When Emmeline met Lady Adelina at dinner, she had the satisfaction to
find her quite tranquil and easy. As the afternoon proved uncommonly
fine, and Emmeline was never weary of contemplating the scenery which
surrounded them, she willingly consented to Lady Adelina's proposal of
another ramble; that she might see some beautiful cliffs, a little
farther from the house than she had yet been. There, she was pleased to
find, that her fair friend seemed to call off her mind from it's usual
painful occupations to admire the charms, which on one side a very
lovely country, and on the other an extensive sea view, offered to their
sight.
'You cannot imagine, my Emmeline,' said she, 'how exquisitely beautiful
the prospect is from the point of these rocks where we stand, in the
midst of summer; now the sun, more distant, gives it a less glowing and
rich lustre, and reflects not his warm rays on the sea, and on the white
cliffs that hang over it. Here it was, that indulging that melancholy
for which I have too much reason, I made, while my brother was absent
last summer, some lines, which, if it was pleasant to repeat one's own
poetry, I would read to you, as descriptive at once of the scene, and
the state of mind in which I surveyed it.'
Emmeline now earnestly pressing her to gratify the curiosity she had
thus raised, at length prevailed upon her to repeat the following
SONNET
Far on the sands, the low, retiring tide,
In distant murmurs hardly seems to flow,
And o'er the world of waters, blue and wide
The sighing summer wind, forgets to blow.
As sinks the day star in the rosy West,
The silent wave, with rich reflection glows;
Alas! can tranquil nature give _me_ rest,
Or scenes of beauty, soothe me to repose?
Can the soft lustre of the sleeping main,
Yon radient heaven; or all creation's charms,
'Erase the written troubles of the brain,'
Which Memory tortures, and which Guilt alarms?
Or bid a bosom transient quiet prove,
That bleeds with vain remorse, and unextinguish'd love!
The 'season and the scene' were brought by this description full on the
mind of Emmeline; yet she almost immediately repented having pressed
Adelina to repeat to her what seemed to have led her again into her
usual tract of sad reflection. She fell, as usual, into one of her
reveries, and as they walked homewards said very little. The rest of the
evening, however, passed in a sort of mournful tranquillity--Adelina
seemed to feel encreasing pleasure as she gazed on her friend; and
remembering all her goodness, reflected on the happiness of her brother.
But this satisfaction was not of that kind which seeks to express itself
in words; and Emmeline, sensible of great anxiety for her and Godolphin,
(who would, she knew, be cruelly hurt by the relapse which he feared
threatened his sister) and busied in no pleasant conjectures about the
person whom she had seen in the lawn, was in no spirits for
conversation. Nor did her thoughts, when they wandered to other objects
from those immediately before her, bring home much to appease her
anxiety. That nothing had yet been heard of Lord and Lady Westhaven, was
extremely disquieting. She knew not that the Marquis of Montreville had
received a letter for her under cover to him; and that having sent it to
Mr. Crofts in another, in order to be forwarded to her, the latter had
exercised his political talents, and supposing it related to her claims
on Lord Montreville, and probably contained instructions for pursuing
them, and that therefore his Lordship would be but little concerned if
it never reached the place of its destination, he had very composedly
put it into the fire; and undertook, should it be enquired for, to
account for it's failure without suffering the name of Lord Montreville
to be called in question.
The Marquis, tho' his conscience had been so long under the direction of
Sir Richard Crofts that it ought to have acquired insensibility as
callous as his own, yet found it sometimes a very troublesome companion;
and it often spoke to him so severely on the subject of his niece, that
he was more than once on the point of writing to her, to say he was
ready to make her the retribution to which his heart told him she had
the clearest pretensions, and which his fears whispered that a court of
justice would certainly render her.
