My Novel Part 163

HARLEY.--"It is vanity that stirs the poet to toil,--if toil the wayward chase of his own chimeras can be called. Ambition is a more masculine pa.s.sion."

Helen shook her head gently, but made no answer.

HARLEY.--"If I utter a word that profanes one of your delusions, you shake your head and are incredulous. Pause: listen one moment to my counsels,--perhaps the last I may ever obtrude upon you. Lift your eyes; look around. Far as your eye can reach, nay, far beyond the line which the horizon forms in the landscape, stretch the lands of my inheritance.

Yonder you see the home in which my forefathers for many generations lived with honour, and died lamented. All these, in the course of nature, might one day have been your own, had you not rejected my proposals. I offered you, it is true, not what is commonly called Love; I offered you sincere esteem, and affections the more durable for their calm. You have not been reared by the world in the low idolatry of rank and wealth; but even romance cannot despise the power of serving others, which rank and wealth bestow. For myself, hitherto indolence, and lately disdain, rob fortune of these n.o.bler attributes. But she who will share my fortune may dispense it so as to atone for my sins of omission.

On the other side, grant that there is no bar to your preference for Leonard Fairfield, what does your choice present to you? Those of his kindred with whom you will a.s.sociate are unrefined and mean. His sole income is derived from precarious labours; the most vulgar of all anxieties--the fear of bread itself for the morrow--must mingle with all your romance, and soon steal from love all its poetry. You think his affection will console you for every sacrifice. Folly! the love of poets is for a mist, a moonbeam, a denizen of air, a phantom that they call an Ideal. They suppose for a moment that they have found that Ideal in Chloe or Phyllis, Helen or a milkmaid. Bah! the first time you come to the poet with the baker's bill, where flies the Ideal? I knew one more brilliant than Leonard, more exquisitely gifted by nature; that one was a woman; she saw a man hard and cold as that stone at your feet,--a false, hollow, sordid worldling; she made him her idol, beheld in him all that history would not recognize in a Caesar, that mythology would scarcely grant to an Apollo: to him she was the plaything of an hour; she died, and before the year was out he had married for money! I knew another instance,--I speak of myself. I loved before I was your age. Had an angel warned me then, I would have been incredulous as you. How that ended, no matter: but had it not been for that dream of maudlin delirium, I had lived and acted as others of my kind and my sphere,--married from reason and judgment, been now a useful and happy man. Pause, then. Will you still reject me for Leonard Fairfield? For the last time you have the option,--me and all the substance of waking life, Leonard Fairfield and the shadows of a fleeting dream. Speak! You hesitate. Nay, take time to decide."

HELEN.--"Ah, Lord L'Estrange, you who have felt what it is to love, how can you doubt my answer; how think that I could be so base, so ungrateful as take from yourself what you call the substance of waking life, while my heart was far away, faithful to what you call a dream?"

HARLEY.--"But can you not dispel the dream?"

HELEN (her whole face one flush).--"It was wrong to call it dream! It is the reality of life to me. All things else are as dreams."

HARLEY (taking her hand and kissing it with respect).--"Helen, you have a n.o.ble heart, and I have tempted you in vain. I regret your choice, though I will no more oppose it. I regret it, though I shall never witness your disappointment. As the wife of that man, I shall see and know you no more."

HELEN.--"Oh, no! do not say that. Why? Wherefore?"

HARLEY (his brows meeting).--"He is the child of fraud and of shame.

His father is my foe, and my hate descends to the son. He, too, the son, filches from me--But complaints are idle. When the next few days are over, think of me but as one who abandons all right over your actions, and is a stranger to your future fate. Pooh! dry your tears: so long as you love Leonard or esteem me, rejoice that our paths do not cross."

He walked on impatiently; but Helen, alarmed and wondering, followed close, took his arm timidly, and sought to soothe him. She felt that he wronged Leonard,--that he knew not how Leonard had yielded all hope when he learned to whom she was affianced. For Leonard's sake she conquered her bashfulness, and sought to explain. But at her first hesitating, faltered words, Harley, who with great effort suppressed the emotions which swelled within him, abruptly left her side, and plunged into the recesses of thick, farspreading groves, that soon wrapped him from her eye.

While this conversation occurred between Lord L'Estrange and his ward, the soi-disant Riccabocca and Violante were walking slowly through the gardens. The philosopher, unchanged by his brightening prospects,--so far as the outer man was concerned,--still characterized by the red umbrella and the accustomed pipe,--took the way mechanically towards the sunniest quarter of the grounds, now and then glancing tenderly at Violante's downcast, melancholy face, but not speaking; only, at each glance, there came a brisker cloud from the pipe, as if obedient to a fuller heave of the heart.

