The Mysterious Wanderer Volume I Part 2

"'Not so dest.i.tute as that, Arthur,' said my father: 'the fortune he is ent.i.tled to from your hands, though small, will render him so far independent that he may choose for himself.'

"'Excuse me, sir,' answered my brother, 'I cannot say I think myself obliged to give Edward a fortune from my own purse, especially when one so large as that Miss Tangress possesses is offered. If he have any regard for his own interest, he will accept it, and not look to me for future supplies. I have nearer ties; my children----.' "But excuse me, Talton, here is one"--(looking at Frederick, who appeared surprised and shocked at this account of his father) "too nearly interested to be pleased with this part of my narrative. Suffice it to say,--the mask was here thrown off by my brother, and I condemned to poverty! For the promise given to my father was merely verbal, and without witness, whilst the possessions of my father, in full confidence of Arthur's honour, had been secured to him by the strongest ties of the law.

"My father felt the stroke more severely than I did; he wept--and, in the bitterest anguish, asked pardon of heaven and me, for the step he had taken, and begged I would reconsider the proposal of Miss Tangress, before I absolutely rejected it. In all probability, he said, a few years would terminate her existence; I had no particular attachment to restrict me; and it would convey ease to his death-bed to know I was not only independent of my brother, but in a state of equal affluence.

"In the pa.s.sion of the moment, this last consideration determined me; I complied--and in less than three weeks became the husband of Miss Tangress.

"The possession of her fortune, however, could not recompense me for her haughty wayward disposition. In her domestic arrangements she was tyrannical and parsimonious, and so truly capricious, that the most studied attentions to please could not twice succeed in the same particular. Certain I had not married for love, her rancorous disposition soon led her to resent, or rather to revenge, my want of affection. My expenditure became extravagance, my wants superfluous, and my acquaintance by far too general. As such, by the most pointed slights and insults, my friends were severally driven from my house; nor was even my father spared.

"I bore with the temper of my wife till human patience could sustain it no longer; and one day, after having been severely reproached with the favour she had conferred in uniting herself to a man not worth a shilling; I mounted my horse, and crossed the country to Brighthelmstone.

"The second night after my arrival there, I went to the ball given in honour of Sir Henry Beechton, where I became acquainted with you, and first saw the lovely Ellenor.

"To mention my admiration is needless: you are already well acquainted with it. To my anxious inquiries concerning her, the only intelligence I gained was--that she was an orphan of small fortune, and under the protection of the Hon. Mrs. Radnor. Fortune, however, had then lost its allurements. Ellenor shone with all the graces of a fabled G.o.ddess, which, added to the benignity that beamed in her eyes, and the ineffable sweetness of her manner, fixed her at once supremely in my heart.

Impelled by love, I pursued the acquaintance; Ellenor owned her regard for me to her friend; and as neither that lady nor she had the least suspicion of my being married, (for, on my arrival at Brighthelmstone, I had taken my mother's name of Crawton, to prevent my wife from tracing me), my visits were welcomed with the greatest cordiality and friendship on the part of her protectress, and the sincerest affection by my Ellenor.

"It was then I fully experienced the wretchedness of my situation, in being united to Deborah. Reason and honour bade me combat with my pa.s.sion, and fly from Ellenor. But in vain; each succeeding interview discovered new perfections, and by forcing a comparison, added to my love for her, and detestation for my wife. Hard was the conflict--but love prevailed: and I strove, by fallacious reasoning, to persuade myself, that my marriage with Miss Tangress was of no effect, as I was led into it by pa.s.sion and revenge; and that an union with Ellenor, though contrary to the laws of my country, being founded on mutual affection, would not only be accepted in the eye of heaven, but acceded to as just, by the unprejudiced part of mankind.

"Meanwhile, I kept the secret buried in my breast. Ellenor, not mistrusting my account of myself or family, sought not for farther information than I gave; the banns were published in a village a few miles from Brighthelmstone, where, with your a.s.sistance, my friend, as father to my Ellenor, we were married!

"Of my happiness, you, Talton, were a witness; and the time flew with rapidity, till, by accident, I heard my father was dangerously ill; when filial affection for that best of parents, resumed its sway; and, taking a tender leave of Ellenor, I arrived at Howard Hall time enough to receive his last blessing.

"My father left me what his economy had saved since the discovery of my brother's sentiments; a few personal effects, his picture, with that of my mother, and her jewels. Inconsiderable as the bequest was, in comparison to the possessions devolved to Sir Arthur, he disputed my right to them; but as I prized them, not for their intrinsic value, but the affection of him who gave them, and, looking on him as the primary cause of my marrying Deborah, I not only refused to resign them, but upbraided him with his sordidness on that occasion. This produced a quarrel which has never been healed: he forswore--disowned me! This scene was followed by one nearly equal to it with my wife; which adding to my disgust, I directed my lawyer where to remit my small fortune, (for as I lived not with Deborah, I disdained all thoughts of hers) and once more returned to the arms of my Ellenor.