These qualms and these fears, would inevitably have produced a
restoration of the Mowbray estate to it's owner, had they not been
counteracted by the influence of the Marchioness of Montreville and Sir
Richard Crofts. The Marchioness, now in declining health, felt all the
inefficacy of riches, and all the fallacy of ambition; yet could she not
determine to relinquish one, or to own that the other had but little
power to confer happiness. That Emmeline Mowbray, whom she had despised
and rejected, should suddenly become heiress to a large fortune, and
that of that fortune her own children should be deprived; that Lord
Westhaven should be the instrument to assist her in this hateful
transition, and should interfere for this obscure orphan, against the
interest of the illustrious family into which he had married; stung her
to the soul, and irritated the natural asperity of her temper, already
soured by the repeated defection of Delamere, and her own continual ill
health, till it was grown insupportable to others, and injurious to
herself; since it aggravated all her complaints, and put it out of the
power of medicine to relieve her.
Rather than encrease these maladies by opposition, his Lordship was
content to yield to delay. And while her haughtiness and violence
withheld him on one hand from settling with his niece, Sir Richard
assailed him on the other with cool and plausible arguments; and
together they obliged him to have recourse to such expedients as gained
time, without his having much hope that he could finally detain the
property of his late brother from his daughter, who seemed likely to
establish her right to it's possession.
At once to indulge his avarice and quiet his conscience, he would
willingly have consented to pay her a considerable portion, and to leave
her right to the whole undecided; but of such an accommodation there
seemed no probability, unless he could win over Lord Westhaven to his
interest. He thought, however, that there could be little doubt of his
re-uniting the Mowbray estate with his own, by promoting the marriage
between Emmeline and Lord Delamere, which he had hitherto so strenuously
opposed. But this, he knew, must be the last resort; not only because he
was ashamed so immediately to avow a change of opinion in regard to
Emmeline, which could have happened only from her change of
circumstances, but because the dislike which Lady Montreville had
originally conceived towards her, now amounted to the most determined
and inveterate hatred.
Bent on conversing fully with Lord Westhaven before he took any measures
whatever either to detain or to restore the estate, the Marquis was
desirous of seeing him immediately on his arrival in England, and to
precede any conversation he might hold with Emmeline. For this reason he
kept back all information that related to his son-in-law's return; and
tho' he knew that the indisposition of Lord Delamere and his sister had
kept Lord Westhaven at Paris almost three weeks, and that they were
travelling only twenty miles a day, from thence to Calais, he had
withheld even this intelligence from the anxious Emmeline.
Lady Frances Crofts, never feeling any great disposition to filial
piety, and having lost, in the giddy career of dissipation, the little
sensibility she ever possessed, was soon tired of attending on her
mother at Audley Hall. The fretful impatience or irksome lassitude which
devoured a mind without resources, and weary of itself, in the
melancholy gloom of a sick chamber, soon disgusted and fatigued her; she
therefore left Audley Hall in October, and after staying ten days or a
fortnight in Burlington street, where she made an acquaintance with
Bellozane, she went to pass the months that yet intervened before it was
fashionable to appear in London, at a villa near Richmond; which she had
taken in the summer, and fitted up with every ornament luxury could
invent or money purchase. She retired not thither, however, to court the
sylvan deities: a set of friends of both sexes attended her. Bellozane
was very handsome, very lively, very much a man of fashion: Lady
Frances, who thought him no bad addition to her train, invited him also.
Bellozane became the life of the party; and was soon so much at his ease
in the family, and so great a favourite with her Ladyship, at a very
early period of their acquaintance, that only her high rank there
exempted her from those censures, which, in a less elevated condition,
would have fallen on her, from the grave and sagacious personages who
are so good as to take upon them the regulation of the world.
Crofts, detained by his office in London, heard more than gave him any
pleasure. But like a wise and cautious husband, he forebore to complain.
Besides the fear of his wife, which was no inconsiderable motive to
silence, he had the additional fear of the martial and fierce-looking
French soldier before his eyes; who talked, in very bad English, of such
encounters and exploits as made the cold-blooded politician shudder.
When, on Friday evenings, after the business of his office was over, he
went down to Richmond, he now always found there this foreign Adonis;
and beheld him with mingled hatred and horror, tho' he concealed both
under the appearance of cringing and servile complaisance. And when Lady
Frances compared the narrow-spirited and mean-looking Crofts, with the
handsome, animated, gallant Bellozane, the poor husband felt all the
disadvantages of the comparison, and as certainly suffered for it.
