The Martins Of Cro' Martin Volume I Part 50

I gave them freely, for, after all, application is an easier task than refusing, and besides, Harry, it is very difficult to persuade your election friends that you cannot be a patriot and a patron at the same time, and that, in the luxurious pastime of badgering a government, a man surrenders some of the pretensions to place. I gave them, therefore, all the letters they asked for; and if the Chief Secretary but answer one half of my appeals, Galway--or at least that small portion of it called Oughter-ard--will have no cause of complaint on the score of its claims to office.

"You are, I perceive, astonished that I continue to remain here. So am I, Harry. The place is detestable in almost every way. I am beset with entreaties, persecuted with vulgar attentions, bored to death by the insolent familiarity of people I cannot--do all that I will--grow intimate with; and yet I stay on, pretexting this, that, and t' other to myself, and shrinking even to my own heart to avow the real reason of my delay!

"I want once again, if only for a few moments, to see her. I want to try if by any ingenuity I could discover the mystery of her conduct with regard to myself; and I want also, if there should be the need to do so, to justify to her eyes many things which I have been forced by circ.u.mstances to do in this contest.

"I have not the slightest suspicion as to how she views all that has occurred here. Two notes which I addressed to her, very respectful, businesslike epistles, have not been answered, though I entreated for a few words to acknowledge their receipt. The Martins, since the election, seem to have quarantined the whole town and neighborhood. They suffer none of their people to enter here. They have sent eight miles further off to market, and even changed the post-town for their letters. Their policy is, so far, shortsighted, as it has called into an exaggerated importance all that small fry--like the Nelligans--who have hitherto been crushed under the greater wealth of the rich proprietor. But I am again drifting into that tiresome tideway of politics which I have sworn to myself to avoid, if only for a few days; in pursuance of which wise resolve I shall betake myself to the mountains, under the pretext of shooting. A gun is an idler's pa.s.sport, and a game-bag and a shot-pouch are sufficient to throw a dignity over vagabondism. You will therefore divine that I am not bent on snipe slaughter, but simply a good excuse to be alone!

"I mean to go to-morrow, and shall first turn my steps towards the coast, which, so far as I have seen, is singularly bold and picturesque.

If nothing occurs to alter my determination, I 'll leave this unclosed till I can tell you that I have come back here, which in all probability will be by the end of the week.

"Once more here, my dear Harry, I sit down to add a few lines to this already over-lengthy epistle. Wishing to give you some notion of the scenery, I set out with all the appliances of a sketcher, and have really contrived to jot down some spots which, for general wildness and grandeur, it would be difficult to surpa.s.s within the bounds of our country. Nor is it alone the forms that are so striking, although I could show you outlines here perfectly Alpine in their fantastic extravagance; but the colors are finer than anything I have seen north of the Alps,--heaths and lichens grouped over rugged ma.s.ses of rock, with shades of purple and gold such as no diadem ever equalled. The sunsets, too, were gorgeous! You remember how struck we both were at the moment when the dome and aisle of St. Peter's burst into light, and from the darkness of midnight every column and every statue became illuminated in a second; but a thousand times beyond this in grandeur of effect was the moment of the sun's decline below the horizon. The instant before, the great sullen sea was rolling and heaving with its leaden blue surface, slightly traced here and there with foam, but no sooner had the sun touched the horizon, than a flood of purple glory spread over the whole ocean, so that it became like a sea of molten gold and amber. The dark cliffs and rugged crags, the wave-beaten rocks, and the rude wild islands, darksome and dismal but a moment back, were now all glittering and glowing, every pinnacle and every peak in deep carbuncle red. How suggestive to him who would describe an enchanted land or region of magic splendor! and what a hint for your scene-painter, who, with all his devices of Bengal and blue light, with every trick that chemistry and optics could aid in, never fancied anything so splendid or so gorgeous.

"I have half filled a sketch-book for you, and more than half filled my game-bag with mosses and ferns, and such-like gear, which, knowing your weakness, I have gathered, but, not understanding their virtues, may, for aught I know, be the commonest things in creation. I can only vouch for their being very beautiful, and very unlike anything else I ever saw before; fragments of marble, too, and specimens of Irish jasper and onyx, are amidst my rubbish, or my treasures, whichever you shall p.r.o.nounce them to be.