"Months again flew; when our happiness received its first shock by the sudden death of our invaluable friend Mrs. Radnor; and this was followed by your departure for the West Indies. Love, however, overcame these afflictions; my Ellenor became pregnant, and I was in expectation of soon being hailed by the name of father; when one day, sitting with my angel, fondly antic.i.p.ating future felicities, the door was thrown open, and Deborah, accompanied by my lawyer, rushed into the room!

"To describe the scene which followed, is impossible: even now the recollection of it nearly maddens me! Deborah acted congenially to the fury of her character; aspersed my Ellenor, and reviled me with every opprobrious epithet the wildest pa.s.sion, heightened by jealousy, could dictate; nor ceased--till Ellenor, overcome by the disclosure of the baleful secret, fainted in my arms; then, with the same violence as she entered, flew out of the room, followed by her companion, vowing to be revenged, though she expended her fortune in accomplishing it!

"At last my Ellenor recovered: not a single reproach at my conduct escaped her lips, but her countenance plainly showed the agony of her mind. Willing to lessen the idea of my guilt, which had been exaggerated by the frantic Deborah, I recapitulated the circ.u.mstances I have now related, and, with all the eloquence I was master of, pleaded the affection I entertained for her, as an excuse for the deceit I had practised. She heard me in silence; a convulsive sob swelled her bosom; and, on my again urging her forgiveness, she regarded me with a look of mingled anguish and despair. Tears at last relieved her, and she requested to be conducted to her chamber; I supported her there, and, leaving her to the care of her maid, returned to the parlour, my bosom filled with a sorrow and remorse that have never since deserted it! I was roused from reflections painful in the extreme, by a message from Deborah, demanding my presence, with which I was weak enough to comply, and for an hour and a half sustained the fury of her rage and reproaches, when, as neither would agree to the proposals of the other, we again parted. On my return home, I eagerly inquired after Ellenor.

'She is gone, sir!' said the girl, bursting into tears. 'Gone!' I repeated. 'How--when--where is she gone?' 'That, sir,' she answered, 'I know not. Soon after you went out, my lady sent Susan for a chaise and four, which, the moment it arrived, she entered, leaving this letter for you. Susan put in a few parcels, and followed her mistress; but where they are gone to, G.o.d only knows!'

"I seized the letter; and you may judge of what I felt when I perused it."

The Captain, with a sigh, drew a case from his bosom, and, taking out the letter, read as follows:

"I mean not, Edward, to upbraid you with an action, which, though it has involved your Ellenor in misery, was the offspring of affection; or, by unavailing complaints, add to the sorrow that already fills your bosom. No--rather let me speak peace to your mind, and, if possible, soften this, perhaps last, farewell! I have sustained the shock! Your real wife--oh, Edward, Edward!--But I will be calm.

"After the discovery of last night, honour, religion, virtue, forbid my continuance here. I am the child of misfortune; to stay, would make me the child of guilt! Justice likewise demands, that whilst your wife exists, you should think of Ellenor no otherwise than as a friend; I cannot say--forget me; that would be injustice to myself. No, Edward--pure has ever been my affection; and if Heaven should release you from your vows, remember the hand, the heart of Ellenor, may be demanded. Till then attempt not to discover me; the search would be fruitless. Justice demands the sacrifice, and it must be made! Yet how can I say--farewell! How tear myself from him on whose existence that of Ellenor depends; be merciful, Heaven--nor inflict a punishment past my power to support! Still let me stay--let me at least see my Edward, and hear him speak!--But it must not be. Oh, Edward, the punishment is just!

You had your secrets, and I had mine!

"My hand is incapable of performing its office; I would, but cannot proceed. Oh, Edward! think of your Ellenor; doubt not my love--my constancy: and Heaven yet may make us happy!"

"You had your secrets, and I had mine! O G.o.d! what years of anxiety and painful conjecture, have those words occasioned!

"A stupefying horror at first pervaded my faculties: I sunk into a chair, and, but for the officious attentions of Mary, should have experienced a total--happy had it been a lasting insensibility!

"'Where can she be gone?' I faintly exclaimed, when recollection had regained sufficient power.

"'She cannot be gone far,' sobbed Mary. 'Perhaps, sir, you yet may overtake her.'

