Day after day, week after week rolled on, and they still rambled
about among the picturesque old villages on the Moselle, almost losing
themselves in quaint unvisited spots, whose very names were new to them.
To Barrington and his sister this picture of a primitive peasant life,
with its own types of costume and custom, had an indescribable charm.
Though debarred, from his ignorance of their dialect, of anything like
intercourse with the people, he followed them in their ways with intense
interest, and he would pass hours in the market-place, or stroll through
the fields watching the strange culture, and wondering at the very
implements of their labor. And the young people all this while? They
were never separate. They read, and walked, and sat together from dawn
to dark. They called each other Fifine and Freddy. Sometimes she sang,
and he was there to listen; sometimes he drew, and she was as sure to be
leaning over him in silent wonder at his skill; but with all this there
was no love-making between them,--that is, no vows were uttered, no
pledges asked for. Confidences, indeed, they interchanged, and without
end. She told the story of her friendless infancy, and the long dreary
years of convent life passed in a dull routine that had almost barred
the heart against a wish for change; and he gave her the story of his
more splendid existence, charming her imagination with a picture of
that glorious Eastern life, which seemed to possess an instinctive
captivation for her. And at last he told her, but as a great secret
never to be revealed, how his father and her own had been the dearest,
closest friends; that for years and years they had lived together like
brothers, till separated by the accidents of life. _Her_ father went
away to a long distant station, and _his_ remained to hold a high
military charge, from which he was now relieved and on his way back to
Europe. “What happiness for you, Freddy,” cried she, as her eyes ran
over, “to see him come home in honor! What had I given that such a fate
were mine!”
For an instant he accepted her words in all their flattery, but the
hypocrisy was brief; her over-full heart was bursting for sympathy, and
he was eager to declare that his sorrows were scarcely less than
her own. “No, Fifine,” said he, “my father is coming back to demand
satisfaction of a Government that has wronged him, and treated him
with the worst ingratitude. In that Indian life men of station wield an
almost boundless power; but if they are irresponsible as to the means,
they are tested by the results, and whenever an adverse issue succeeds
they fall irrevocably. What my father may have done, or have left
undone, I know not. I have not the vaguest clew to his present
difficulty, but, with his high spirit and his proud heart, that he would
resent the very shadow of a reproof I can answer for, and so I believe,
what many tell me, that it is a mere question of personal feeling,--some
small matter in which the Council have not shown him the deference he
felt his due, but which his haughty nature would not forego.”
Now these confidences were not love-making, nor anything approaching to
it, and yet Josephine felt a strange half-pride in thinking that she had
been told a secret which Conyers had never revealed to any other; that
to her he had poured forth the darkest sorrow of his heart, and actually
confided to her the terrors that beset him, for he owned that his father
was rash and headstrong, and if he deemed himself wronged would be
reckless in his attempt at justification.
“You do not come of a very patient stock, then,” said she, smiling.
“Not very, Fifine.”
“Nor I,” said she, as her eyes flashed brightly. “My poor Ayah, who died
when I was but five years old, used to tell me such tales of my father's
proud spirit and the lofty way he bore himself, so that I often fancy I
have seen him and heard him speak. You have heard he was a Rajah?” asked
she, with a touch of pride.
The youth colored deeply as he muttered an assent, for he knew that she
was ignorant of the details of her father's fate, and he dreaded any
discussion of her story.
“And these Rajahs,” resumed she, “are really great princes, with power
of life and death, vast retinues, and splendid armies. To my mind, they
present a more gorgeous picture than a small European sovereignty with
some vast Protectorate looming over it. And now it is my uncle,” said
she, suddenly, “who rules there.”
“I have heard that your own claims, Fifine, are in litigation,” said he,
with a faint smile.
“Not as to the sovereignty,” said she, with a grave look, half rebukeful
of his levity. “The suit grandpapa prosecutes in my behalf is for
my mother's jewels and her fortune; a woman cannot reign in the
Tannanoohr.”
There was a haughty defiance in her voice as she spoke, that seemed to
say, “This is a theme I will not suffer to be treated lightly,--beware
how you transgress here.”
“And yet it is a dignity would become you well,” said he, seriously.