Scorning to dissimulate with a man whom she thought infinitely too
fortunate in being allied to her on any terms, and superior to the
censures of a world, the greater part of whom she considered as beings
of another species from the daughter of the Marquis of Montreville, her
Ladyship grew every day fonder of the Chevalier, and less solicitous to
conceal her partiality. She found, too, her vanity and inordinate self
love gratified, in believing that this elegant foreigner did justice to
her superior attractions, and had been won by them, from that
inclination for Emmeline which had brought him to England. A conquest
snatched from _her_, whom she had always considered at once with envy
and contempt, was doubly delightful; and Bellozane, with all the
volatility of his adopted country, saw nothing disloyal or improper in
returning the kind attentions of Lady Frances, _en attendant_ the
arrival of Emmeline; with whom he was a good deal piqued for her having
left London so abruptly without informing him whither she was gone. He
still preferred her to every other person; but he was not therefore
insensible to the kindness, or blind to the charms of Lady Frances; who
was really very handsome; and who, with a great portion of the beauty
inherited by the Mowbray family, possessed the Juno-like air as well as
the high spirit of her mother. In aid of these natural advantages, every
refinement of art was exhausted; and by those who preferred it's
dazzling effects to the interesting and graceful simplicity of unadorned
beauty, Lady Frances, dressed for the opera, might have been esteemed
more charming, than Emmeline in her modest muslin night gown; or than
the pensive Madona, which, in her widow's dress, was represented by Lady
Adelina.
These two friends, after having passed a calm afternoon together,
retired early to their respective apartments. Emmeline, who had a
repeating watch, given her by Lord Westhaven, wound it up carefully; and
having bolted her chamber door, lay down for a few hours; being sure
that the anxiety she felt would awaken her before the return of that on
which the stranger had appeared the preceding night. Fatigue and long
watching closed her eyes; but her slumber was imperfect; and suddenly
awaking at some fancied noise, she pressed her repeater, and found it
was half past three o'clock.
This was about the time on which the man had appeared the night before;
and tho' she felt some fear, she had yet more curiosity to know whether
he came again. She arose softly, therefore, and went to the window,
which she did not venture to open. But she had no occasion to look
towards the shrubbery to watch the coming of the stranger; he was
already traversing the length of the house, dressed as before; and with
his arms folded, and his head bent towards the ground, he slowly moved
in the same pensive attitude.
Emmeline, tho' now impressed with deeper astonishment, summoned
resolution narrowly to observe his air and figure. Had not his hat
concealed his face, the obscurity would not have allowed her to examine
his features. But tho' the great coat he wore considerably altered the
outline of his person, she still thought she discerned the form of
Fitz-Edward. His height and his walk confirmed this idea; and the longer
she observed him, the more she was persuaded it was Fitz-Edward himself.
This conviction was not unaccompanied by terror. She wished to speak to
him; and to represent the indiscretion, the madness of his thus risking
the reputation of Lady Adelina; and his own life or that of one of her
brothers; while the very idea of Godolphin's resentment and danger
filled her mind with the most alarming apprehensions. She determined
then to open the window and speak to him: yet if it should not be
Fitz-Edward? At length she had collected the courage necessary; and
knowing that tho' the whole family was yet fast asleep she could easily
rouse them, if the person to whom she spoke should not be known to her,
and gave her any reason for alarm, she was on the point of lifting up
the sash, when the stranger put an end to her deliberations by hastily
walking away to his former covert among the shrubs; and she saw him no
more.
