because you and such as you think only of yourself and not of Jamaica,
that Jamaica has come to such a pass as this. Why is there a pack there
as you call them in the honourable House of Assembly? Why are not the
best men in the island to be found there, as the best men in England are
to be found in the British House of Commons? A pack, indeed! My father
was proud of a seat in that house, and I remember the day, Maurice
Cumming, when your father also thought it no shame to represent his own
parish. If men like you, who have a stake in the country, will not go
there, of course the house is filled with men who have no stake. If they
are a pack, it is you who send them there;--you, and others like you.”
All had its effect, though at the moment Maurice would shrug his
shoulders and turn away his head from the torrent of the lady’s
discourse. But Miss Jack, though she was not greatly liked, was greatly
respected. Maurice would not own that she convinced him; but at last he
did allow his name to be put up as candidate for his own parish, and in
due time he became a member of the honourable House of Assembly in
Jamaica.
This honour entails on the holder of it the necessity of living at or
within reach of Spanish Town for some ten weeks towards the close of
every year. Now on the whole face of the uninhabited globe there is
perhaps no spot more dull to look at, more Lethean in its aspect, more
corpse-like or more cadaverous than Spanish Town. It is the
head-quarters of the government, the seat of the legislature, the
residence of the governor;--but nevertheless it is, as it were, a city
of the very dead.
Here, as we have said before, lived Miss Jack in a large forlorn
ghost-like house in which her father and all her family had lived before
her. And as a matter of course Maurice Cumming when he came up to attend
to his duties as a member of the legislature took up his abode with her.
Now at the time of which we are specially speaking he had completed the
first of these annual visits. He had already benefited his country by
sitting out one session of the colonial parliament, and had satisfied
himself that he did no other good than that of keeping away some person
more objectionable than himself. He was however prepared to repeat this
self-sacrifice in a spirit of patriotism for which he received a very
meagre meed of eulogy from Miss Jack, and an amount of self-applause
which was not much more extensive.
“Down at Mount Pleasant I can do something,” he would say over and over
again, “but what good can any man do up here?”
“You can do your duty,” Miss Jack would answer, “as others did before
you when the colony was made to prosper.” And then they would run off
into a long discussion about free labour and protective duties. But at
the present moment Maurice Cumming had another vexation on his mind over
and above that arising from his wasted hours at Spanish Town, and his
fruitless labours at Mount Pleasant. He was in love, and was not
altogether satisfied with the conduct of his lady-love.
Miss Jack had other nephews besides Maurice Cumming, and nieces also, of
whom Marian Leslie was one. The family of the Leslies lived up near
Newcastle--in the mountains, that is, which stand over Kingston--at a
distance of some eighteen miles from Kingston, but in a climate as
different from that of the town as the climate of Naples is from that of
Berlin. In Kingston the heat is all but intolerable throughout the year,
by day and by night, in the house and out of it. In the mountains round
Newcastle, some four thousand feet above the sea, it is merely warm
during the day, and cool enough at night to make a blanket desirable.
It is pleasant enough living up amongst those green mountains. There are
no roads there for wheeled carriages, nor are there carriages with or
without wheels. All journeys are made on horseback. Every visit paid
from house to house is performed in this manner. Ladies young and old
live before dinner in their riding-habits. The hospitality is free,
easy, and unembarrassed. The scenery is magnificent. The tropical
foliage is wild and luxuriant beyond measure. There may be enjoyed all
that a southern climate has to offer of enjoyment, without the penalties
which such enjoyments usually entail.
Mrs. Leslie was a half-sister of Miss Jack, and Miss Jack had been a
half-sister also of Mrs. Cumming; but Mrs. Leslie and Mrs. Cumming had
in no way been related. And it had so happened that up to the period of
his legislative efforts Maurice Cumming had seen nothing of the Leslies.
Soon after his arrival at Spanish Town he had been taken by Miss Jack to
Shandy Hall, for so the residence of the Leslies was called, and having
remained there for three days, had fallen in love with Marian Leslie.
Now in the West Indies all young ladies flirt; it is the first habit of
their nature--and few young ladies in the West Indies were more given to
flirting, or understood the science better than Marian Leslie.