"The idea served effectually to rouse me: I commenced my search, and soon gained intelligence: a carriage, answerable to that I described, with a lady and her attendant in it, had been seen on the London road.

To London I immediately directed my course; and at last descried a carriage, my sanguine hopes led me to think was that containing the sum of my earthly happiness: I instantly spurred my horse, when, owing to the badness of the road, or some other cause, he stumbled--fell, and threw me with violence over his head. I was stunned by the fall, found by some travellers, and, in a state of insensibility, conveyed to the nearest inn.

"The hurts I received were not very material; but the agitation of my mind at being thus prevented from pursuing Ellenor, brought on a fever which confined me to my apartment for nearly a fortnight. As soon as I was in a state to travel, I again pursued my way toward London, though with very little hope, after the time which had elapsed, of discovering her.

"For weeks after my arrival at the metropolis, I wandered about in the faint hope fortune might direct my steps to the place where she was secreted; when, one evening, returning to my lodging, I was surprised by the appearance of Deborah's equipage, who had likewise been seeking for, and at last traced me to London. She saw me ere I could enter the house, when, more than ever detesting the idea of an interview, I immediately removed to another part of the town.

"The next day I pa.s.sed as usual in wandering about, and returned in the evening dejected and fatigued, when, taking up a book belonging to the hostess, a paper fell from it; it was a sonnet to Hope: but, good Heavens, think of my astonishment when I found it was the writing of my Ellenor! At first I discredited the evidence of my senses, till reiterated examinations convinced me I was not mistaken. I flew to the mistress of the house, and, in answer to my incoherent inquiries, gained intelligence, that she had left those apartments but a few days before I took them; that she had there been delivered of a son, and was then gone to reside in Caermarthen, her native county; though to what part, the hostess could not tell. To Caermarthen I determined to go, and accordingly the next morning commenced my journey; but all my search was indeed fruitless!

"At last, overcome by fatigue, preyed on by a fever occasioned by my repeated disappointments, and, to own the truth, not having money to prosecute my search, having expended that left me by my father, I was necessitated to retire to my habitation at Brighthelmstone, where Deborah again obtained information of me, and again laid me under the lash of her malignant power. Willingly would I have sought relief in a formal separation; but that she refused with the most contemptuous disdain, telling me I should never enjoy a portion of her wealth without her. I would then have resigned all pretensions to her fortune; but she started into phrensy, vowed she would follow me to the utmost extremity of the globe, and sooner deprive herself of every comfort in life, than leave me at liberty to renew an acquaintance with a woman I preferred to herself. Finding it in vain to gain her accordance to my proposal, I desisted from the attempt, and again commenced a search after Ellenor; Deborah, like my evil genius, still following me from place to place, till wearied, regardless of existence, and as the only means of escaping from her, I again went to sea. The interest of my friends gained me promotion; and fortune, by an influx of wealth during seventeen years, has been willing, as far as her power extends, to make me amends for the misery she has occasioned me in the loss of Ellenor, the continued torments I endure from Deborah, and the unkind neglect of my brother, whom I have seen but once since the death of my father.

"And here, Talton, I must apologize for my neglect to you. Your first letter, informing me you had regained your property, I received a few days preceding the discovery of my marriage with Deborah; but the distraction of my mind at that time prevented me from answering it.

When I had in some degree regained my tranquillity, I wrote; but the person to whose charge I intrusted my packet, nearly two years after returned it, with the account that you were either dead, or had left the island; and as during that time, nor since, I never heard from you, I was induced to believe the former part of his intelligence.

"The pleasure I yesterday experienced on beholding you, for the time banished every other reflection; but no sooner did I quit you, than remembrance, with the keenest powers, revived every former scene, and added not only to my compunction for my injuries to--, but to my sorrow, for the irretrievable loss of my beloved Ellenor."

CHAPTER III.

Mr. Talton remained thoughtful some minutes after the Captain had ceased speaking; then addressing him--"If you were some years younger, Howard, I should censure you severely for your conduct; but as it is, and in consideration of the punishment you have already endured, I shall suspend my lecture! Poor Ellenor! It is strange, Howard, in the course of so many years you should never have gained any intelligence, nor met with the least circ.u.mstance from which you could judge of her destiny."

"It is strange, Talton. A few weeks back my nephew introduced a youth on board, whose appearance raised such emotions in my breast as I cannot attempt to describe. He was the exact resemblance of my Ellenor; his age too agrees with my son's, if living; but every hope was soon destroyed, his answers plainly proved he was not her child."

A sigh of regret here burst from the bosom of the Captain; nor could he refrain an impatient exclamation against the severity of his fate, in being thus deprived of those he regarded as the blessings of his existence.