At length, in a spot which lay open towards the south, and seemed to collect all the gentlest beams of the November sun, screened from the piercing east by dense evergreens, and flanked from the bleak north by lofty walls, Riccabocca paused and seated himself. Flowers still bloomed on the sward in front, over which still fluttered the wings of those later and more brilliant b.u.t.terflies that, unseen in the genial days of our English summer, come with autumnal skies, and sport round the mournful steps of the coming winter,--types of those thoughts which visit and delight the contemplation of age, while the current yet glides free from the iron ice, and the leaves yet linger on the boughs; thoughts that a.s.sociate the memories of the departed summer with messages from suns that shall succeed the winter, and expand colours the most steeped in light and glory, just as the skies through which they gleam are darkening, and the flowers on which they hover fade from the surface of the earth, dropping still seeds, that sink deep out of sight below.

"Daughter," said Riccabocca, drawing Violante to his side with caressing arm,--"Daughter! Mark how they who turn towards the south can still find the sunny side of the land scape! In all the seasons of life, how much of chill or of warmth depends on our choice of the aspect! Sit down: let us reason."

Violante sat down pa.s.sively, clasping her father's hand in both her own. Reason! harsh word to the ears of Feeling! "You shrink," resumed Riccabocca, "from even the courtship, even the presence of the suitor in whom my honour binds me to recognize your future bridegroom."

Violante drew away her hands, and placed them before her eyes shudderingly.

"But" continued Riccabocca, rather peevishly, "this is not listening to reason. I may object to Mr. Leslie, because he has not an adequate rank or fortune to pretend to a daughter of my house; that would be what every one would allow to be reasonable in a father; except, indeed,"

added the poor sage, trying hard to be sprightly, and catching hold of a proverb to help him--"except, indeed, those wise enough to recollect that admonitory saying, 'Casa il figlio quando vuoi, e la figlia quando puoi,'--[Marry your son when you will, your daughter when you can].

Seriously, if I overlook those objections to Mr. Leslie, it is not natural for a young girl to enforce them. What is reason in you is quite another thing from reason in me. Mr. Leslie is young, not ill-looking, has the air of a gentleman, is pa.s.sionately enamoured of you, and has proved his affection by risking his life against that villanous Peschiera,--that is, he would have risked it had Peschiera not been shipped out of the way. If, then, you will listen to reason, pray what can reason say against Mr. Leslie?"

"Father, I detest him!"

"Cospetto!" persisted Riccabocca, testily, "you have no reason to detest him. If you had any reason, child, I am sure that I should be the last person to dispute it. How can you know your own mind in such a matter?

It is not as if you had seen anyone else you could prefer. Not another man of your own years do you even know,--except, indeed, Leonard Fairfield, whom, though I grant he is handsomer, and with more imagination and genius than Mr. Leslie, you still must remember as the boy who worked in my garden. Ah, to be sure, there is Frank Hazeldean; fine lad, but his affections are pre-engaged. In short," continued the sage, dogmatically, "there is no one else you can, by any possible caprice, prefer to Mr. Leslie; and for a girl who has no one else in her head to talk of detesting a well-looking, well-dressed, clever young man, is--a nonsense--'Chi lascia il poco per haver l'a.s.sai ne l'uno, ne l'altro avera mai'--which may be thus paraphrased,--The young lady who refuses a mortal in the hope of obtaining an angel, loses the one, and will never fall in with the other. So now, having thus shown that the darker side of the question is contrary to reason, let us look to the brighter. In the first place--"

"Oh, Father, Father!" cried Violante, pa.s.sionately, "you to whom I once came for comfort in every childish sorrow do not talk to me with this cutting levity. See, I lay my head upon your breast, I put my arms around you; and now, can you reason me into misery?"

"Child, child, do not be so wayward. Strive, at least, against a prejudice that you cannot defend. My Violante, my darling, this is no trifle. Here I must cease to be the fond, foolish father, whom you can do what you will with. Here I am Alphonso, Duke di Serrano; for here my honour as n.o.ble and my word as man are involved. I, then, but a helpless exile, no hope of fairer prospects before me, trembling like a coward at the wiles of my unscrupulous kinsman, grasping at all chances to save you from his snares,--self offered your hand to Randal Leslie,--offered, promised, pledged it; and now that my fortunes seem a.s.sured, my rank in all likelihood restored, my foe crushed, my fears at rest, now, does it become me to retract what I myself have urged? It is not the n.o.ble, it is the parvenu, who has only to grow rich, in order to forget those whom in poverty he hailed as his friends. Is it for me to make the poor excuse, never heard on the lips of an Italian prince, 'that I cannot command the obedience of my child;' subject myself to the galling answer, 'Duke of Serrano, you could once command that obedience, when, in exile, penury, and terror you offered me a bride without a dower'?

Child, Violante, daughter of ancestors on whose honour never slander set a stain, I call on you to redeem your father's plighted word."

"Father, must it be so? Is not even the convent open to me? Nay, look not so coldly on me. If you could but read my heart! And oh! I feel so a.s.sured of your own repentance hereafter,--so a.s.sured that this man is not what you believe him. I so suspect that he has been playing throughout some secret and perfidious part."