Maurice Cumming fell violently in love, and during his first visit at
Shandy Hall found that Marian was perfection--for during this first
visit her propensities were exerted altogether in his own favour. That
little circumstance does make such a difference in a young man’s
judgment of a girl! He came back full of admiration, not altogether to
Miss Jack’s dissatisfaction; for Miss Jack was willing enough that both
her nephew and her niece should settle down into married life.
But then Maurice met his fair one at a governor’s ball--at a ball where
red coats abounded, and aides-de-camp dancing in spurs, and
narrow-waisted lieutenants with sashes or epaulettes! The aides-de-camp
and narrow-waisted lieutenants waltzed better than he did; and as one
after the other whisked round the ball-room with Marian firmly clasped
in his arms, Maurice’s feelings were not of the sweetest. Nor was this
the worst of it. Had the whisking been divided equally among ten, he
might have forgiven it; but there was one specially narrow-waisted
lieutenant, who towards the end of the evening kept Marian nearly wholly
to himself. Now to a man in love, who has had but little experience of
either balls or young ladies, this is intolerable.
He only met her twice after that before his return to Mount Pleasant,
and on the first occasion that odious soldier was not there. But a
specially devout young clergyman was present, an unmarried, evangelical,
handsome young curate fresh from England; and Marian’s piety had been so
excited that she had cared for no one else. It appeared moreover that
the curate’s gifts for conversion were confined, as regarded that
opportunity, to Marian’s advantage. “I will have nothing more to say to
her,” said Maurice to himself, scowling. But just as he went away Marian
had given him her hand, and called him Maurice--for she pretended that
they were cousins--and had looked into his eyes and declared that she
did hope that the assembly at Spanish Town would soon be sitting again.
Hitherto, she said, she had not cared one straw about it. Then poor
Maurice pressed the little fingers which lay within his own, and swore
that he would be at Shandy Hall on the day before his return to Mount
Pleasant. So he was; and there he found the narrow-waisted lieutenant,
not now bedecked with sash and epaulettes, but lolling at his ease on
Mrs. Leslie’s sofa in a white jacket, while Marian sat at his feet
telling his fortune with a book about flowers.
“Oh, a musk rose, Mr. Ewing; you know what a musk rose means!” Then, she
got up and shook hands with Mr. Cumming; but her eyes still went away to
the white jacket and the sofa. Poor Maurice had often been nearly
broken-hearted in his efforts to manage his free black labourers; but
even that was easier than managing such as Marian Leslie.
Marian Leslie was a Creole--as also were Miss Jack and Maurice
Cumming--a child of the tropics; but by no means such a child as
tropical children are generally thought to be by us in more northern
latitudes. She was black-haired and black-eyed, but her lips were as red
and her cheeks as rosy as though she had been born and bred in regions
where the snow lies in winter. She was a small, pretty, beautifully made
little creature, somewhat idle as regards the work of the world, but
active and strong enough when dancing or riding were required from her.
Her father was a banker, and was fairly prosperous in spite of the
poverty of his country. His house of business was at Kingston, and he
usually slept there twice a week; but he always resided at Shandy Hall,
and Mrs. Leslie and her children knew but very little of the miseries of
Kingston. For be it known to all men, that of all towns Kingston,
Jamaica, is the most miserable.
I fear that I shall have set my readers very much against Marian
Leslie;--much more so than I would wish to do. As a rule they will not
know how thoroughly flirting is an institution in the West
Indies--practised by all young ladies, and laid aside by them when they
marry, exactly as their young-lady names and young-lady habits of
various kinds are laid aside. All I would say of Marian Leslie is this,
that she understood the working of the institution more thoroughly than
others did. And I must add also in her favour that she did not keep her
flirting for sly corners, nor did her admirers keep their distance till
mamma was out of the way. It mattered not to her who was present. Had
she been called on to make one at a synod of the clergy of the island,
she would have flirted with the bishop before all his priests. And there
have been bishops in the colony who would not have gainsayed her!
But Maurice Cumming did not rightly calculate all this; nor indeed did
Miss Jack do so as thoroughly as she should have done, for Miss Jack
knew more about such matters than did poor Maurice. “If you like Marian,
why don’t you marry her?” Miss Jack had once said to him; and this
coming from Miss Jack, who was made of money, was a great deal.
“She wouldn’t have me,” Maurice had answered.
“That’s more than you know or I either,” was Miss Jack’s reply. “But if
you like to try, I’ll help you.”