Emmeline, wearied alike with watchfulness and uneasiness, now went to
bed; having at length determined to keep Barret (on whose silence and
discretion she could rely) with her the next night; and when the Colonel
appeared (for the Colonel she was sure it was) to send her to him, or at
least make her witness to what she should herself say to him from the
window. The anxiety of her mind made her very low on the early part of
the next day; and Lady Adelina was still more so. They dined, however,
early; and as the evening was clear, and they had not been out in the
morning, Lady Adelina proposed their taking a short walk to the top of
the hill behind the house, which commanded a glorious view that Emmeline
had not seen; but as it was cold, they agreed to leave little William at
home. The grounds of Godolphin behind the house, consisted only of a
small paddock, divided from the kitchen garden by a dwarf wall; and the
copse, which partly cloathed the hill, and thro' which a footpath went
to a village about two miles beyond it. The woody ground ceasing about
half way up, opened to a down which commanded the view. They stood
admiring it a few moments; and then Emmeline, who could not for an
instant help reflecting on what she had seen for two nights, felt
something like alarm at being so far from the house. She complained
therefore that it was cold; and the evening (at this season very short)
was already shutting in.
The wind blew chill and hollow among the half stripped trees, as they
passed thro' the wood; and the dead leaves rustled in the blast. 'Twas
such a night as Ossian might describe. Emmeline recollected the
visionary beings with which his poems abound, and involuntarily she
shuddered. At the gate that opened into the lawn, Lady Adelina stopped
as if she was tired. She was talking of something Godolphin had done;
and Emmeline, who on that subject was never weary of hearing her, turned
round, and they both leaned for a moment against the gate, looking up
the wood walk from which they had just descended. The veil of Lady
Adelina was over her face; but Emmeline, less wrapped up, suddenly saw
the figure which had before visited the garden, descending, in exactly
the same posture, down the pathway, which was rather steep. He seemed
unknowingly to follow it, without looking up; and was soon so near them,
that Emmeline, losing at once her presence of mind, clasped her hands,
and exclaimed--'Good God! who is this?'
'What?' said Lady Adelina, looking towards him.
By this time he was within six paces of the gate; and sprung forward at
the very moment that she knew him, and fell senseless on the ground.
Emmeline, unable to save her, was in a situation but little better.
Fitz-Edward, for it was really himself, knelt down by her, and lifted
her up. But she was without any appearance of life; and he, who had no
intention of rushing thus abruptly into her presence, was too much
agitated to be able to speak.
'Ah! why would you do this, Sir?' said Emmeline in a tremulous voice.
'What can I do with her?' added she. 'Merciful Heaven, what can be done?
How _could_ you be so cruel, so inconsiderate?'
'Don't talk to me,' said he--'don't reproach me! I am not able to bear
it! I suffer too much already! Have you no salts? Have you nothing to
give her?'
Emmeline now with trembling hands searched her pockets for a bottle of
salts which she sometimes carried. She luckily had it; and, in another
pocket, some Hungary water, with which she bathed the temples of her
friend, who still lay apparently dead.
She remained some moments in that situation; and Emmeline had time to
reflect, which she did with the utmost perturbation, on what would be
the consequence of this interview when she recovered her recollection.
She dreaded lest the sight of Fitz-Edward should totally unsettle her
reason. She dreaded lest Godolphin should know he had clandestinely been
there; and she concluded it were better to persuade him to leave them
before the senses of Lady Adelina returned.
'How fearfully long she continues in this fainting fit,' cried she, 'and
yet do I dread seeing her recover from it.'
'You dread it!--and why dread it?'
'Indeed I do. When her recollection returns, it may yet be worse; you
know not how nearly gone her intellects have at times been, and the
least emotion may render her for ever a lunatic.'
'It is the cruelty of her brother,' sternly replied Fitz-Edward, 'that
has driven her to this. His rigid conduct has overwhelmed her spirits
and broken her heart. But _now_, since we _have_ met, we part not till I
hear from herself whether she prefers driving _me_ to desperation, or
quitting, in the character I can now offer her, the cold and barbarous
Godolphin.'
'Do not, ah! pray do not attempt to speak to her now. Let me try to get
her home; and when she is better able to see you, indeed I will send to
you.'
'Can you then suppose I will leave her? But perhaps she is already gone!
She seems to be dead--quite dead and cold!'