“It is one I would glory to possess,” said she, as proudly.
“Would you give me a high post, Fifine, if you were on the
throne?--would you make me Commander-in-Chief of your army?”
“More likely that I would banish you from the realm,” said she, with
a haughty laugh; “at least, until you learned to treat the head of the
state more respectfully.”
“Have I ever been wanting in a proper deference?” said he, bowing, with
a mock humility.
“If you had been, sir, it is not now that you had first heard of it,”
said she, with a proud look, and for a few seconds it seemed as though
their jesting was to have a serious ending. She was, however, the
earliest to make terms, and in a tone of hearty kindliness said: “Don't
be angry, Freddy, and I 'll tell you a secret. If that theme be touched
on, I lose my head: whether it be in the blood that circles in my veins,
or in some early teachings that imbued my childhood, or long dreaming
over what can never be, I cannot tell, but it is enough to speak of
these things, and at once my imagination becomes exalted and my reason
is routed.”
“I have no doubt your Ayah was to blame for this; she must have filled
your head with ambitions, and hopes of a grand hereafter. Even I myself
have some experiences of this sort; for as my father held a high post
and was surrounded with great state and pomp, I grew at a very early
age to believe myself a very mighty personage, and gave my orders with
despotic insolence, and suffered none to gainsay me.”
“How silly!” said she, with a supercilious toss of her head that made
Conyers flush up; and once again was peace endangered between them.
“You mean that what was only a fair and reasonable assumption in _you_
was an absurd pretension in me, Miss Barrington; is it not so?” asked
he, in a voice tremulous with passion.
“I mean that we must both have been very naughty children, and the
less we remember of that childhood the better for us. Are we friends,
Freddy?” and she held out her hand.
“Yes, if you wish it,” said he, taking her hand half coldly in his own.
“Not that way, sir. It is _I_ who have condescended; not _you_.”
“As you please, Fifine,--will this do?” and kneeling with well-assumed
reverence, he lifted her hand to his lips.
“If my opinion were to be asked, Mr. Conyers, I would say it would _not_
do at all,” said Miss Dinah, coming suddenly up, her cheeks crimson, and
her eyes flashing.
“It was a little comedy we were acting, Aunt Dinah,” said the girl,
calmly.
“I beg, then, that the piece may not be repeated,” said she, stiffly.
“Considering how ill Freddy played his part, aunt, he will scarcely
regret its withdrawal.”
Conyers, however, could not get over his confusion, and looked perfectly
miserable for very shame.
“My brother has just had a letter which will call us homeward, Mr.
Conyers,” said Miss Dinah, turning to him, and now using a tone devoid
of all irritation. “Mr. Withering has obtained some information which
may turn out of great consequence in our suit, and he wishes to consult
with my brother upon it.”
“I hope--I sincerely hope--you do not think--” he began, in a low voice.
“I do not think anything to your disadvantage, and I hope I never may,”
replied she, in a whisper low as his own; “but bear in mind, Josephine
is no finished coquette like Polly Dill, nor must she be the mark of
little gallantries, however harmless. Josephine, grandpapa has some news
for you; go to him.”
“Poor Freddy,” whispered the girl in the youth's ear as she passed,
“what a lecture you are in for!” “You mustn't be angry with me if I play
Duenna a little harshly, Mr. Conyers,” said Miss Dinah; “and I am
far more angry with myself than you can be. I never concurred with my
brother that romance reading and a young dragoon for a companion were
the most suitable educational means for a young lady fresh from a
convent, and I have only myself to blame for permitting it.”
Poor Conyers was so overwhelmed that he could say nothing; for though
he might, and with a safe conscience, have answered a direct charge, yet
against a general allegation he was powerless. He could not say that
he was the best possible companion for a young lady, though he felt,
honestly felt, that he was not a bad one. He had never trifled with her
feelings, nor sought to influence her in his favor. Of all flirtation,
such as he would have adventured with Polly Dill, for instance, he was
guiltless. He respected her youth and ignorance of life too deeply to
take advantage of either. He thought, perhaps, how ungenerous it would
have been for a man of the world like himself to entrap the affections
of a young, artless creature, almost a child in her innocence. He was
rather fond of imagining himself “a man of the world,” old soldier, and
what not,--a delusion which somehow very rarely befalls any but very
young men, and of which the experience of life from thirty to forty is
the sovereign remedy. And so overwhelmed and confused and addled was he
with a variety of sensations, he heard very little of what Miss Dinah
said to him, though that worthy lady talked very fluently and very well,
concluding at last with words which awoke Conyers from his half-trance
with a sort of shock. “It is for these reasons, my dear Mr.