With reference to this, Maurice as he left Miss Jack’s residence on his
return to Mount Pleasant, had declared that Marian Leslie was not worth
an honest man’s love.
“Psha!” Miss Jack replied; “Marian will do like other girls. When you
marry a wife I suppose you mean to be master?”
“At any rate I shan’t marry her,” said Maurice. And so he went his way
back to Hanover with a sore heart. And no wonder, for that was the very
day on which Lieutenant Ewing had asked the question about the musk
rose.
But there was a dogged constancy of feeling about Maurice which could
not allow him to disburden himself of his love. When he was again at
Mount Pleasant among his sugar-canes and hogsheads he could not help
thinking about Marian. It is true he always thought of her as flying
round that ball-room in Ewing’s arms, or looking up with rapt admiration
into that young parson’s face; and so he got but little pleasure from
his thoughts. But not the less was he in love with her;--not the less,
though he would swear to himself three times in the day that for no
earthly consideration would he marry Marian Leslie.
The early months of the year from January to May are the busiest with a
Jamaica sugar-grower, and in this year they were very busy months with
Maurice Cumming. It seemed as though there were actually some truth in
Miss Jack’s prediction that prosperity would return to him if he
attended to his country; for the prices of sugar had risen higher than
they had ever been since the duty had been withdrawn, and there was more
promise of a crop at Mount Pleasant than he had seen since his reign
commenced. But then the question of labour? How he slaved in trying to
get work from those free negroes; and alas! how often he slaved in vain!
But it was not all in vain; for as things went on it became clear to him
that in this year he would, for the first time since he commenced,
obtain something like a return from his land. What if the turning-point
had come, and things were now about to run the other way.
But then the happiness which might have accrued to him from this source
was dashed by his thoughts of Marian Leslie. Why had he thrown himself
in the way of that syren? Why had he left Mount Pleasant at all? He knew
that on his return to Spanish Town his first work would be to visit
Shandy Hall; and yet he felt that of all places in the island, Shandy
Hall was the last which he ought to visit.
And then about the beginning of May, when he was hard at work turning
the last of his canes into sugar and rum, he received his annual visit
from Miss Jack. And whom should Miss Jack bring with her but Mr. Leslie.
“I’ll tell you what it is,” said Miss Jack; “I have spoken to Mr. Leslie
about you and Marian.”
“Then you had no business to do anything of the kind,” said Maurice,
blushing up to his ears.
“Nonsense,” replied Miss Jack, “I understand what I am about. Of course
Mr. Leslie will want to know something about the estate.”
“Then he may go back as wise as he came, for he’ll learn nothing from
me. Not that I have anything to hide.”
“So I told him. Now there are a large family of them, you see; and of
course he can’t give Marian much.”
“I don’t care a straw if he doesn’t give her a shilling. If she cared
for me, or I for her, I shouldn’t look after her for her money.”
“But a little money is not a bad thing, Maurice,” said Miss Jack, who in
her time had had a good deal, and had managed to take care of it.
“It is all one to me.”
“But what I was going to say is this--hum--ha--. I don’t like to pledge
myself for fear I should raise hopes which mayn’t be fulfilled.”
“Don’t pledge yourself to anything, aunt, in which Marian Leslie and I
are concerned.”
“But what I was going to say is this; my money, what little I have, you
know, must go some day either to you or to the Leslies.”
“You may give all to them if you please.”
“Of course I may, and I dare say I shall,” said Miss Jack, who was
beginning to be irritated. “But at any rate you might have the civility
to listen to me when I am endeavouring to put you on your legs. I am
sure I think about nothing else, morning, noon, and night, and yet I
never get a decent word from you. Marian is too good for you; that’s the
truth.”
But at length Miss Jack was allowed to open her budget, and to make her
proposition; which amounted to this--that she had already told Mr.
Leslie that she would settle the bulk of her property conjointly on
Maurice and Marian if they would make a match of it. Now as Mr. Leslie
had long been casting a hankering eye after Miss Jack’s money, with a
strong conviction however that Maurice Cumming was her favourite nephew
and probable heir, this proposition was not unpalatable. So he agreed to
go down to Mount Pleasant and look about him.
“But you may live for the next thirty years, my dear Miss Jack,” Mr.
