lead to an indiscreet avowal of the passion which consumed him,
and place him in the power of his fair enslaver. He hovered around her
path, and at church disturbed her devotions by never removing his eyes
from her face; but the tale of his love remained untold, and was
scarcely acknowledged even to himself.
This was the happiest period of Mark Hurdlestone's life. His passion for
Elinor Wildegrave, though selfish and unrefined, was deep and sincere.
He contemplated the beautiful and friendless girl, as in after years he
viewed the gold in his coffers, as a secret treasure hid from the world,
and only known to him.
From this dream he was at length aroused, by the sudden and unexpected
appearance of his brother Algernon at the Hall. With quivering lips he
congratulated him upon his return to his native land; exchanging with
cold and nerveless grasp the warm pressure of his brother's hand, while
he contemplated with envy and alarm the elegant person of the returned
prodigal. From a boy, he had never loved Algernon; coveting with
unnatural greed the property which would accrue to him, should it please
Heaven to provide for his twin brother by taking him to itself. But when
that brother stood before him in the pride and glory of manhood; with
health glowing on his cheek, and beauty on his brow, he could scarcely
conceal his envy; for he beheld in him a formidable, and, if seen by
Elinor, in all probability a successful rival. Hatred took possession of
his breast, and while he pronounced with his lips a chilling welcome,
his mind, active in malice, had already planned his ruin. In the first
joyous moments of return, and while describing to his delighted mother
the lands he had visited, and his adventures at Paris and Rome. Algernon
scarcely noticed his brother's unkind reception. He knew that little
sympathy existed between them; but he never suspected that Mark bore him
any ill-will, still less that he was likely to act the part of an enemy,
and endeavor to supplant him in his father's affections.
Before many days had elapsed, the decided hostility of his brother's
manner could no longer escape his attention. Candid himself, and
expecting Mark to be the same, he demanded the reason of his singular
conduct. Mark turned upon his heel, and answered with a scornful
laugh--"That if the bluntness of his speech displeased him, he knew his
remedy, and might quit the Hall. For his part, he had been brought up in
the country, and could not adapt his manners to suit the delicate taste
of a fine gentleman." Then, muttering something about a travelled
monkey, left the room.
During the first burst of honest indignation. Algernon determined to
follow him, and demand a more satisfactory explanation of his conduct,
but he was deterred by the grief which he knew a quarrel between them
would occasion his mother; and for her sake he put up with the insult.
His wrath, like summer dew, quickly evaporated, and the only effect
which his short-lived passion produced was to increase the urgency with
which he entreated his father to allow him to make choice of a
profession, which would remove him from the vicinity of one whose sole
study was to torment and annoy him.
His father, who wished to make him feel the effects of his extravagance
abroad, calmly listened to his proposals, and asked time for
deliberation, and this interval had to be passed by Algernon at the
Hall. For his mother's sake, whom he fondly loved, he forbore to
complain; and he hailed the approaching shooting season as a relief from
the dulness and monotony of home. Used to the lively conversation of
foreigners, and passionately fond of the society of the other sex, the
seclusion of Oak Hall was not very congenial to his taste. He soon
ceased to take an interest in the domestic arrangements of the family,
and the violin and guitar, on which he performed with great taste and
skill, were alike discarded, and he imprudently afforded his brother
daily opportunities of poisoning his father's mind against him, while he
was lounging away his time in the houses of the neighboring gentry.
To his father, Mark affected, to commiserate the weakness of his
brother's intellect, and the frivolity of his pursuits. He commented
without mercy on his idle extravagant habits--his foreign air and
Frenchified manners, invidiously adding up the large sums he had already
squandered, and the expense which his father must still be at to
maintain him genteely, either in the army or at the bar. He always ended
his remarks with an observation, which he knew to be the most galling to
the pride of the old man.
"He will be just such a useless despicable fellow as his uncle Alfred,
and will be the same burden to me that that accomplished unprincipled
fool was to you."
The Squire only lent too ready an ear to the base insinuations of his
eldest son; and when Algernon returned from the field, he found his
father's manners yet more repulsive than his brother's. As Mr.
Hurdlestone's affection for his youngest born diminished, Mark's
appeared miraculously to increase. He even condescended to give Algernon
various friendly hints to lose no opportunity of re-establishing
himself in his father's favor. But such conduct was too specious even to
deceive the unsuspicious, kind-hearted Algernon. He detected the
artifice, and scorned the hypocrite. Instead of absenting himself from
the family circle for a few hours, he was now abroad all day, and
sometimes for a whole week, without leaving any clue to discover his
favorite haunts.
Mark at length took the alarm. A jealous fear shot through his brain,
and he employed spies to dog his path. His suspicions were confirmed
when he was at length informed by Grenard Pike, the gardener's son, that
Mr. Algernon seldom went a mile beyond the precincts of the park. His
hours, consequently, must be loitered away in some dwelling near at
hand. Algernon was not a young man of sentimental habits. He was neither
poet nor bookworm, and it was very improbable that he would fast all day
under the shade of forest boughs, watching, like the melancholy Jacques,
the deer come down to the stream to drink.
Where were his walks so likely to terminate as at the widow's cottage?