Nothing but terror now lent Emmeline strength to continue chafing her
temples and her hands. In another moment or two the blood began to
circulate; and soon after, with a deep sigh, Lady Adelina opened her
eyes.
'For pity's sake,' said Emmeline in a low voice--'for pity's sake do not
speak to her.' Then addressing herself to her, she said--'Lady Adelina,
are you better?'
'Yes.'
'Do you think I can assist you home?'
'She shall not be hurried,' said Fitz-Edward.
'Ah! save me! save me!' exclaimed she, faintly shrieking--'save me!' and
clasping her arms round Emmeline, she attempted to rise.
'Am I then grown so hateful to you,' said Fitz-Edward, as he assisted
and supported her--'that for one poor moment you will not allow me to
approach you. Will no penitence, no sufferings obtain your pity?'
'Take me away, Emmeline!' cried she, in a hurried manner--'ah! take me
quick away! Godolphin will come, he will come indeed.--Let us go
home--go home before he finds us here!'
'It is as I said!' exclaimed Fitz-Edward: 'her brother has terrified her
into madness. But----'
Emmeline, now making an effort to escape falling into a condition as
deplorable as was her friend's, said, with some firmness--'Mr.
Fitz-Edward, I must entreat you to say nothing about her brother. It is
a topic of all others least likely to restore her.'
Adelina still clung to her; and putting away Fitz-Edward with her hand,
laid her head on the shoulder of Emmeline, who said--'I fancy you can
walk. Shall we go towards home?'
Lady Adelina, without speaking, and still motioning with her hand to
Fitz-Edward to leave her, moved on. But so enfeebled was she, that in
the very attempt she had again nearly fallen; Emmeline being infinitely
too much frightened to lend her much assistance.
'She cannot walk,' cried Fitz-Edward, 'yet will not let me support her.
Will _you_, Miss Mowbray, accept my arm; perhaps it may enable you to
guide better the faultering steps of your friend.'
Emmeline thought that at all events it was better to get her into the
house; and therefore taking, in silence, the arm that Fitz-Edward
offered her, she proceeded across the lawn. Lady Adelina appeared to
exert herself. She quickened her pace a little; and they were soon at a
small gate, which opened in a wire fence near the house to keep the
cattle immediately from the windows. Here Emmeline determined to make
another effort on Fitz-Edward to persuade him to leave them.
'Now,' said she, 'we shall do very well. Had you not better quit us?'
He seemed disposed to obey; when Mrs. Barret, who had seen them from the
door, where she had been watching the return of her lady, advanced
hastily towards them, and said to Emmeline--'Dear Ma'am, I am so glad
you and my lady are come in! The Captain is quite frightened at your
being out so late.'
'The Captain!' exclaimed Emmeline.
'Yes, Ma'am, the Captain has been come in about two minutes; he is but
just seeing Master Godolphin, and then was coming out to meet you.'
'Take hold of your lady, Barret,' cried Emmeline. Barret ran forward.
But Lady Adelina (whom the terror of her brother's return at such a
moment had again entirely overcome), was already lifeless in the arms of
Fitz-Edward; and Emmeline, whose first idea was to go in and prevent
Godolphin from coming out to meet them, could get no farther than the
door; where, breathless and almost senseless, she was only prevented
from falling by leaning against one of the pillars.
'Your lady is in a fainting fit, Mrs. Barret,' said Fitz-Edward; 'pray
assist her.'
The woman at once knew his voice, and saw the situation of her lady; and
terrified both by the one and the other, screamed aloud. Godolphin,
caressing his nephew in the parlour, heard not the shriek; but a footman
who was crossing the hall ran out; and flying by Emmeline, ran to the
group beyond her; where, as Mrs. Barret still wildly called for help for
Lady Adelina, he proposed to Fitz-Edward to carry her ladyship into the
house, which they together immediately did.
This was what Emmeline most dreaded. But there was no time for
remonstrance. As they passed her at the door, she put her hand upon
Fitz-Edward's arm, and cried--'Oh! stop! for God's sake stop!'