Leslie had said.
“Yes, I may,” Miss Jack replied, looking very dry.
“And I am sure I hope you will,” continued Mr. Leslie. And then the
subject was allowed to drop; for Mr. Leslie knew that it was not always
easy to talk to Miss Jack on such matters.
Miss Jack was a person in whom I think we may say that the good
predominated over the bad. She was often morose, crabbed, and
self-opinionated; but then she knew her own imperfections, and forgave
those she loved for evincing their dislike of them. Maurice Cumming was
often inattentive to her, plainly showing that he was worried by her
importunities and ill at ease in her company. But she loved her nephew
with all her heart; and though she dearly liked to tyrannise over him,
never allowed herself to be really angry with him, though he so
frequently refused to bow to her dictation. And she loved Marian Leslie
also, though Marian was so sweet and lovely and she herself so harsh and
ill-favoured. She loved Marian, though Marian would often be
impertinent. She forgave the flirting, the light-heartedness, the love
of amusement. Marian, she said to herself, was young and pretty. She,
Miss Jack, had never known Marian’s temptation. And so she resolved in
her own mind that Marian should be made a good and happy woman;--but
always as the wife of Maurice Cumming.
But Maurice turned a deaf ear to all these good tidings--or rather he
turned to them an ear that seemed to be deaf. He dearly, ardently loved
that little flirt; but seeing that she was a flirt, that she had flirted
so grossly when he was by, he would not confess his love to a human
being. He would not have it known that he was wasting his heart for a
worthless little chit, to whom every man was the same--except that those
were most eligible whose toes were the lightest and their outside
trappings the brightest. That he did love her he could not help, but he
would not disgrace himself by acknowledging it.
He was very civil to Mr. Leslie, but he would not speak a word that
could be taken as a proposal for Marian. It had been part of Miss Jack’s
plan that the engagement should absolutely be made down there at Mount
Pleasant, without any reference to the young lady; but Maurice could not
be induced to break the ice. So he took Mr. Leslie through his mills and
over his cane-pieces, talked to him about the laziness of the “niggers,”
while the “niggers” themselves stood by tittering, and rode with him
away to the high grounds where the coffee plantation had been in the
good old days; but not a word was said between them about Marian. And
yet Marian was never out of his heart.
And then came the day on which Mr. Leslie was to go back to Kingston.
“And you won’t have her then?” said Miss Jack to her nephew early that
morning. “You won’t be said by me?”
“Not in this matter, aunt.”
“Then you will live and die a poor man; you mean that, I suppose?”
“It’s likely enough that I shall. There’s this comfort, at any rate,
I’m used to it.” And then Miss Jack was silent again for a while.
“Very well, sir; that’s enough,” she said angrily. And then she began
again. “But, Maurice, you wouldn’t have to wait for my death, you know.”
And she put out her hand and touched his arm, entreating him as it were
to yield to her. “Oh, Maurice,” she said, “I do so want to make you
comfortable. Let us speak to Mr. Leslie.”
But Maurice would not. He took her hand and thanked her, but said that
on this matter he must be his own master. “Very well, sir,” she
exclaimed, “I have done. In future you may manage for yourself. As for
me, I shall go back with Mr. Leslie to Kingston.” And so she did. Mr.
Leslie returned that day, taking her with him. When he took his leave,
his invitation to Maurice to come to Shandy Hall was not very pressing.
“Mrs. Leslie and the children will always be glad to see you,” said he.
“Remember me very kindly to Mrs. Leslie and the children,” said Maurice.
And so they parted.
“You have brought me down here on a regular fool’s errand,” said Mr.
Leslie, on their journey back to town.
“It will all come right yet,” replied Miss Jack. “Take my word for it he
loves her.”
“Fudge,” said Mr. Leslie. But he could not afford to quarrel with his
rich connection.
In spite of all that he had said and thought to the contrary, Maurice
did look forward during the remainder of the summer to his return to
Spanish Town with something like impatience. It was very dull work,
being there alone at Mount Pleasant; and let him do what he would to
prevent it, his very dreams took him to Shandy Hall. But at last the
slow time made itself away, and he found himself once more in his aunt’s
house.
A couple of days passed and no word was said about the Leslies. On the
morning of the third day he determined to go to Shandy Hall. Hitherto he
had never been there without staying for the night; but on this occasion
he made up his mind to return the same day. “It would not be civil of me
not to go there,” he said to his aunt.