Conyers,--reasons whose force and nature you will not dispute,--that I
am forced to do what, were the occasion less important, would be a most
ungenerous task. I mean, I am forced to relinquish all the pleasure that
I had promised ourselves from seeing you our guest at the cottage. If
you but knew the pain I feel to speak these words--”
“There is no occasion to say more, madam,” said he; for, unfortunately,
so unprepared was he for the announcement, its chief effect was to
wound his pride. “It is the second time within a few months destiny has
stopped my step on your threshold. It only remains for me to submit to
my fate, and not adventure upon an enterprise above my means.”
“You are offended with me, and yet you ought not,” said she,
sorrowfully; “you ought to feel that I am consulting _your_ interests
fully as much as ours.”
“I own, madam,” said he, coldly, “I am unable to take the view you have
placed before me.”
“Must I speak out, then?--must I declare my meaning in all its
matter-of-fact harshness, and say that your family and your friends
would have little scruple in estimating the discretion which encouraged
your intimacy with my niece,--the son of the distinguished and
highly favored General Conyers with the daughter of the ruined George
Barring-ton? These are hard words to say, but I have said them.”
“It is to my father you are unjust now, Miss Harrington.”
“No, Mr. Conyers; there is no injustice in believing that a father loves
his son with a love so large that it cannot exclude even worldliness.
There is no injustice in believing that a proud and successful man
would desire to see his son successful too; and we all know what we call
success. I see you are very angry with me. You think me very worldly
and very small-minded; perhaps, too, you would like to say that all the
perils I talk of are of my own inventing; that Fifine and you could be
the best of friends, and never think of more than friendship; and that
I might spare my anxieties, and not fret for sorrows that have no
existence;--and to all this I would answer, I 'll not risk the chance.
No, Mr. Conyers, I 'll be no party to a game where the stakes are so
unequal. What might give _you_ a month's sorrow might cost _her_ the
misery of a life long.”
“I have no choice left me. I will go,--I will go to-night, Miss
Barrington.”
“Perhaps it would be better,” said she, gravely, and walked slowly away.
I will not tell the reader what harsh and cruel things Conyers said of
every one and everything, nor how severely he railed at the world and
its ways. Lord Byron had taught the youth of that age a very hearty
and wholesome contempt for all manner of conventionalities, into which
category a vast number of excellent customs were included, and Conyers
could spout “Manfred” by heart, and imagine himself, on very small
provocation, almost as great a man-hater; and so he set off on a long
walk into the forest, determined not to appear at dinner, and equally
determined to be the cause of much inquiry, and, if possible, of some
uneasiness. “I wonder what that old-maid,”--alas for his gallantry,
it was so he called her,--“what she would say if her harsh, ungenerous
words had driven me to--” what he did not precisely define, though
it was doubtless associated with snow peaks and avalanches, eternal
solitudes and demoniac possessions. It might, indeed, have been some
solace to him had he known how miserable and anxious old Peter became at
his absence, and how incessantly he questioned every one about him.
“I hope that no mishap has befallen that boy, Dinah; he was always
punctual. I never knew him stray away in this fashion before.”
“It would be rather a severe durance, brother Peter, if a young
gentleman could not prolong his evening walk without permission.”
“What says Fifine? I suspect she agrees with me.”
“If that means that he ought to be here, grandpapa, I do.”
“I must read over Withering's letter again, brother,” said Miss Dinah,
by way of changing the subject “He writes, you say, from the Home?”
“Yes; he was obliged to go down there to search for some papers he
wanted, and he took Stapylton with him; and he says they had two capital
days at the partridges. They bagged,--egad! I think it was eight or ten
brace before two o'clock, the Captain or Major, I forget which, being a
first-rate shot.”