'Why stop?' said he. 'No! nothing shall now detain me; I am determined,
and _must_ go on!' She saw, indeed, that Godolphin's being in the house
only made him more obstinately bent to enter it.
The door of the parlour now opened; and Godolphin saw, with astonishment
inexpressible, his sister, to all appearance dead, in the arms of
Fitz-Edward; and Emmeline, as pale and almost as lifeless, following
her; who silently, and with fixed eyes, sat down near the door.
'What can be the meaning of this?' exclaimed Godolphin. 'Miss
Mowbray!--my Emmeline!--my Adelina!'
The child, with whom Godolphin had been at play, reached out his little
arms to Lady Adelina, whom they had placed on a sopha. Godolphin sat him
down upon it; and not knowing where to fix his own attention, he looked
wildly, first at his sister, and then at Emmeline; while Fitz-Edward,
totally regardless of him, knelt by the side of Lady Adelina, and
surveyed her and the little boy with an expression impossible to be
described.
'For mercy's sake tell me,' Godolphin, as he took the cold and trembling
hands of Emmeline in his--'for mercy's sake tell me what all this means?
Is my sister, my poor Adelina dead?'
'I hope not!'
'You are yourself almost terrified to death. Your hands tremble. Tell
me, I conjure you tell me, what you have met with, and to what is owing
the extraordinary appearance of Mr. Fitz-Edward here?'
'That, or any farther enquiry Mr. Godolphin has to make, which may
relate to me,' said Fitz-Edward sternly, 'I shall be ready at any other
time to answer; but now it appears more necessary to attend to this dear
injured creature!'
'Injured, Sir!' cried Godolphin, turning angrily towards him--'Do you
come hither to tell me your crimes, or to triumph in their consequence?'
'Oh! for the love of heaven!' said Emmeline, with all the strength she
could collect, 'let this proceed no farther. Consider,' added she,
lowering her voice, 'the servants are in the room. Reflect on the
consequence of what you say.'
'Let every body but Barret go out,' said Godolphin aloud.
The child, whose usual hour of going to rest was already past, had crept
up to his mother, heedless of the people who surrounded her, and had
dropped asleep on her bosom.
'Should I take Master, Sir?' enquired the nursery maid of Godolphin.
'Leave him!' answered he, fiercely.
Excess of terror now operated to restore, in some measure, to Emmeline
the presence of mind it had deprived her of. She found it absolutely
necessary to exert herself; and advancing towards Lady Adelina, by whose
side Fitz-Edward still knelt, she took one of her hands--'I hope,' said
she to Barret, your lady is coming to; she is less pale, and her pulse
is returning. Colonel Fitz-Edward, would it not be better for you now to
leave us?'
'I must first speak to Lady Adelina.'
'Impossible! you cannot speak to her to-night.'
'Nor can I leave her, Madam, unless she herself dismisses me.--Leave
her, thus weak and languid, to meet perhaps on my account reproach and
unkindness!'
'Reproach and unkindness! Mr. Fitz-Edward,' said Godolphin, in a
passionate tone--'Reproach and unkindness! Do me the favour to say from
whom you apprehend she may receive such treatment?'
'From the cruel and unrelenting brother, who has persisted in wishing
to divide us, even after heaven itself has removed the barrier between
us.'
'Sir,' replied Godolphin, with a stern calmness--'in this house, and in
Miss Mowbray's presence, _you_ may say any thing with impunity, and _I_
may bear this language even from the faithless destroyer of my sister.'
Fitz-Edward now starting from his knees, looked the defiance he was
about to utter, when Lady Adelina drew a deep and loud sigh, and Barret
exclaimed--'For God's sake, gentlemen, do not go on with these high
words. My lady is coming to; but this sort of discourse will throw her
again into her fits worse than ever. Pray let me entreat of you both to
be pacified.'
'I insist upon it,' said Emmeline, 'that you are calm, or it will not be
in my power to stay. I must leave you, indeed I must, Mr. Godolphin! if
you would not see _me_ expire with terror, and entirely kill your
sister, you must be cool.' She was indeed again deprived nearly of her
breath and recollection by the fear of their instantly flying to
extremities.