"I got through--don't fancy that the phrase denotes weariness or _ennui_--I got through four days in these pursuits, and then I took boat, and for three more I paddled about the coast, dipping in amongst the cliffs and creeks and caves of this wonderful coast, gathering sh.e.l.ls and seaweed, and shooting curlews and eating lobsters, and, in fact, to all intents and purposes, suffering a 'sea change' over myself and my spirit as unearthlike as well may be imagined; and at last I bethought me of my new openiug career, and all that I ought to be doing in preparation of St. Stephen's, and so I turned my steps landward and towards 'my borough.' I like to say 'my borough;' it sounds feudal and insolent and old Torylike; it smacks of the day when people received their representative thankfully, as an alms, and your great proprietor created his nominee as the consul enn.o.bled his horse!

"Revolving very high thoughts, reciting Edmund Burke's grandest perorations, and picturing very vividly before me the stunning triumphs of my own eloquence in the House, I plodded along, this time at least wonderfully indifferent to the scenery, and totally oblivious of where I was, when suddenly I perceived the great trees of Cro' Martin demesne shadowing the road I travelled, and saw that I was actually within a mile or so of the Castle! You, Harry, have contrived, some way or other, to have had a very rose-colored existence. I never heard that you had been jilted by a mistress, 'cut' by a once friend, or coldly received by the rich relative from whom you derived all your expectations. I am not even aware that the horse you backed ever went wrong, or that the bill you endorsed for another ever came back protested. In fact, you are what the world loves best, cherishes most, and lavishes all its blandishments on,--a devilish lucky fellow! Lucky in a capital fortune, abundance of good gifts, good looks, and an iron const.i.tution,--one of those natures that can defy duns, blue-devils, and dyspepsia! Being, therefore, all this, well received everywhere, good company where pheasants are to be shot, Burgundy to be drunk, or young ladies to be married,--for you are a good shot, a good wine-taster, and a good _parti_,--with such gifts, I say, it will be very difficult to evoke your sympathy on the score of a misfortune which no effort of your imagination could compa.s.s. In fact, to ask you to feel what I did, as I found myself walking along _outside_ of those grounds _within_ which, but a few days back, I was the cherished visitor, and in sight of that smoke which denoted a hearth beside which I was never to sit again, and from which I was banished with something not very unlike disgrace! No sophistry I could summon was sufficient to a.s.suage the poignancy of this sentiment. I feel certain that I could stand any amount of open public abuse, any known or unknown quant.i.ty of what is genteelly called 'slanging,' but I own to you that the bare thought of how my name might at that moment be mentioned beneath that roof, or even the very reserve that saved it from mention, caused me unutterable bitterness, and it was in a state of deep humiliation of spirit that I took the very first path that led across the fields and away from Cro' Martin.

"They tell me that a light heart makes easy work of a day's journey.

Take my word for it, that to get over the ground without a thought of the road, there's nothing like a regular knock-down affliction. I walked eight hours, and at a good pace, too, without so much as a few minutes'

halt, so overwhelmed was I with sensations that would not admit of my remembering anything else. My first moment of consciousness--for really it was such--came on as I found myself breasting a steep stony ascent, on the brow of which stood the bleak residence of my friend Mr.

Magennis, of Barnagheela. I have already told you of my visit to his house, so that I need not inflict you with any new detail of the locality, but I confess, little as it promised to cheer or rally the spirits, I was well pleased to find myself so near a roof under which I might take refuge. I knocked vigorously at the door, but none answered my summons. I repeated my demand for admittance still more loudly, and at last went round to the back of the house, which I found as rigidly barred as the front. While still hesitating what course to take, I spied Joan Landy--you remember the girl I spoke of in a former letter--ascending the hill at a brisk pace. In a moment I was beside her. Poor thing, she seemed overjoyed at our meeting, and warmly welcomed me to her house. 'Tom is away,' said she, 'in Dublin, they tell me, but he 'll be back in a day or two, and there 's n.o.body he 'd be so glad to see as yourself when he comes.' In the world, Harry,--that is, in your world and mine,--such a proposition as Joan's would have its share of embarra.s.sments. Construe it how one might, there would be at least some awkwardness in accepting such hospitality. So I certainly felt it, and, as we walked along, rather turned the conversation towards herself, and whither she had been.

"'I 'm not more than half an hour out of the house,' said she, 'for I only went down the boreen to show the short cut by Kell Mills to a young lady that was here.'

"'A visitor, Mrs. Joan?'

"'Yes. But to be sure you know her yourself, for you came with her the day she walked part of the way back with me from Cro' Martin.'

"'Miss Henderson?'

"'Maybe that's her name. She only told me to call her Kate.'

"'Was she here alone?--did she come on foot?--which way is she gone?'

cried I, hurrying question after question. Perhaps the tone of my last was most urgent, for it was to that she replied, by pointing to a glen between two furze-clad hills, and saying, 'That's the road she 's taking, till she crosses the ford at Coomavaragh.'

"'And she is alone?'

"'That she is; sorra a one with her, and she has five good miles before her.'