“What does he say of the place,--how is it looking?”
“In perfect beauty. Your deputy, Polly, would seem to have fulfilled
her part admirably. The garden in prime order; and that little spot next
your own sitting-room, he says, is positively a better flower-show than
one he paid a shilling to see in Dublin. Polly herself, too, comes in
for a very warm share of his admiration.”
“How did he see her, and where?”
“At the Home. She was there the evening they arrived, and Withering
insisted on her presiding at the tea-table for them.”
“It did not require very extraordinary entreaty, I will make bold to
say, Peter.”
“He does not mention that; he only speaks of her good looks, and what
he calls her very pretty manners. In a situation not devoid of a certain
awkwardness he says she displayed the most perfect tact; and although
doing the honors of the house, she, with some very nice ingenuity,
insinuated that she was herself but a visitor.”
“She could scarce have forgotten herself so far as to think anything
else, Peter,” said Miss Dinah, bridling up. “I suspect her very pretty
manners were successfully exercised. That old gentleman is exactly of
the age to be fascinated by her.”
“What! Withering, Dinah,--do you mean Withering?” cried he, laughing.
“I do, brother; and I say that he is quite capable of making her the
offer of his hand. You may laugh, Peter Barrington, but my observation
of young ladies has been closer and finer than yours.” And the
glance she gave at Josephine seemed to say that her gun had been
double-shotted.
“But your remark, sister Dinah, rather addresses itself to old gentlemen
than to young ladies.”
“Who are much the more easily read of the two,” said she, tartly. “But
really, Peter, I will own that I am more deeply concerned to know
what Mr. Withering has to say of our lawsuit than about Polly Dill's
attractions.”
“He speaks very hopefully,--very hopefully, indeed. In turning over
George's papers some Hindoo documents have come to light, which
Stapylton has translated, and it appears that there is a certain
Moonshee, called Jokeeram, who was, or is, in the service of Meer
Rustum, whose testimony would avail us much. Stapylton inclines to think
he could trace this man for us. His own relations are principally in
Madras, but he says he could manage to institute inquiries in Bengal.”
“What is our claim to this gentleman's interest for us, Peter?”
“Mere kindness on his part; he never knew George, except from hearsay.
Indeed, they could not have been contemporaries. Stapylton is not, I
should say, above five-and-thirty.”
“The search after this creature with the horrid name will be, of course,
costly, brother Peter. It means, I take it, sending some one out to
India; that is to say, sending one fool after another. Are you prepared
for this expense?”
“Withering opines it would be money well spent. What he says is this:
The Company will not willingly risk another inquiry before Parliament,
and if we show fight and a firm resolve to give the case publicity, they
will probably propose terms. This Moonshee had been in his service,
but was dismissed, and his appearance as a witness on our side would
occasion great uneasiness.”
“You are going to play a game of brag, then, brother Peter, well aware
that the stronger purse is with your antagonist?”
“Not exactly, Dinah; not exactly. We are strengthening our position so
far that we may say, 'You see our order of battle; would it not be as
well to make peace?' Listen to what Withering says.” And Peter opened a
letter of several sheets, and sought out the place he wanted.
“Here it is, Dinah. 'From one of these Hindoo papers we learn that Ram
Shamsoolah Sing was not at the Meer's residence during the feast of the
Rhamadan, and could not possibly have signed the document to which his
name and seal are appended. Jokeeram, who was himself the Moon-shee
interpreter in Luckerabad, writes to his friend Cossien Aga, and
says--'”
“Brother Peter, this is like the Arabian Nights in all but the
entertainment to me, and the jumble of these abominable names only
drives me mad. If you flatter yourself that you can understand
one particle of the matter, it must be that age has sharpened your
faculties, that's all.”
“I'm not quite sure of that, Dinah,” said he, laughing. “I 'm half
disposed to believe that years are not more merciful to our brains than
to our ankles; but I'll go and take a stroll in the shady alleys under
the linden-trees, and who knows how bright it will make me!”
“Am I to go with you, grandpapa?” said the young girl, rising.
“No, Fifine; I have something to say to you here,” said Miss Dinah; and
there was a significance in the tone that was anything but reassuring.