“ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.”
WHEN the festivities at Holmcastle were over--they lasted three days,
and will long be remembered in the lovely Dale of the Arrow--Wilfred
and Evelyn, as had been previously arranged, went on with the Duchess
of Ribblesdale and her son, in order to be present at the still grander
fêtes which were to celebrate the coming of age of the latter.
The previous day, there was a grand picnic up the Dale to the Old Maen
of Stanwick. It was on that occasion that the young Duke, following
Evelyn, who had expressed a wish once more to stand on the peak of
Stanwick Edge, put into practice the resolution he had formed erewhile
in the railway carriage on his way from Hampton Court to London, viz.,
to make an offer of marriage to the beautiful sister of his friend. It
boots not to tell the precise words in which the young man couched his
proposal, but it is needful to record that the young lady’s answer was
monosyllabic, and in the affirmative. And then, after a few minutes,
during which her lover had held her in his arms, the young girl
murmured, “But oh! what will the Duchess think of me?”
“She would have been broken-hearted if your answer had been any other
than what it was,” said the young man, “and I shall take you to her the
moment we get home, for I know that the dearest wish of her heart is to
call you ‘daughter.’”
“Thank God,” cried the Duchess, as she affectionately embraced the
blushing girl; “and I may now confess that, from the first moment I saw
you, I destined you for my son. It is not often that a match-making old
mother is so entirely happy as I am at this moment.”
Love-making is well known to be more catching (and often far more
dangerous) than measles or scarlet-fever, and that perhaps is the
reason why, upon the self-same afternoon, Wilfred, not to be behind
his friend, proposed to and was accepted by pretty Mary Elthorne, whom
he had known and loved from childhood upwards, and who had all the
qualifications of person and disposition which would render the most
fastidious of men happy.
By the Duchess’s special desire, the Rector of Holmcastle, with his
wife, now happily restored to health, and his affianced daughter,
accompanied the rest of the party to Ribblesdale.
The secret of the Duke’s engagement had been well kept; but when, on
the evening of the day of his coming of age, Evelyn Manwaring entered
the state ballroom of Ribblesdale Castle between the Duchess and her
son, and in a perfect blaze of diamonds, then the County came to know
that the wide lands and ancient Castle of Ribblesdale would have a
worthy mistress as well as a noble master.
The Duchess (_Dowager_, as she would thenceforward be rightly
called) had that morning made over to her daughter-in-law elect the
whole of the superb Ribblesdale Diamonds, and henceforward she appeared
wearing the great Scarswicke Emerald alone.
Arrangements were made to hasten on both marriages, and in little more
than a month the newspapers announced that the Lord Bishop of Carlisle,
assisted by the Reverend Charles Elthorne, Rector of Holmcastle, and
the Reverend Peter Butterthwaite, Vicar of Ribblesdale-cum-Wappenshaw,
had united both couples in Ribblesdale Church in the bonds of Holy
Matrimony. His Grace of York, whose taste for aristocratic celebrations
of a matrimonial kind is well known, would have been glad to officiate
himself--but he was not asked.
Wilfred, who, as Mr. Elthorne had predicted, was speedily appointed to
the command of the North Lancashire Volunteers, at once took up his
abode at Holmcastle, which, assisted by his wife’s cultivated taste, he
is gradually beautifying--for, thanks to the coal discovered under his
farms near Ormskirk, he is now a rich man. There is no more popular a
couple in all Lancashire than Mr. and Mrs. Wilfred Manwaring.
The good Duchess Dowager, resisting all the entreaties of her son and
daughter to take up her abode with them at Ribblesdale, now, thanks to
her wise administration during her son’s minority, happily freed from
all encumbrances, remains at Hampton Court; but the reigning Duchess
has resigned her apartments in that ancient Palace, having, as mistress
of Ribblesdale, no longer any need to occupy them.
During a flying visit to Town, in endeavouring to cross Regent Street,
Wilfred was cannoned against by another foot-passenger, in whom he was
glad to recognise his kind friend, Mr. Caleb Lomax, of San Francisco,
who was then staying at the Northumberland Hotel with his wife and
family. These worthy people accepted Wilfred’s cordial invitation
that they should visit him in the North; and when the visit to
Holmcastle came to an end, they went on to visit the Duke and Duchess
of Ribblesdale. It was the latter distinguished lady who presented
Mrs. Caleb Lomax, Miss Lomax, Miss Olivia and Miss Aurelia Lomax, of
the United States, to Her Most Gracious Majesty--a fact which you may
be sure was duly recorded, with full particulars of the very handsome
and becoming dresses they wore upon the occasion, in the San Francisco
Dailies.
In a cheerful room, in a snug almshouse overlooking the busy Mersey, an
aged woman may be seen, thankfully passing a serene and peaceful old
age, and awaiting her summons to another and less weary world. This is
no other than old Biddy Maguire, and she owes her comfortable retreat
to the influence of the young Squire of Holmcastle, who never forgot
the blessing she had erewhile invoked upon his head in his hour of
trial and disgrace, and who feels that his present prosperity may be in
some degree owing to the prayers she offered up in his behalf.
Marcus Ward & Co., Royal Ulster Works, Belfast.
=TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES=
Simple typographical errors have been silently corrected; unbalanced
quotation marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and
otherwise left unbalanced.
Punctuation and spelling were made consistent when a predominant
preference was found in the original book; otherwise they were not
changed.
Inconsistent hyphens left as printed.