LADY DARRELL'S WILL.
Two years passed away, and Sir Vane St. Lawrence's circumstances were
rapidly improving; his letters were constant and cheerful--he spoke
always of the time when he should come home and claim Pauline for his
wife. She only sighed as she read the hopeful words, for she had
resolved that duty should be her watchword while Lady Darrell
lived--even should that frail, feeble life last for fifty years, she
would never leave her.
There came to her chill doubts and fears, dim, vague forebodings that
she should never see Vane again--that their last parting was for ever;
not that she doubted him, but that it seemed hopeless to think he would
wait until her hair was gray, and the light of her youth had left her.
Never mind--she had done her duty; she had sinned, but she had made the
noblest atonement possible for her sin.
Two years had passed, and the summer was drawing to a close. To those
who loved and tended her it seemed that Lady Darrell's life was closing
with it. Even Lady Hampton had ceased to speak hopefully, and Darrell
Court was gloomy with the shadow of the angel of death.
There came an evening when earth was very lovely--when the gold of the
setting sun, the breath of the western wind, the fragrance of the
flowers, the ripple of the fountains, the song of the birds, were all
beautiful beyond words to tell; and Lady Darrell, who had lain watching
the smiling summer heavens, said:
"I should like once more to see the sun set, Pauline. I should like to
sit at the window, and watch the moon rise."
"So you shall," responded Pauline. "You are a fairy queen. You have but
to wish, and the wish is granted."
Lady Darrell smiled--no one ever made her smile except Pauline; but the
fulfillment of the wish was not so easy after all. Lady Hampton's
foreboding was realized. Lady Darrell might have recovered from her
long, serious illness but that her mother's complaint, the deadly
inheritance of consumption, had seized upon her, and was gradually
destroying her.
It was no easy matter now to dress the wasted figure; but Pauline seemed
to have the strength, the energy of twenty nurses. She was always
willing, always cheerful, always ready; night and day seemed alike to
her; she would look at her hands, and say:
"Oh! Elinor, I wish I could give you one-half my strength--one-half my
life!"
"Do you? Pauline, if you could give me half your life, would you do
so?"
"As willingly as I am now speaking to you," she would answer.
They dressed the poor lady, whose delicate beauty had faded like some
summer flower. She sat at the window in a soft nest of cushions which
Pauline had prepared for her, her wasted hands folded, her worn face
brightened with the summer sunshine. She was very silent and thoughtful
for some time, and then Pauline, fearing that she was dull, knelt in the
fashion that was usual to her at Lady Darrell's feet, and held the
wasted hands in hers.
"What are you thinking about, Elinor?" Pauline asked. "Something as
bright as the sunshine?"
Lady Darrell smiled.
"I was just fancying to myself that every blossom of that white magnolia
seemed like a finger beckoning me away," she said; "and I was thinking
also how full of mistakes life is, and how plainly they can be seen when
we come to die."
Pauline kissed the thin fingers. Lady Darrell went on.
"I can see my own great mistake, Pauline. I should not have married Sir
Oswald. I had no love for him--not the least in the world; I married him
only for position and fortune. I should have taken your warning, and not
have come between your uncle and you. His resentment would have died
away, for I am quite sure that in his heart he loved you; he would have
forgiven you, and I should have had a happier, longer life. That was my
mistake--my one great mistake. Another was that I had a certain kind of
doubt about poor Aubrey. I cannot explain it; but I know that I doubted
him even when I loved him, and I should have waited some time before
placing the whole happiness of my life in his hands. Yet it seems hard
to pay for those mistakes with my life, does it not?"
And Pauline, to whom all sweet and womanly tenderness seemed to come by
instinct, soothed Lady Darrell with loving words until she smiled again.
"Pauline," she said, suddenly, "I wish to communicate something to you.
I wish to tell you that I have made my will, and have left Darrell Court
to you, together with all the fortune Sir Oswald left me. I took your
inheritance from you once, dear; now I restore it to you. I have left my
aunt, Lady Hampton, a thousand a year; you will not mind that--it comes
back to you at her death."
"I do not deserve your kindness," said Pauline, gravely.
"Yes, you do; and you will do better with your uncle's wealth than I
have done. I have only been dead in life. My heart was broken--and I
have had no strength, no energy. I have done literally nothing; but you
will act differently, Pauline--you are a true Darrell, and you will keep
up the true traditions of your race. In my poor, feeble hands they have
all fallen through. If Sir Vane returns, you will marry him; and, oh! my
darling, I wish you a happy life. As for me, I shall never see the sun
set again."
The feeble voice died away in a tempest of tears; and Pauline,
frightened, made haste to speak of something else to change the current
of her thoughts.
But Lady Darrell was right. She never saw the sun set or the moon rise
again--the frail life ended gently as a child falls asleep. She died the
next day, when the sun was shining its brightest at noon; and her death
was so calm that they thought it sleep.
She was buried, not in the Darrell vault, but, by Pauline's desire, in
the pretty cemetery at Audleigh Royal. Her death proved no shock, for
every one had expected it. Universal sympathy and kindness followed her
to her grave. The short life was ended, and its annals were written in
sand.
Lady Hampton had given way; her old dislike of Pauline had changed into
deep admiration of her sweet, womanly virtues, her graceful humility.
"If any one had ever told me," she said, "that Pauline Darrell would
have turned out as she has, I could not have believed it. The way in
which she devoted herself to my niece was wonderful. I can only say that
in my opinion she deserves Darrell Court."
The legacy made Lady Hampton very happy; it increased her income so
handsomely that she resolved to live no longer at the Elms, but to
return to London, where the happiest part of her life had been spent.
"I shall come to Darrell Court occasionally," she said, "so that you may
not quite forget me;" and Pauline was surprised to find that she felt
nothing save regret at parting with one whom she had disliked with all
the injustice of youth.
A few months afterward came a still greater surprise. The lover from
whom Miss Hastings had been parted in her early youth--who had left
England for Russia long years ago, and whom she had believed
dead--returned to England, and never rested until he had found his lost
love.
In vain the gentle, kind-hearted lady protested that she was too old to
marry--that she had given up all thoughts of love. Mr. Bereton would not
hear of it, and Pauline added her entreaties to his.
"But I cannot leave you, my dear," said Miss Hastings. "You cannot live
all by yourself."
"I shall most probably have to spend my life alone," she replied, "and I
will not have your happiness sacrificed to mine."
Between her lover and her pupil Miss Hastings found all resistance
hopeless. Pauline took a positive delight and pleasure in the
preparations for the marriage, and, in spite of all that Miss Hastings
could say to the contrary, she insisted upon settling a very handsome
income upon her.
There was a tone of sadness in all that Pauline said with reference to
her future which struck Miss Hastings with wonder.
"You never speak of your own marriage," she said, "or your own
future--why is it, Pauline?"
The beautiful face was overshadowed for a moment, and then she replied:
"It is because I have no hope. I had a presentiment when Vane went away,
that I should not see him again. There are some strange thoughts always
haunting me. If I reap as I have sowed, what then?"
"My dear child, no one could do more than you have done. You repented of
your fault, and atoned for it in the best way you were able."
But the lovely face only grew more sad.
"I was so willful, so proud, so scornful. I did not deserve a happy
life. I am trying to forget all the romance and the love, all the poetry
of my youth, and to live only for my duty."
"But Sir Vane will come back," said Miss Hastings.
"I do not know--all hope seemed to die in my heart when he went away.
But let us talk of you and your future without reference to mine."
* * * * *
Miss Hastings was married, and after she had gone away Pauline Darrell
was left alone with her inheritance at last.