* * * * *
The reader is now to be informed that Miss Cowley’s pen was for more
than a month suspended by a visit which Miss Hardcastle and Miss Howard
made at the Abbey. The termination of Miss Cowley’s minority, as
settled by law, put her into possession of her grandmother’s fortune;
and counsellor Steadman was induced, partly with a view to that
business, and partly to consult his fair client in respect to a letter
written by Mr. Flamall on the subject of his nephew’s secret marriage,
to pay her a short visit. The young ladies were therefore conducted
by him to Mr. Wilson’s; and their escort home was the counsellor’s
friend, whose house at Bishop’s Auckland was his abode during his stay.
It appears that Mr. Flamall acknowledged that the restrictive clauses
in Mr. Cowley’s will relative to his daughter’s marrying M. Philip
Flint were rendered null and void by the impossibility of her acceding
to the conditions; but he insisted on his right to the exercise of his
office not only as this related to the management of her property, but
also to her choice of a husband. With many law arguments he proved that
Miss Cowley could not marry without his consent till she had attained
her twenty-fifth year, without incurring the disability declared in
her father’s will for her unconditional possession of his property.
“You, Sir,” continues he, “will, as a professional man, see, that,
were I more disposed than I am to forego a trust committed to me by a
friend whom I still revere, the law would oblige me to do my duty.
Were it not so, believe me I would cheerfully relinquish an office
which neither suits my health nor gratifies my feelings. I am not
ignorant of Miss Cowley’s unjust suspicions of my _honour_, nor of the
prejudicies she has infused into the minds of her friends. My conduct
shall be a full refutation of the charges she has brought against me;
charges which originated from the disappointment of her romantic views;
and from too implicit a confidence in those to whose care she had been
incautiously trusted.” He next entered into the detail of his nephew’s
ingratitude, &c. but as the reader is prepared for this subject and,
it may be, disposed in favour of youthful indiscretion, rather than
to sympathise in Mr. Flamal’s mortifications, I shall pass over this
part of the letter, which concludes with mentioning his intention of
conducting the two young Cowleys to England in the following spring,
in order to place them in a more suitable situation, than with their
mother, at Mr. Dalrymple’s.
Miss Cowley’s friends still adhered to their first opinion, and Mr.
Flamall was suffered to remain in his post without other marks of
distrust than such as the counsellor’s vigilance and the attention of
Miss Cowley’s friend, Mr. Oliver Flint, gave to his mode of conduct.
But Mr. Flamall wanted not for acuteness; and, foiled in his ambition,
he thought it prudent to secure a safe retreat. Fortunately for
himself, as well as for Miss Cowley’s interest, he found for once,
that “honesty was the best policy:” that by employing his talents
and his diligence for the benefit of the estates he might succeed in
gaining a good report, and the continuance of an employment which was
advantageous and respectable.
Sir Murdoch during this term of jubilee, as it might be called at
Tarefield, found other faces to admire as well as Miss Cowley’s. His
contentment rose to cheerfulness, and in the enjoyment of a society
whose attention and solicitude were given to please and amuse him, he
so entirely gained the advantage over his habits of retirement and his
dejection of mind, that in Miss Cowley’s words, “she had ceased to love
him, for he had the nerves and activity of a fox-hunter.” Miss Flint’s
declining health and spirits were the two ostensible apologies for Lady
Maclairn’s taking no part in these hours of cheerfulness and social
ease. She succeeded in her request that Miss Hardcastle would divide
her time between the Abbey and the Hall; and Lucy, with a candour
and gentleness so peculiarly her own, was not only charmed with her,
but with unceasing labour endeavoured to remove from her friend the
prejudices she entertained to her disadvantage. Mrs. Allen, ever on
the side of charity, took up Miss Hardcastle’s arguments; and Miss
Cowley, with her natural frankness, acknowledged that her being Mr.
Flamall’s sister might have biassed her judgment. Some steps were taken
to produce a reconciliation between the captain and Miss Flint: these
were made without his knowledge, for Miss Flint refused to see her
niece; and Lady Maclairn judged it improper to urge her request; as it
appeared the subject distressed her, and increased her melancholy.
The departure of the young ladies in the beginning of June, again
leaves me to my allotted task; and my readers to the gratification of
their curiosity.