"I never waited for more. If I did say good-bye to poor Joan, I really forget; but I dashed down the mountain at speed, and hurried onward in the direction she had pointed out. In an instant all my fatigue of the day was forgotten, and as I went along I remembered nothing, thought of nothing, but the object of my pursuit.

"You who have so often bantered me on the score of my languor--that 'elegant la.s.situde,' as you used to call it, which no zeal ever warmed, nor any ardor ever could excite--would have been somewhat astonished had you seen the reckless, headlong pace at which I went,--vaulting over gates, clearing fences, and dashing through swamps, without ever a moment's hesitation. Picture to yourself, then, my splashed and heated condition as, after a two-miles' chase in this fashion, I at length overtook her, just as she was in search of a safe spot to ford the river. Startled by the noise behind her, she turned suddenly round, and in an instant we stood face to face. I 'd have given much to have seen some show of confusion, even embarra.s.sment in her looks, but there was not the slightest. No, Harry, had we met in a drawing-room, her manner could not have been more composed, as she said,--'Good-morning, Mr.

Ma.s.singbred. Have you had much sport?' 'My chase was after _you_, Miss Henderson,' said I, hurriedly. 'I just reached Barnagheela as Mistress Joan returned, and having learned which road you took, followed you in all haste.'

"'Indeed!' exclaimed she, and in a voice wherein there were blended a vast variety of meanings.

"'Yes,' I resumed, 'for an opportunity of meeting you alone--of speaking with you even for a few moments--I have delayed my departure this week back. I wrote to you twice.'

"'Yes; I got your letters.'

"'But did not deign to answer them.'

"' I did not write to you, because, situated as _I_ was, and regarded as _you_ were at Cro' Martin, there would have been a species of treason in maintaining anything like correspondence, just as I feel there is somewhat akin to it in our intercourse at this moment.'

"'And have the events occurring lately changed _your_ feeling with regard to me?' asked I, half reproachfully.

"'I don't exactly know to what former condition you refer, Mr.

Ma.s.singbred,' said she, calmly. 'If to the counsels which you were gracious enough to receive at hands humble and inexperienced as mine, they were given, as you remember, when you were the chosen representative of the family at Cro' Martin, and continued only so long as you remained such.'

"'Then I have deceived myself, Miss Henderson,' broke I in. 'I had fancied that there was a personal good-will in the aid you tendered me.

I even flattered myself that I owed my success entirely and solely to your efforts.'

"'You are jesting, Mr. Ma.s.singbred,' said she, with a saucy smile; 'no one better than yourself knows how to rely upon his own abilities.'

"'At least, confess that it was you who first suggested to me that they were worth cultivating; that it was _you_ who pointed out a road to me in life, and even promised me your friendship as the price of my worthily adopting it!'

"'I remember the conversation you allude to. It was on this very road it occurred.'

"'Well, and have I done anything as yet to forfeit the reward you spoke of?'

"'All this is beside the real question, Mr. Ma.s.singbred,' said she, hurriedly. 'What you are really curious to learn is, why it is that I, being such as I am, should have displayed so much zeal in a cause which could not but have been opposed to the interests of those who are my patrons. That you have not divined the reason is a proof to me that I could not make you understand it. I don't want to talk riddles,--enough that I say it was a caprice.'

"'And yet you talked seriously, persuasively to me, of my future road in life; you made me think that you saw in me the qualities that win success.'

"'You have a wonderful memory for trifles, sir, since you can recall so readily what I said to you.'

"'But it was not a trifle to me,' said I.

"'Perhaps not, Mr. Ma.s.singbred, since it referred to yourself. I don't mean this for impertinence!'

"'I am glad that you say so!' cried I, eagerly. 'I am but too happy to catch at anything which may tend to convince me that you would not willingly hurt my feelings.'

"For several minutes neither of us uttered a word; at last I said, 'Should I be asking too much, if I begged Miss Henderson to tell me whether she is dissatisfied with anything I may have done in this contest? There may be matters in which I have been misrepresented; others of which I could make some explanation.'

"'Are you quite satisfied with it yourself, sir?' said she, interrupting me.

"'No,' said I; 'so little am I so, that were it all to do over again, I 'd not embark in it. The whole affair, from beginning to end, is a false position.'

"'Ign.o.ble a.s.sociates--low companionships--very underbred acquaintances,'

said she, in a tone of scorn that seemed far more directed at _me_ than the others. I believe I showed how I felt it. I know that my cheek was on fire for some seconds after.

"'The Martins, I take it, are outrageous with me?' said I, at last.

"'They never speak of you!' was the reply.

"'Not my Lady?'

"'No!'