"Though your life, Howard," said Mr. Talton, "has been rather out of the dull track of common occurrences, yet I would not have you think you have had more than your share of human ills; of those, believe me, all have an equal dispensation, and, sooner or later, feel the hand of adversity! As your morning of life has been clouded, you should, I think, look forward to a clear evening. You yet may find your Ellenor, and your son be restored, all your fondest desires could wish. You still have hope! Many, suffering afflictions, are bereaved of that blessing, by a fatal certainty of ill, where their happiness depends."

"Certainty of ill--" repeated the Captain--"Ah, Talton, am I not chained to a woman I detest, deprived of her I idolized, and a son whose endearments and attentions might have soothed the little sorrows of my bosom? But you are a bachelor, unrestrained by any ties which can justly interest the heart, and therefore cannot judge for me."

"Pardon me, my friend," returned Talton. "I speak not from conjecture; neither am I altogether unacquainted with those anxieties which have rendered you unhappy; and if you will listen to the tale of the woman I love, you may, perhaps, be convinced of the justness of my a.s.sertion."

The Captain bowed his consent--.

"Miss Holly, Howard, was an only daughter, and brought up by an old humourist of a father, whose idol she was, whilst she yielded every sense to his guidance. Many proposals of marriage were offered, but none thought worthy her acceptance by Mr. Holly, till he accidentally met with Sir Horace Corbet, an old schoolfellow, and as great an oddity as himself, with whom he renewed his acquaintance; and an union was proposed between their children--agreed on, the writings drawn, and the wedding-day fixed, before the young people were acquainted with the least circ.u.mstance, or their sentiments respecting it, asked! Miss Holly received the mandate of her father, to regard Mr. Corbet as the husband he had selected, with the greatest distress; and at last informed him her affections were irrevocably fixed on another. But vain were her supplications and tears: the old gentleman was peremptory--and Miss Holly eloped!

"I shall not attempt to describe the rage of the fathers on this occasion; six months elapsed without their being able to discover the place of her retreat; when her aunt, who had for years estranged herself from all intercourse with the family, arrived at Holly seat, and, with great formality, acquainted her brother his daughter had taken refuge with her, and, hoping by that time his resentment had subsided, had engaged her to attempt a reconciliation. The old gentleman appeared delighted; a messenger was dispatched for her, and, on her arrival, she was received with every demonstration of joy and affection! The calm, however, was deceitful; for the next morning he led her to the chapel, where Sir Horace and his son were waiting, and there forced her to give her hand to the latter! Could happiness result from such an union?--Oh no! What followed might naturally have been expected; indifference on one side, disgust on the other.

Soon after the nuptials, Mrs. Corbet's aunt died; and, considering her niece highly injured by the measures which had been pursued, left her the whole of her fortune, amounting to thirty thousand pounds, independent of her husband. In less than a twelvemonth Mr. Holly died, leaving them eight thousand a year: Sir Horace survived his friend but a few weeks, and Sir Henry succeeded to nearly fifteen thousand a year more. Their decease, however, which a year before would have been the means of Lady Corbet's happiness, was then of no avail; the gentleman on whom her early affections had been placed, on hearing of her marriage, retired to France, where he literally died of a broken heart.

"Sir Henry now, uncontrolled by parental authority, yielded to the wildest pa.s.sions of his heart. The mild dignity of his wife was disregarded, her beauty insufficient to restrain him from illicit connexions, and, whilst she was restricted with a parsimonious hand to her marriage settlement, she had the mortification of beholding immense property squandered on his worthless mistresses. As a landlord and master, Sir Henry was certainly beloved; but his character as a husband degenerated into that of a brutal tyrant.

"Soon after the decease of her father, Lady Corbet was delivered of a son, and in him (being deprived of all other) she concentrated her future happiness.

"On my first return from America, as I yesterday informed you, I pa.s.sed some months at Bath, where I was introduced to Lady Corbet, and, had she been single, I should have said, Here Talton rest for ever!--as it was, nothing pa.s.sed but what the strictest prude might have witnessed, though the censuring world imputed actions to me, I was innocent of, even in intention. Sir Henry was on an excursion with some friends, when I first became acquainted with his family; on his return, Lady Corbet presented me to him; he scarcely deigned a perceptible bow, but, throwing himself into a chair, called for his son, who was then about five years old, and, without once addressing me, amused himself in talking to, and answering his infantine questions. I regarded Lady Corbet with a look, I believe, sufficiently expressive of my surprise at his unpoliteness; the silent tear trembled in her eye, and, with a sigh which seemed to say, it was such behaviour as she was used to, she walked to the window.