Emilia was in skilful hands, and against anything less powerful than a
lover mounted upon Hippogriff, might have been shielded. What is poison
to most girls, Merthyr prescribed for her as medicine. He nourished her
fainting spirit upon vanity. In silent astonishment Georgiana heard him
address speeches to her such as dowagers who have seen their day
can alone of womankind complacently swallow. He encouraged Tracy
Runningbrook to praise the face of which she had hitherto thought shyly.
Jewels were placed at her disposal, and dresses laid out cunningly
suited to her complexion. She had a maid to wait on her, who gabbled at
the momentous hours of robing and unrobing: “Oh, miss! of all the dark
young ladies I ever see!”--Emilia was the most bewitching. By-and-by,
Emilia was led to think of herself; but with a struggle and under
protest. How could it be possible that she was so very nice to the
eye, and Wilfrid had abandoned her? The healthy spin of young new blood
turned the wheels of her brain, and then she thought: “Perhaps I am
really growing handsome?” The maid said artfully of her hair: “If
gentlemen could only see it down, miss! It's the longest, and thickest,
and blackest, I ever touched!” And so saying, slid her fingers softly
through it after the comb, and thrilled the owner of that hair till soft
thoughts made her bosom heave, and then self-love began to be sensibly
awakened, followed by self-pity, and some further form of what we
understand as consciousness. If partially a degradation of her nature,
this saved her mind from true despair when it began to stir after the
vital shock that had brought her to earth. “To what purpose should I be
fair?” was a question that did not yet come to her; but it was sweet
to see Merthyr's eyes gather pleasure from the light of her own. Sweet,
though nothing more than coldly sweet. She compared herself to her
father's old broken violin, that might be mended to please the sight;
but would never give the tones again. Sometimes, if hope tormented her,
she would strangle it by trying her voice: and such a little piece of
self-inflicted anguish speedily undid all Merthyr's work. He was patient
as one who tends a flower in the Spring. Georgiana marvelled that the
most sensitive and proud of men should be striving to uproot an image
from the heart of a simple girl, that he might place his own there. His
methods almost led her to think that his estimate of human nature was
falling low. Nevertheless, she was constrained to admit that there was
no diminution of his love for her, and it chastened her to think so.
“Would it be the same with me, if I--?” she half framed the sentence,
blushing remorsefully while she denied that anything could change
her great love for her brother. She had caught a glimpse of Wilfrid's
suppleness and selfishness. Contrasting him with Merthyr, she was
singularly smitten with shame, she knew not why.
The anticipation of the ball at Penarvon Castle had kindled very little
curiosity in Emilia's bosom. She seemed to herself a machine; “one
of the rest;” and looked more to see that she was still coveted by
Merthyr's eyes than at the glitter of the humming saloons. A touch
of her old gladness made her smile when Captain Gambier unexpectedly
appeared and walked across the dancers to sit beside her. She asked him
why he had come from London: to which he replied, with a most expressive
gaze under her eyelids, that he had come for one object. “To see me?”
thought Emilia, wondering, and reddening as she ceased to wonder.
She had thought as a child, and the neat instant felt as a woman. He
finished Merthyr's work for him. Emilia now thought: “Then I must be
worth something.” And with “I am,” she ended her meditation, glowing.
He might have said that she had all beauty ever showered upon woman: she
would have been led to believe him at that moment of her revival.
Now, Lady Charlotte had written to Georgiana, telling her that Captain
Gambier was soon to be expected in her neighbourhood, and adding that it
would be as well if she looked closely after her charge. When Georgiana
saw him go over to Emilia she did not remember this warning: but when
she perceived the sudden brilliancy and softness in Emilia's face after
the first words had fallen on her ears, she grew alarmed, knowing his
reputation, and executed some diversions, which separated them. The
captain made no effort to perplex her tactics, merely saying that he
should call in a day or two. Merthyr took to himself all the credit of
the visible bloom that had come upon Emilia, and pacing with her between
the dances, said: “Now you will come to Italy, I think.”
She paused before answering, “Now?” and feverishly continued: “Yes; at
once. I will go. I have almost felt my voice again to-night.”
“That's well. I shall write to Marini to-morrow. You will soon find your
voice if you will not fret for it. Touch Italy!”
“Yes; but you must be near me,” said Emilia.