Lady Adelina now opened her eyes and looked round her. But there was
wildness and horror in them; and she seemed rather to see the objects,
than to have any idea of who were with her.
The child, however, was always present to her. 'My dear boy here?' cried
she, faintly; 'poor fellow, he is asleep!'
'Shall I take him from you, Ma'am?' asked her woman.
'Oh! no! I will put him to bed myself.' She then again reposed her head
as if fatigued, and sighed. 'Twas all,' said she, 'long foreseen. But
destiny, they say, must be fulfilled, and fate will have it's way. I
wish I had not been the cause of his death, however.'
'Of whose death, dear Madam?' said Barret. 'Nobody is dead; nobody
indeed.'
'Did I not hear him groan, and see him die? did not he tell me, I know
not what, of my Lord Westhaven? I shall remember it all distinctly
to-morrow!'
She now rested again, profoundly sighing; and Emmeline beckoning to
Fitz-Edward and Godolphin, took them to the other end of the room, where
the arm of the sopha she reclined on concealed them from her view.
'Pray,' said she, addressing herself to them both, 'pray leave her.'
Then recollecting that she dared not trust them together, she
added--'No, don't both go at once. But indeed it is absolutely
necessary to have her kept quite quiet and got to bed as soon as
possible.'
'I believe it is,' answered Godolphin. 'Poor Adelina! her dreadful
malady is returned.'
'It is indeed,' said Emmeline. 'I have seen it too evidently approaching
for some days; and this last shock'--she stopped, and repented she had
said so much.
'Mr. Fitz-Edward,' cried Godolphin, 'will you walk with me into another
room?'
'Certainly.'
'Oh! no! no!' exclaimed Emmeline with quickness.
They were going out together; but taking an arm of each, she eagerly
repeated 'oh! no! no! not together!'
The imagination of Lady Adelina was now totally disordered. She had
risen; and carrying the child in her arms, walked towards her brother,
who in traversing the apartment with uneasy steps was by this time near
the door; while Fitz-Edward was at the other end of the room, where
Emmeline was trying to persuade him to quit the house.
Lady Adelina, supported by her maid, and trembling under the weight of
the infant she clasped to her bosom, stepped along as quickly as her
weakness would allow; and putting her hand on Godolphin's arm, she
cried, in a slow and tremulous manner--'Stay, William! I have something
to say to you before you go. Lord Westhaven, you know, is coming; and
you have promised that he shall not kill _me_. I may however die; and I
rather believe I shall; for since this last sight I am strangely ill.
You and Emmeline will take care of my poor boy, will ye not? Had
Fitz-Edward lived--nay do not look so angry, for now he cannot offend
you--had poor Fitz-Edward lived, he would perhaps have taken him. But
now, I must depend on Emmeline, who has promised to be good to him. They
say she will have a great fortune too, and therefore I need not fear
that you will find my child burthensome.'
'Burthensome!' cried Godolphin. 'Good God, Adelina!'
'Well! well! be not offended. Only you know, when people come to have a
family of their own, the child of another may be reckoned an
incumbrance. I know that now you love my William dearly; but then, you
know, it will be another thing.'
'Gracious heaven!' exclaimed Godolphin, 'what can have made her talk in
this manner?'
'Reason in madness!' said Fitz-Edward, advancing towards her. 'Her son,
however, shall be an incumbrance to nobody.'
Emmeline now grasping his hand, implored him not to speak to her. Lady
Adelina neither heard or noticed him: but again addressing herself to
her brother, said, with a mournful sigh--'And now, since I have told you
what was upon my mind, I will go put my little boy to bed. Good night to
you, dear William! You and Miss Mowbray will remember!----' She then
walked out of the room, and calmly took the way to her own, attended by
her maid.