"Ha!" interrupted Riccabocca, "Harley has perhaps infected you with that notion."

"No, no! But is not Harley, is not Lord L'Estrange one whose opinion you have cause to esteem? And if he distrusts Mr. Leslie--"

"Let him make good his distrust by such proof as will absolve my word, and I shall share your own joy. I have told him this. I have invited him to make good his suspicions, he puts me off. He cannot do so," added Riccabocca, in a dejected tone; "Randal has already so well explained all that Harley deemed equivocal. Violante, my name and my honour rest in your hands. Cast them away if you will; I cannot constrain you, and I cannot stoop to implore. n.o.blesse oblige! With your birth you took its duties. Let them decide between your vain caprice and your father's solemn remonstrance."

a.s.suming a sternness that he was far from feeling, and putting aside his daughter's arms, the exile walked away. Violante paused a moment, shivered, looked round as if taking a last farewell of joy and peace and hope on earth, and then approaching her father with a firm step, she said, "I never rebelled, Father; I did but entreat. What you say is my law now, as it has ever been; and come what may, never shall you hear complaint or murmur from me. Poor Father, you will suffer more than I shall. Kiss me!"

About an hour afterwards, as the short day closed in, Harley, returning from his solitary wanderings, after he had parted from Helen, encountered on the terrace, before the house, Lady Lansmere and Audley Egerton arm in arm.

Harley had drawn his hat over his brows, and his eyes were fixed on the ground, so that he did not see the group upon which he came unawares, until Audley's voice startled him from his revery.

"My dear Harley," said the ex-minister, with a faint smile, "you must not pa.s.s us by, now that you have a moment of leisure from the cares of the election. And, Harley, though we are under the same roof, I see you so little." Lord L'Estrange darted a quick glance towards his mother,--a glance that seemed to say, "You leaning on Audley's arm! Have you kept your promise?" And the eye that met his own rea.s.sured him.

"It is true," said Harley; "but you, who know that, once engaged in public affairs, one has no heart left for the ties of private life, will excuse me. And this election is so important!"

"And you, Mr. Egerton," said Lady Lansmere, "whom the election most concerns, seem privileged to be the only one who appears indifferent to success."

"Ay; but you are not indifferent?" said Lord L'Estrange, abruptly.

"No. How can I be so, when my whole future career may depend on it?"

Harley drew Egerton aside. "There is one voter you ought at least to call upon and thank. He cannot be made to comprehend that, for the sake of any relation, even for the sake of his own son, he is to vote against the Blues,--against you; I mean, of course, Nora's father, John Avenel.

His vote and his son-in-law's gained your majority at your first election."

EGERTON.--"Call on John Avenel! Have you called?"

HARLEY (calmly).--"Yes. Poor old man, his mind has been affected ever since Nora's death. But your name as the candidate for the borough at that time,--the successful candidate for whose triumph the joy-bells chimed with her funeral knell,--your name brings up her memory; and he talks in a breath of her and of you. Come, let us walk together to his house; it is close by the Park Lodge."

The drops stood on Audley's brow! He fixed his dark handsome eyes, in mournful amaze, upon Harley's tranquil face.

"Harley, at last, then, you have forgotten the Past."

"No; but the Present is more imperious. All my efforts are needed to requite your friendship. You stand against her brother,--yet her father votes for you. And her mother says to her son, 'Let the old man alone.

Conscience is all that is well alive in him; and he thinks if he were to vote against the Blues, he would sin against honour.' 'An electioneering prejudice,' some sceptics would say. But you must be touched by this trait of human nature,--in her father, too,--you, Audley Egerton, who are the soul of honour. What ails you?"

EGERTON.--"Nothing; a spasm at the heart; my old complaint. Well, I will call on the poor man later, but not now,--not with you. Nay, nay, I will not,--I cannot. Harley, just as you joined us, I was talking to your mother."

HARLEY.--"Ay, and what of?"

EGERTON.--"Yourself. I saw you from my windows walking with your betrothed. Afterwards I observed her coming home alone; and by the glimpse I caught of her gentle countenance, it seemed sad. Harley, do you deceive us?"

HARLEY.--"Deceive! I! How?"

EGERTON.--"DO you really feel that your intended marriage will bestow on you the happiness, which is my prayer, as it must be your mother's?"

HARLEY.--"Happiness, I hoped so. But perhaps--"

EGERTON.--"Perhaps what?"

HARLEY.--"Perhaps the marriage may not take place. Perhaps I have a rival; not an open one,--a secret, stealthy wooer, in one, too, whom I have loved, served, trusted. Question me not now. Such instances of treachery make one learn more how to prize a friendship honest, devoted, faithful as your own, Audley Egerton. But here comes your protege, released awhile from his canva.s.s, and your confidential adviser, Baron Levy. He accompanied Randal through the town to-day. So anxious is he to see that that young man does not play false, and regard his own interest before yours! Would that surprise you?"