“Certainly not,” she replied, forbearing to press the matter further.
“But why make such a terrible hard day’s work of it?”
“Oh, I shall go down in the cool, before breakfast; and then I need not
have the bother of taking a bag.”
And in this way he started. Miss Jack said nothing further; but she
longed in her heart that she might be at Marian’s elbow unseen during
the visit.
He found them all at breakfast, and the first to welcome him at the hall
door was Marian. “Oh, Mr. Cumming, we are so glad to see you;” and she
looked into his eyes with a way she had, that was enough to make a man’s
heart wild. But she did not call him Maurice now.
Miss Jack had spoken to her sister, Mrs. Leslie, as well as to Mr.
Leslie, about this marriage scheme. “Just let them alone,” was Mrs.
Leslie’s advice. “You can’t alter Marian by lecturing her. If they
really love each other they’ll come together; and if they don’t, why
then they’d better not.”
“And you really mean that you’re going back to Spanish Town to-day?”
said Mrs. Leslie to her visitor.
“I’m afraid I must. Indeed I haven’t brought my things with me.” And
then he again caught Marian’s eye, and began to wish that his resolution
had not been so sternly made.
“I suppose you are so fond of that House of Assembly,” said Marian,
“that you cannot tear yourself away for more than one day. You’ll not be
able, I suppose, to find time to come to our picnic next week?”
Maurice said he feared that he should not have time to go to a picnic.
“Oh, nonsense,” said Fanny--one of the younger girls--“you must come. We
can’t do without him, can we?”
“Marian has got your name down the first on the list of the gentlemen,”
said another.
“Yes; and Captain Ewing’s second,” said Bell, the youngest.
“I’m afraid I must induce your sister to alter her list,” said Maurice,
in his sternest manner. “I cannot manage to go, and I’m sure she will
not miss me.”
Marian looked at the little girl who had so unfortunately mentioned the
warrior’s name, and the little girl knew that she had sinned.
“Oh, we cannot possibly do without you; can we, Marian?” said Fanny.
“It’s to be at Bingley’s Dell, and we’ve got a bed for you at Newcastle;
quite near, you know.”
“And another for----” began Bell, but she stopped herself.
“Go away to your lessons, Bell,” said Marian. “You know how angry mamma
will be at your staying here all the morning;” and poor Bell with a
sorrowful look left the room.
“We are all certainly very anxious that you should come; very anxious
for a great many reasons,” said Marian, in a voice that was rather
solemn, and as though the matter were one of considerable import. “But
if you really cannot, why of course there is no more to be said.”
“There will be plenty without me, I am sure.”
“As regards numbers, I dare say there will; for we shall have pretty
nearly the whole of the two regiments;” and Marian as she alluded to the
officers spoke in a tone which might lead one to think that she would
much rather be without them; “but we counted on you as being one of
ourselves; and as you had been away so long, we thought--we thought--,”
and then she turned away her face, and did not finish her speech. Before
he could make up his mind as to his answer she had risen from her chair,
and walked out of the room. Maurice almost thought that he saw a tear in
her eye as she went.
He did ride back to Spanish Town that afternoon, after an early dinner;
but before he went Marian spoke to him alone for one minute.
“I hope you are not offended with me,” she said.
“Offended! oh no; how could I be offended with you?”
“Because you seem so stern. I am sure I would do anything I could to
oblige you, if I knew how. It would be so shocking not to be good
friends with a cousin like you.”
“But there are so many different sorts of friends,” said Maurice.
“Of course there are. There are a great many friends that one does not
care a bit for,--people that one meets at balls and places like that--”
“And at picnics,” said Maurice.
“Well, some of them there too; but we are not like that; are we?”
What could Maurice do but say, “no,” and declare that their friendship
was of a warmer description? And how could he resist promising to go to
the picnic, though as he made the promise he knew that misery would be
in store for him? He did promise, and then she gave him her hand and
called him Maurice.
“Oh! I am so glad,” she said. “It seemed so shocking that you should
refuse to join us. And mind and be early, Maurice; for I shall want to
explain it all. We are to meet, you know, at Clifton Gate at one
o’clock, but do you be a little before that, and we shall be there.”