Yet even these joys dire jealousy molests,
And blackens each fair image in our breasts.--_Lyttleton_.
Descending to the breakfast room, he found Leslie, as usual, quiet,
cordial, and gentlemanly, beguiling the moments of expectancy with a
newspaper, while his daughter presided at the coffee urn. Leslie
happened to be in a garrulous mood, and talked incessantly about his
former military frontier life, of which, though he had detested it in
the experience, he was very fond in the retrospect. Morton, who had
some acquaintance with such matters, was a tempting auditor, though he
would gladly have exchanged the profuse anecdotes of white-wolf
running and deer shooting for a few moments' conversation with Miss
Edith Leslie. This her father's busy tongue put out of the question;
but Morton consoled himself with the thought that to bask in her
presence was, in itself, no mean privilege.
His cup of nectar, such as it was, was in a few minutes dashed with
gall; for the street door opened without a summons from the bell, a
man's step sounded in the hall, and Horace Vinal came in, with a
bundle of papers in his hand.
Vinal had become of late all-important to his former guardian. He was
his chief business agent, and Leslie was never tired of expatiating on
his talents, energy, application, and elevated character. In short, he
was fast becoming dependent on him, and felt towards him the affection
which a weak and kindly man may feel towards one of far greater force
and capacity, whom he believes sincerely attached to him and devoted
to his interests.
Vinal, as he entered, had the air of a man versed in affairs, and
acquainted both with that vast and various theatre which men call the
world, and with those conventional circles which ladies call the
world. He had been absent for a few days on a mission of business,
from which he had returned the evening before. Leslie received him
with a most warm greeting, and his daughter with a smile of easy
friendship, which was wormwood to the troubled spirit of Morton. The
two rivals--for such, by a common instinct, each felt the other to
be--regarded each other with faces of courtesy and hearts of wrath.
"How came this fellow here?" thought Vinal, as he smilingly grasped
his classmate's hand.
"The devil take him!" thought Morton, as he returned the greeting, but
with a much worse grace.
They seated themselves on opposite sides of the table, while the Helen
who had kindled this covert warfare in their breasts dispensed a cup
of coffee to each in turn.
There was a singular contrast between the adversaries. On the one
side, the self-dependent Vinal, with little health and no other wealth
than his busy and able brain; with thin features, wan cheek, and pale,
firm lip; with piercing observation and rapid judgment;
self-contained, self-controlled, self-confiding. But for his measuring
five feet ten, he might have stood for Dryden's Achitophel:--
"A fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the pygmy body to decay,
And o'er informed the tenement of clay."
On the other side sat the pet of fortune, fondled, if he could have
endured such blandishment, in the very lap of affluence; with a cheek
brown with wind and weather, and an eye which, as he often boasted,
could look the sun in the face. His nature was so happily tempered,
that to the degree of nervous stimulus which engenders, or is
engendered by, an energetic character, he joined an indefinite
capacity both of endurance and enjoyment; and yet the possessor of all
these gifts was just now in a mood of extreme dissatisfaction and
discomfort.
Leslie began to speak with Vinal upon business. Morton snatched the
opportunity to converse with the person most interesting to him. Vinal
glanced at him askance. Each began to hate the other, after his own
fashion. Morton would gladly have come to open rupture, and flung
defiance at his rival; but Vinal was far remote from any wish of the
kind.
Morton remained at the house as long as he in decency could, and then
bade them good morning, execrating Vinal as he went down the steps.
That very afternoon, as he was walking near his cottage in the
country, ruminating on Edith Leslie and Horace Vinal, he raised his
head and saw a lady and gentleman, on horseback, emerging into view
from a wooded bend of the road. A thrill ran through him from head to
foot. They were the two persons of whom he was thinking. He bowed to
Miss Leslie. She replied with a frank bow and smile; and Vinal, as he
passed, made an easy nonchalant gesture of recognition. The jealous
pedestrian turned and looked after them. They had ridden a few rods
when Vinal also turned his head, but, catching Morton's eye, instantly
averted it again. Morton fairly ground his teeth with anger and
vexation. To be jealous was bad enough; but that Vinal should be
conscious of his jealousy, and perhaps triumph in it, goaded him
beyond endurance. He went home, saddled and bridled a horse with his
own hands, mounted, and ranged the country for an hour or two, to get
rid of the vulture that was preying on him. At length he grew more
rational, and was able to reflect that Vinal's riding with Miss Leslie
did not necessarily imply that he stood, in any special sense, within
her favor, since he was the near relative of her mother-in-law, and
had formerly been for years an inmate of her father's house.
On the next day, at a time when he thought that Vinal must be safe in
his office, Morton took heart of grace, and called on Miss Leslie. An
old woman, an ancient dependant of the family, raised, as she would
have phrased it, in the backwoods of Matherton, opened the door.
"Is Miss Leslie at home?"
"No; she was took sick yesterday, very sudden."
"Miss Leslie!" ejaculated the visitor.
"Yes; the doctor says she's goin' to die, sartin; right away, may be."
"What?" gasped Morton.
"It wasn't only this morning we heered on it," said the old Yankee
housekeeper, "and Miss Edith's gone up to Matherton, to tend on her."
"O, you mean Mrs. Leslie."
"Yes; Miss Leslie, Miss Edith's mother-in-law; she never was a well
woman, ever since I've knowed her."
And the old woman closed the door; while Morton walked away, without
knowing in what direction he was moving.