Emmeline, not daring to leave together these two ardent spirits
irritated against each other, remained, trembling, with them; hoping by
her presence to prevent their animosity from blazing forth, and to
prevail upon them to part. They both continued for some time to traverse
the room in gloomy silence. At length Fitz-Edward stopped, and said--'At
what hour to-morrow, Sir, may I have the honour of some conversation
with you?'
'At whatever hour you please, Sir--the earlier, however, the more
agreeable.'
'At seven o'clock, Sir, I will be with you.'
'If you please; at that hour I will be ready to receive your commands.'
Fitz-Edward then took his hat, and bowing to Emmeline, wished her a good
night, and left the room. Starting from her chair, she followed him into
the hall, and shut the parlour door after her.
'Fitz-Edward,' cried she, detaining him, and speaking in an half
whisper--'Fitz-Edward, hear me! Do you design to kill me?'
'To kill you?' replied he. 'No surely.'
'Then do not go till you have heard me.'
'It is unpleasant to me to stay in Godolphin's house after what has just
passed. But as you please.'
She led him into a little breakfast room; and regardless of being
without light, shut the door.
'Tell me,' said she, 'before I die with terror--tell me with what
intention you come to-morrow?'
'Simply to have a positive answer from Mr. Godolphin, if he will,
together with his brother, allow me, when the usual mourning is over, to
address their sister with proposals of marriage; which in fact they have
no right to prevent. And if Mr. Godolphin refuses----'
'What, if he refuses?'
'I shall take my son into my own care, and wait till Lady Adelina will
herself exert that freedom which is now her's.'
'Godolphin doats on the child. Nothing, I am persuaded, will induce him
to part with it.'
'Not part with it? He must, nay he _shall_!'
'Pray be calm--pray be quiet. Stay yet a few months--a few weeks.'
'Not a day! Not an hour!'
'Good God! what _can_ be done? Mischief will inevitably happen!'
'I am sorry,' replied Fitz-Edward, 'that you are thus made uneasy. But I
cannot recede; and my life has not been pleasant enough lately to make
me very solicitous about the event of my explanation with Mr. Godolphin.
Conscious, however, that he has some reason to complain of me, I do not
wish to increase it. I mean to keep _my_ temper, _if I can_: but if he
suffers _his_ to pass the bounds which one gentleman must observe
towards another, I shall not consider myself as the aggressor, or as
answerable for the consequences.'
'But why, oh! why would you come hither? Wherefore traverse the garden
of a night, and suffer appearances to be so much against you, and what
is yet worse, against Lady Adelina?'
'Who told you I have done so--Godolphin?'
'No. He was, you well know, absent. But I saw you myself; with terror I
saw you, and meditated how to speak to you alone, when our unhappy
meeting in the wood this evening put an end to all my contrivances.'
'Yet I had no intention of terrifying you, or of abruptly rushing into
the presence of Adelina. It is true, that for some nights past I have
walked under the window where she and my child sleep: for _I_ could not
sleep; and it was a sort of melancholy enjoyment to me to be near the
spot which held all I have dear on earth. As I pass at the ale house
where I lodge as a person hiding in this island from the pursuit of
creditors, my desire of concealment did not appear extraordinary. I have
often lingered among the rocks and copses, and seen Adelina and my child
with you. Last night I came out in the dusk, and was approaching, to
conceal myself near the house, in hopes, that as you love walking late,
and alone, I might have found an opportunity of speaking to you, and of
concerting with _you_ the means of introducing myself to _her_ without
too great an alarm.'
'Would to heaven you had! But now, since all this has happened, consent
to put off this meeting with Godolphin. Do not meet, at least,
to-morrow! I entreat that you will not!'
'On all subjects but this,' said he, as he opened the door--'on all
subjects but this, Miss Mowbray knows she may command me. But this is a
point from which I cannot, without infamy, recede; and in which she must
forgive me, if all my veneration and esteem for her goodness and
tenderness does not induce me to desist.'
He then went into the hall; and by the lamp which burnt there, opened
himself the door into the garden, and hastily walked away. While the
trembling and harrassed Emmeline, finding him inflexible, went back to
Godolphin, with very little hopes that she should, with him, have better
success.