What companion could the home-tired child of pleasure find so congenial
to his tastes as the young and beautiful Elinor Wildegrave? There was
madness in the thought! The passion so carefully concealed, no longer
restrained by the cautious maxims of prudence, like the turbulent
overflowing of some mighty stream, bore down all before it in its
headlong course. Several days he passed in this state of jealous
excitement. On the evening of the fourth, his mental agony reached a
climax; unable to restrain his feelings, he determined to brave the
anger of his father, the sneers of the world, and the upbraidings of his
own conscience, declare his attachment to Elinor, and ask her to become
his wife.
He never for a moment suspected that the orphan girl could refuse the
magnificent proposal he was about to make, or contemplate with
indifference the rank and fortune he had in his power to bestow.
Mark Hurdlestone was not a man to waver or turn back when his mind was
once fixed upon an object. His will was like fate, inflexible in the
accomplishment of his purpose. He thought long and deeply on a subject,
and pondered over it for days and months, and even for years; but when
he said,--"I will do it," the hand of God alone could hinder him from
performing that which he had resolutely sworn to do.
Having finally resolved to make Elinor Wildegrave his wife (for in spite
of all the revolting traits in his character, he had never for a moment
entertained the idea of possessing her on less honorable terms, rightly
concluding that a man's mistress is always a more expensive appendage
than a man's wife,) he snatched up his hat, and walked with rapid
strides to the cottage.
He neither slackened his pace, nor paused to reflect on the step that he
was about to take, until he unclosed the little wicket-gate that divided
the cottage from the park. Here at length he stopped to gain breath, and
the embarrassment of his situation arose in formidable array against
him. He was a man of few words, naturally diffident of his colloquial
powers, and easily confused and abashed. In what manner was he to
address her? To him the language of flattery and compliment was unknown.
He had never said a polite thing to a woman in his life. Unaccustomed to
the society of ladies, he was still more unaccustomed to woo; how then
was he to unfold the state of his heart to the object of his love? The
longer he pondered over the subject, the more awkward and irresolute he
felt. His usual fortitude forsook him, and he determined to relinquish a
project so ridiculous, or to postpone it to some more favorable moment.
His hand still rested upon the latch of the gate, when his meditations
were dispelled by a soft strain of music, which floated forth upon the
balmy air, harmonizing with the quiet beauty of the landscape which was
illumined by the last rays of a gorgeous summer sunset.
Then came a pause in the music, and the silence was filled with the
melodious voice of Elinor Wildegrave. She sang a sweet plaintive ditty,
and the tones of her voice had power to soften and subdue the rugged
nature of Mark Hurdlestone. His knees trembled, his heart beat faintly,
and tears, for the first time since his querulous infancy, moistened his
eyes. He softly unclosed the gate, and traversed the little garden with
noiseless steps, carefully avoiding the path that led directly to the
house.
A screen of filberts concealed his tall figure from observation; and
stepping behind the mossy trunk of an excavated oak that fronted the
casement, he sent an eager glance towards the spot from whence the
sounds issued. The sight that met his eager gaze called into action all
the demoniacal passions which the tones of that sweet voice had lulled
to rest.
Seated on a rude bench, fronting the lawn, he beheld the only human
creature he had ever loved encircled in the arms of his brother
Algernon. The guitar, on which he had been playing, now lay neglected at
his feet, and the head of the beautiful girl was fondly nestled in his
bosom. As the delighted Algernon bent caressingly over her, to catch the
low sweet words that murmured from her lips, his bright auburn curls
mingled with the glossy raven tresses that shaded the transparent cheek
of his lovely mistress, and he pressed a fond kiss upon her snowy brow.
Oh, sight of hell! Mark Hurdlestone suppressed the yell of agony that
convulsed his throat, while he gazed with flashing eyes upon the pair
before him; yes, with such a glance as Satan regarded our first parents
ere sin had exiled them from Paradise, and destroyed the holy beauty of
innocence. He attempted to quit his place of concealment, but a strange
fascination, a horrible curiosity, rooted him to the spot.
Elinor looked up with a smile into her lover's face. Algernon seemed
perfectly to understand the meaning of that playful glance, and replied
to it in lively tones, "Yes, dear Nell, sing my favorite song!" and
Elinor instantly complied, with a blush and another sweet smile. Mark
was no lover of music, but that song thrilled to his soul, and the words
never afterwards departed from his memory. A fiend might have pitied the
crushed heart of that humbled and most unhappy man.
Mark Hurdlestone rushed from the garden, and sought the loneliest spot
in the park, to give utterance to his despair. With a heavy groan he
dashed himself upon the earth, tearing up the grass with his hands, and
defacing the flowers and shrubs that grew near him as he clutched at
them in his strong agony. The heavens darkened above him, the landscape
swam round and round him in endless circles, and the evening breeze,
that gently stirred the massy foliage, seemed to laugh at his mental
sufferings.
He clenched his teeth, the big drops of perspiration gathered thick and
fast upon his brow, and tossing his hands frantically aloft, he cursed
his brother, and swore to pursue him with his vengeance to the grave.
Yes, that twin brother, who had been fed at the same breast--had been
rocked in the same cradle--had shared in the same childish sports--it
was on his thoughtless but affectionate and manly heart he bade the dark
shadow of his spirit fall. "And, think not," he cried, "that you,
Algernon Hurdlestone, shall triumph in my despair. That woman shall be
mine, yet. Mine, though her brow has been polluted by your lips, and
your profligate love has contaminated her for ever in my eyes. But I
will bind you both with a chain, which shall render you my slaves for
ever." Then, rising from the ground, he left the spot which had
witnessed the only tender emotion he had ever felt, with a spirit full
of bitterness, and burning for revenge.