Georgiana heard this, and could not conceive other than that Emilia was
growing to be one of those cormorant creatures who feed alike on the
homage of noble and ignoble. She was critical, too, of that very assured
pose of Emilia's head and firm planting of her feet as the girl paraded
the room after the dances in which she could not join. Previous to this
evening, Georgiana had seen nothing of the sort in her; but, on the
contrary, a doubtful droop of the shoulders and an unwilling gaze, as of
a soul submerged in internal hesitations. “I earnestly trust that this
is a romantic folly of Merthyr's, and no more,” thought Georgiana, who
would have had that view concerning his love for Italy likewise,
if recollection of her own share of adventure there had not softly
interposed.
Tracy, Georgiana, Merthyr, and Emilia were in the carriage, well muffled
up, with one window open to the white mist. Emilia was eager to
thank her friend, if only for the physical relief from weariness and
sluggishness which she was experiencing. She knew certainly that the dim
light of a recovering confidence in herself was owing, all, to him, and
burned to thank him. Once on the way their hands touched, and he felt
a shy pressure from her fingers as they parted. Presently the carriage
stopped abruptly, and listening they heard the coachman indulge his
companion outside with the remark that they were a couple of fools, and
were now regularly 'dished.'
“I don't see why that observation can't go on wheels,” said Tracy.
Merthyr put out his head, and saw the obstruction of the mass of stone
across the road. He alighted, and together with the footman, examined
the place to see what the chance was of their getting the carriage past.
After a space of waiting, Georgiana clutched the wraps about her throat
and head, and impetuously followed her brother, as her habit had always
been. Emilia sat upright, saying, “I must go too.” Tracy moaned
a petition to her to rest and be comfortable while the Gods were
propitious. He checked her with his arm, and tried to pacify her by
giving a description of the scene. The coachman remained on his seat.
Merthyr, Georgiana, and the footman were on the other side of the rock,
measuring the place to see whether, by a partial ascent of the sloping
rubble down which it had bowled, the carriage might be got along.
“Go; they have gone round; see whether we can give any help,” said
Emilia to Tracy, who cried: “My goodness! what help can we give? This is
an express situation where the Fates always appear in person and move us
on. We're sure to be moved, if we show proper faith in them. This is my
attitude of invocation.” He curled his legs up on the seat, resting his
head on an arm; but seeing Emilia preparing for a jump he started up,
and immediately preceded her. Emilia looked out after him. She perceived
a figure coming stealthily from the bank. It stopped, and again
advanced, and now ran swiftly down. She drew back her head as it
approached the open door of the carriage; but the next moment trembled
forward, and was caught with a cat-like clutch upon Wilfrid's breast.
“Emilia! my own for ever! I swore to die this night it I did not see
you!”
“You love me, Wilfrid? love me?”
“Come with me now!”
“Now?”
“Away! with me! your lover!”
“Then you love me!
“I love you! Come!”
“Now? I cannot move.”
“I am out in the night without you.”
“Oh, my lover! Oh, Wilfrid!”
“Come to me!”
“My feet are dead!”
“It's too late!”
A sturdy hulloa! sounding from the coachman made Merthyr's ears alive.
When he returned he found Emilia huddled up on the seat, alone, her face
in her hands, and the touch of her hands like fire. He had to entreat
her to descend, and in helping her to alight bore her whole weight,
and supported her in a sad wonder, while the horses were led across
the rubble, and the carriage was with difficulty, and some confusions,
guided to clear its wheels of the obstructing mass. Emilia persisted in
saying that nothing ailed her; and to the coachman, who could have told
him something, and was willing to have done so (notwithstanding a gold
fee for silence that stuck in his palm), Merthyr put no question.
As they were taking their seats in the carriage again, Georgiana said,
“Where is your wreath, Sandra?”
The black-briony wreath was no longer on her head.
“Then, it wasn't a dream!” gasped Emilia, feeling at her temples.
Georgiana at once fell into a scrutinizing coldness, and when Merthyr,
who fancied the wreath might have fallen as he was lifting Emilia from
the carriage, proposed to go and search the place for it, his sister
laid her fingers on his arm, remarking, “You will not find it, dear;”
and Emilia cried “Oh! no, no! it is not there;” and, with her hands
pressed hard against her bosom, sat fixed and silent.
Out of this mood she issued with looks of such tenderness that one who
watched her, speculating on her character as Merthyr did, could see
that in some mysterious way she had been, during the few minutes that
separated them, illumined upon the matter nearest her heart. Was it
her own strength, inspired by some sublime force, that had sprung up
suddenly to eject a worthless love? So he hoped in despite of whispering
reason, till Georgiana spoke to him.